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Westheim · 08-02-2015, 04:17 PM

Raccoons (46-67) @ Crusaders (56-56) – August 8-10, 2005

We just haven’t been good at all (4-8) against the Crusaders this season, and the Crusaders hadn’t done well overall. Well, actually they had. Their run differential was +85, and they ranked in the top 3 in both runs scored and runs allowed, and yet they still lingered around at .500 – but they were also due for a breakout, I guess.

Projected matchups:
Tim Webster (2-2, 3.54 ERA) vs. Frank Pierre (8-10, 3.33 ERA)
Nick Brown (10-6, 2.55 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (12-5, 2.92 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (4-10, 4.22 ERA) vs. Angel Javier (6-9, 4.76 ERA)

We will finally have an off day after this series to rest them old bones…

Game 1
POR: 1B Sharp – SS Yamada – LF Fernandez – RF Greenman – 3B Searcy – C Wood – 2B Sheehan – CF King – P Webster
NYC: SS Rice – 1B D. Carroll – RF S. Martin – LF M. Ortíz – C D. Anderson – 3B Watts – CF Pena – 2B Moultrie – P Pierre

Tim Webster’s potentially final start for the Raccoons EVER saw him combed with a crowbar, and wound up with a screwdriver. He was clobbered in a 3-run first in which he issued a walk and a wild pitch, then a 2-run homer to Stanton Martin, and it didn’t get any better from there. The Crusaders added single runs in the second and fourth innings, then put two men on in the fifth and it was go time for Webster at that point. Rockburn couldn’t clean up, and those runners scored as well, leaving the Raccoons down by five runs, 7-2. While the Raccoons did precious little apart from leaving a pair of runners in scoring position twice rather than actually getting a clutch hit, and back into the game, Stanton Martin also took Ed Bryan deep in the seventh, making it 8-2, and at that point there wasn’t much else to do other than exploiting Ricardo Huerta’s rubber arm a bit more. Frank Pierre pitched a complete game, not exactly breaking into a sweat at any point. 8-2 Crusaders. Sharp 2-4, 2B; King 2-4, 3B, RBI; Huerta 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

The real question is who should replace Webster. Not that he is irreplaceable. Well, he might be for our organization.

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – CF Fernandez – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B A. Martin – C Wood – SS Yamada – 2B Nomura – P Brown
NYC: CF P. Javier – 1B D. Carroll – LF M. Ortíz – 3B Watts – SS J. Hernandez – RF Britton – C Williamson – 2B Moultrie – P Reeves

What figured to become a pitchers’ duel was spiced up early on with a leadoff homer by Daniel Sharp, and by Brown striking out the first two batters he faced before drilling Ortíz and hitting Watts, and clearly showing that he still was not 100% locked in again. The Crusaders would not get a hit until the fourth inning, but the Raccoons couldn’t scratch Whit Reeves for anything else, either, and so the game remained 1-0 for quite a while. If nothing else, however, three walks in the game and a few other long counts shot Brown’s pitch count skywards and he left after seven innings of 1-hit ball, expending 105 pitches to get there. The Coons offense was not threatening at all, but it’s alright, Nick, we’ve got Bruno and Casas ready, we’ve got you covered. Or maybe Bruno would allow a leadoff hit to pinch-hitter Luis Soto in the bottom 8th, suddenly we were encroached by left-handed bats and we had to change plans on the fly. Moreno came in to face left-handed pinch-hitter Roberto Pena, who then dropped down a bunt, moving Soto to second with one out. Dave Carroll, who saw a 13-game hitting streak drifting away, grounded out poorly to Martin, moving Soto to second. Since I didn’t fancy our chances for a 4-out save from Casas starting with the right-hander Watts any better than if we let Moreno pitch to Martin Ortíz (17 HR), a left-hander, we stuck with Moreno. Ortíz doubled, and the game was tied. Brownie bit into a towel in the dugout. The Raccoons couldn’t touch Charlie Deacon with a 15-foot pole in the top of the ninth, and in the bottom of the same inning Kaz Kichida was wild, and then got cashed in on by Ron Williamson with a walkoff double. 2-1 Crusaders. Sharp 3-4, HR, RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K;

The only other Raccoon that reached base besides Sharp was Yoshi Nomura with a single. Everybody else went up, looked like a sad jester at what Reeves and Deacon (DEACON!!) flung at them, and sat down again.

Poor Brownie. You DO deserve a better team.

Game 3
POR: 1B Sharp – CF Fernandez – LF Brady – RF Greenman – C L. Ramirez – 3B Searcy – SS Yamada – 2B Sheehan – P F. Garcia
NYC: SS Rice – 1B D. Carroll – RF S. Martin – C D. Anderson – CF P. Javier – 3B Watts – LF Britton – 2B Moultrie – P A. Javier

There was rain and a rain delay lasting half an hour quite early in this game, and before and after that the Raccoons left two men on base in the second and third innings. In the bottom 3rd then Gary Rice hit a homer just over the wall, while Leon Ramirez’ shot in the top 4th fell just a few feet short and was caught by Paco Javier. What would the Critters have to do to get on the board? No clue, they just didn’t. Top of the sixth, they got three singles, loaded the bases, and it ended with a soft fly to center by Sheehan that was also nabbed by Javier, who seemed to be everywhere. Like Brown the day before, Garcia pitched quite a good game, also with some ill control, but not a fatal cause of such, but other than Brown he already left on the hook after seven innings of 4-hit, 1-run ball, and remained on the hook when despite an error that allowed Brady to reach base to start the eighth, the team couldn’t pull their heads out of their asses and didn’t score again. The Crusaders got a completely unnecessary run off Angel Casas in the bottom 8th when he drilled Rice to start the inning and they brought him around masterfully, you know, with a hit. And then Charlie Deacon drilled Sheehan to start the top 9th, but … oh, just go all away. 2-0 Crusaders. Garcia 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, L (4-11);

I vaguely remember seeing some offense last week, 45 runs in eight games, but somehow the lineup seems to have been re-pumpkined. Which makes me sad. What a fantastic sweep, and one that absolutely nobody could have ever seen coming at all.

Unless we manage a sweep in the final 3-set of the year, we will post our worst result against the Crusaders in 25 years…

Raccoons (46-70) @ Gold Sox (63-51) – August 12-14, 2005

With middling offensive and defensive efforts, the Gold Sox couldn’t really enjoy their second place in the FL West, since they were close to completely falling out of contention, 10 1/2 games behind the Stars. They needed a sweep and they needed it now.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (3-9, 4.37 ERA) vs. Victor Bernal (14-6, 4.06 ERA)
Ben Carlson (5-8, 3.93 ERA) vs. Jerry Lane (2-9, 5.58 ERA)
Tim Webster (2-3, 5.01 ERA) vs. Jaime Aguila (5-5, 3.87 ERA)

Last chance for the Webster, really, I mean it.

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – CF Wheaton – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – 2B Nomura – SS Yamada – C Wood – P Ford
DEN: CF Gentil – 2B Correa – LF A. Jenkins – 3B J. Lopez – RF Pujols – SS J. Amador – C A. Ortíz – 1B Michel – P Bernal

While the visiting lineup continued to sparkle with ineptness, the Gold Sox jumped out for a run in the first inning before Jesus Amador struck out to leave two men stranded, an outcome that would repeat itself in the third inning. By the fourth however, Ford gave up more hard contact. Alfredo Ortíz doubled, and then former Raccoon Samy Michel – of course – came through with a 2-run home run that Brady didn’t even bother to run after. The Coons never even had more than one runner on base in an inning and looked outright terrible against Bernal, while Ford lumbered through six in a nominally quality start that was anything but. The Gold Sox didn’t bother to go to the pen in a 3-0 game in the ninth, even when Bernal walked Brady to start the frame. Greenman sent a drive to deep right, but the baseball gods said NO and moved Pedro Pujols in place to snag it and Brady barely scrambled back to first base. Martin hit a bloop single – still on sign of the closer. Nomura hit a proper single then, loading them up, and here came Scott Hood, 84 strikeouts in 57 innings, and he would face Yamada. Yoshi-Y, who had been on base ONCE the entire week so far, became #85 and then Edgardo Fernandez popped out to left. 3-0 Gold Sox.

In case you stumbled counting, we haven’t scored since Daniel Sharp’s leadoff jack in the first inning of Brownie’s start on Tuesday. That’s 26 scoreless innings.

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – CF Fernandez – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – 2B Nomura – SS Sheehan – C Wood – P Carlson
DEN: CF Gentil – 2B Correa – 3B J. Lopez – RF Pujols – SS J. Amador – C A. Ortíz – LF Parker – 1B Michel – P Aguila

The Coons reached 27 scoreless innings when a terribly struggling Clyde Brady hit into a double play, before Christian Greenman ended the misery with a leadoff homer in the second inning that put the Raccoons up 1-0, a fragile lead that in Carlson’s hand evaporated quickly with a 2-out RBI double by Michel, who had fun torturing his old team. Then the unbelievable happened. The Coons scored another run! It was not until the fifth, but it gave them the lead when Fernandez doubled in Carlson with one out and appeared in scoring position trailing Daniel Sharp – Carlson and Aguila made it a sport of its own to put each other on base in this game. Then came Brady, lifted a ball to center for an out, Sharp tagged with awful timing, went too late, and was thrown out. Carlson went to hell in the sixth when Zak Davidson, who had replaced an injured Jesus Amador, singled to left to get started. That was followed by drilling Ortíz, and a walk to our past own Chris Parker. Still no outs. Moreno came in, got Michel to pop out and struck out Aguila, then yielded for Bruno with the right-hander Bryan Gentil up, and Bruno got a casual fly right to his man Fernandez. Still 2-1 Coons!

Bruno pitched a quick seventh, with the Coons leaving runners on base both in the top of that and the next inning. Bottom 8th, Ed Bryan retired a pair of left-handers, then walked Parker. And Aaron Jenkins. With righty David Mendez also out to pinch-hit, Rockburn came in, got a grounder to Yamada, and Yamada bungled it. Bases loaded for Bryan Gentil, who was 0-4 on the day and fired the first pitch he saw to deep right, where Greenman made the catch right against the wall! Dave Wheaton then hit a leadoff single in the ninth, batting for Rockburn in the #7 slot, but then Wood and Yamada made outs. Sharp came up, sent a liner to left center and it vanished in the gap, scoring Wheaton on a 2-out double! That run came back big, since Casas continued to be not sharp at all and allowed two singles and a run in the bottom 9th, Zak Davidson hitting him for a 2-out RBI single. 3-2 Coons. Sharp 2-5, 2B, RBI; Fernandez 3-5, 2B, RBI; Martin 2-3, BB; Wheaton (PH) 1-1; Bruno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

If Yamada doesn’t get on base, he can’t steal anything. And if he makes stupid errors on top of that, he’ll be worth less than my worn, sweaty socks, and be treated appropriately.

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – LF Wheaton – CF Fernandez – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – 2B Sheehan – C L. Ramirez – SS Yamada – P Webster
DEN: CF Gentil – 2B Correa – LF A. Jenkins – SS J. Lopez – RF Pujols – C A. Ortíz – 3B Davidson – 1B Michel – P Lane

Webster pitched like crap, and the defense held on with double plays turned in the second and third innings to keep him in the game. Defense finally ran out in the fourth when Webster got whacked tremendously, and was removed after a 2-out RBI single by Lane that ran the score to 3-0. Kichida came in, surrendered another two runs on a Gentil triple, and their 5-spot put the Gold Sox up by … five. There was no length to be gained from Kichida in this game, and ultimately most guys in the pen paraded through the innings in a hopeless loss. The Raccoons got as close to scoring as runners on the corners in the top 8th, but Searcy popped out foul, and that was history, and they then went down without a whimper against William Henderson in the ninth, in the 3,815th game in team history in which they could not hurt a pitcher with a 5+ ERA (out of 3,822 chances). 5-0 Gold Sox. Martin 2-4;

Bye Tim. Don’t get your fat, ugly ass stuck in the door on your way to St. Pete.

In other news

August 8 – SFW 1B/2B Dave Heffer (.289, 0 HR, 23 RBI) comes up with a second inning single off Jaime Aguila in the Warriors’ 5-4 win over the Gold Sox, reaching the 2,000 hits milestone. Heffer, 33, was drafted by the Warriors out of high school in 1990 and spent his entire career – except 2004, when he was with the Falcons – with the team.
August 9 – OCT SP Aaron Anderson (13-7, 2.61 ERA) has suffered an oblique strain and should miss the rest of the month of August.
August 12 – Milwaukee’s Bartolo Hernandez (.342, 4 HR, 47 RBI) becomes the second player all year to craft a 25-game hitting streak with one hit in a 3-2 Loggers loss to the Pacifics. It will be the last breath of the streak – the Pacifics would hold him 0-3 the following day.
August 12 – The Titans kill the Scorpions, 10-0, with Joe Mann (11-8, 4.56 ERA) tossing a 2-hit shutout.

Complaints and stuff

Remember how Lewis Donaldson entered the Coons game a few weeks ago with a 1.99 ERA? We got a few runs off him, and the sockings have continued and he has dropped behind Brownie now in the ERA race. However, Brownie still doesn’t lead the ERA race, since Martin Garcia stealthily moved past him, by a single point of ERA.

Tom Ingram came off the DL mid-week but was outrighted to AAA straight away.

Clyde Brady’s summer slumps are a great annoyance. Next year, we will either shoot him in the foot on July 1 before it usually gets ugly, or if that fails just designate him onto the 60-day holidays list.

Did you know: Dan George pitched a no-hitter against the Crusaders on April 3, 1996, walking six and whiffing seven.

Raccoons Revisited: In 1981, Logan Evans set the franchise record for shutouts in a season with three, a mark that was matched several times, but broken only once, by Jason Turner, who pitched four shutouts in 1989.

Service announcement: I am back to work tomorrow (NOOOOOOOOO!!!! I DON'T WANNA GO!!! NOOOOOOO-HO-HO-HOOO!!!!) and we will revert to the standard update rhythm then, so about two updates from Monday to Thursday, and two or three on the weekend. If, however, some of you could pool together to fund me with $1,000 a month, we could do something about that.

08-02-2015, 04:17 PM	#1423
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,842	Raccoons (46-67) @ Crusaders (56-56) – August 8-10, 2005 We just haven’t been good at all (4-8) against the Crusaders this season, and the Crusaders hadn’t done well overall. Well, actually they had. Their run differential was +85, and they ranked in the top 3 in both runs scored and runs allowed, and yet they still lingered around at .500 – but they were also due for a breakout, I guess. Projected matchups: Tim Webster (2-2, 3.54 ERA) vs. Frank Pierre (8-10, 3.33 ERA) Nick Brown (10-6, 2.55 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (12-5, 2.92 ERA) Felipe Garcia (4-10, 4.22 ERA) vs. Angel Javier (6-9, 4.76 ERA) We will finally have an off day after this series to rest them old bones… Game 1 POR: 1B Sharp – SS Yamada – LF Fernandez – RF Greenman – 3B Searcy – C Wood – 2B Sheehan – CF King – P Webster NYC: SS Rice – 1B D. Carroll – RF S. Martin – LF M. Ortíz – C D. Anderson – 3B Watts – CF Pena – 2B Moultrie – P Pierre Tim Webster’s potentially final start for the Raccoons EVER saw him combed with a crowbar, and wound up with a screwdriver. He was clobbered in a 3-run first in which he issued a walk and a wild pitch, then a 2-run homer to Stanton Martin, and it didn’t get any better from there. The Crusaders added single runs in the second and fourth innings, then put two men on in the fifth and it was go time for Webster at that point. Rockburn couldn’t clean up, and those runners scored as well, leaving the Raccoons down by five runs, 7-2. While the Raccoons did precious little apart from leaving a pair of runners in scoring position twice rather than actually getting a clutch hit, and back into the game, Stanton Martin also took Ed Bryan deep in the seventh, making it 8-2, and at that point there wasn’t much else to do other than exploiting Ricardo Huerta’s rubber arm a bit more. Frank Pierre pitched a complete game, not exactly breaking into a sweat at any point. 8-2 Crusaders. Sharp 2-4, 2B; King 2-4, 3B, RBI; Huerta 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; The real question is who should replace Webster. Not that he is irreplaceable. Well, he might be for our organization. Game 2 POR: 3B Sharp – CF Fernandez – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B A. Martin – C Wood – SS Yamada – 2B Nomura – P Brown NYC: CF P. Javier – 1B D. Carroll – LF M. Ortíz – 3B Watts – SS J. Hernandez – RF Britton – C Williamson – 2B Moultrie – P Reeves What figured to become a pitchers’ duel was spiced up early on with a leadoff homer by Daniel Sharp, and by Brown striking out the first two batters he faced before drilling Ortíz and hitting Watts, and clearly showing that he still was not 100% locked in again. The Crusaders would not get a hit until the fourth inning, but the Raccoons couldn’t scratch Whit Reeves for anything else, either, and so the game remained 1-0 for quite a while. If nothing else, however, three walks in the game and a few other long counts shot Brown’s pitch count skywards and he left after seven innings of 1-hit ball, expending 105 pitches to get there. The Coons offense was not threatening at all, but it’s alright, Nick, we’ve got Bruno and Casas ready, we’ve got you covered. Or maybe Bruno would allow a leadoff hit to pinch-hitter Luis Soto in the bottom 8th, suddenly we were encroached by left-handed bats and we had to change plans on the fly. Moreno came in to face left-handed pinch-hitter Roberto Pena, who then dropped down a bunt, moving Soto to second with one out. Dave Carroll, who saw a 13-game hitting streak drifting away, grounded out poorly to Martin, moving Soto to second. Since I didn’t fancy our chances for a 4-out save from Casas starting with the right-hander Watts any better than if we let Moreno pitch to Martin Ortíz (17 HR), a left-hander, we stuck with Moreno. Ortíz doubled, and the game was tied. Brownie bit into a towel in the dugout. The Raccoons couldn’t touch Charlie Deacon with a 15-foot pole in the top of the ninth, and in the bottom of the same inning Kaz Kichida was wild, and then got cashed in on by Ron Williamson with a walkoff double. 2-1 Crusaders. Sharp 3-4, HR, RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K; The only other Raccoon that reached base besides Sharp was Yoshi Nomura with a single. Everybody else went up, looked like a sad jester at what Reeves and Deacon (DEACON!!) flung at them, and sat down again. Poor Brownie. You DO deserve a better team. Game 3 POR: 1B Sharp – CF Fernandez – LF Brady – RF Greenman – C L. Ramirez – 3B Searcy – SS Yamada – 2B Sheehan – P F. Garcia NYC: SS Rice – 1B D. Carroll – RF S. Martin – C D. Anderson – CF P. Javier – 3B Watts – LF Britton – 2B Moultrie – P A. Javier There was rain and a rain delay lasting half an hour quite early in this game, and before and after that the Raccoons left two men on base in the second and third innings. In the bottom 3rd then Gary Rice hit a homer just over the wall, while Leon Ramirez’ shot in the top 4th fell just a few feet short and was caught by Paco Javier. What would the Critters have to do to get on the board? No clue, they just didn’t. Top of the sixth, they got three singles, loaded the bases, and it ended with a soft fly to center by Sheehan that was also nabbed by Javier, who seemed to be everywhere. Like Brown the day before, Garcia pitched quite a good game, also with some ill control, but not a fatal cause of such, but other than Brown he already left on the hook after seven innings of 4-hit, 1-run ball, and remained on the hook when despite an error that allowed Brady to reach base to start the eighth, the team couldn’t pull their heads out of their asses and didn’t score again. The Crusaders got a completely unnecessary run off Angel Casas in the bottom 8th when he drilled Rice to start the inning and they brought him around masterfully, you know, with a hit. And then Charlie Deacon drilled Sheehan to start the top 9th, but … oh, just go all away. 2-0 Crusaders. Garcia 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, L (4-11); I vaguely remember seeing some offense last week, 45 runs in eight games, but somehow the lineup seems to have been re-pumpkined. Which makes me sad. What a fantastic sweep, and one that absolutely nobody could have ever seen coming at all. Unless we manage a sweep in the final 3-set of the year, we will post our worst result against the Crusaders in 25 years… Raccoons (46-70) @ Gold Sox (63-51) – August 12-14, 2005 With middling offensive and defensive efforts, the Gold Sox couldn’t really enjoy their second place in the FL West, since they were close to completely falling out of contention, 10 1/2 games behind the Stars. They needed a sweep and they needed it now. Projected matchups: Ralph Ford (3-9, 4.37 ERA) vs. Victor Bernal (14-6, 4.06 ERA) Ben Carlson (5-8, 3.93 ERA) vs. Jerry Lane (2-9, 5.58 ERA) Tim Webster (2-3, 5.01 ERA) vs. Jaime Aguila (5-5, 3.87 ERA) Last chance for the Webster, really, I mean it. Game 1 POR: 3B Sharp – CF Wheaton – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – 2B Nomura – SS Yamada – C Wood – P Ford DEN: CF Gentil – 2B Correa – LF A. Jenkins – 3B J. Lopez – RF Pujols – SS J. Amador – C A. Ortíz – 1B Michel – P Bernal While the visiting lineup continued to sparkle with ineptness, the Gold Sox jumped out for a run in the first inning before Jesus Amador struck out to leave two men stranded, an outcome that would repeat itself in the third inning. By the fourth however, Ford gave up more hard contact. Alfredo Ortíz doubled, and then former Raccoon Samy Michel – of course – came through with a 2-run home run that Brady didn’t even bother to run after. The Coons never even had more than one runner on base in an inning and looked outright terrible against Bernal, while Ford lumbered through six in a nominally quality start that was anything but. The Gold Sox didn’t bother to go to the pen in a 3-0 game in the ninth, even when Bernal walked Brady to start the frame. Greenman sent a drive to deep right, but the baseball gods said NO and moved Pedro Pujols in place to snag it and Brady barely scrambled back to first base. Martin hit a bloop single – still on sign of the closer. Nomura hit a proper single then, loading them up, and here came Scott Hood, 84 strikeouts in 57 innings, and he would face Yamada. Yoshi-Y, who had been on base ONCE the entire week so far, became #85 and then Edgardo Fernandez popped out to left. 3-0 Gold Sox. In case you stumbled counting, we haven’t scored since Daniel Sharp’s leadoff jack in the first inning of Brownie’s start on Tuesday. That’s 26 scoreless innings. Game 2 POR: 3B Sharp – CF Fernandez – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – 2B Nomura – SS Sheehan – C Wood – P Carlson DEN: CF Gentil – 2B Correa – 3B J. Lopez – RF Pujols – SS J. Amador – C A. Ortíz – LF Parker – 1B Michel – P Aguila The Coons reached 27 scoreless innings when a terribly struggling Clyde Brady hit into a double play, before Christian Greenman ended the misery with a leadoff homer in the second inning that put the Raccoons up 1-0, a fragile lead that in Carlson’s hand evaporated quickly with a 2-out RBI double by Michel, who had fun torturing his old team. Then the unbelievable happened. The Coons scored another run! It was not until the fifth, but it gave them the lead when Fernandez doubled in Carlson with one out and appeared in scoring position trailing Daniel Sharp – Carlson and Aguila made it a sport of its own to put each other on base in this game. Then came Brady, lifted a ball to center for an out, Sharp tagged with awful timing, went too late, and was thrown out. Carlson went to hell in the sixth when Zak Davidson, who had replaced an injured Jesus Amador, singled to left to get started. That was followed by drilling Ortíz, and a walk to our past own Chris Parker. Still no outs. Moreno came in, got Michel to pop out and struck out Aguila, then yielded for Bruno with the right-hander Bryan Gentil up, and Bruno got a casual fly right to his man Fernandez. Still 2-1 Coons! Bruno pitched a quick seventh, with the Coons leaving runners on base both in the top of that and the next inning. Bottom 8th, Ed Bryan retired a pair of left-handers, then walked Parker. And Aaron Jenkins. With righty David Mendez also out to pinch-hit, Rockburn came in, got a grounder to Yamada, and Yamada bungled it. Bases loaded for Bryan Gentil, who was 0-4 on the day and fired the first pitch he saw to deep right, where Greenman made the catch right against the wall! Dave Wheaton then hit a leadoff single in the ninth, batting for Rockburn in the #7 slot, but then Wood and Yamada made outs. Sharp came up, sent a liner to left center and it vanished in the gap, scoring Wheaton on a 2-out double! That run came back big, since Casas continued to be not sharp at all and allowed two singles and a run in the bottom 9th, Zak Davidson hitting him for a 2-out RBI single. 3-2 Coons. Sharp 2-5, 2B, RBI; Fernandez 3-5, 2B, RBI; Martin 2-3, BB; Wheaton (PH) 1-1; Bruno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; If Yamada doesn’t get on base, he can’t steal anything. And if he makes stupid errors on top of that, he’ll be worth less than my worn, sweaty socks, and be treated appropriately. Game 3 POR: 3B Sharp – LF Wheaton – CF Fernandez – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – 2B Sheehan – C L. Ramirez – SS Yamada – P Webster DEN: CF Gentil – 2B Correa – LF A. Jenkins – SS J. Lopez – RF Pujols – C A. Ortíz – 3B Davidson – 1B Michel – P Lane Webster pitched like crap, and the defense held on with double plays turned in the second and third innings to keep him in the game. Defense finally ran out in the fourth when Webster got whacked tremendously, and was removed after a 2-out RBI single by Lane that ran the score to 3-0. Kichida came in, surrendered another two runs on a Gentil triple, and their 5-spot put the Gold Sox up by … five. There was no length to be gained from Kichida in this game, and ultimately most guys in the pen paraded through the innings in a hopeless loss. The Raccoons got as close to scoring as runners on the corners in the top 8th, but Searcy popped out foul, and that was history, and they then went down without a whimper against William Henderson in the ninth, in the 3,815th game in team history in which they could not hurt a pitcher with a 5+ ERA (out of 3,822 chances). 5-0 Gold Sox. Martin 2-4; Bye Tim. Don’t get your fat, ugly ass stuck in the door on your way to St. Pete. In other news August 8 – SFW 1B/2B Dave Heffer (.289, 0 HR, 23 RBI) comes up with a second inning single off Jaime Aguila in the Warriors’ 5-4 win over the Gold Sox, reaching the 2,000 hits milestone. Heffer, 33, was drafted by the Warriors out of high school in 1990 and spent his entire career – except 2004, when he was with the Falcons – with the team. August 9 – OCT SP Aaron Anderson (13-7, 2.61 ERA) has suffered an oblique strain and should miss the rest of the month of August. August 12 – Milwaukee’s Bartolo Hernandez (.342, 4 HR, 47 RBI) becomes the second player all year to craft a 25-game hitting streak with one hit in a 3-2 Loggers loss to the Pacifics. It will be the last breath of the streak – the Pacifics would hold him 0-3 the following day. August 12 – The Titans kill the Scorpions, 10-0, with Joe Mann (11-8, 4.56 ERA) tossing a 2-hit shutout. Complaints and stuff Remember how Lewis Donaldson entered the Coons game a few weeks ago with a 1.99 ERA? We got a few runs off him, and the sockings have continued and he has dropped behind Brownie now in the ERA race. However, Brownie still doesn’t lead the ERA race, since Martin Garcia stealthily moved past him, by a single point of ERA. Tom Ingram came off the DL mid-week but was outrighted to AAA straight away. Clyde Brady’s summer slumps are a great annoyance. Next year, we will either shoot him in the foot on July 1 before it usually gets ugly, or if that fails just designate him onto the 60-day holidays list. Did you know: Dan George pitched a no-hitter against the Crusaders on April 3, 1996, walking six and whiffing seven. Raccoons Revisited: In 1981, Logan Evans set the franchise record for shutouts in a season with three, a mark that was matched several times, but broken only once, by Jason Turner, who pitched four shutouts in 1989. Service announcement: I am back to work tomorrow (NOOOOOOOOO!!!! I DON'T WANNA GO!!! NOOOOOOO-HO-HO-HOOO!!!!) and we will revert to the standard update rhythm then, so about two updates from Monday to Thursday, and two or three on the weekend. If, however, some of you could pool together to fund me with $1,000 a month, we could do something about that. Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here. Last edited by Westheim; 08-02-2015 at 04:24 PM.