[Westheim]

Why, we haven’t even cleared 100 losses yet, and still it’s September Callups Week already. How depressing.

Raccoons (61-67) @ Falcons (75-54) – August 28-30, 2006

The Falcons’ 669 runs scored where not only an insane mark (5.2 R/G) to begin with, and ranked them tops in the Continental League, they also had the Raccoons beat by a smothering 176 runs with that, as we ranked 11th with 493. For what it was worth, our pitching wasn’t that much worse than theirs – but still worse. Neither team had a stellar rotation. We have lost four of six against them in 2006, but took the season series three out of the last four years.

Projected matchups:
Tim Webster (4-3, 3.87 ERA) vs. Larry Cutts (13-4, 3.27 ERA)
Nick Brown (8-3, 2.61 ERA) vs. Jesus Hernandez (6-2, 4.02 ERA)
Ralph Ford (12-10, 3.34 ERA) vs. George Allen (6-11, 5.17 ERA)

Throwing three straight left-handed pitchers at them isn’t the worst thing that could happen. Their lineup leans heavily to the left side, so we might actually have an easier time. Have there ever been easy times in Portland??

Game 1
POR: 2B Nomura – SS V. Flores – LF Crespo – RF Brady – 1B Sharp – CF Fernandez – C Bowen – 3B Searcy – P Webster
CHA: LF J. Flores – RF Reya – 3B J. Lopez – C F. Chavez – 2B H. Green – 1B J. Rodriguez – CF Burke – SS Starks – P Cutts

Facing Cutts when already loaded with a 19-inning scoreless streak can’t be good for any team, and then we had Tim Webster in this game, who – left-handed opposing lineup or not – just stunk up the joint by now, and came pretty close to already taking a substantial hit to the chin in the first inning, but Eddie Fernandez sucked up Javy Rodriguez’ drive to deep center to keep three Falcons stranded and none over home plate. We couldn’t even trust Fernandez, however, who made a pathetic error to get the Falcons going in the third inning. While all three runs for the Falcons in the inning were eventually unearned, that didn’t excuse Webster for being flatout horrible, especially with two out. In the bottom 4th – after the Raccoons actually snapped their drought after 22 innings with a 2-out RBI single by Searcy(!) in the top of the inning – Webster had nobody on with two outs, still managed to load them up and then surrender that 3-run triple to Javy Rodriguez he didn’t manage to serve up in the first inning. That gave Larry Cutts a rather definitive 6-1 advantage in the game, which he still managed to get into danger, but not out of it. Brady singled, Sharp took a close one, and Bowen walked in the top 6th before the Falcons replaced Cutts, who had cut down eight, with Jerry Scott with Webster due up and two outs. Webster would have been hit for anyways, and Bob Mays came out and singled to get a run home, but Yoshi flew out to center and that threat was over for the moment, but not permanently: the Critters came back to raise their tails and sniff on the grapes of victory a few more times as Adrian Quebell pinch-hit for an RBI double off Scott in the seventh, and Yoshi Nomura singled home Searcy with two outs in the eighth. Flores also got on, but Crespo struck out against Lewis Donaldson. Down 6-4 and facing the nasty Luis Hernandez in the ninth inning, Brady drew a leadoff walk off the right-hander! As soon as they were into it, however, they were also out of it. Quebell hit into a double play, and Esquivel flew out to right. 6-4 Falcons. Flores 2-5; Brady 2-3, BB; Quebell (PH) 1-2, 2B, RBI; Fernandez 2-4; Searcy 2-4, 2B, RBI; Mays (PH) 1-1, RBI; Moreno 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

We need starting pitching so badly…

Game 2
POR: 2B Nomura – CF Castro – RF Mays – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – SS Yamada – P Brown
CHA: LF J. Flores – RF Reya – 1B Tsung – 3B J. Lopez – C F. Chavez – 2B H. Green – CF P. Estrada – SS J. Rodriguez – P J. Hernandez

Brown singled in his own lead in the top 2nd, a 2-out knock to plate Daniel Sharp, before coming unglued not long afterwards. The Falcons had runners on the corners with two outs in the bottom 3rd and the count was 1-2 on Fernando Chavez. Brownie’s fourth pitch was wild, scoring the tying run, and then Chavez singled home another in a full count. Brown loaded the bases and had Brady make two strong plays in the inning to avoid getting shoved into the gutter early. He still trailed 2-1, and who was gonna help him with that? Right.

The Raccoons didn’t get on base until the sixth again before Mays and Brady singled back-to-back to go onto the corners with one out. That brought up Quebell, who had grounded into 14 double plays this year, including one to kill a last-inning effort last night – and you know where this is leading, right? Right.

Regardless of individual batting performances, Nick Brown was torn to shreds by Rodriguez in the bottom 6th when the increasingly annoying youngster hit another RBI triple, then stole home. After all, five runs were loaded on Brown in 5.2 innings, making for one ****ty line with 11 hits allowed and only four strikeouts, three of those in the first inning. For the Coons, it only got worse, giving up five more runs in the bottom 7th, with Fernando Chavez homering off Rockburn, and Mun-wah Tsung, a former Raccoons’ farmhand, belting a 3-run homer off an completely unhelpful Ed Bryan. 10-2 Falcons. Mays 2-4; Brady 2-4, HR, RBI;

Maybe starting Brown on short rest wasn’t such a bright idea.

That still doesn’t explain how they piled up 10 runs.

And who was the moron that thought Quebell might be a good replacement for Albert Martin, who is rotting with the Titans’ AAA team?

Game 3
POR: 2B Nomura – SS V. Flores – LF Castro – RF Brady – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – 3B Sharp – C Esquivel – P Ford
CHA: LF J. Flores – RF Reya – 1B Tsung – 3B J. Lopez – C F. Chavez – 2B H. Green – CF Rincón – SS Starks – P Allen

The Falcons tried every chapter in the book to let the Raccoons lead on a high note, with errors in the first two innings (which still didn’t help), and George Allen loaded up the bases in the third to get Quebell a chance with one out. For once, he forewent the double play chance to lift a fly to right that was caught, but scored a run. Bobo Mays then doubled home a pair. But no, George Allen wasn’t a match, not even for the lowly Raccoons. When Tomas Castro tripled to run the score to 7-1 in the fourth, the Falcons went to their bullpen, out of which Rafael De Jesus plated Castro with a wild pitch. That made it an 8-1 game, and amazingly, the Raccoons dug into their bullpen in the same inning after Ralph Ford had gotten soaked for four runs in the bottom 4th, with two runners on base, and him making no moves and not hinting at any intention to get the left-hander Mun-wah Tsung out. Ed Bryan faced Tsung, got a grounder to third, but instead of ending the inning, Doofus Sharp chose this very moment to make an unforgivable error to load the bases. Marcos Bruno was then brought into the game – pulling him from the dinner table, as this was THE FOURTH INNING – and got Jose Lopez with a grounder to second to finally end the nightmare. Bruno faced five and retired five across three innings, and as soon as somebody else appeared, the gates of hell reopened. Moreno got stuck with the bases loaded in the seventh and Rockburn allowed one run while coming with one out, on a single by Falcons career hits leader Hubert Green. The Critters were scuffling through the middle innings. In the eighth they got Vic Flores to third base with one out then, but Brady struck out and Quebell was no help in whatever situation. When Bowen hit a pinch-hit double in the ninth of an 8-6 game, the Falcons walked Sharp intentionally(!?), then brought their closer to kill the bottom of the order, which worked well, but that was only two outs. Yoshi Nomura doubled into the gap to plate both runners and got the Critters to double digits. Up 10-6, Angel got the bottom 9th just to get some work after a dreadful losing streak, which he ended with a fairly painless inning. 10-6 Critters. Nomura 2-5, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Flores 3-6, 2B, RBI; Castro 3-5, 3B, 2 RBI; Bowen (PH) 1-1, 2B; Bruno 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

We had the final day of the month off. When the calendar flipped to September, the Raccoons were 11 1/2 games out. Even hopeless romantics and lunatics could not refuse to acknowledge that their faint, imagined chance at a playoff run was really, really over by now.

As we hit roster expansion, we added three arms in Sergio Vega (just demoted), Claudio Salazar, and Rémy Lucas (who had not been much good in AAA with a 3.60 ERA). We could NOT add a catcher – because we were out of them! We were down to eight catchers across the system with injuries to Antonio Ramirez and minor leaguers Erik Ruff and Juan Rios. All three of them were expected to return to work within two weeks, with Ramirez and Rios off by perhaps one week. Also hurt was Cesar Pena, out for another three weeks with an ankle sprain, and we didn’t give the call to Ryan Miller, who had entered a slump. We did call up 22-year old Matt Pruitt, though, who had been acquired last December and had hit 19 homers in AAA this year with a .292 average and .834 OPS. He’s another left-handed batter. In a vain attempt to balance out things, we also added Jose Lugo’s right-handed bat. Pruitt is mainly a leftfielder – but also has a lot of experience at first base! In place of Miller, we added Tom Ingram as defensive backup.

Raccoons (62-69) @ Crusaders (71-62) – September 1-3, 2006

In the thick of the playoff race – as unbelievable as it might sound – were the Crusaders, second place, out by three and a half games. They had also August’s CL Hitter of the Month going, Stanton Martin, who, if he had been healthy all year, wouldn’t have let his team’s offense get stuck in seventh place in the league. Their pitching, including their rotation, was the best in the league anyway, but somehow they had dropped seven of our eleven games so far this season.

Projected matchups:
Jose Dominguez (13-11, 4.46 ERA) vs. Angel Javier (17-3, 2.55 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (6-14, 4.34 ERA) vs. Greg Connor (8-10, 3.36 ERA)
Tim Webster (4-4, 3.95 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (12-7, 3.30 ERA)

What kind of pitching they have. I am so envious. Can we kidnap one or two of them? Meanwhile, we will play 21 games in the next 20 days.

Game 1
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Castro – RF Brady – CF Fernandez – 1B Pruitt – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – P Dominguez
NYC: CF R. Pena – 3B J. Henry – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – SS Rice – 1B J. Lopez – 2B Caraballo – C D. Anderson – P A. Javier

The Raccoons had a hard time getting anything off Javier. While the Crusaders took an early 1-0 lead off Dominguez, the Raccoons had only one hit until Craig Bowen homered to tie the score in the fifth. Dominguez went six and a third decent innings for a no-decision, and Moreno retired the last two men in the seventh to retain a 1-1 tie. Also no-decisioned was Angel Javier, denied his 18th win despite allowing only two hits in eight innings. Charlie Deacon pitched a scoreless ninth, and so did Law Rockburn to send us to extras, where the Raccoons continued to not hit at all. They remained 2-hit in the game, while Claudio Salazar didn’t retire anybody in the bottom 11th. Ortíz singled, Martin singled, Rice walked, and Lopez sent everybody home happy with another single. 2-1 Crusaders. Dominguez 6.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K;

Matt Pruitt walked in his first two plate appearance, fouled out in the seventh, struck out in the tenth, and dropped a Martin Ortíz foul pop for an error. There have been better debuts.

Game 2
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Castro – RF Brady – 1B Quebell – CF Crespo – 3B Sharp – C Esquivel – P Watanabe
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B Grant – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – SS Rice – 1B J. Lopez – 3B Caraballo – C D. Anderson – P Reeves

Reeves, a tough nut to crack, walked Nomura and Flores to start the game before Castro’s single loaded the bases with no outs. Clyde Brady cashed in with a 2-run double, Daryl Anderson allowed Castro to score with a wild pitch, and Crespo plated Brady with a sac fly for an early 4-0 lead for Watanabe, or in other words: two innings’ worth of run allowance.

Hey – it’s not mean if it’s true! Watanabe may have allowed only one run in the first two innings in this contest, but Crespo alone sucked up three fly balls to deep center, including Ortíz and Martin. Crespo also did the good baseball gods’ work with the bat, hitting a 3-run homer that had Reeves evicted in the third inning. But even with a 7-run lead, the Raccoons couldn’t find inner peace. In the bottom of the same inning Tomas Castro hurt himself on a defensive play and had to leave the game, with Bobo Mays taking over. Watanabe outsourced all the hard work to the fielders, but that carried him quite a while, and he was still around to bunt in the eighth inning. On May 27, Visar Logoreci had been ravaged for seven runs in a spot start by the Raccoons. Here, he appeared in long relief and struck out five Critters in a row, and pitched 4.1 innings of shutout ball after Reeves’ demise. In the eighth it came apart for him, though. Crespo walked, and then Sharp and Esquivel hit back-to-back doubles to run the score to 10-1. Esquivel scored on a groundout by Yoshi Nomura before Watanabe allowed a leadoff single to Ape Britton in the bottom 8th and was removed. Bryan cleaned up, and then we got to see Matt Pruitt’s first career hit in the top 9th, a pinch-hit 2-out single off Byung-Kyu Huang. That kept the inning going to bring up Esquivel and Fernandez to have RBI hits to add to the rout, but it had to get ugly in the bottom 9th again. Sergio Vega got the inning, allowed a leadoff double to Stanton Martin, then walked two against only one out. Adam Riddle came in to replace him, threw one pitch for a sac fly to Daryl Anderson, then left immediately in discomfort. Two more runs scored off Kaz Kichida before we even managed to put our rout to rest. 13-4 Raccoons. Flores 2-4, BB; Castro 2-2, 2B; Brady 3-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Crespo 1-3, BB, HR, 4 RBI; Pruitt (PH) 1-1; Esquivel 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Fernandez (PH) 1-1, RBI; Watanabe 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, W (7-14) and 1-3;

Rosters expand, and the Critters drop like flies. Neither Castro nor Riddle were diagnosed initially.

Game 3
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – CF Crespo – LF Brady – 3B Sharp – 1B Pruitt – RF Mays – C Bowen – P Webster
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B Grant – RF S. Martin – LF M. Ortíz – 3B J. Henry – SS Rice – C J. Lopez – 1B Caraballo – P Connor

Sharp gave the Coons a 1-0 lead with a 2-out RBI single scoring Nomura in the top 1st, but when the Woester couldn’t retire any of the Crusaders’ first three batsmen, they quickly got the score tied again, 1-1, and as soon as the tough customers in the #3 and #4 slots came up again they hit a double and single, respectively, and gave their team a 2-1 lead in the bottom 3rd. Webster went six, allowing for enough plate appearance to bring the odd Martin couple back up once more and Stanton Martin drove home another run for them in the fifth. Bobo Mays’ solo homer in the seventh – an impressive shot to dead center – left the Raccoons a run short at 3-2. Stanton Martin tripled off Claudio Salazar in the bottom 7th, but hurt himself and had to leave the game, breaking an enormous piece off the Crusaders’ playoff bid, and Britton, who ran for Martin, was left at third base when Law Rockburn struck out Jerry Henry after Rémy Lucas had uselessly walked Ortíz. While New York used one pitcher through eight innings, the Coons were on their fifth once Rockburn allowed a leadoff single to Gary Rice in the eighth. Bruno kept the Crusaders down, giving the Critters a chance against Deacon. We got a running start: Bobo Mays singled, stole second, and made it to third on Jorge Lopez’ ****ty throw, all with zero outs. Deacon struck out Bowen, got Fernandez on a sorry fly to short left, then had Nomura at 1-2 and knotted up, but that inside pitch hit him, bringing up Vic Flores, who hit the first pitch he saw right on the sweet spot and drilled it to deep right. Stanton Martin might have gotten it – but Britton didn’t. Flores raced all the way to third, and the score had been flipped! The only problem was that Angel Casas wouldn’t hold onto it. He walked leadoff man Roberto Pena, and Britton and Henry chipped singles to tie the score before Mays caught a howling fly by Gary Rice to at least delay defeat to a later date. We had fired all our bullets. The best option was to put in Kichida for as much breath as he had for extra innings. He had a clean 10th, but the 11th was a mess, two hits and a walk to load them up for Gary Rice, who drove a ball to right – but to Mays. Unfortunately, Kichida’s turn to bat came up with two on and two outs in the 12th. It was a chance we had to use, even though the best we could do between four sub-.200 batters on the bench was lefty Yoshi Yamada to face right-hander Nick Lee, resulting in a not-hard-to-guess-right strikeout. Top 13th, Anthony Duhamel was almost out of the inning when he Fernandez and Nomura on base with two outs (much like Lee in the 12th, two had nobody on with two outs). Now, Flores was up. Hero once is great, but hero twice has it beat: Flores doubled, both runs scored, and we stuck with Moreno in the bottom of the inning. There was a tired Ed Bryan and a dangerous Sergio Vega left in the pen. Everybody else had been used! Moreno made short work of the New Yorkers, striking out Ortíz to end the game. 6-4 Raccoons. Nomura 1-3, 3 BB; Flores 3-7, 3B, 2B, 4 RBI; Sharp 2-5, BB, RBI; Pruitt 2-5; Mays 3-6, HR, RBI; Moreno 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (3-2);

In other news

August 29 – The Gold Sox have to place INF Jose Correa (.330, 4 HR, 48 RBI) on the DL. He might miss most if not all of the rest of the season with a strained rib cage muscle.
September 1 – NO-HITTER! San Francisco’s Tyler Sullivan (13-11, 3.63 ERA) puts a spell on the Falcons and holds them hitless, striking out 13 noble birds against three walks to pitch the 26th no-you-don’t in ABL history, and only the fourth of the decade. It is also the fourth no-hitter in Bayhawks history (Rafael Espinoza, 1989; Chris O’Keefe, 1991; Henry Selph (2nd), 2001), tying them for most of all teams with the Raccoons. The Falcons are no-hit for the second time overall, with the first instance also by a Bayhawk, Rafael Espinoza.

Complaints and stuff

How do the Falcons romp us for 68 runs and 3,659 hits, and then get no-no’ed by an average guy like Sullivan? Ah, sorry. I forgot. It’s the Raccoons factor.

To bring down the mood we received news that Tomas Castro had torn ligaments in his thumb when he fell onto his left hand on Saturday, and was out for the season. One 22-year old’s brace and painkillers might be another 22-year old’s opening into the regular lineup in September.

18-10 for a winning record. Yeah. Sure.