[Westheim]

Raccoons (75-41) vs. Blue Sox (66-52) – August 13-15, 2007

Trying to cling on to their little miracle that was getting cracks and of which a corner had been broken off recently, the Raccoons returned home to face the FL East-leading Blue Sox. Things were not going to get easier beyond that, with the first leg of a hideous travel nightmare and 14 games in 13 days due to begin in New York on the weekend.

But first the Blue Sox were on their platter, and they had had a rough time as well, losing seven straight in their division before sweeping the Falcons on the weekend. They were making the very most out of what they had, ranking only fourth in offense and sixth in defense while at the same time leading the division quite comfortably. The Raccoons had not won a series against them since 1998, and had since been swept three times.

Projected matchups:
Jose Dominguez (4-9, 5.13 ERA) vs. Varsik Deyrmenjian (10-7, 4.22 ERA)
Nick Brown (13-7, 2.52 ERA) vs. Javier Cruz (8-3, 3.38 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (15-1, 2.20 ERA) vs. Stanton Taylor (11-5, 3.66 ERA)

Three right-handers coming in, all of them more or less solid pitchers. Meanwhile Vic Flores was starting a rehab assignment in St. Pete and hopefully would meet the team in New York by Friday.

Game 1
NAS: LF C. Ramirez – 1B R. Vargas – 3B A. Esquivel – RF MacDonald – SS Townsley – C J. Esquivel – 2B G. Torres – CF A. Hernandez – P Deyrmenjian
POR: RF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – CF Trevino – SS Sato – P Dominguez

The key at-bat to the game came early once more, in the third inning, and it involved Varsik Deyrmenjian – who was called VD by everybody involved with or interested in the Blue Sox franchise for convenience’s sake – wielding a stick. Anastasio Hernandez had already reached with a leadoff single, and the Blue Sox were confident enough to have VD bat against Dominguez. He lifted a soft single into center, and from there Dominguez bled more contact for two runs to score in the inning. Dominguez walked the bases full to start the fourth inning, conceding another run on a sac fly. The Coons pulled a run back on Sharp’s RBI double cashing in Pruitt, who had a flying start from first on the left center gapper, before they lost Trevino on a defensive play with back pains. Doubtlessly, Trevino had cranked his back twisting his head back and forth on the run after all the screaming fly balls that jumped off the Blue Sox’ bats. Dominguez would end an entirely underwhelming start in the seventh inning by drilling the leadoff man – none less than VD, who had the Raccoons in his pocket when not ducking under errant fastballs that tried to take his head off, and allowed only four hits through six innings.

Pockets are a funny thing however, and sometimes develop holes. Yoshi led off the bottom 7th with a single, bringing up injury replacement J.C. Crespo, who had scarcely had a hit in the last month, but jacked a game-tying homer off VD here. The Raccoons failed to tag on more runs however due to another player of theirs having been claimed on their field of bleached bones when Law Rockburn had left the top 7th with pain after striking out a pair. Kaz had been inserted to log as many outs as possible, as our manpower reserves dwindled, had to bat in the bottom 7th, grounded out, then conceded a run in the top 8th on a Bob Townsley single and Jose Esquivel double. When Yoshi hit another leadoff single off closer Robert Parsons in the ninth, Jose Gutierrez was tabbed to run for him. We called a hit-and-run with Crespo at the plate, resulting in a single to right and the winning run reaching base, with the tying run at third. Sato walked, and that got the fans to their feet, because Duke Smack’s off day ended with a PH appearance for Ed Bryan, in a perfect world the final at-bat of the day. The crowd was only slightly tampered in its enthusiasm when the Duke fell to two strikes. He put the ball in play eventually, a grounder over the mound that Parsons had no chance to play, to Townsley on the short side of second base, and Townsley twitched and had no play at all! The Duke’s infield single tied the game, before Parsons went to a full count on Castro, who struck out. Quebell saw a full count, too, grounded to first, and just BARELY stayed out of the double play, but Crespo was dead at home. Pruitt became the third batter in a row to see a full count, but other than Castro didn’t hack at the sixth pitch of the at-bat and accepted a low fastball for a walkoff walk. 5-4 Coons. Nomura 2-4; Crespo 2-2, HR, 2 RBI; Black (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Cheez, what a meat grinder game. The ninth inning was close to a disaster, but they managed to stay out of extra innings, thank heavens. But we lost Trevino and Rockburn to injuries. Trevino had tweaked his back and was in significant pain. He could probably play, but it was not a good idea. Since our bench was short already, we could not carry around his dead weight for a week before he could play efficiently again, so he had to hit the disabled list immediately. The chronically disappointing Bob Mays was called up from AAA.

No word on Rockburn yet. The Crusaders, by the way, were idle today and we regained a half game lead. Yay.

Game 2
NAS: 2B Higashi – 1B R. Vargas – 3B A. Esquivel – RF MacDonald – SS Townsley – C Hogarth – LF J. Cruz – CF A. Hernandez – P J. Cruz
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – SS Sato – P Brown

Vargas and Esquivel reached base with hits in the first inning. After Pat MacDonald’s out Brownie looked good to get out of the inning until Bob Townsley ripped a 3-2 pitch into left to plate both runners. Hence the Raccoons resumed trailing, something they had done an awful lot the last week plus. Their best chance to score early was ruined by “Double Play” Quebell in the third inning. Brownie did not allow anything else in seven innings, but continued to trail, without the offense putting up anything in his support until Craig Bowen’s leadoff home run in the seventh inning cut the score to 2-1. The Blue Sox almost broke through in the ninth inning against Bennett when Quebell dropped a throw from Sharp for an error that put runners on the corners for one out, but Bennett got a pop and a grounder to short to end the inning. Thus a rematch of Monday’s bottom 9th was arranged for with Parsons appearing in a 1-run game, and again faced the bottom of the order. Bowen worked a walk to get going and Gutierrez got himself some shoes again to run for him. He stopped at second on Yoshi’s single, and remained on third after Kuni Sato’s single, but the Raccoons AGAIN had the bases loaded with no outs against the opposing closer, but no Duke to hit this time. When Bennett’s spot came up, the best remaining option was Sergio Esquivel (J.C. Crespo was under .100 as a pinch-hitter!). Another long AB ensued in which Esquivel came out on top and worked a game-tying walk! After Castro failed to send the team off with the winning run at third base and no outs for the second consecutive day, the third base coach held up a sign with a bat, an arrow on either side of it, and a guillotine beneath for Quebell. The first-sacker got the clue, was patient, and for the second time in two days, the Raccoons walked off on a walk! 3-2 Critters. Nomura 2-3, BB; Esquivel (PH) 0-0, BB, RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K;

Those are some scratchy wins!

Good news from the field hospital: Law Rockburn was diagnosed with a mild oblique strain and was day-to-day. It was probably not a great idea to use him the rest of the week, though. Rockburn was NOT put on the DL. We were still carrying an extra reliever, and maybe something would develop by Friday.

Game 3
NAS: LF C. Ramirez – 1B R. Vargas – 3B A. Esquivel – RF MacDonald – SS Townsley – 2B Higashi – C J. Esquivel – CF A. Hernandez – P S. Taylor
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – C S. Esquivel – SS Sato – P Yates

The field of bleached bones claimed another victim as Daniel Sharp left the contest early with a strained calf. Unfortunately that meant he came up lame halfway between third and home on what should have been a Sato sac fly to plate the first run of the game in the bottom 2nd, and instead was a rather embarrassing double play, also leading to some serious out-of-position play on our infield, with Yoshi shifting over to third base.

Kel ran up a high pitch count very quickly, as he was missing generously in this start. After Roberto Vargas hit a single first up in the fourth inning, the Blue Sox’ first hit of the day, Kel walked the bases full with two outs before erasing Jose Esquivel swinging to escape the jam. A new jam developed quickly with Hernandez striking a leadoff single to left in the fifth that ate up Matt Pruitt wholly and completely and gave Hernandez an extra base (and he could have been at third if he had hustled out of the box on Pruitt’s sloppy defense). After a bunt the veteran Cristo Ramirez (the ex-Logger that was merely leading all active players in hits) tried to have a productive at-bat, but his 37-year old hands just weren’t quick enough for some blazers inside and he struck out. Vargas lined out to short and there were still on runs in the game. The Blue Sox stranded two men in scoring position in the sixth, which was Kel’s last inning. Starting in short rest, he had never had it, and was relieved in line for his 16th win when Matt Pruitt hit a leadoff single, stole second, and scored on a Gutierrez single in the bottom 6th.

Riddle had a clean seventh before Crespo hit for him in the bottom 7th. A .094 pinch-hitter this year, J.C. crushed a Stanton Taylor pitch for a solo home run and a 2-0 lead for those Critters, with Bruno and Angel ready to have a go. Both had invisible ERA’s, Bruno had a lightning fast eighth inning, but Angel issued a 1-out walk to Jose Esquivel. Their catcher got erased on Hernandez’ grounder to Yoshi (the first ball hit to him at the hot corner), but Hernandez was safe at first, bringing up .206 switch-hitter Gabriel Torres to have an appearance in the #9 hole. No, there’s no use in building suspense. Torres was lucky enough to jab a pitch into play, but Gutierrez handled the hopper competently to get the last out. 2-0 Critters. Castro 2-4; Pruitt 2-3, BB; Gutierrez 2-3, RBI; Crespo (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Yates 6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 6 K, W (16-1);

I’m hesitating to call this a sweep. “Sweep” expresses something that happens with energy and determination. I’d call it a steal. Because they totally stole the first two games and were able to choke the Blue Sox in the third.

In bad news, Daniel Sharp would be quite hobbled with a calf strain for at least the weekend. *Luckily*, three games by Vic Flores in AAA had shown that he was competently swinging the bat, and that we could add him to the roster again. He joined us at the expense of Cody Bryant.

Now we have 13 position players on the roster again, but have two DTD players in Sharp and Rockburn. We will use Sharp only as pinch-hitter, if possible, in the Crusaders series, with Flores playing third base. We will try to stay away from Law completely.

Raccoons (78-41) @ Crusaders (78-43) – August 17-19, 2007

As a team the Crusaders scored the most runs in the CL, and allowed the second-fewest. Their run differential was a gasping +198 (Coons: +111).

Calling this series crucial might be an understatement. The Raccoons were so far 8-3 against New York this season, but it was almost like everything before didn’t count and we were starting at square zero. With the Crusaders losing the final game of their set against the Rebels on Thursday, we were at least assured a virtual share of first place on Sunday night as long as we did not get swept, but we would show them the ability-starved part of our rotation for this weekend showdown.

Projected matchups:
Cássio Boda (5-2, 3.46 ERA) vs. Angel Javier (15-4, 2.90 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (9-8, 4.31 ERA) vs. Greg Connor (11-3, 2.93 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (4-9, 5.10 ERA) vs. Jim Baker (11-6, 3.38 ERA)

I don’t like those pitching matchups, and not just because we won’t see a left-hander this week…

Game 1
POR: 3B Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – 2B J. Gutierrez – SS Sato – P Boda
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – SS Caraballo – 1B T. Mullins – 3B O. Rios – C D. Anderson – P A. Javier

The Coons struck first, Vic Flores lining a single into center in his first AB off the DL, then scoring on Pruitt’s double that beat Stanton Martin in right. Martin, who already had 102 RBI on the season, was not drawn a nose that easily, though. Up first in the second inning, he absolutely smoked a thundering home run off Boda to tie the score at one.

Then came the bottom 3rd and a twist. Julio Hernandez had reached base on a 1-out single. Martin Ortíz hit a ball hard to right, but more or less right to Luke Black for the second out before Stanton Martin was up again. Boda tried to pitch him in tight to avoid another roundhouse swing, but instead got Martin’s fingers*. In quite the pain, the young slugger had to leave the game, while the home crowd was unappreciative of the pitch, to describe the situation in a gentle manner. Ape Britton replaced Martin in the game, and the inning ended on a soft pop by Francisco Caraballo. Bottom 5th, Roberto Pena singled to start the inning, then stole second. Julio Hernandez grounded out to short, preventing Pena from going to third, and when he tried to force his way there during Ortíz’ at-bat, Bowen threw him out, and the Crusaders didn’t score in the inning. The Coons scored on a Pruitt homer in the top 6th, took a 2-1 lead, and the crowd got even noisier. They wanted Boda on a stick, at the very least.

Their wish was granted in the bottom 6th. Mullins and Rios reached base and went to the corners. When Daryl Anderson grounded to third, Vic Flores’ throw to first was in the dirt and bounced off Quebell’s chest for the tying run to score. Boda did not finish the inning, leaving two men in scoring position for Ed Bryan to face Pena with two outs. Pena singled on the first pitch, both runners scored, and the Crusaders were up 4-2. Bryan faced Ortíz and Britton in the bottom 7th, both reached on a Quebell error and a single, respectively, and the Raccoons, who had exhausted their comeback allotment against Nashville, went down in flames in this one. 5-2 Crusaders. Pruitt 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Bowen 2-3;

The uselessness of Ed Bryan is staggering…

*Stanton Martin will be undiagnosed as of Monday. Trying to create a comprehensive picture of an injury scenario is sometimes made real hard by OOTP…

Game 2
POR: 3B Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – SS Sato – P Fuentes
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B J. Hernandez – RF Britton – LF M. Ortíz – SS Caraballo – 1B T. Mullins – 3B O. Rios – C D. Anderson – P Connor

The Coons went up in the first inning with the kind help of Roberto Pena and his throwing error on Castro’s single to center. Flores, who had also singled, was making for third, and when Pena’s throw was well up the leftfield line scampered home with the first run of the game. Castro reached second, moved along on Pruitt’s groundout, and scored on Black’s fly to center, 2-0. Longing for a quick comeback, Pena struck a double in the bottom 1st and after a wild pitch scored on a grounder to short to get the Crusaders right back within one.

Shoddy everything almost cost the Coons in the fifth inning. Orlando Rios reached on a single that went right through Sato at short, and after another wild pitch Rios was already at third base with one out, but Pena and Hernandez couldn’t get him in. The Raccoons stranded an (unearned) pair in scoring position in the sixth when Black popped out to Hernandez, and while the Crusaders had Britton walk and Ortíz single in the bottom of the inning, Caraballo hit one to Sato for two outs and Pruitt sold an arm and a leg to catch Mullins’ drive to deep left. Still 2-1. The seventh saw Quebell reach and get picked off first, while in the bottom of the inning Fuentes struck out Rios, got Anderson on a grounder, and then yielded a single to Connor. Ed Bryan appeared for Pena and for once didn’t brain fart his way into an opposing 4-spot, striking out the Crusaders’ leadoff batter. Bryan continued in the eighth until Ortíz singled with two outs. We went right to Angel, and the unthinkable happened, as Francisco Caraballo hit an RBI double on a 2-2 pitch that also brought the score to 2-2. While Mullins grounded out, that would be the only out Angel Casas logged in this game. In the ninth, Rios doubled, and then scruffy pinch-hitter Ming Kui blasted the Raccoons off the field. 4-2 Crusaders. Flores 2-4; Gutierrez 1-1, 2B; Fuentes 6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K;

Angel’s second blown save on the year, both against the Crusaders.

Always when it really counts.

Baseball sucks.

Game 3
POR: SS Flores – CF Castro – 1B Pruitt – LF Black – C Bowen – 3B Sharp – RF Mays – 2B Nomura – P Dominguez
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – RF Britton – SS Caraballo – 1B T. Mullins – 3B Burns – C D. Anderson – P Baker

Daniel Sharp felt good enough to go in the Sunday game, had the Coons’ first hit, a 2-out single in the second, and scored on Bobo Mays’ double. That soft and tender 1-0 lead was butchered by the dumbass with the brown cap on the mound soon enough. Dominguez had only gotten out of the first inning when Martin Ortíz’ hard liner was snagged by Flores and turned into a double play, and the Crusaders had stranded two more in the second inning. In the third, they weren’t denied. Dorkminguez walked the first two batters, and then allowed enough hard contact for three runs to score on swings by Britton and Caraballo. Pruitt pulled a run back in the fourth inning with a rocket outta right, and Dominguez remained on the verge of imploding for another crooked number through five. The Crusaders stranded three more before Pruitt reached base again with a sixth inning single, almost got doubled off on an ill-fated hit-and-run in which Black lined softly to Caraballo, then scored on Craig Bowen’s moonshot to right center that gave the Raccoons a 4-3 lead. Dominguez wasn’t even able to do away with the 7-8-9 spots in the bottom of the inning, conceding a double to Anderson, which brought up the hot Pena with two outs. Bennett was tabbed in the pen, gave up a drive to center, but Castro threw himself into harm’s way to record the third out.

DESPERATE for an insurance run, the Raccoons had Mays and Flores on base in the seventh inning. With two out and 0-2 to Tomas Castro, the runners were set in motion. Castro hit a blooper that Britton couldn’t get to, and the early start allowed Mays to score, 5-3. Flores reached third. Pruitt was up, chopped another blooper to right that Britton sold out on, but still couldn’t get. It bounced from the grass to his chest, but he at least kept it in front of him for an RBI single. The Crusaders had seen enough of Jim Baker now (not of Britton, though), and replaced him with Bob Evans, who fell behind on Duke Smack and surrendered a 2-run double to the Duke that kinda broke the score open a bit at 8-3 – and that really was the decisive blow in the game. Bennett, Kichida, and Bruno each turned in three outs from here, all scoreless. The Raccoons added a run in the ninth when Flores scored on a Castro triple. With their worst starter on the mound, the Raccoons grinded out a big, BIG win on Sunday. 9-3 Furballs! Castro 2-5, 3B, 2 RBI; Pruitt 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; Mays 3-4, 2B, RBI; Bennett 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Fittingly, not only are we in a virtual tie after this series, we are also tied all time against the Crusaders now, 277-277.

In other news

August 13 – Season over for DEN RF/LF Pedro Pujols (.319, 6 HR, 47 RBI), who tore his labrum on a throw.
August 13 – A broken elbow sends TIJ 1B/2B Juan Diaz (.293, 12 HR, 59 RBI) into early holidays; he will not play again this year, either.
August 17 – The Stars lose CL Alfredo Becerra (1-4, 1.78 ERA, 27 SV) to a torn flexor tendon, which of course means that his campaign is over.
August 17 – 22-year old rookie SAL RF/LF Javier Gonzalez (.341, 2 HR, 9 RBI in 44 AB) goes 5-for-5 with a homer, two doubles, and 4 RBI in a 9-4 win over the Warriors.

Complaints and stuff

The weekend set in New York would have presented an opportunity to spare ourselves half a Dominguez start if we assigned him to the #3 spot, skipped that, and started with Boda in the series anyway, closing it with Fuentes and Brownie. I decided against that because of next week, where we will play a double-header against the Condors on Friday. If we make the flip, Dorkminguez starts the opener in Indy on Tuesday, which in itself would not be an issue, but then we start Brownie and Kel both in the double header. While Dominguez might well use up more bullpen ressources than those two combined, our co-aces are likely to require the use of Bruno and Casas. By *assuming* that Dominguez loses his starts anyway, and not juggling the rotation, we put Dominguez and Brownie (the latter on short rest!) into the double-header. Basically you assign Kaz Kichida and maybe another right-hander to Dominguez and a loss, and try to win Brownie’s game at all costs.

The double header will also be a split affair in that the Raccoons will assume the role of the home team in one of the games. I think that I will give Brownie the home game, because in the home game you can have potentially an extra inning from him pitching before a dire PH situation might arise.

So yeah, give Brownie all the good ends in the situation, because I trust him to do something with them even on short rest, while with Dominguez …….

Only downside (and it’s a big one) is that everybody will be on short rest for an entire parade through the rotation after that. And I don’t like that, either. We might do something different, demote Gutierrez after the double-header, and bring up somebody from AAA to start on Saturday. Or for the heck of it on Friday.

You see, I always have a very clear picture in my head of what would be the right move to make in a certain situation.

Maybe that’s why the Coons blew the 10 1/2 game lead they held on June 26.

Originally Posted by Questdog

Well, I am very sorry....won't happen again......

But look on the bright side: You are doing a great service for mankind and science by proving jinxes exist!

I draw infinte consolation from this.