[Westheim]

Three weeks left in the season, the Coons have to play .650 ball to furnish their first winning season since way too long. Bad news is: we only have six games remaining against losing teams.

Raccoons (69-73) vs. Crusaders (73-69) – September 11-14, 2006

The Crusaders had been so close – and now they have lost five in a row, tanked their way to fourth place, and 7 1/2 games out of the lead. They were about as done as the Furballs, against whom they had gone 5-9 on the year. Their league-best pitching and starting rotation had not been able to overcome a creaky seventh-place offense.

Projected matchups:
Jose Dominguez (13-12, 4.29 ERA) vs. Angel Javier (17-3, 2.51 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (8-14, 3.98 ERA) vs. George Kirk (11-10, 3.60 ERA)
Tim Webster (5-4, 3.82 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (12-9, 3.81 ERA)
Nick Brown (9-4, 2.83 ERA) vs. Greg Connor (8-11, 3.48 ERA)

Those are all right-handers. Their sorry closer Charlie Deacon had a migraine attack and was listed as DTD.

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

… and then Jose was Jose, and pain on its way. Dominguez walked Roberto Pena to open the series, not wasting any time to throw a strike, before Bob Grant had his grounder thrown to third by Flores, but Quebell completely missed the ball. Ortíz walked to load them up. So did Stanton Martin. Gary Rice poked and flew out. Jorge Lopez was patient and walked. The next guy to walk was Dominguez – to the showers. Six batters, four walks, and it was not going to get any better. If we lose in a blowout, we can use somebody who makes a tenth of his money. Claudio Salazar came in, walked Francisco Caraballo (!!!!!), and at some point Eddie Fernandez dropped Angel Javier’s soft fly. All in all, the Crusaders scored five runs, all well earned – WITHOUT GETTING A HIT.

And with all children in attendance already dissolved in their own tears, the Raccoons came to bat for the first time.

By the third inning, the Coons were on their fourth pitcher after Salazar and Lucas had been stuffed by the Crusaders. Irony didn’t cut it: Rémy Lucas doubled in our first run of the game in the bottom 2nd, rallying to a 7-1 deficit, but it was already 9-1 after Martin Ortíz had shown him the way to the batter’s eye in the top 3rd. Matt Cash appeared. Stanton Martin grounded to Yamada, who blew that easy grounder for the Coons’ third error of the day. Yamada made another error the next inning. The Crusaders never scored for hitting into double plays both times. Cash would last us for a while, and struck out Bob Grant in the fifth inning. That was his 22nd out registered this season (against merely 11 earned runs), and the first by strikeout. The next batter, Martin “Thump-Thump” Ortíz, promptly homered to run the dozen full on Cash, but not on this particularly enjoyable contest, where the score was only 10-1 with that moon shot. At that point, they decided that it was enough, and preserve the other 15 runs their bats still had in them for tomorrow – unless Kaz Kichida would insist and throw a wild pitch with a runner at third. 11-3 Crusaders. Flores 3-5, RBI; Nomura 2-4, BB; Brady 2-4; Ramirez 2-5; Mays (PH) 1-2, RBI; Cash 3.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K; Moreno 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Okay – losing season. There is no reasoning with these ****s.

Matt Cash dropped his ERA by over seven runs with this outing. You can almost mistake him for a pitcher now.

Also, I’m done with Dominguez. For SF, he had a 3.91 ERA. For us, almost two full runs higher. Three runs were unearned in this game, but … wow!

Before the season began, I put a broken loser into the AAA rotation on a minor league deal. He got whacked around all year long, posting 5.01 ERA and 6-10 record in 27 starts. He might still be better than Dominguez. So, wretched Rhett Carpenter, 29, was added to the roster. He has a 3-2 record and 9.62 ERA in the Bigs, seven appearances for the 2001 Miners and 2003 Capitals. Either him or a fourth look at the frozen remains of Felipe Garcia. Or possibly Cássio Boda, but he had only been promoted to AAA at the beginning of September, and it hadn’t been pretty.

Game 2
NYC: CF R. Pena – 3B J. Henry – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – SS Rice – 1B J. Lopez – 2B Caraballo – C D. Anderson – P Kirk
POR: SS Flores – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – CF Fernandez – RF Mays – 3B Searcy – C Esquivel – P Watanabe

Jerry Henry was a player in this game for exactly two minutes, getting ejected when he loudly pointed out that Watanabe’s “strike three” had almost torn off his front foot. He was right about that, but still got tossed, and the Crusaders scored a run anyway. Henry was replaced by Marc Williams, who got his first hit of the season off Watanabe in the third. It was a game of same old, same old. Watanabe fell 2-0 behind early, but didn’t blow up completely. The Raccoons had NOTHING against George Kirk, which was a nice little tradition that was going for a while now. You know, like wearing dog-poo-ugly sweaters on Christmas. They’re itching, they’re a design crime against humanity, but they still give a cozy, warm feeling of familiarity with your surroundings. Like Kirk completely nixing the Raccoons. It took Steve Searcy to grab the measliest of hits off him, an infield single in the fourth inning, and not get soiled twice. An inning later we got an unearned run off him after a Caraballo error, and he walked five in the game and only lasted six innings, but left as potential winner, ahead 2-1. Watanabe pitched a complete game – ending the Crusaders’ season in passing when he beaned Stanton Martin – in what figured to be a losing effort until Bobo Babooni lined a leadoff double off thick-headed Charlie Deacon in the bottom of the ninth inning, bringing the winning run to the plate. And then – Pruitt grounded out in place of Searcy, Crespo struck out in place of Esquivel, and with Watanabe up, whom else could we entrust with our dear lives? How about Craig Bowen and his home run rip? Ya, and he struck out, too. 2-1 Crusaders. Watanabe 9.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, L (8-15);

Actually, Stanton Martin was hit in the thumb, which was swelled pretty good, but wasn’t broken. He was out for a few days though. He couldn’t hold a bat, nor feed himself with that ball-sized appendage to his dominant hand.

Watanabe’s second career game came like his first in a losing effort, since we had a grand total of three hits. We … (facepalm)

Game 3
NYC: CF R. Pena – C J. Lopez – RF Britton – LF M. Ortíz – 3B J. Henry – 2B J. Hernandez – SS Guerin – 1B Caraballo – P Reeves
POR: SS Flores – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – C A. Ramirez – RF Mays – 3B Sharp – CF Fernandez – P Webster

The Coons trailed 1-0 already when Tim Webster lost his marbles in the third inning. After Roberto Pena’s leadoff single, he went to 3-ball counts against everybody. Lopez and Britton walked, Ortíz singled, 2-0. Henry and Hernandez struck out in full counts and Guerin struck out well before that. Webster had already six strikeouts on the day, and 75 pitches. He wouldn’t strike out anybody else before being bombed from the premises by Francisco Caraballo’s 2-run homer in the sixth. We trailed 5-2 at that point, scoring with the help of a passed ball in the third, and on a few singles in the fifth. When the Critters scored again, it was the seventh, and they only had J.C. Crespo cross home plate for one of those famous, delicious Caraballo errors. No, there was no life in these bats. On their own, they weren’t getting anything done. Four relievers spun 3.2 shutout innings, but it didn’t matter. 5-3 Crusaders. Fernandez 2-3; Ingram (PH) 1-1; Crespo (PH) 1-2;

Game 4
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B Grant – RF Britton – LF M. Ortíz – 3B J. Henry – SS Rice – C J. Lopez – 1B Caraballo – P Connor
POR: 2B Nomura – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – RF Brady – C A. Ramirez – CF Crespo – 3B Sharp – SS Ingram – P Brown

Quebell made another error to put Brown into a bad spot in the top 1st. Brown had walked Pena to start the game, but now with runners on the corners and one out rallied and struck out both Ortíz and Henry, then drove in the first run of the game in the bottom of the second. With Crespo and Sharp on second and first, he singled to right, Crespo was sent, and Apasyu Britton’s throw had nothing on it, and he also hurt himself on it and the Crusaders had lost their second rightfielder in the series. The wretched throw also moved up the runners another base and allowed a second run to score on Nomura’s fly out to center. Brownie allowed no hits through four before Lopez and Caraballo led off the fifth with singles past Tom Ingram, who rested a far-run Vic Flores in this game (and Yamada was a black hole). Brown rallied and retired the next three guys to keep the Crusaders off the board. The bottom 5th saw the Coons loaded them up with one out for Ramirez, who hit into a double play. New York still had nothing going through seven, and Brownie hit a leadoff single in the bottom of the inning, then stole second base. The dismal top of the order never advanced him. Brown struck out two more in the eighth, but crossed 100 innings. Would be a tough call whether to stay with him, but maybe we could get a few add-on runs? Brady led off the bottom 8th against Connor, and socked one – home run! That was all, but the ninth started with a lefty. With Angel waiting, we’d take it one by one with Brown, and Ortíz grounded out to Nomura. Henry grounded out to Ingram, leaving it to Gary Rice, who would in any case be Brownie’s last batter at 115 pitches – and he walked him, and here came Angel. He got an easy fly by Jorge Lopez to Pruitt, and that was it. 3-0 Brownies! Quebell 2-4; Brady 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Crespo 2-3, BB; Brown 8.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 10 K, W (10-4) and 2-3, RBI;

Tough with the shutout, but I blame the four walks. He had his stuff ready all day long!

Raccoons (70-76) @ Bayhawks (72-74) – September 15-17, 2006

The Bayhawks had the best bullpen in the league. Just like with the Coons, good relievers hadn’t covered up all the other holes for them. We were 3-3 against them.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (13-11, 3.61 ERA) vs. Iván Cordero (2-4, 5.66 ERA)
Rhett Carpenter (0-0) vs. Carl Bean (11-15, 5.05 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (8-15, 3.88 ERA) vs. Terry Sullivan (13-13, 3.62 ERA)

That’s left-right-left for us. For them it’s easy-as-pie, stealing-candy-from-a-toddler, and then maybe at least as tough as butter.

Game 1
POR: SS Flores – 2B Nomura – CF E. Fernandez – LF Brady – C A. Ramirez – 1B Sharp – RF Lugo – 3B Searcy – P Ford
SFB: CF Hudson – 2B J. Barrón – RF Keshishian – C B. Campbell – 1B A. Rojas – 3B J. Foster – SS Sheehan – LF L. Alonso – P Cordero

Ralph Ford was quite decent the first time through the order, sitting the Birds down in order and striking out six. The Raccoons were not much more successful, but had two on in the fourth when Searcy sent a drive to deep right that nevertheless Tirgen Keshishian hauled in to end the frame. Ford then led off the fifth with a single and scored on Fernandez’ single, the first run of the game. Ford kept retiring batters, whiffing three while preventing traffic the second time through the order. Juan Barrón with one out in the seventh sent a looper to right center that looked like it would fall in, but Lugo snagged it on the run. The eighth was led off by Brian Campbell, the first pitch was tight – too tight. Campbell got on first the hard way and was on second with two outs, with ex-Coon Pablo Fernandez pinch-hitting for Brad Sheehan. Fernandez was down 1-2, then put the ball in play, it hopped over the mound and into centerfield. Campbell scored. Tied game. It remained tied through nine innings, of which Ford took care, and as we entered extras, the Coons had eight hits to the Bayhawks’ single, measly, ****ty one. A Nomura double and an infield single by Fernandez put runners on the corners with nobody out in the tenth, but Brady struck out. Pruitt hit for Ramirez against righty Johnny Smith, grounded up the middle, but the Bayhawks got only the out on Fernandez, and Nomura scored. Sharp kept being useless, and we flipped it over to Angel Casas and the 3-4-5 batters in the bottom 10th. Keshishian and Campbell both put the first pitch into play for an out and a single, respectively, before Alejandro Rojas and Jorge Cruz struck out. 2-1 Coons. Flores 2-4, BB; Nomura 2-5, 2B; Fernandez 2-5, RBI; Lugo 2-3; Ford 9.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 K, W (14-11) and 1-4;

Oh so close. Oh so close…

Game 2
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Pruitt – RF Brady – 1B Quebell – C A. Ramirez – 3B Sharp – CF Crespo – P Carpenter
SFB: LF Beairsto – 2B J. Barrón – RF Keshishian – C B. Campbell – 3B J. Foster – CF Hudson – SS J. Perez – 1B J. Cruz – P Bean

Nomura drew a walk off a badly scuffling Carl Bean and eventually scored on a 2-out single by Quebell. Carpenter, in his first game in the Bigs in three years, gave the run right back, hitting Juan Barrón in the process, and would have surrendered more if Matt Pruitt hadn’t nailed out Tirgen Keshishian at the plate. Carpenter fell 2-1 behind in the second, but the Coons pulled the run back in the third. The Bayhawks had three singles with two out in the bottom 4th, the last by Beairsto, who was merely batting .290 with 16 homers, before Carpenter struck out Barrón to end the inning. Carl Bean’s woes continued in the fifth. Vic Flores tripled to start the inning, then was singled home by Brady. Quebell failed before Bean hit consecutive batters! He paid for that with a 2-run single by J.C. Crespo. In Carpenter’s hand, that 5-2 lead was seriously in danger. Leadoff walk, a single, a wild pitch, ANOTHER WILD PITCH, and another single. 5-4, with Perez, the latter singles hitter, trying to get to second and being thrown out for a merciful end to the inning, and we had enough from the newest Raccoon afterwards. Nomura and Flores reached base to start the sixth and were doubled home by Brady to restore the 3-run lead.

With Angel unavailable, and the Coons ahead, we were eager to stay away from the worst offenders in the pen. Vega and Lucas managed to combine for a perfect sixth. After that it was Rockburn, and the intention was to couple him with Bruno for three innings. It was dicey, however. Rockburn had two on in the seventh before getting out, then put two on again with one out in the eighth and Bruno was rushed to the scene, striking out Alonso and Beairsto to preserve the 7-4 advantage in the eighth. Keshishian would single off Bruno in the ninth, but was then swiped away on Campbell’s double play grounder to Vic Flores. 7-4 Coons. Flores 3-5, 3B, 2B; Brady 3-4, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Bruno 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (5);

Rhett Carpenter actually got the win. His career ERA barely blinked, though. Still over nine.

Game 3
POR: SS Flores – 2B Nomura – CF Fernandez – RF Brady – C A. Ramirez – 1B Sharp – LF Crespo – 3B Ingram – P Watanabe
SFB: LF Beairsto – 2B J. Barrón – RF Keshishian – C B. Campbell – 3B J. Foster – CF Hudson – SS J. Perez – 1B Rojas – P Sullivan

The Birds got on Watanabe in a hurry, a Keshishian double and a Campbell homer plating two runs in the bottom of the first. The first time through their order, the Furballs had a single by Fernandez, and seven strikeouts. Watanabe’s last loss took some time to develop, but this one came on him quickly. The Critters had nothing, and when Jesse Foster launched a 2-run homer to straightaway center in the sixth, it was go time for Watanabe in a 5-0 loss. Another run got hung on Matt Cash in the eighth, who faced two and walked both, with Kaz providing little relief after him. The Raccoons had two runners on base at the same time exactly once and were shut out by Sullivan, who spun a 4-hitter, striking out a whopping 13. 6-0 Bayhawks. Nomura 2-4;

Garf.

In other news

September 13 – The Stars had acquired OF John Alexander (.273, 21 HR, 75 RBI) mid-season from the Capitals with their playoff chances in mind, but his contribution will be zero. A badly sprained ankle will put him on the DL for the balance of the year.
September 16 – Dallas’ Hector Garcia (.332, 10 HR, 91 RBI) has his hitting streak soar to 30 games with a fourth inning triple in a 3-1 win over the Buffaloes.
September 17 – DAL 3B/2B Hector Garcia (.334, 11, 93 RBI) has two hits, including a 2-run homer off Jack Berry, as he goes to 31 games in a 6-4 loss to the Buffaloes.

Complaints and stuff

(sits casually in his office, on the brown sofa behind the glass coffee table, with coffee and cookies)

For next week, we will add two more call-ups with minor league seasons over. All our affiliates had losing seasons. We add Bobo Wood, and we will give Ryan Miller his debut. Miller, 22, was the more interesting piece in the Greenman trade with the Titans in 2005. He is a right-handed shortstop with a very good (though not spectacular, Guerin-like) glove, who can run, and who hits for a bit of all. He’s not an easy strikeout, he has some power for doubles and dingers, although he batted only for a .713 OPS in 107 games in AAA this year. He can play regularly the last two weeks, with Flores moved to third so we don’t have to look at Daniel Sharp any longer after his HORRENDOUS season, but I don’t think Miller is ready yet. Still looks a bit undercooked, but with tremendous potential.

To accommodate Miller, Cesar Pena (who is on the minor league DL) has been waived and designated for assignment.

We would have so many young players with Mays, Quebell, Nomura, Pruitt, Castro, Wood, and now Miller – and none of them is very helpful…

Angel Casas saved his 38th today for the year on Thursday. That is the most any Raccoons closer has saved in any one season since 1993!! That was Grant West’s last year as closer and he put away 45 en route to our second title. And since then it largely hasn’t been close. There’s a 36 by Dan Nordahl in there a few years ago, and a couple of 33’s from the 90s (1996 Tzu-jao Ban, 1998 Scott Wade). And a whole lot of switching around, first guy not getting it done, second guy not getting it done, first guy still not getting it done, 12-game losing streak, third guy getting it done, third guy getting injured, second guy traded already, hey, let’s try the rookie!

Top batters by AB in 1993: O-Mo, Reece, Salazar, Higgins, Vincon, Alejandro Lopez, Dan The Man, Old Vern, “Icon” Allen, Bobby Quinn … those were the times. Top pitchers: “Pooky”, Miguel Lopez, Turner, Saito (who had an off year), De La Rosa, West, Burnett, Vela, Miller, Lagarde. Yeah, those were the times.

Give this team a “Pooky” and even a Bobby Quinn, and we win 82 games.

This team. On this team, you can’t trust anybody with keeping your bacon safe. Of course, with the impending exodus of a number of our long time roster occupants (Brady, Ford, Moreno; also Lugo), next year will be about retooling and setting new targets and – (violently kicks over coffee table, complete with coffee and cookies)

Nobody’s ever going to clean up this mess…