[Westheim]

Raccoons (22-14) vs. Loggers (14-23) – May 14-17, 2007

The Loggers had run up a -38 run differential in 37 games, ranking 9th in runs scored and 11th in runs allowed. Their rotation was not very good, but their bullpen was actually worse. Putting their troubles into as little words as possible, their ace, Martin Garcia, had an ERA over six. Bakile Hiwalani was batting .213. Their only purposeful player was Tim Austin (.353, 7 HR, 38 RBI).

Projected matchups:
Raúl Fuentes (4-1, 3.24 ERA) vs. Junior Diaz (2-2, 5.28 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (2-2, 2.57 ERA) vs. Roy Thomas (2-3, 4.74 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (0-3, 6.51 ERA) vs. Martin Garcia (3-3, 6.56 ERA)
Nick Brown (2-3, 3.62 ERA) vs. Armando Gomez (0-0)

Gomez was replacing Fernando Cruz (2-3, 4.38 ERA) who had just been put on the DL with a back strain. We will face two righties first, then two lefties.

Game 1
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – 3B Tolwith – CF T. Austin – RF Hiwalani – SS T. Johnson – LF Wheaton – 1B C. Parker – C T. Phillips – P J. Diaz
POR: SS Flores – LF Castro – 3B Sharp – RF Black – 1B Quebell – CF Trevino – 2B M. Gutierrez – C Wood – P Fuentes

The Loggers got a double from Bartolo Hernandez to start the game, then froze. The first run of the game scored as Bob Wood defeated his year-long 0-for-22 futility and hit an RBI double to drive home Gutierrez in the bottom 3rd. Our third-tier backup second baseman had been hit by a pitch. Wood would score an unearned run after an Aaron Tolwith error and we led 2-0 after three. The Loggers would get their revenge in the fifth when Dave Wheaton got hit by a pitch to start the inning and was brought around to score, the RBI going to Diaz for his 2-out single (grumbles). Apart from that, neither team did much, and when they did anything, they hit into two-for-ones a lot. The Loggers got a double from Austin (who had more RBI and more homers than the next two guys on the team combined) with two outs in the eighth. That was the signal for Fuentes to go away, especially with Hiwalani up. Marcos Bruno got that file slapped onto his desk and processed it for an inning-ending, first-pitch grounder to short. Angel had been out three of the last five games and the lower part of the Loggers’ order didn’t look like they were capable of holding knife and fork, let alone hurt Marcos. He remained in the game, and finished it on just eight more pitches. 2-1 Coons. Wood 1-2, BB, 2B, RBI; Fuentes 7.2 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (5-1) and 1-3; Bruno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (1);

We had only one more hit (Castro), so three in total. Whoah. How much longer will that go well? We really only won today because Tolwith bumbled a grounder from Fuentes. If Bobo Wood is the best offensive player on your team, you’re in trouble…

We have scored 133 runs. The only team with less are the Wolves. We trail everybody else by at least 16, and up to 83 runs.

Game 2
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – 3B Tolwith – CF T. Austin – RF Hiwalani – 1B Wheaton – SS T. Johnson – LF Dubois – C J. Reyes – P R. Thomas
POR: SS Flores – LF Castro – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – 2B Sato – CF Trevino – P Watanabe

Top 1st, Bobo Mays dropped Hernandez’ fly before Tolwith reached on an infield single to third base. Castro caught a drive by Austin on the warning track before Hiwalani hit into a double play. Inept teams at work.

And inept they were. Neither team fielded a starting pitcher on his way to the Hall of Fame, yet the lineups couldn’t make good contact even occasionally. Bottom 5th, still scoreless with the Coons on one soft single and three walks, but no runs (and neither had the Loggers scored). Tolwith couldn’t play a grounder from a Coons hurler for the second day in a row, allowing Watanabe on with a leadoff infield single. Desperate for ONE run, we had Vic Flores bunt Watanabe to second …! To no avail. Eventually, so much futility had to lead to losses. Watanabe allowed three singles in the top 7th that plated the first run of the game. Rockburn replaced him. Roy Thomas struck out trying to bunt, and Hernandez almost forced an error on Sharp with a soft grounder that he had to throw bare-handed. Quebell saved Sharp with a Gold Glover’s stretch, but we were down 1-0. In the bottom 8th, all seemed lost. Black hit for Bryan and lined out to third, at least a hard hit. Flores was retired effortlessly by Thomas. Then, uproar, for Tomas Castro singled up the middle, the Furballs’ third hit on the day. Daniel Sharp appeared in the box and hit another liner to left, but this one eluded Tolwith and bounced up the left field line. The speedy Castro scored on the double and we were tied again (and presumably bound to play 29 innings, with Slappy pitching).

The game got wicked by the ninth. Angel Casas appeared to pitch and put Tom Johnson on to start the inning, dropping Quebell’s throw to first after Adrian had made a strong defensive play on the grounder. Jean-Paul Dubois fired a ball to deep left, Castro caught it, and Johnson tagged and hustled to second – and Castro threw him out! Your standard 7-6 double play! Casas struck out Chris Parker to end the ninth and two more in the tenth before the Loggers brought their closer Gabe Garcia into the bottom 10th. Santiago Trevino led off with a single. We fancied our chances with a bunt better than with our bench of blighters, yet Angel couldn’t get a bunt down to save his bacon, and then Garcia nicked him in the (non-pitching) shoulder! Flores singled, and the bases were loaded – with no outs. And Castro – of course! – struck out. That brought up Sharp, who had saved the day in the eighth already, got ahead of Garcia, and was patient. He might have heard my screams from my office. “DON’T YOU DARE HIT INTO A DOUBLE PLAY!!!” Sharp didn’t hit at all, drew a walk, and the home crowd cheered. 2-1 Raccoons. Sharp 1-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Watanabe 6.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K and 1-2; Rockburn 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Casas 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (2-0);

They keep winning and we took the lead in the division with a Canadiens loss (3-2 in NYC), but my pills don’t work anymore. (shivers and spills a glass of water)

Game 3
MIL: 3B Tolwith – 2B M. Clark – CF T. Austin – RF Hiwalani – 1B Wheaton – SS T. Johnson – LF J. Garcia – C J. Reyes – P M. Garcia
POR: SS Flores – LF Castro – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – RF Black – 1B Quebell – CF Crespo – 2B Sato – P Dominguez

With two 6+ ERA pitchers taking the ball, surely there’d be some offense. For two innings it surely didn’t look like it, Dominguez giving up one hit and Garcia none, but starting with Dominguez in the bottom 3rd the Raccoons reeled off four straight singles and scored two runs. Martin Garcia left the game after the inning with an apparent injury. Despite the team now being up 2-0, Dominguez couldn’t be trusted, and after four clean innings showed why, issuing walks to two of the first three batters in the top 5th. Jaime Garcia plated a pair with a single eventually, and the game was tied again. Dominguez was charged with the go-ahead run in the top 6th, an inning that he saw concluded form the dugout after putting two men on yet again. Briefly a Coon, Dave Wheaton drove in the go-ahead run off Rockburn, before a bullpen explosion in the seventh put the game far out of reach. A single off Rockburn, two walks issued by Kirk, a Sharp error and another hit off Bruno plated four runs in total for the Loggers. Another run would fall out of Adam Riddle. The Raccoons didn’t do squid with the bats. 8-2 Loggers. Castro 2-3, BB;

At this point, we’ve been held to two runs or fewer in 50% of our games this month, and to five runs or fewer in all but one. Next, a struggling Brownie who could really goddamn use some support.

Game 4
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – 3B Tolwith – RF Hiwalani – LF Wheaton – SS T. Johnson – CF J. Garcia – 1B T. Powell – C T. Phillips – P A. Gomez
POR: 3B Flores – LF Castro – 1B Sharp – C Bowen – RF Black – CF Crespo – SS Sato – 2B M. Gutierrez – P Brown

Gomez’ season debut didn’t start pretty. Flores doubled, Castro walked, and Sharp singled between Tolwith and Johnson into left to load them up with nobody retired. Wheaton had Bowen’s fly coming for him, dropped it, 1-0, and Black and Crespo both hit RBI singles to left, 3-0 with no outs, but from there it was only one more run on Kunimatsu Sato’s sac fly. Gutierrez grounded out and Brown fouled out, but now was staked a flush of four runs and had to see towards making it last. And Brownie had problems delivering strike three… There was no shortage of 2-strike counts, but he just couldn’t erase batters once again. Luckily, the Loggers were the door mats of the division right now and couldn’t hurt him even in his weakened state. Brownie held on to a 5-0 lead for six and a third before leaving the game after a walk to Jaime Garcia (with Armando Gomez still in the game!). Kaz relieved him, got Phillips to fly out to right and struck out Parker to end the seventh inning, but the eighth became another sore spot on the lesser part of our bullpen – and our largely stainless defense. Kaz allowed a single to Tolwith. Riddle replaced him and got Hiwalani on a pop, but when Kirk entered the game he allowed a single to Wheaton. Tom Johnson singled to right, the Loggers sent Tolwith from second base and Black’s throw was outrageously off line from home plate and he was charged an error. No support was forthcoming anymore from the brown-clad players wielding sticks, but Ed Bryan managed to end the game without more bad things happening with a clean ninth. 5-1 Brownies. Flores 3-4, 2 2B; Sharp 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Brown 6.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, W (3-3);

The run was charged to Kaz, but was unearned. Well, we took three of four from a last place team despite batting like we’d be holding willow branches. Sometimes you just take it and don’t bitch too loudly. The baseball gods might hear you and fell two or four or nine of your pitchers. Not Dominguez, of course.

Raccoons (25-15) vs. Condors (17-23) – May 18-20, 2007

6th in runs scored, 10th in runs allowed, the Condors lacked starting pitching more than anything else. Their hurlers had run up a 5.25 ERA for the rotation, which wasn’t even bottoms in the CL, but it was too much for their middling offense to keep pace.

The Condors look quite lost with a .425 winning percentage, but are only four games out in the struggling South. Meanwhile the Raccoons enter the series leading the North by half a game over both the Indians and Canadiens. The Crusaders are two back.

Projected matchups:
Kelvin Yates (4-0, 2.58 ERA) vs. Curt Powell (2-4, 5.59 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (5-1, 2.92 ERA) vs. Ramón Escobedo (2-1, 4.02 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (2-2, 2.40 ERA) vs. Art Cox (1-1, 4.79 ERA)

Kel, what are you crying about now? – I know it’s your old team. – Well, then DON’T suck. – Yes, it is as simple as that.

Game 1
TIJ: SS Ybarra – RF Tanner – 2B J. Diaz – CF R. Perez – 3B B. Román – LF Crum – 1B Maldrum – C A. Ramirez – P C. Powell
POR: SS Flores – LF Castro – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – 2B Nomura – CF Trevino – P Yates

Kel didn’t suck; in fact, he was quite awesome, as the Condors mainly dropped like flies, but squeezed out a run in the second inning when Ramón Perez singled, stole second base, and scored on Johnny Crum’s single. The first time through the order, Curt Powell looked like he had that win bagged, but the Coons tied the score in the fourth, and plated two runs in the fifth. Castro drove in Trevino for the go-ahead run, then stole second and scored on Sharp’s single, 3-1. Through six, Kel had not allowed runners other than the two in the second, while striking out nine. Striking out to start the bottom 6th was Quebell. He was already steaming at a 2-1 ball called a strike, and when Powell got the same pitch again from the umpire, he slammed down his bat and gave the ump quite an earful, which had him promptly ejected. Sato entered the game, manning short, with Flores and Sharp sliding around. Top 7th, the Condors got their third runner, Perez with a double, and Perez was on third base with two outs and Crum up. Crum was a .333 lefty, and that was not quite a good matchup with Yates at 98 pitches and already having been burned once. But Maldrum looked appealing with a runner on third! Crum was put on intentionally, Blair Harris hit for Maldrum, but struck out anyway, with Kel ending the day on a high note and 11 whiffs. In the bottom of the inning the Critters had back-to-back scratch singles, but couldn’t convert that into a run or two. Mays led off the bottom 8th with a single off ex-Coon Kevin Jones, and it looked like he’d be starved as well until Duke Smack batted for Marcos Bruno and hit a 2-run homer to double our lead! Angel remained in the shed. Instead Ed Bryan struck out two in a clean ninth. 5-1 Furballs! Flores 2-5, 2B; Castro 2-5, RBI; Sharp 3-4, 2B, RBI; Mays 3-4, 2B, RBI; Black (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Yates 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 11 K, W (5-0);

At this point, Kel is second in ERA in the CL. First? “Winless” Watanabe!!

Game 2
TIJ: CF R. Perez – 3B Quintero – 2B J. Diaz – C A. Ramirez – 1B Maldrum – RF Crum – LF Greenman – SS Ybarra – P Escobedo
POR: SS Flores – CF Trevino – 3B Sharp – RF Black – 1B Quebell – LF Crespo – 2B Nomura – C Wood – P Fuentes

While the Raccoons’ lineup contained way too many .200 batters, the Condors took a 2-0 lead in the third inning on a 2-run double by Juan Diaz. The anemic Raccoons got their chance in the bottom 4th when they loaded the bases on a three singles, but that brought up Bob Wood with one out, and he embarrassingly popped out foul. Fuentes was fireballed away by Escobedo and we kept trailing 2-0. After five innings Escobedo had already eight striped tails on his belt, and wasn’t looking like slowing down any, but then did allow a single to Quebell to start the bottom 6th. A wild pitch moved Quebell up before Crespo walked anyway. Nomura singled to left: bases loaded, no outs, down 2-0, and here comes Wood. Bowen had the day off. Hnnggh. Hnnghh! No, Wood had to bat. You better hit that one good, Bobo.

He didn’t, grounding to short, where the ball became stuck in Ybarra’s glove for a run-scoring error. That gave Wood an RBI, but no pass in my book. Fuentes was next, but was hit for by Castro. When not here, where then? 2-0 pitch, lined softly into shallow center, no chance for anybody, and Crespo scored, and Nomura was waved around and scored, and that was a 3-2 lead! It was also all we got, with Escobedo striking out Flores and Sharp on the way out of the frame. All the effort was rendered moot soon enough when Colby Kirk was taken deep by Ramón Perez to start the eighth.

Well, that’s what you get for sending out a dork instead of Bruno… Bruno came after the game-tying shot, retired the Condors in order, and was in line for the win once Kevin Jones allowed a 2-out RBI single to Trevino in the bottom 8th. Angel was not kept in the shed this time, which ironically led to the most nerve-wracking top 9th in a few days. Blair Harris started the ninth with a pinch-hit double before Crum drilled a ball to deep center – and Trevino got to it! Nevertheless, the tying run was on third. Casas got some mental assistance from the pitching coach sharing a wisdom or two about toughening up. Rowan Tanner came up and was sat down with a K. Now Jesus Alvarez pinch-hit, sending a grounder to the right side. Quebell intercepts it, Casas hustling over, Alvarez racing up the line – BANG! BANG! OUT!! 4-3 Critters. Trevino 2-5, RBI; Black 2-3, BB, 2B; Nomura 2-4; Castro (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Sato 1-1; Fuentes 6.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K;

That’s the fourth win for Marcos Bruno this season, which means he has won more than Brownie.

Game 3
TIJ: SS Ybarra – 1B Maldrum – CF R. Perez – 3B B. Román – LF Crum – RF J. Alvarez – 2B Brantley – C B. Harris – P Cox
POR: SS Flores – CF Castro – 3B Sharp – LF Black – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – RF Mays – 2B Nomura – P Watanabe

The Critters burst out of the box in this game, running over Art Cox for four runs in the first inning. Castro got on before Sharp hit his second homer of the year, and then Quebell, Bowen, and Mays all had 2-out hits to score two more counters for Watanabe, who was put into a bad spot in the third with a throwing error by Bowen moving a runner all the way to third base, but the Condors couldn’t score then and only hurt him by a stroke of luck in the fifth inning, when Blair Harris hit a triple over the first base bag that threw up chalk on its first bounce. Cox lined out to Flores for the second out and Watanabe got Ybarra to pop out to keep the damage at one run, 4-1. Watanabe pitched two more innings, allowing an inconsequential double to Harris in the seventh (but Harris now only lacked the long ball for the cycle).

Yet, we found trouble nevertheless. Kaz replaced Watanabe in the eighth, got one out only but walked two. That brought in Bryan with Perez, Román, and Crum up, all left-handers. In a tense at-bat, in which Ramón Perez tried very hard to get his team even, Bryan registered a strikeout before getting Bartolo Román to fly out to Black in left. The Coons got Quebell on in the bottom 8th, but a drive to right by Bowen was caught by Alvarez and we didn’t tack on. Top 9th, we actually started with Bryan against Crum, who drew a walk. Ah, yeah. Me and my ****ty ideas. Angel came in now, with the tying run in the on-deck circle and no outs, but moved it back to the dugout when Jesus Alvarez chipped a 2-2 pitch into play – but right to Yoshi, who easily turned a 4-6-3. Brantley struck out. 4-1 Critters!! Castro 2-4; Quebell 3-4; Mays 2-4, RBI; Watanabe 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, W (3-2);

In other news

May 15 – TOP RF/LF Ricco Ghiberti (.196, 2 HR, 8 RBI) might miss the rest of the season with a torn back muscle. Will the Buffs be able to replace his .606 OPS?
May 17 – Topeka’s CL Arthur Joplin (1-1, 0.78 ERA, 15 SV) holds down the Capitals in a 5-2 win, earning his 300th career save.
May 17 – Nursing a sore elbow, WAS SP Randy Farley (0-2, 3.89 ERA) will miss the rest of the month.
May 19 – NYC CL Iemitsu Rin (1-0, 1.10 ERA, 10 SV) has been diagnosed with shoulder inflammation and could be out for the entire remaining season.
May 19 – The Stars’ young horse SP Jose Flores (5-1, 3.16 ERA) might miss up to two months with a sprained ankle.
May 20 – CYCLE: IND OF Angel Solís (.299, 2 HR, 13 RBI) hurts the Aces every which way in a 17-5 drubbing, finding enough time to draw two walks in addition to a 4-for-4 natural cycle! The 40th cycle in ABL history is the second for the Indians, coming three years after Jose Paraz’ against the Thunder. It is also the fourth natural cycle, but the first such in 29 years! It hadn’t been even one month since the last cycle, which had been hit for on April 25 by Portland’s Victor Flores.

Complaints and stuff

This is a team of remarkable pluckiness, but I don’t know whether their stupid luck is reproducible over three more quarters of a season. Sooner or later everybody in the rotation will have a few Dominguez-esque starts and then I would like to know that we can reliably score more than three runs per game…

Dominguez is on the edge of extermination. I’m currently looking at Cássio Boda, who has had a few strong starts now and is 5-1 with a 3.32 ERA in AAA. Lots of walks, though. By the way, Boda’s an 11th rounder…

Just exactly how wicked has everything been? With his most recent outing, Kenichi Watanabe leads ALL OF THE ABL in earned run average.

That can’t be right. The universe will soon readjust itself…