[Westheim]

Who’s gonna win #2,400 for the franchise? We need three to get there.

Raccoons (8-4) @ Indians (8-4) – April 17-19, 2007

Both of these teams came in with just under 50 runs conceded, good enough to take up room in the top 3 in the CL, but the Indians had outscored the Raccoons by almost a full run per game (the Coons were 11th). While the Coons’ pen so far had been wonky, the Indians’ had been stellar with a 1.17 ERA.

Projected matchups:
Raúl Fuentes (2-0, 1.46 ERA) vs. Ramón Jimenez (1-0, 3.77 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (1-0, 1.80 ERA) vs. Patrick Moreau (0-0, 10.38 ERA)
Nick Brown (1-0, 4.50 ERA) vs. Curtis Tobitt (2-0, 3.05 ERA)

We continue to get only right-handed starters, but Ralph Ford seems to be on tap for Friday’s game against the Knights.

Game 1
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – RF Black – CF Crespo – P Fuentes
IND: CF P. Javier – RF B. Miller – 1B S. Stevens – C Paraz – 3B Fugosi – 2B J. Miller – LF A. Solís – SS J. Lopez – P Jimenez

The Indians scored first without getting even a hit when Fuentes hit Jimenez with a 1-2 pitch, then walked three straight batters. Luckily, Jose Paraz fouled out and Tomas Castro got to Filippo Fugosi’s howling liner into left. While the Raccoons would eventually get a run (Crespo singling in Sharp in the fifth), the Indians would also at some point get a hit (also in the fifth, a Javier single), but the resulting runner got caught stealing by Craig Bowen. The game dragged on with a 1-1 score, but at some point something had to give, and of course the guy with five walks and a hit batter on the day crumbled away first. Fuentes surrendered two line drives to start the bottom 7th, putting runners on the corners, and when Vic Flores intercepted a grounder by Jose Lugo deep behind second base, he had no play at all. Colby Kirk provided no relief to the hastily yanked Fuentes and the Indians scored three runs in the inning. What did the Raccoons do? Well, not too much besides laying down to snooze through the ninth… 4-1 Indians. Quebell 1-2, BB; Mays (PH) 1-1;

In between games here, we claimed INF Manuel Gutierrez off waivers by the Warriors. He’s a 26-year old left-handed batting Salvadoran, all glove, little exposure with the bat. Since his debut in 2002, he’s batted .274 with seven homers in not quite 400 at-bats, and he had only seven total at-bats the last two years.

He remained DFA’ed on Wednesday. Meanwhile the Indians skipped Moreau and moved Pitcher of the Year Curtis Tobitt into the middle game. Poor Kenichi.

… or maybe not. An hour before game time, it started to rain. The middle game never got underway on Wednesday, and we got a double header scheduled for Thursday. Yet, for Kenichi, the news didn’t get better. He still had to face Tobitt in the early game.

Game 2
POR: 3B Flores – 2B Sato – LF Castro – 1B Sharp – C Bowen – RF Mays – CF Trevino – SS Yamada – P Watanabe
IND: CF P. Javier – RF B. Miller – 1B S. Stevens – C Paraz – LF A. Solís – 2B J. Miller – 3B C. Aguilar – SS J. Lopez – P Tobitt

Aided by the rainout, we were now last in runs scored in the Continental League AND had to face Tobitt. Ugh!

And maybe Jose Paraz felt alone in the lineup with David Lopez departed and Ron Alston on the DL, but he didn’t show it all that much, doubling in Paco Javier in the bottom 1st to give his team a lead. The Coons got a double from Yoshi Yamada in the top of the third, and a wild pitch advanced Yamada to third base, and then Tobitt overpowered Watanabe and Flores. He struck them out in huge numbers anyway, including five in a row, Bowen through Mays, the second time through the order, and when Sharp somehow reached with two outs in the sixth, Bowen struck out again to leave Tobitt at 11. Watanabe pitched to the best of his abilities – fruitlessly. Curtis Tobitt collected a full dozen in the game over eight innings, but even with another run (Paraz singling home Javier, again, off Bryan in the eighth) he was not brought back out for the ninth. We faced Leonardo Sosa again, who had suffocated us with a pillow two days ago already. It almost came back to bite the Indians to remove their ace – but “almost” rarely cuts it. Quebell doubled batting for Sato, and then Sharp hit a double that just eluded Jose Lugo in right, but Bowen grounded out to end the game. 2-1 Indians. Quebell (PH) 1-1, 2B; Sharp 2-4, 2B, RBI; Watanabe 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, L (1-1);

Game 3
POR: SS Flores – 2B Nomura – RF Black – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – CF Trevino – C Wood – P Brown
IND: CF P. Javier – RF B. Miller – 1B S. Stevens – 3B Fugosi – 2B J. Miller – LF A. Solís – C J. Rivera – SS J. Lopez – P King

Bob King (0-1, 4.66 ERA) moved into this game. Meanwhile the question was whether Nick Brown could chip in three hits and two stolen bases to get the offense going.

While that was the question before the game, the question after the start of the game quickly became whether Nick Brown would bat at all. After King sat down the Coons in order in the top of the first, Brown just crapped out right away. He drilled Bill Miller, then issued four walks, and surrendered a single to Jose Lopez that amounted to four runs and a sure loss. On the way to his untimely departure after four innings, Angel Solís and Jesus Rivera hit back-to-back home runs off Brown, whose start to 2007 started to move from “bumpy” to “is he okay?”. The Raccoons trailed 6-1 when Kaz entered the fray, although it felt like a few lightyears. Kaz pitched two scoreless, and Black plated two with a homer, but it was one of those series-ending games that you never had the feeling that the Raccoons would end up in any other way than wet and mopped up in a bucket – which turned out to be true. Rain started in the eighth, quickly got heavy, and the game was eventually called early. 6-3 Indians. Black 3-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Trevino 2-3, 2B, RBI; Kichida 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

And that’s our season. Was fun for sure.

Raccoons (8-7) vs. Knights (8-7) – April 20-22, 2007

The Raccoons had been rolled up by the Indians, the Knights had been rolled up by the Condors. Both had dropped out of the lead in the divisions. While the Coons were completely inept to score any runs, the Knights led the CL in offense. We were still 3rd in runs allowed (they were 9th), but was it helping us any? Nah.

Projected matchups:
Kelvin Yates (2-0, 2.22 ERA) vs. Ralph Ford (2-0, 5.03 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (0-2, 6.62 ERA) vs. Jong-suk Lee (1-1, 2.28 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (2-1, 2.45 ERA) vs. Dylan Jones (1-1, 9.39 ERA)

On this team, Ford would be 0-3 with this ERA. Same for the other southpaw to be served to us, Dylan Jones.

We dumped Yoshi Yamada to St. Pete and added Manuel Gutierrez to the roster, but that’s certainly not a notable improvement.

Game 1
ATL: CF J. Gusmán – 1B Urban – RF J. Morales – 3B J. Garcia – C De La Parra – SS Kester – 2B C. Martinez – LF J. Gonzalez – P Ford
POR: SS Flores – 2B Sato – LF Castro – RF Black – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – CF Crespo – P Yates

The Knights jumped out quickly on a 2-run homer by Jose Morales, hit in the first inning off Yates, who lined up neatly with yesterday’s starters in generally missing generously every which way and plunking a man. The difference was that he left in a tied game, holding the Knights down and striking out seven over the next six innings. Watching the Raccoons’ offense was a bit like walking on glue, but eventually Luke Black drove in the tying run in the bottom 6th. The Critters did little in the bottom 7th before Bryan and Bruno with a lot of pitches just so squelched themselves through the top 8th. The bottom 8th was led off by Vic Flores with a howling double to center. Sato grounded out, moving Vic to third, and the Knights stayed with Ford with the left-hander Tomas Castro, batting .196, appearing. Castro blooped a single over the head of Garcia into left, and the go-ahead run came home. Angel Casas followed a pattern in getting two outs rather quickly, then had something ugly happen. Doug Plummer doubled to right, but that was as far as the Knights would get in this one, with Gusmán making the final out. 3-2 Coons. Black 2-4, 2B, RBI; Yates 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K;

Game 2
ATL: CF J. Gusmán – SS Kester – RF J. Morales – 3B J. Garcia – 2B C. Martinez – C J. Clark – 1B J. Gutierrez – LF J. Gonzalez – P J.S. Lee
POR: SS Flores – 2B Nomura – RF Black – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – LF Mays – C Bowen – CF Trevino – P Dominguez

One inning after Bobo Wood gave the Raccoons a 1-0 lead with a solo homer in the bottom 2nd, Jose Dominguez routinely fell apart and was whacked for three runs in the third, including a 2-piece by Morales. He was just not getting anybody out without major help from somebody in the field. The Critters scratched out a run in the bottom 4th, Dominguez immediately gave it back to Morales. Jong-suk Lee had his own problems, loading the bases with Furballs in the bottom of the sixth, then facing Bowen with nobody out. Bowen had a big stick, but sent a meekly grounder back to short. Fortunately it was so wimpily hit that Jaime Kester only got the out at first, and the Coons got back to 4-3 as Sharp scored from third. Trevino was bypassed intentionally, but the Knights should have seen it coming that Dominguez wasn’t going to be allowed in the same zip code as a bases loaded situation after THAT start. Crespo was tabbed, popped out shabbily, and Flores grounded out in pathetic fashion. The Knights developed a chance in the top 7th on Lee singling off Rockburn and an error by Nomura, didn’t score, and then the Coons got Nomura on and Black reached on an error. Sharp failed, Quebell failed, but the runners were in scoring position for Mays, who got drilled by Lee, and then Bowen singled up the middle just ever so barely to score two runners and flip the score in the Coons’ favor. Trevino singled to left, Mays was sent around third, but was thrown out by a good chunk by fellow leftfielder Jorge Gonzalez. Marcos Bruno survived a double in the eighth, and Tomas Castro hit a pinch-hit single in the bottom of the inning, but was caught stealing, getting Angel into another 1-run game, starting out against #8 hitter Gonzalez, whom he struck out, before the Knights sent Doug Plummer again, who unleashed a HUGE fly to deep left field, and Bob Mays did get to it and caught it! Gusmán grounded out. 5-4 Furballs. Nomura 2-4, BB; Mays 1-1, BB, HR, 2 RBI;

Dominguez…….. can’t we just … I don’t know. We need to collect the insurance on whatever we do, though.

Game 3
ATL: CF J. Gusmán – C De La Parra – RF J. Morales – 3B J. Garcia – SS C. Martinez – 1B Urban – 2B Fish – LF J. Gonzalez – P D. Jones
POR: SS Flores – 2B Nomura – RF Black – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – RF Mays – CF Crespo – P Fuentes

No score, two outs in the top 3rd, and nobody on, the Knights casually stuck Fuentes, who struck out four and walked only one the first time through the order, into a bag and then hung that bag with 20ft rope from a 15ft bridge. Gusmán doubled, De La Parra singled, Morales walked, Garcia doubled (and Bobo Mays tweaked his ankle on a clumsy play), and Martinez singled to plate four runs without the least little bit of resistance offered by anybody clad in brown. Somewhere in this unhappy game the Raccoons managed an unearned run, but once Morales came back up and got something other than junk aimed to break his feet, he drilled a no-outs, 2-run triple off the centerfield wall, breaking up Fuentes for good.

Even more sad than Fuentes’ performance was the fact that the other team was as bad as ours, and nobody in the park probably could in fact play this game. The Knights entered the bottom 5th up 6-1, but they left it tied, as Dylan Jones got roughed up phenomenally. J.C. Crespo hit a 1-out solo homer. Manuel Gutierrez’ first AB as a Raccoon was unsuccessful, but Flores and Nomura hit singles to get on base with two outs. Luke Black flashed that thunderstick with a 3-run homer, and it still wasn’t over as Sharp doubled and scored on Quebell’s single: 6-6. And for the first time in the series, Jose Morales and Jorge Garcia were retired back-to-back when Ed Bryan whiffed the former and got the latter to serve a grounder to Yoshi to end the seventh, the score still knotted. The Coons would leave Black and Sharp in scoring position in the bottom of the inning, though, so it was not all sugar around the house. We were actually going to run out of arms, while not even frantically trying to match. When Rockburn completed the eighth in scoreless fashion, we were down to Bruno and Casas (who had both been out two days in a row), and a rested Kaz. Tomas Castro, Mays’ injury replacement, doubled off the base of the wall in right, putting the Knights and their reliever Enrique Meneces under pressure. The switch-hitter Crespo was next, so no pitching change, and Crespo came through again with a double and that gave the Raccoons the lead!

And now Rockburn’s turn was up. There were no outs, and I wasn’t going to use Angel in the ninth anyway, trying to limit his three-days-in-a-row exposure early on with his history of figgly injuries in April (two years in a row). Rockburn was already in and the bench was down to Trevino and Wood, a weak lefty and a zero-batting righty. Rockburn grounded to short, Carlos Martinez threw the ball away, Crespo scored, and it was 8-6, and I looked like a ****ing genius. Law scored on Yoshi’s double, and then Black was walked intentionally, while Sharp was walked unintentionally, which got a new pitcher in (Tom Watkins), but why are they bringing the right-hander now for Quebell? A single kept the line moving, and Bowen walked in another run before the inning fizzled out, but the Raccoons had put up their second 5-spot of the night. And great news: we don’t have to bother Bruno and Casas! Perhaps. Nah, the Knights went down in order. 11-6 Furballs! Flores 2-5; Nomura 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Black 2-4, BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Quebell 3-5, 2 RBI; Crespo 2-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Rockburn 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (2-1);

Mays tweaked his ankle very mildly. He claims not to feel it at all. Strange. When he hit the restroom in the cafeteria after the game, I could swear I heard somebody howling in there.

In other news

April 18 – DAL INF/RF/CF Ramón Garza (.244, 0 HR, 6 RBI) drives in the winning run in the Stars’ 2-1 win over the Wolves, a sixth inning RBI single off Max Shepherd, to notch his 2,000th career hit. It’s also his 777th RBI and he has 50 home runs for his 16-year career.
April 19 – DAL SP Rafael De Jesus (1-0, 2.13 ERA) is out for the next 12 months, heading for Tommy John surgery with a torn UCL.
April 19 – TOP 1B/2B Georg Spinu (.233, 0 HR, 3 RBI) is out for a week with a thumb contusion.
April 21 – A strained back muscle will keep RIC OF/1B Gerardo Rios (.262, 1 HR, 10 RBI) off the field for about three weeks.

Complaints and stuff

I admit, I cried during the Sunday game, but the turnaround makes it a sweet 2,400th franchise win. And it was completely unexpected. They almost doubled their offensive output for the entire week!

Prospect watch!
Brandon Teasdale … Ask again later
Cássio Boda … Don’t ask again later
Ricardo Martinez … Half his hits are homers, but 85% of his AB’s are…
Ryan Miller … Oh my gosh…
Hector Santos … Who?
Jimmy Eichelkraut … Aah: .293/.383/.463 in 12 A games – progress!
Kevin Rex … WHO?? But: .323/.442/.419 in 12 AA games – seriously, WHO??

Stats time: Career Hits Leaders (ABL; *active)
1st – Dale Wales – 3,673
2nd – Jeffery Brown – 3,582 (HOF)
3rd – Cristo Ramirez – 3,499 *
4th – Paul Connolly – 3,023
5th – Vonne Calzado – 3,017 *
6th – Diego Rodriguez – 2,993
7th – Hjalmar Flygt – 2,914
8th – Dave Browne – 2,907
9th – Aaron Jenkins – 2,866 *
10th – Hector Atilano – 2,710 (HOF)
11th – Horace Henry – 2,707 (HOF)
12th – Raúl Vázquez – 2,651 *
13th – Forest Hartley – 2,598 *
14th – Claudio Rojas – 2,584 (HOF)
15th – Jim Stein – 2,576 *
16th – Edgardo Garza – 2,575
17th – Juan Barrón – 2,550 *
18th – Juan Valentin – 2,543
19th – David Brewer – 2,529 *
20th – Manuel Flores – 2,498