[Westheim]

Raccoons (53-78) vs. Condors (56-74) – August 29-31, 2005

The Condors came in with a 5-game winning streak active, and would show us strikeout master Kelvin Yates in the opener, so the sky was the limit for them. They were second-to-last in runs scored, still, but now only outpaced the Raccoons by 39 counters, which used to be 62 the last time we met up. Their pitching is woefully below average – bright spots like Yates not excluded. The season series is split evenly after six games.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (4-11, 4.23 ERA) vs. Kelvin Yates (8-11, 3.36 ERA)
Edgar Amador (5-10, 4.52 ERA) vs. Jeremiah Bowman (6-8, 4.49 ERA)
Ben Carlson (7-9, 4.07 ERA) vs. Román Escobedo (6-9, 4.05 ERA)

Right-right-left to finish the month.

Game 1
TIJ: SS McGreary – 1B Cambria – CF R. Perez – LF Luxton – 2B Heathershaw – 3B N. Chavez – RF B. Miller – C L. Fernandez – P Yates
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – CF E. Fernandez – C Wood – SS Yamada – P Ford

The Coons did precious little to keep Nick Brown in the CL strikeout race, going down flailing early and often. Ralph Ford dealt as well, sitting down the first ten Condors including five strikeouts, but when Hugues Cambria reached on a 1-out single in the fourth, the inevitable RBI double followed soon off Robbie Luxton’s bat. The Coons had left Yoshi-Y on third base (Yoshi-N making the third out) in the bottom 3rd, but Greenman then tied the score with a solo home run in the bottom 4th, and in the next inning we’d get Sharp and Nomura hitting 2-out doubles up either line to give Ford a 2-1 lead just before Clyde Brady could hack out. Cambria doubled in the sixth but this time Luxton didn’t get him in, grounding out to Nomura to end the inning. Ford, who had struck out seven through four innings, lost his drive rapidly then, and in the seventh issued a leadoff walk to Bradley Heathershaw, leading up to a triumphant and never doubted colossal home run by Bill Miller that flipped the score to 3-2 for the road team. Ford wound up without a decision when the Condors made a mockery out of the bottom 7th, including a wild pitch and a balk by Yates, to aid Bob Wood across the street and into home plate, tying the score. Yates kept hurling with Ford being hit for in the inning, but probably shouldn’t have. Bottom 8th, Brady singled, and then Greenman hit his second bomb of the night, giving the Coons their biggest edge yet, 5-3, leading us into the ninth where Angel had both Heathershaw and Nelson Chavez ground out to Sharp on 1-0 pitches, then struck out Miller. 5-3 Coons! Brady 2-4; Greenman 2-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Searcy (PH) 1-1, RBI; Ford 7.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 K;

Greenman’s pair of dingers give him 20 on the season, and move him past Clyde Brady and back into the team lead. If jealousy gets these guys to enter a race for the pretty meaningless team crown (since when is any team crown on a cellar dweller meaningful?) now, it can only be good for us.

Game 2
TIJ: SS McGreary – 3B N. Chavez – CF R. Perez – LF Luxton – RF J. Thomas – 2B Heathershaw – 1B B. Román – C Benitez – P Bowman
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – CF E. Fernandez – SS Yamada – C L. Ramirez – P Amador

Greenman remained a-swingin’, and had the hard parts of the cycle knocked off by the third inning, drilling a 2-run triple in the first, also scoring on Martin’s groundout, and a 2-run homer in the third for a 5-0 early tally. The Fat Cat had gotten off to a hot start, striking out five in the first three frames, then suffered a definite setback with Ramón Perez’ leadoff jack in the fourth, and walked the next two batters on top of that before the defense dug him out. When Greenman was up again in the bottom 5th, there were runners on the corners and one out, but he struck out, and Martin didn’t cash in, either. The Cat hit a sac fly the next inning to get to 6-1, walked Heathershaw with one out, but reached back and struck out Román and Benitez to end the inning under his own power. The Condors tried to rise again in the eighth, facing Kichida and Moreno, but ultimately Luxton struck out with two on to end the inning. 6-1 Coons! Nomura 2-4; Greenman 2-4, HR, 3B, 4 RBI; Yamada 2-4; Amador 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 8 K, W (6-10);

We’re seeing more of the 2004 Amador now. Early in the year, he was a mess. Bad control with many walks, and plenty of hits on top of that. His last two starts he still walked people, but hardly allowed any hits, which combined with a Gold Glove caliber shortstop in Yoshi Yamada opens up possibilities for relieving double plays, and he got one of that in the fourth inning today.

Game 3
TIJ: SS McGreary – 1B Cambria – CF R. Perez – LF Luxton – RF J. Thomas – 2B Heathershaw – 3B N. Chavez – C L. Fernandez – P Escobedo
POR: 1B Sharp – 2B Sheehan – CF E. Fernandez – RF Greenman – LF Wheaton – 3B Searcy – SS Yamada – C Wood – P Carlson

Somebody stop Greenman! He hit a 2-run homer in the first inning, giving Carlson a lead that went bust instantly in Carlson’s unqualified hands in the top 2nd, walking two batters, then surrendering a pair of 2-out RBI singles to Escobedo(!) and Toby McGreary. Sharp singled home Yamada in the bottom 2nd to put the Coons on top yet again, 3-2, and this time Carlson didn’t set fire to their efforts immediately, although he certainly tried. On the more wicked side of daily madness in Coon City, Carlson, who required double plays started by Yamada to not get hit by a truck in both the fifth and sixth innings, started a rally in the bottom 5th with a leadoff double, scored, and with runners on the corners it was Greenman to hit into a inning-ending double play, and the same would happen to him in the eighth. That left our Angel to protect a 4-2 lead, and his first man Heathershaw hit a ball to the third base side of short, on which Yamada made a launching play, recollected himself AND managed to throw out Heathershaw at first! The Condors would eventually get a 2-out single from Luis Fernandez, but Casas got the last two outs with the big K and secured the series sweep! 4-2 Coons! Sharp 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Sheehan 2-4, RBI;

After the only sweeps we witnessed all year long involved the Coons on the bushy end of the broom, we have now swept two of our last four opponents, including the 3-game cleanup we did with the Loggers two weekends ago.

Also, as the two leading base stealers in the CL met up, the result was a draw, with both of them nipping one bag. Yamada was thrown out once as well, while Ramón Perez was perfect, 1/1.

Also, suddenly Christian Greenman appears on the home run leaderboard in third place, but his 22 dingers pale a bit compared to Indy’s Ron Alston’s 30. Who’s in next? Oh, the Indians.

Roster expansion

We made a few, but not many moves as we hit September 1, for a few reasons. We added two arms to the pen to extend us there and to ease the load on Huerta and Kichida, who were over 60 innings pitched already, added a third catcher in the mildly useless Curt Cooks (remember him?), and brought up another middle infielder in Tom Ingram.

The relievers are 26-year old Rémy Lucas, a Canadian lefty, and 22-year old righty Matt Cash. The former was pitching in A ball as late as May of 2003, when he was already 24 years old, but since then has got the slider working and worked his way up the minors as late bloomer. He was one of three players (along Bill Corkum and another now-AAA reliever in Pedro Delgado) to come over from the Rebels before the 2004 season, got taken in the rule 5 draft that December, and was handed back by the team that took him, the Crusaders. Now he’s here.

Cash was drafted by us as a high schooler in 2000 in the second round. He’s more a conventional cutter/curve guy that won’t rack up strikeouts like candy and who doesn’t have the stamina for long relief, so the possibilities for him are ultimately limited, because there are only so many 7th inning jobs for right-handers available. Cash also has a history with shoulder inflammation, which cost him almost all of his first full professional season and had him drop from the #24 prospect before those struggles to nothing to years later.

More players will follow when the minor league season ends (probably Watanabe, possibly Webster, another reliever, Adrian Quebell, another bat), and Bob Mays will be added a week from now to not have him exceed rookie limits ahead of a full campaign in 2006.

Raccoons (56-78) vs. Indians (73-60) – September 1-4, 2005

The Indians were in a position to make the playoffs for the first time since the times of Jesus Christ, now sitting one and a half games out of the Titans in the division. They desperately needed to drum the Raccoons on this 4-game weekend set, but so far this season had played underwhelmingly against them, losing six out of eleven games played. While they continued to rely on their three big bats in the middle of the lineup (and those always loved to hit up Raccoons Ballpark and make the scoreboard flash in sorrow colors), their rotation had been torn to shreds to injuries by now, with Alonso Alonso, Ricardo Sanchez, and Anthony Mosher all out, but Sanchez was still possible to appear in the series. He was listed as “Out”, but not DL’ed, as the Indians came in, with his condition listed as gout. As a result of all of this, AND rosters expanding, their rotation was in a state of flux.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (12-7, 2.70 ERA) vs. Patrick Moreau (5-3, 3.27 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (4-14, 4.59 ERA) vs. Bob King (15-12, 4.81 ERA)
Ralph Ford (4-11, 4.21 ERA) vs. Curtis Tobitt (15-7, 3.81 ERA)
Edgar Amador (6-10, 4.29 ERA) vs. TBD

Game 1
IND: 1B Stevens – RF Wales – LF Alston – 3B D. Lopez – C Paraz – CF J. Alvarez – 2B J. Zamora – SS W. George – P Moreau
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – CF Fernandez – SS Yamada – C Wood – P Brown

By the time Nick Brown, who came in with 198 strikeouts, reached 200, the Indians were up by five runs. They got one run off Brown in a laborious second inning that ended with a K to Moreau with runners on the corners, then lead off the third inning with four straight hits, including three singles and a booming 3-run homer by David Lopez. Our stud got through the third, but never registered an out in the fourth, with Moreau hitting a hard single to right, Simon Stevens a soft single to left, and old, wise Dale Wales drawing a walk – and there was nobody out. Ed Bryan replaced Brown, but before he ever threw a pitch to Ron Alston he balked. Then walked Alston. Huerta got out of the mess with a run-scoring double play and another grounder to Nomura, but by then the Indians were up 7-1, all runs on Brownie, and the Raccoons looked a bit helpless. That was facing a pitcher who had NO command over his stuff whatsoever in this game, and walked in the Coons’ lone run in the bottom 3rd. The fourth started with a walk to Bob Wood, and slowly the Coons loaded them up. It was 7-2 with three on and one out when Greenman came up, but flew out to Wales, Sharp scoring, 7-3, but Martin bounced out and there would not be anybody capable of saving Brown from a mix of bad stuff and rotten luck in this game. And it would get worse, with the bottom falling out of the bullpen late, and both Rockburn and Bruno getting soiled for three runs, with Bruno getting battered by old Dale Wales with a 3-run shot. 13-5 Indians. Sharp 2-5; Nomura 4-5, RBI; Martin 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Ramirez (PH) 0-0, BB, RBI;

That’s the most runs we got clobbered for since a 14-8 drubbing on the hands of the Knights in the second week of the year.

Both Cash and Lucas made their debuts in this game, and both pitched a scoreless inning.

For the second game, Ricardo Sanchez (10-7, 3.98 ERA) rose from the dead, and gout, while Steve Searcy went down with sinusitis and would be unavailable for the rest of this series at least.

Game 2
IND: 2B Sepúlveda – RF Wales – LF Alston – 3B D. Lopez – CF J. Alvarez – C Bowen – 1B M. Berry – SS Montray – P R. Sanchez
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – C L. Ramirez – SS Sheehan – CF M. King – P F. Garcia

Slugger Jose Paraz was not playing, so Garcia thought “well, I just have to give up a homer to Craig Bowen then, right?” Thinking was best left to sentient beings however, and the Indians took a 1-0 lead on the bomb in the second. In the fourth, Ron Alston hit #31 well above and beyond the cheap seats in left, and the Indians got another run after leadoff singles by Wales (merely #3,652 for him) and Alston in the sixth. The Coons had nothing at all against gout-crippled Sanchez all the way into the seventh, when Brady hit a 1-out single, followed by a Greenman double. That brought up Martin as the tying run, Martin struck out, and when Wheaton hit for Ramirez, he lobbed a fly to center that got Alvarez scrambling, but he made the catch and the Coons remained shut out. Bottom 8th, again the Coons had runners in scoring position. Sheehan reached on an error to start the frame, and was run for by Yamada, who instantly stole second base. Matt King walked, chasing Sanchez for Tommy Wooldridge, with Curt Cooks coming to the plate after entering in a double switch with Rémy Lucas. The 0-2 pitch was put in play by Cooks, a grounder up the middle and Montray missed it by inches as it rolled into centerfield, plating both runs, and when Sharp doubled off Wooldridge, we yet again had two in scoring position with no outs, but now those were the go-ahead runs. The Indians’ battery melted down now, with a passed ball plating Cooks, Nomura walking, and then Brady singled to right for the Coons to take the lead!! And still nobody out! Unfortunately the following three outs were collected rather rapidly and there was no cushion for Angel who came unexpectedly into the game in the ninth. The Indians put two men on base in the inning, but Phil Montray was plainly victimized by Casas to close out this one. 4-3 Coons. Brady 3-4, RBI; Cooks 1-1, 2 RBI;

Rémy Lucas had pitched the eighth and picked up his first major league win!

Blunder of the week: in my general state of mental numbness I batted Lucas with two out and two on in the bottom 8th. Oops.

Game 3
IND: 2B Sepúlveda – RF Wales – LF Alston – 3B D. Lopez – C Paraz – CF J. Alvarez – 1B Stevens – SS Montray – P B. King
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Yamada – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – CF Fernandez – 3B Sheehan – C Wood – P Ford

The Indians’ inability to score despite a fantastic parade of silly errors by the Raccoons automatically disqualified them from the playoffs in this Saturday afternoon game. In the third inning, Ford had two outs and nobody on for Bob King, had him at 1-2, then got a grounder from King, and bobbled it. King appeared in scoring position after a passed ball, but the Indians couldn’t get anything from Sepúlveda. Fourth inning, Wales on base (as always, it seemed), Al Martin dropped a foul pop from Ron Alston that allowed the slugger to reach base, but somehow the Indians botched themselves out of that one, too. In the fifth then, they got a cheap single, a wild pitch, an infield single, and a walk to Wales to load the bases, only for Alston to strike out and leave everybody stranded. Paraz doubled in the sixth and was left on third base, in the seventh Ford issued a leadoff walk to Larry Booker, who moved to second on Wood’s second passed ball in the game, only for Bob King to blow a bunt that got Booker’s book closed at third base, and Matt MacKey grounded into a double play. And thus, after seven innings of failing to kick anyone across home plate, the Indians saw the Coons after six innings of futility get Greenman into scoring position and then plated on a Sheehan double. Marcos Bruno protected the flimsy lead in the eighth and when the Coons’ turn to strand a pair in the bottom 8th passed, it was Angel’s fourth call of the week, facing the soft bottom of the order, although that included Craig Bowen as leadoff man, who had already homered in the series. Here he grounded out to Nomura, and then Mark Berry and Jose Lugo got courtesies to the dugout with a K. 1-0 Furballs! Nomura 2-4, 2B; Yamada 2-4; Sheehan 1-3, 2B, RBI; Ford 7.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, W (5-11);

Game 4
IND: 2B Sepúlveda – 1B Stevens – LF Alston – 3B D. Lopez – C Paraz – RF MacKey – CF J. Lugo – SS Montray – C Tobitt
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Yamada – 2B Nomura – RF Brady – 1B Martin – CF Fernandez – LF Wheaton – C L. Ramirez – P Amador

The Coons had three singles to start the bottom 1st, until Brady hit one to Sepúlveda and Nomura got entangled with Montray at second base and was banged up and had to be replaced by Tom Ingram. Sharp was the only runner to score in the inning once Martin and Fernandez struck out. The Coons would still move out to 3-0 on Leon Ramirez’ home run in the bottom 2nd, but Amador got struck pretty square the second time through the order, with Ron Alston homering in the third, and then a parade of hits – at least some with tardy defense supporting them – in the fourth for three runs to flip the score in favor of the Indians, 4-3. Lugo hit a leadoff single in the sixth to chase Amador, and when Ed Bryan took over, he threw a wild pitch right away, and that would eventually enable Lugo to score and make it 5-3. The Raccoons, who had put five hits on Tobitt in the first two innings, slowed down tremendously after that, then remained in place, and finally regressed to helpless flailing in the last innings. Iemitsu Rin, whom we have been able to avoid in the series so far, struck out the side in the ninth. 5-3 Indians. Yamada 2-4; Ramirez 2-3, HR, 2 RBI;

In other news

August 29 – The Falcons lose SS Conceicao Guerin (.264, 1 HR, 43 RBI) for three weeks due to acute elbow soreness.

Complaints and stuff

After spending the first half of the year in some form or other of suspended animation, Yoshi Nomura broke out in August, batting .375 with 1 HR and 8 RBI to nab the CL’s Rookie of the Month award! Of course, nothing good can ever happen to us, and so he has reentered suspended animation now with an undisclosed injury sustained on Sunday. Christian Greenman was the CL Player of the Week despite batting only .320 (8-25), but he logged four homers (all against the Condors) and 10 RBI.

Concie getting hurt with less than six weeks left in the season – some things never change.

Yoshi Yamada went a sub-exhilarating 3/6 in stolen base attempts this week, but still got to 47 on the year,

And what a week that was! How about Brownie getting soiled and about everybody else pulling through? Who’d have seen that coming? The 1-0 win on Saturday, Ford’s, was the 2,300th regular season win for the franchise.

So, and now that we are fairly euphoric ‘round here, the killer news: the Coons’ first round pick from this year’s draft, SP Brandon Teasdale, had Tommy John surgery on Friday. Kleenex and Capt’n Coma are on the table, make yourself comfortable, and if you need me, I’ll be outside on the balcony, standing on the balustrade, glaring into the abyss.

Raccoons Revisited: In 1989, Tetsu Osanai slugged .600, with 229 hits, 387 total bases, 140 RBI, and a 1.004 OPS – all of which are still franchise records. He also set a franchise mark with 35 HR in that season, which was broken by Royce Green with 38 in 1994.