[Westheim]

Raccoons (5-1) vs. Falcons (1-5) – April 9-11, 2007

Something was upside down in the Continental League, and it might be the Raccoons sitting atop the North with the best record, while the Falcons had somehow gotten under the bus in the opening week. It was their pitching that was to blame. They had bled for 49 runs in the first week of the season, with a horrendous 8.70 ERA to their rotation.

Projected matchups:
Kelvin Yates (1-0, 3.24 ERA) vs. Tommy Wilson (0-1, 8.44 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (0-1, 5.14 ERA) vs. Greg Grams (0-0, 9.00 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Alfredo Collazo (0-1, 18.00 ERA)

Three right-handers (and not the worst of the bunch: Carl Bean had allowed eight runs in 1.2 innings in his season debut) coming at the diminished Coons, who were still without Sharp and Riddle.

Game 1
CHA: RF Reya – CF Theobald – C F. Chavez – 2B J. Lopez – 1B Tsung – LF J. Flores – 3B H. Green – SS Moore – P T. Wilson
POR: 2B Nomura – 3B V. Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – SS Sato – P Yates

A team with a ravaged pitching staff came to town and a pitchers’ duel broke out. Always the same Coons, huh? There was just one base runner through 3 1/2 innings (and not the Raccoons’), but Castro made his way on base in the bottom 4th and scored on Pruitt’s double to right. That fly almost went out, banging off the wall, but Jesus Flores’ drive in the top 5th really went out, immediately tying the score again, now at one. That was still the score in the bottom 7th when Wilson suddenly lost control and walked Quebell and Bowen, the first free passes issued by him in the game (but he had walked five in his first start). Sato lined out to the shortstop, and Crespo hit for Yates, but flew out softly to Paul Theobald in center. The first guy that got to see Kaz Kichida in the top 8th was then Steve Moore, who powered a poor pitch to Kingdom Come, sending the Raccoons trailing 2-1. Yoshi-N led off the bottom 8th with a double, moving to third on Flores’ groundout. Wilson was still in there to face our left-handed stallions, who saw two pitches to make two outs in an embarrassing manner, and the Raccoons weren’t quite able to solve closer Luis Hernandez, either. 2-1 Falcons. Nomura 2-4, 2B; Yates 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K;

That was a sad game. Hopefully not a first glance at what’s to come. Obviously, Castro and Pruitt not getting a runner in from third base with one out is already highly discouraging. That they saw a total of two pitches doesn’t make it any better.

Did we pick off anybody last year? No clue. Probably not. Kaz did the honors in this game, plucking Fernando Chavez off first to end the top 9th. Then, however, all was lost already.

Game 2
CHA: 3B J. Rodriguez – CF Theobald – C F. Chavez – 2B J. Lopez – LF J. Flores – 1B H. Green – RF Walls – SS Grant – P Grams
POR: 2B Nomura – SS V. Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – 3B Sharp – P Dominguez

There was more of less offense in the early going. Half the game went past with a total of four hits and no runs scored. Dominguez fed grounders to his infielders and that was a pretty neat strategy. Grams was solid until he also gave double walks to Quebell and Bowen, but this time at the start of an inning, the bottom 5th. Daniel Sharp pushed a grounder past Javy Rodriguez for an RBI double, and then Dominguez singled to make it 2-0 immediately. After poor outs by Nomura and Flores, Tomas Castro lined a single to right center, good enough to score both runners, before he was caught stealing (our third CS in the series against no successes). And then Dominguez, who had allowed but one little hit in five innings, melted away again. Two out in the sixth he absolutely hit a wall, allowed four straight singles, then walked Hubert Green, which amounted to a 4-2 lead and the bases loaded. Marcos Bruno couldn’t help out at all, surrendering a game-tying double to Tom Walls before Bob Grant grounded out. The lead was restored in the bottom of the inning with doubles by Pruitt and Bowen, before Pruitt came up to bat in the next inning with two outs and two on, drummed another double to plate both teammates before sliding into second base, jumping up, waiting antsily for the safe sign from the ump, then hooved awkwardly around the bag. That did look like trouble from a mile away, and he came out of the game.

And that was not all the trouble for this game. Ed Bryan started the top 8th, allowed a homer to Jose Lopez and hit Jesus Flores before departing. Law Rockburn took over and was absolutely ravaged. Mun-wah Tsung hit a pinch-hit, score-flipping 3-run homer, and then another three men got on base to the point where we gave up and sent Kaz Kichida again, who did nothing to end the collapse and waved another two runs across. 12 men to the plate, seven runs in for the Falcons against three relievers. 11-7 Falcons. Nomura 2-5; Castro 2-5, 2 RBI; Pruitt 2-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI;

The Falcons had 14 hits, of which 12 came bundled in the sixth and eighth innings. Yeah, with that kind of luck we can close shop right now…

Oh, talking about luck. Matt Pruitt (.414 with 6 RBI) had suffered a strained hamstring and was out for a month.

And here comes Bob Mays.

Game 3
CHA: 3B J. Rodriguez – RF Theobald – 1B Tsung – SS J. Lopez – C F. Chavez – 2B H. Green – LF Reya – CF Walls – P Collazo
POR: 2B Nomura – SS V. Flores – LF Castro – 1B Quebell – RF Black – 3B Sharp – CF Trevino – C Wood – P Fuentes

Collazo threw his first eight pitches for balls, then three for strikes. Two of those called on Castro, the third met with the bat and slung to deep right for a 3-run homer and a blitz lead. Too bad Fuentes couldn’t quite handle it. The Falcons loaded the bases with no outs in the top 2nd before Reya struck out and Walls hit a grounder to short – that the Raccoons couldn’t convert for two. Collazo made the third out, but still, one run chipped off, and another would follow in the fifth after Walls had tripled. Of course, when Sharp had tripled an inning earlier, nobody had driven him in. Even the baseball gods were weeping at the Raccoons’ performance in this series, and it accordingly started to rain in the fifth inning.

Collazo kept walking people, like leadoff man Castro in the bottom 5th. Quebell singled, as did Black, getting the lead back to 4-2, but although Quebell arrived at third base with no outs, he was not scored. Jose Lopez kept getting on base for the Falcons, reappearing in the top 6th with one out. Fuentes turned his attention to Fernando Chavez, but before any damage could be done, the umpires called for the tarp to be put on as we entered a rain delay. The tarp came on, and it stayed on, as the Raccoons stole themselves out of town with a not-even-six-innings win. 4-2 Coons. Castro 1-2, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Sharp 2-3, 3B;

If you’re not any good, at least be lucky…

Raccoons (6-3) @ Crusaders (6-3) – April 13-15, 2007

We were tying for the CL North lead, along with the Indians, while the Loggers and Canadiens were also just one game back. Basically everybody in the division had a winning record so far, minus the Titans (4-6). While the Falcons had come in with the most runs conceded (which didn’t really stop for them…), the Crusaders had spilled only 25 counters over their first nine games, which was quite awesome already, but there were also ZERO runs put onto their bullpen yet! They had scored 49 runs (t-2nd).

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (1-0, 4.50 ERA) vs. Angel Javier (0-0, 5.14 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (1-0, 2.35 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (1-1, 4.38 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (0-1, 5.68 ERA) vs. Jesus Bautista (2-0, 1.59 ERA)

All right-handers for this week.

Game 1
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – CF Crespo – RF Mays – P Brown
NYC: CF R. Pena – SS Caraballo – RF S. Martin – LF M. Ortíz – 3B J. Henry – C J. Lopez – 1B T. Mullins – 2B H. Cardenas – P A. Javier

The Martin Brigade had already six homers between them this season, but it was leaving the taste of blood in every Raccoons fan’s mouth that Francisco Caraballo actually opened the scoring with a home run before Stanton Martin joined him in the exercise – off Nick Brown, too. That was 2-0 Crusaders, but they didn’t smile for long. Craig Bowen homered, his team-leading third shot of the year, before Crespo, Mays, and Nomura reached by various means only to be collectively driven in with a bases-clearing double off Vic Flores’ bat. Now it was 4-2 Coons. A game that revolved around who could hit the most the farthest saw Martin Ortíz take Brownie deep in the fourth, then devolved into something nasty with two outs when Mullins walked and Cardenas singled, prompting the removal of Javier for PH Apasyu Britton. He grounded to short, Flores missed it, and the bases were loaded after the error, yet only for a short while before Roberto Pena singled to right center to give the Crusaders a 5-4 lead.

Four innings, mentally everybody was exhausted. Brown had a clean fifth, but the sixth brought back the living hell, with Mullins singling, and then Cardenas got plunked in an 0-2 count. Roberto Pena hit for reliever Bob Evans and reached on Brown’s error. Bases loaded with Caraballo up, normally a spot for Bruno or Rockburn, but neither had been any good so far. Better stay with plan A, resulting in a grounder to Flores, that for once wasn’t misplayed into something surreal. The Coons kept trailing, however.

And their bullpen was SO good, they could bring Robbie Wills – in the seventh! Nothing happened there, but Quebell hit a leadoff single off Scott Hood, the former Gold Sox closer, in the eighth. Yamada ran for him, stole second, got to third on Sharp’s single, and then came home on a wild pitch. New York’s bullpen – no longer untouched in its naughty spot! But while the Raccoons loaded the bases in the inning, Hood struck out Bowen, Mays, and Nomura on the way out, but in the top 9th Vic Flores singled off Iemitsu Rin. No outs, but a bunt wouldn’t help since Yamada was batting behind Castro. Both grounded out to the right side, allowing Flores to reach third base. Up came Daniel Sharp, fell to two strikes like everybody before him, then drilled a rocket into the gap in right center, and that’s IN, and that’s a lead!! RBI double from Daniel Sharp, the news of whose demise were greatly exaggerated!! Unfortunately, the bottom 9th started with a single by Ming Kui off Angel Casas, and while Casas got Pena and Raymond Sutton, he now had Kui at second, and the two big ones coming up. There was not enough room to pitch around anybody, so rather he would go after Stanton Martin, the right-hander, and hope for the best results. Nope, Martin chipped a single, Kui scored, and the band played on.

Fast forward to the 12th, where Rodrigo Garcia, a southpaw, started with an obvious K to the overmatched Yamada. Then Sharp came up and hurled another pitch into his gap, this one also for extra bases and Sharp turned second and dashed to third, and … safe! But Sharp was uncomfortable and the trainer took a look at him, and finally we had to remove him, with Trevino running for him. Runner on third, one out for Bowen, or maybe not. The Crusaders put him on intentionally, going after Crespo instead. Crespo’s fly to right was caught, but sufficiently deep to plate Trevino for a 7-6 lead. Bob Wood hit for Bruno to no effect to end the inning. And now what? Bob Wood stayed in to fill first base for the fallen Sharp, Trevino stayed in center, and Crespo’s spot was taken by Ed Bryan to close this one, but Martin Ortíz was up first, drove a pitch hard to deep right – but Luke Black made the catch, having stayed in at Mays’ expense earlier after pinch-hitting. Jerry Henry, batting .065, reached on a Yamada error, before Rodrigo Garcia had to bat – both benches were completely empty by now! He bunted the first pitch back to the mound, where Bryan had it come right into his glove, winged it to second for the force, back to first, out, ballgame! 7-6 Critters. Flores 3-6, 2B, 3 RBI; Sharp 4-6, 3B, 2B, RBI; Mays 3-5; Sato (PH) 1-1; Bruno 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, W (1-0);

I checked, and I aged three years during this game. At least there’s the following two things working in our favor: we’ll have Monday off, and Daniel Sharp only very mildly tweaked his hammy. At least one day off was warmly recommended by our trainer.

Do we look like we can spare a .458/.500/.917 bat for even one inning? Sharpie thought the same, insisting to be put into the lineup the next day.

Game 2
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Castro – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – RF Black – C Bowen – CF Trevino – P Yates
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B H. Cardenas – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – SS Caraballo – 3B J. Henry – 1B O. Rios – C D. Anderson – P Reeves

While both pitchers were harried early for a quick 2-2 score, with the Crusaders of course scoring on a Martin Ortíz homer that counted for a pair, Yates overall looked pretty much locked in. How locked in? Uh, say, ten strikeouts in five innings in 64 pitches? The Raccoons hadn’t had much chance to score, though, and the game remained tied, Luke Black popping out with the bases loaded to end the top 6th, until Craig Bowen hit a leadoff triple in the seventh. Yet, Trevino failed, grounding out hard to first, which left Yates with the dubiou- … or maybe he’d single to right, and Bowen scored! The Coons had runners in scoring position in the eighth after a Castro single and Quebell double off Scott Hood, but Black and Bowen struck out to let that chance get away. The Crusaders also got runners on base in the bottom 8th with a Henry single and Britton walking, but Yates remained at the wheel, struck out Ming Kui, and got Pena to end the inning, still 3-2.

Potentially controversially, Yates was sent to bat in the ninth. The 2-3-4 guys were due in the bottom 9th, and Angel had blown it on Friday already. And Yates still looked good! There was also a potential team strikeouts record involved, and Yates struck out Cardenas for #13. Ortíz reached on an infield single in a full count as now Yates’ pitch count was shooting upwards. He struck out Martin, tying the franchise mark for strikeouts in a game, and that only left Caraballo to be dealt with. The first pitch to him missed badly, and Caraballo then hit a grounder on a pitch pretty much right in the sweet spot, shooting it sharply to Sharp, who corralled it, to first – OUT!! 3-2 Raccoons!! Quebell 2-4, 2B; Bowen 2-4, 3B; Yates 9.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 14 K, W (2-0) and 1-4, RBI;

Like I said, that’s a pretty good 1-2 punch. Yates tied the franchise single game strikeout mark of 14 set by Brownie in 2004, and becomes only the fifth pitcher to have a 12+ strikeouts game for the Raccoons (Steven Berry, Kisho Saito, Ralph Ford the others in chronological order).

Game 3
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Castro – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – RF Black – C Bowen – CF Trevino – P Dominguez
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B H. Cardenas – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – SS Caraballo – 1B T. Mullins – 3B J. Henry – C D. Anderson – P Bautista

The sweep in New York was denied to the Raccoons by their expensive, yet inept, #3 starter. Dominguez was crap from the start. In the first, he walked Ortíz and was behind on Martin when Ortíz took off and was caught stealing. Martin then led off the bottom 2nd with a hard out, but Dominguez would surrender three 2-out singles to the 6-7-8 batters to fall 1-0 behind. Martin hit into a double play to collect Ortíz in the third, but in the fourth Jerry Henry hit a 2-run homer off Dominguez, and the Crusaders ran him off the premises by the fifth, putting another two runs on him. The Raccoons couldn’t get to Jesus Bautista at all, amounting to two measly singles through five innings.

Then came the sixth, and things got wicked. Bob Mays hit for Dominguez and singled to right, then stole second base without a throw from Anderson. Flores plated him with a 1-out single, before Castro’s grounder was misfielded by Bautista for an error. Daniel Sharp hit a high bloop that thumped onto the grass between Pena, Caraballo, and Cardenas, who almost took another out, cutting the gap to 5-2. But luck ran out right here, Quebell flew out softly to center, and Black grounded out to third. Both teams hissed and cussed a bit the next innings, until a wicked bottom 8th. The Raccoons entered down 5-2 with Kaz carrying over from the seventh. Ted Mullins singled off him and we moved on to Rockburn, who had been shellacked earlier this week by the Falcons, and now got soap-socked by his own team. Jerry Henry popped to first, and Quebell dropped it. Daryl Anderson grounded in front of the plate, and Bowen’s throw to third was so far past Sharp that he didn’t even move, assuming he could not possibly have been the intended recipient. That already scored a run, and there were no outs, although THERE REALLY SHOULD HAVE BEEN. Another run scored on a sac fly against the numbed Rockburn, putting the game well out of reach. 7-2 Crusaders. Flores 3-4, RBI; Sharp 2-4, RBI; Mays (PH) 2-2, 2B;

In other news

April 9 – Cincinnati catcher Robert Rucker is out for the season without even getting an at-bat, having torn his medial collateral ligament. He batted .292 last season for the Cyclones.
April 10 – It gets worse for the Cyclones. Now primary catcher Felix Hernandez (.250, 0 HR, 1 RBI) is out for at least a month with a broken arm.
April 10 – Young WAS LF Raúl Vázquez (.278, 0 HR, 3 RBI) is out for a couple of months with a concussion.
April 11 – LAP LF Ken Potter (.381, 0 HR, 2 RBI) is out for the rest of the month with an oblique strain.

Complaints and stuff

The record still looks good, although we have taken a few emotional damages this week, and also one physical that might hurt the efforts more than it seemed at first. With Pruitt on the DL and Black having a black week (1-for-19!), the offense was not really anywhere close to satisfying. We’re 10th in offense right now, and our run differential is +1.

We will face both division leaders in our league next week.

Also, we’re closing in on 2,400 franchise wins. First guy with a chance to grab it currently is Brownie, assuming we don’t lose until his turn…

Kelvin Yates leads the ABL with 28 strikeouts right now. Curtis Tobitt has 27 for the Indians, and over in Denver, Antonio Donis has 26. That name might ring a bell.

Amazingly, Raúl Fuentes(!) is third in the CL in ERA (1.46). He trails MIL William Lloyd, who has yet to allow an earned run, and second is a guy on the Bayhawks with a 1.23 ERA. Does the name Esteban Flores mean anything to you?

Flores was a failed prospect for us so long ago – he was taken in the rule 5 draft in 1999 – that his sudden reemergence is stunning. He’s 33 and has spent seven years with the Rebels, mostly to horrid results, the low point coming in 2003, when he started 28 games and ended up 6-14 with a 6.53 ERA. His career record is 54-98 with a 5.33 ERA. He’s logged 1,313 innings in the Bigs for merely 5 WAR total. So, regression towards the mean might be in the cards for him.