[Westheim]

Originally Posted by craftdr

My Redbone coonhound Little Ann, disagrees... Her raccoon appreciation days don't start here in Michigan for a few more weeks!

Well, thankfully there's no team in Michigan we'd need to visit, or else I'd have to watch her chase Marcos Bruno up a tree...

Raccoons (11-7) vs. Thunder (10-9) – April 23-25, 2007

One game over .500 was good enough to lead the CL South early on, with the Thunder even having a negative run differential of -2. They weren’t hitting an awful lot, batting .231 as a team with 70 runs scored, which had him in the bottom 3 of the league (and after the 11-6 drubbing of the Knights on Sunday, the Coons were actually up to 9th!). They had the best rotation in the early going, though, something that couldn’t be said about your favorite Critters.

Projected matchups:
Kenichi Watanabe (1-1, 1.50 ERA) vs. Luis Martinez (2-1, 1.71 ERA)
Nick Brown (1-1, 6.14 ERA) vs. Aaron Anderson (1-1, 3.95 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (2-0, 2.30 ERA) vs. Pancho Trevino (1-1, 3.12 ERA)

Luis Martinez is a left-hander, the only one we get in this series (but Boston is up on the weekend, and they have two that like to skin Raccoons), and here’s another thing about the Thunder’s offensive struggles: their star leadoff hitter Victorino Sanchez is batting .229 coming in. Without a doubt something will happen there…

Game 1
OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 1B T. Cardenas – RF Takizawa – CF McCormick – 3B Reese – SS Heathershaw – 2B Nixon – C L. Paredes – P L. Martinez
POR: SS Flores – 2B Nomura – LF Castro – RF Black – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – CF Crespo – P Watanabe

While Watanabe struggled with his control, the Raccoons quickly took a piece out of Martinez, loading the bases with one out in the bottom 1st and then scored on a Sharp groundout and a Bowen single to take a 2-0 lead. They left runners in scoring position the next inning, but so did the Thunder. Things still went well for Watanabe until Vic Flores made an error in the fourth inning, putting on Max Nixon, and Martinez (of all people) singled him in with two outs. The Thunder then hit a flurry of singles in the fifth to tie the score.

By now, our constant companion in Portland in April had set in: rain. Luke Black reached base to start the bottom 6th because Bradley Heathershaw might have a winner’s name, but he slipped on a play and his throw to first pulled Tomas Cardenas well off the bag. Instead of grasping the opportunity, score an unearned run and hope for monsoon, the Raccoons hit three balls that were very high but not far at all. Colby Kirk pitched the top 7th, then followed J.C. Crespo to the plate. Crespo had doubled, and Kirk was supposed to bunt him to third, but failed really hard. He finally grounded out, and Crespo actually ended up at third base, from where he scored on Flores’ double to center! And then – monsoon! Monsoon kicked in! … but didn’t last long. An hour later, play resumed with Kunimatsu Sato having been inserted as pinch hitter for Yoshi just before the tarp came on. Sato popped out, Bob Wood struck out in place of Castro against a left-handed reliever in Jason Long, and the score remained 3-2.

Well, Kirk had been in there to retire Tom Reese, another lefty at the top of the road team’s half of the eighth, but by the time that inning went live he had already hit the cocktail bar. Marcos Bruno pitched a quick eighth instead. The Raccoons let a Craig Bowen double get away unused in the bottom of the inning, and the ninth opened with Angel Casas conceding a drive to right to Roberto Vargas – but Luke Black snagged it. Casas closed it with K’s to left-handers Alonso Baca and Victorino Sanchez (.219). 3-2 Critters! Flores 3-4, 2B, RBI; Bowen 2-4, 2B, RBI; Crespo 2-3, 2B;

That’s Colby Kirk’s first win for the Raccoons (in strange circumstances, too). We’re now 12-7, and half the wins are owned by relievers.

Game 2
OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 1B R. Vargas – SS Nixon – CF Gonzales – 2B Heathershaw – RF Rangel – C L. Paredes – 3B Reese – P A. Anderson
POR: 2B Nomura – LF Crespo – RF Black – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – CF S. Trevino – SS M. Gutierrez – C Wood – P Brown

Brown started the game with one walk, two walks. After his last insta-collapse, the pitching coach was slingshotted out to the mound immediately. Brown then got into a full count against Nixon, but struck him out, also struck out Gonzales, and Heathershaw grounded out. He had dodged that bullet, but he was still well out of whack. While he was not scored upon through four innings, he needed 73 pitches to get through, and walked four. In the fifth Brownie drilled Nixon, then walked Gonzales. The Thunder still didn’t score, while the Raccoons had hit into double plays in both of the first two innings, then had ceased to reach base altogether until Brown chipped a 2-out single in the sixth. Yoshi promptly flew out softly. To start the top 7th, Brown walked Anderson(!) to make half a dozen full, and then Victorino Sanchez powered a shot out of center to end his night in disgrace.

After Crespo reached on an error in the bottom 7th, Luke Black sent a drive to right that fell short of the wall and into Alberto Rangel’s glove. The bottom 8th started with Quebell singling through Roberto Vargas at first, and then Trevino singled up the middle. Anderson was still in the game, facing a few batters hitting zero and easily made them account for three outs on a Gutierrez double play and Bobo Wood simply did what he did best and whiffed his way back to the bench. Facing closer Sancho Rivera in the ninth, Vic Flores hit for Kaz Kichida and singled. Castro hit for Yoshi and was shaken up by a pitch to his hip. Bob Mays hit for Crespo, struck out, and Black grounded out, moving the runners into scoring position for Sharp. And Sharp popped out. 2-0 Thunder. Quebell 2-3; Flores (PH) 1-1; Kichida 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K;

Wild thought, but could we put Kaz into the rotation in place of Brown? Bob Wood is wearing me out, too…

Game 3
OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 1B T. Cardenas – RF Takizawa – CF McCormick – 2B Michel – SS Heathershaw – 3B Nixon – C L. Paredes – P P. Trevino
POR: SS Flores – 3B Sharp – RF Black – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – LF Mays – 2B Nomura – CF S. Trevino – P Yates

Home runs by Haruyoshi Takizawa and Vic Flores made it 2-1 Thunder in the first inning, and Yates didn’t strike out anybody until Takizawa was up again, to end the third. Flores tripled his second time up, but wasn’t scored when Sharp whiffed and Black popped out foul. The Coons tied the game shortly in the bottom 4th, Bowen being driven in by Yoshi, but Yates was double-bombed by Cardenas and McCormick in the top of the sixth and that put the Raccoons in a nasty 5-2 hole against a pitcher that had them quite well under control. But Trevino was tiring in a laborious bottom 6th and when the Coons got Tomas Castro and Vic Flores on base with singles in the bottom 7th, the Thunder went to Jason Long, who had already sabotaged their chances on Monday. Promptly, Luke Black managed a 2-run double and scored on Quebell’s single to right and the score was tied again, at five. Soon enough it became untied. Ed Bryan appeared for the eighth, but the Thunder hit Vargas for Takizawa and Vargas hit another bomb, 6-5. Bottom 9th, Rivera pitching with the slim lead, Crespo struck out which brought up Vic Flores and got the park onto the feet, clapping the hands frantically. We’d take a double, thanks. But Flores struck out, much to the dismay of the attendance, and then Sharp, 0-for-4, lifted a ****ty fly to left that Alonso Baca nevertheless dropped. Sharp reached second base, giving Luke Black another chance, hitting .224 and against a right-hander and all that notwithstanding. 0-1 pitch, grounder to Samy Michel at second, BUT IT GETS PAST HIM!! The ball goes into center, and Sharp goes around third, and we have a tied ballgame!!

To make it all that much worse, the former Raccoon Samy Michel then hit into a double play in the top of the tenth, letting Colby Kirk off the hook. Kirk had just allowed Jorge Gonzales to reach on his own error. That ended the inning, but another one followed quickly. Santiago Trevino reached on a walk to get the bottom 11th going, drawing it off right-hander Bartolo Gomez. Behind him was Kunimatsu Sato, who had entered in a double switch with Angel Casas before the 11th. Sato now bunted Trevino to second base, bringing up Flores, and more clapping. We’d take that double again. The count ran full. Flores fouled another one off, a liner that was foul by a good few feet on the left side. Next pitch, same location, another liner was hit – over Tom Reese at third, and up the line it goes! Into the corner!! That’s it!! That’s it!!

VIC FLORES HAS HIT FOR THE CYCLE --- AND WALKED OFF THE COONS!!!

7-6 Victors!!! Flores 4-6, HR, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI, Black 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Quebell 2-5, 2B, RBI; Bowen 2-4, BB; Castro (PH) 1-1; Rockburn 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

Hurrah!! There have now been 39 cycles in ABL history, with the last two of those coming last August (Stanton Martin vs. the Critters, anyone?). The other three of the last four cycles have all been against Oklahoma, who haven’t had one since 1990. The Coons’ last cycle came of course in 1989, Mark Dawson, and it was their only one.

Raccoons (13-8) @ Titans (11-10) – April 27-29, 2007

There are no winning teams in the South, but the Titans are fifth in our division. Huh?

We are 2-1 against them. Their offense was the second-most potent in the Continental League, with 106 runs scored, but their pitchers were giving up almost as much, with 96 runs allowed. Both halves of their staff ranked 8th in ERA.

Projected matchups:
Jose Dominguez (0-2, 6.46 ERA) vs. Bryce Hildred (2-1, 2.89 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (2-1, 4.37 ERA) vs. Jeremy Peterson (1-3, 4.55 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (1-1, 1.59 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (2-2, 6.75 ERA)

We miss O’Halloran, but him and Chapa, who were once a killing 1-2 southpaw punch, have the worst ERA’s on the staff, excluding mop up reliever Ray Conner (8.79 ERA).

Game 1
POR: SS Flores – 3B Sharp – RF Black – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – LF Castro – 2B Nomura – CF Trevino – P Dominguez
BOS: CF Garrison – SS Hutchinson – 1B A. Munoz – C Suda – RF G. Munoz – 2B B. Boyle – LF Cavazos – 3B M. Austin – P Hildred

Sorting players by age ascending, the sixth-youngest (Hutchinson) was the first Titan of all 18 guys penciled into their teams’ lineups, and the only one in the youngest eight.

In an excruciating game, Dominguez walked two in the bottom 1st before Luke Black bailed him out with a great catch on Gonzalo Munoz’ drive to right. Quebell led off the top 2nd with a double, was thrown out at third, and then Castro reached and was picked off first, and then we still got Yoshi on with a HBP, but … no, it was not to be. “Quasimodo” Suda tripled in the go-ahead run for the Titans in the bottom 3rd instead. Dominguez tumbled from mess to mess, like in the bottom 4th, which started with Bruce Boyle walking, the fourth walk drawn by Titans on the day. Ramiro Cavazos reached on an error by Nomura, and Mark Austin’s single loaded the bases with nobody out. Hildred grounded to the mound, where Dominguez made the play to home, forcing out Boyle. In a wonderful stroke of luck, Rudy Garrison popped out and Hutchinson was retired on a caught foul tip. Now can we score please? Flores led off the sixth with a double, but that was of course not enough to get a run across. Bottom 6th. Cavazos walked, Austin walked, Hildred singled past a lunging Nomura – bases loaded, nobody out. Dominguez remained in for now, retiring Garrison on a foul pop, Hutchinson on a pop to Quebell, and Anastasio Munoz on a groundout.

NOW CAN WE GET A ****ING RUN, PLEASE?? Well, Hildred still had his old team in his mental death grip, and they just weren’t getting on base. And when they had two on in the eighth, with two out, and Luke Black fired a 3-1 pitch to deep center, sure as hell Rudy Garrison caught it. Bottom 8th, Riddle put two on, and Bruno stalled them. Still down my one ****ty run into the top 9th, we faced another ex-Coon in Manuel Martinez. They’re everywhere, huh!? Craig Bowen livened up an 0-3, 3 K day with a leadoff walk. Kunimatsu Sato ran for him, but while he stole second base, there was never much more chance to advance. Quebell struck out, Castro struck out, and Nomura sailed out to Gonzalo Munoz eventually, in a really, really ****ty game. 1-0 Titans.

Game 2
POR: SS Flores – 2B Nomura – RF Black – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Castro – CF Crespo – P Fuentes
BOS: LF Bayle – CF Garrison – 1B A. Munoz – C Suda – SS Hutchinson – RF G. Munoz – 2B B. Boyle – 3B Watts – P Peterson

Fuentes’ good start to the season had been wiped away for good once the Titans romped him for three runs in the first inning. He basically threw batting practice, but doubled home Castro in the top 2nd to at least get one run back onto the board. The Critters had left the bases loaded in the first inning, then got that run, then ceased to be for a few innings against the winner of the $13M lottery. Activity resumed in the top of the fifth, when Flores hit a 1-out double and scored on Nomura’s single. Black forced out Nomura, but stole second and came home – narrowly – on a Bowen single to tie the score, but somehow the Raccoons kept finding ways to completely lose all composure in the most stupid ways. Suda led off the bottom 6th with a blooper that fell into shallow right center before Sharp made his second error on the day on a Gonzalo Munoz grounder. Boyle grounded to Nomura, who couldn’t make a play, either, and generously was not assigned an error or the death penalty. Bases loaded, one out, no confidence in anybody, but hey, why not overwork Marcos Bruno? Bruno came in to face Thomas Watts, who hit a grounder to Flores, and they quickly turned two to exit the frame.

Maybe we could get some help from the $13M twat? Peterson allowed a leadoff single to Flores in the seventh, and Vic was in motion when Nomura hit a ball to center – that Garrison caught! Flores made a hasty U-turn at second base and rocketed back to first, where he arrived JUST ahead of the ball. Black then singled to center, moving Flores to third base after all, and then Peterson was called out for a balk on a shoulder twitch to plate Flores for the go-ahead run! After Bowen got on, but Quebell hit into a double play, Bruno did the seventh. Rockburn replaced him for the eighth, in which he sat down the 3-4-5 guys without much fuss. No add-on run materialized for Risto Mäkelä striking out five of the six batters he faced over two innings, and Angel had to make do without a safety net. He retired Gonzalo Munoz on the first pitch, but Bruce Boyle doubled through Sharp (at first for defense) into right field, and then PH Mark Austin unleashed a terrible drive to deep right center! Uh that’s – here comes Black … - AND BLACK LEAPS AND HAS IT!!!

Okay now. Reset mentally. Here comes another pinch-hitter. Another ex-Coon! Freddy Rosa with Boyle at third base. C’mon Angel. Be a champion. Be a champion. That champion fell 2-1 behind before Rosa put the ball in play. Grounder to Yoshi, picked, throw, out – done! 4-3 Critters! Flores 2-5, 2B; Black 2-4; Bowen 2-3, BB, RBI; Bruno 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (3-0);

Casually, Marcos Bruno leads the team with three wins. Um, well. If it works, it ain’t broken.

Game 3
POR: SS Flores – LF Mays – RF Black – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – 2B Sato – CF Crespo – C Wood – P Watanabe
BOS: CF Garrison – SS Hutchinson – 1B A. Munoz – C Suda – 2B B. Boyle – LF Cavazos – RF Bayle – 3B M. Austin – P Chapa

While the Coons scored a run in the first, Sharp plating Flores with a 2-out single, the Titans immediately sat on top of poor Kenichi Watanabe. The first two guys hit singles in the bottom 1st, and then it was an amazing grab on Boyle by Mays that ended the inning without some major damage. Some good D all over the field didn’t let dicey situations arise for the next two innings until Watanabe made a gruesome throwing error that put Anastasio Munoz on second base with nobody out in the fourth inning. Suda flew deep to center, where Crespo made a strong play, to move Munoz to third, before Watanabe struck out Boyle and got another fantastic play by Luke Black, who snagged a soft line from Cavazos just above the grass in shallow right. Crespo would retire Suda in jaw-dropping fashion again in the sixth, and the score remained 1-0.

Boys, look at Chapa! He ain’t got nothing! Hit him with your sticks, c’mon now!! Well, turns out the Titans got as much D together for Chapa as the Coons did for Watanabe, who was done after seven shutout innings, still in a 1-0 game. Watanabe went, rain came. The Raccoons had Wood, Watanabe, and Flores cycle through the batter’s box in the top 8th with no discernible success. Bottom 8th, Ed Bryan came on. He got Austin before Rosa worked a walk hitting for Chapa. Bryan dramatically wiped his wet face a few times, with the rain pouring down. The subtle trick worked, the umpires huddled together, then called over the grounds crew master – the tarp came on!

And there we sat for 90 minutes, the rain not letting up the least little bit. After that sizeable delay, and with the Raccoons having to fly across a continent to play again on Monday, the game was eventually called. Got’em!! 1-0 Wet Furballs! Flores 2-4; Watanabe 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K, W (2-1);

Seven total hits in that game, but … do I really care? We won and got back at them for their ****ty 1-0 win on Friday, so “Huzzah!” to us!

In other news

April 23 – New York’s outfielder Roberto Pena (.269, 0 HR, 5 RBI) will have to sit out for two weeks with a sprained finger.
April 24 – NAS RF/LF Cristo Ramirez (.259, 0 HR, 6 RBI) has a big night although he only hits a double off Carlos Castro in a 5-2 win of the Blue Sox over the Scorpions. It is the 3,500th career hit for Cristo Ramirez, and only two other players have reached that number: Dale Wales and HOF Jeffery Brown. Ramirez has too many accolades to list but two Hitter of the Year awards (1993 and 1998), three batting titles (1993, 1998, and 2000) and nine All Star nominations say a thing or two about this 37-year old on a mission, who has been around since 1989, the first of 16 seasons in a Loggers uniform for him. In 1993, he led the Continental League in slugging despite hitting only five home runs – but made up for it with 15 triples, one of seven times he led the league in triples.
April 26 – CHA LF Forest Hartley (.333, 0 HR, 0 RBI in 6 AB) announces his retirement at the end of the year. Some say it’s time. Hartley is 43.
April 27 – MIL SS/2B Bartolo Hernandez (.263, 0 HR, 6 RBI) has his 2,000th career hit in a 6-2 win of the Loggers over the Canadiens. Hernandez goes 3-5 in the game, getting the key hit, a single, to start the game off Rod Taylor. Hernandez, 32, has spent his entire 13-year career with the Loggers, winning four Gold Gloves along the way.
April 29 – CHA LF/RF Jesus Flores (.280, 5 HR, 13 RBI) looks like he will miss about seven weeks after breaking his thumb.

Complaints and stuff

All hail Vic! All hail Vic! All hail Vic! He was player of the week, batting .565 (13-for-23) with 1 HR and 3 RBI.

In a perfect world, when Ryan Miller will be our shortstop next year, batting .320 with 18 homers, winning a Gold Glove, the Rookie AND Hitter of the Year Title, and hits the winning 3-run triple in the bottom 9th of game 7 of the World Series, Vic Flores would be our super-sub, scoring the winning run as pinch-runner for Matt Pruitt.

But we’ve got no money for any of that ****.

With money or without, that was a PRETTY INTENSE WEEK. If we could just score a little tad more… 15 runs over six games is kinda pathetic, and we are last in offense in the CL right now with measly 88 markers in 24 games: 3.66 R/G …

Checking the numbers, yes, our park still works as ever, just not for the team that plays the most games in it. Offenders in the home runs allowed category: Kaz, Law, and Angel each with one, Bryan with two, Dominguez three, Brownie SEVEN, and Yates EIGHT!! Kelvin Yates has never played a game for us without getting taken to the dark side, seven homers at home, one on the road. Brownie actually allowed five dingers on the road in just two starts, but he’s been out of his mind anyway, the whole month.

Stats time! Franchise saves by left-handed pitchers!
1st – Grant West – 522
2nd – Antonio Donis – 29
t-3rd – Ken Burnett – 9
t-3rd – Ben Green – 9
5th – David Jones – 8

There’s no real point in going farther, huh?

But here’s a little trivia question: which Raccoons pitcher has the lowest winning percentage (min. 50 GS)? He is not obscure, in fact he’s fairly prominent in our franchise history.