[Westheim]

Raccoons (19-11) vs. Warriors (18-12) – May 12-14, 2008

The Warriors appeared to have a decent bunch assembled, ranking in the top 3 in both runs scored and runs allowed in the Federal League. They had won their last three games. These two teams had only played each other once in the last seven years, a two-games-to-one victory for the Warriors in 2006. Overall we had the second-worst all-time win percentage against them at .405.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (4-1, 1.69 ERA) vs. Ricky Mendoza (1-3, 4.28 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (4-0, 3.93 ERA) vs. Bruce Morrison (1-1, 8.10 ERA)
Javier Cruz (2-2, 7.03 ERA) vs. Manuel Alba (3-2, 3.97 ERA)

Their rotation contained only right-handers. Meanwhile let’s hope they don’t skip Morrison on Tuesday, since that would have us face Dave Crawford (5-2, 0.96 ERA) and I was not too thrilled about that prospect. Their closer? Dan Nordahl (0.67 ERA);

Game 1
SFW: SS O. Torres – 3B Pollard – 1B Bovane – RF A. Johnson – CF P. Taylor – C G. Lugo – LF L. Alonso – 2B Cowan – P Mendoza
POR: 1B Quebell – SS Barrón – CF Castro – RF Black – 3B R. Martinez – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – P Brown

It was just going to be one of those months with Nick Brown, who was wickedly wild for the second consecutive start and it was clear from the start that it wasn’t going to end well, and it very didn’t. The Warriors loaded them up with two bloops and a walk, all with two outs, in the first, but didn’t score when German Lugo struck out. They did get there eventually though, squeezed a run across in the third inning, with another Raúl Bovane blooper key in the effort, and Brown got hosed for good in the fourth, in which the Warriors slapped him for four runs, the final exclamation mark being a Bovane home run. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Ed Bryan conceded two runs in the sixth on errors by Martinez and Nomura. The Raccoons amounted to not much at all against Mendoza early on. He melted a bit in the seventh, loading the bases and plunked Barrón and walked Castro to bring the Duke to the plate as the tying run, but he grounded out to short to end the inning. It was already the Raccoons’ last straw. They didn’t reach base against the Warriors’ pen. 7-3 Warriors. Bowen 2-4; Crespo (PH) 1-1;

Well, Barrón has stopped hitting (and fielding) entirely. 35-year old shortstops, man. That gives us four complete blackouts among our six infielders. It was time to make a move, and we demoted Ryan Miller (batting .200 and not rising) in favor of 2B Jose Gutierrez. No platoon for the moment with Nomura (they do bat from opposing sites), but Gutierrez was batting .320 in AAA, and I wanted his bat in the lineup immediately.

Game 2
SFW: CF Matthews – C A. Ortíz – LF Graham – 1B Bovane – 3B Pollard – SS Guerin – RF L. Alonso – 2B Cowan – P Morrison
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 2B J. Gutierrez – SS Barrón – P Yates

The number of deep drives somehow sucked up by our outfielders in the first two innings alone was three, so Yates was to give up a few bombs sooner rather than later. The better was it that Jose Gutierrez sparked instantly and hit an RBI double in his first major league at-bat of the year, scoring Pruitt with no outs in the bottom 2nd. The inning ran longer than Bruce Morrison and the other Warriors would have liked. Bowen and Gutierrez scored on Quebell’s 2-out single, which was followed by a Castro triple and a Martinez double, both adding single runs for a 5-0 lead, and Martinez now had a 12-game hitting streak. Raúl Bovane kept snipping hits in a very annoying manner, but Yates kept surviving, and in the bottom 4th Morrison was knocked out after a leadoff jack by Quebell that made it a 6-0 game. The Raccoons added single runs in the next two innings, while Kel eventually ran into an RBI triple by Dave Graham in the sixth. That was the only run he allowed and he would gone eight innings or even more but when he walked a pair of batters in the eighth, including Graham, it was time for a move. Marcos Bruno retired Bovane to end the frame. The Coons churned out 18 hits in this one. 8-1 Critters. Quebell 4-5, HR, 3 RBI; Castro 4-5, 3B, RBI; Martinez 2-5, 2B, RBI; Pruitt 2-5, 2B, RBI; Gutierrez 3-5, 2 2B, RBI; Yates 7.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 9 K, W (5-0) and 1-4, RBI;

Game 3
SFW: CF Matthews – C A. Ortíz – SS O. Torres – LF Graham – 1B Bovane – RF A. Johnson – 3B Pollard – 2B Cowan – P Alba
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 2B J. Gutierrez – SS Barrón – P Cruz

Tomas Castro got on and scored in the first and third innings for an early 2-0 lead. Cruz walked a pair in the top 1st, then settled in, only to unravel after a fourth inning rain delay for rapidly worsening weather. The Warriors started to hit the ball hard. All balls went right to fielders in the fifth, but in the sixth a leadoff walk to Oliver Torres got the Warriors going and Bovane and Ron Pollard drove in runs to tie the score. Cruz retired Alba at the start of the seventh inning before we assigned Sims the string of four left-handers at the top of the Warriors order. Three of them reached, and the game blew up in our face forcefully, as the Warriors scored three runs with a 2-out, 2-run triple that Bovane (…!) hit off Bruno. In the eighth, Bruno would strike out the side, but the game was in the bin already. Well, we did bring up Bowen as the tying run in the bottom 8th, but he grounded out.

In the ninth, it was Dan Nordahl to try to nail down his seventh save of the season. Pinch-hitters Crespo and Trevino got on base with singles and nobody out. After that it was Nomura in the #9 hole, where he had entered along with the successless Sims earlier, and he hit another single that loaded the bases. Tying runs on, nobody out, two more left-handers coming up! Unfortunately, those two left-handers amounted to a strikeout (Quebell) and a sacrifice fly (Castro), getting us no closer to a happy end. Martinez’ fly out to Avery Johnson ended the game. 5-3 Warriors. Castro 2-4, RBI; Pruitt 3-4, 3B, RBI; Crespo (PH) 1-1; Trevino (PH) 1-1;

Ugh! Frustrating series!! Glad they’re outta here. So are we, getting shipped up to Boston.

Raccoons (20-13) @ Titans (21-14) – May 16-18, 2008

We dropped to two games back on the Crusaders with the botch job we did against the Warriors, and the Titans made up some ground. If we don’t take this weekend 3-gamer, we’re going to drop into the middle regions of the division. We had taken two out of three against the CL team with our worst all time record against (.463) so far this season. They led the league in runs scored and were second in runs against, so they were probably not to be discounted for the division, which was still led by the Crusaders.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (5-1, 1.25 ERA) vs. Jason O’Halloran (4-1, 2.40 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (0-1, 4.26 ERA) vs. Ray Conner (2-2, 4.35 ERA)
Nick Brown (4-2, 2.49 ERA) vs. Bryce Hildred (2-2, 3.76 ERA)

That’s two left-handers and a guy we just can’t seem to do good against. At least we don’t get 5-2 Jorge Chapa, who pitched Thursday.

Game 1
POR: 1B Quebell – LF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – C Bowen – 2B J. Gutierrez – SS Barrón – CF Trevino – P Umberger
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – LF Bayle – CF Ja. Gusmán – RF Garrison – 3B M. Austin – C L. Ramirez – 1B Heffer – SS D. Silva – P O’Halloran

Against O’Halloran, who had started the Titans’ current 5-game winning streak, the Raccoons left Castro and Black in scoring position in the top 1st, but got Gutierrez on base with a triple in the second. Trevino scored him on a groundout, but another chance was wasted in the third when Martinez extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a single, then was thrown out stealing, and the subsequent singles by Black and Bowen went to waste, and Barrón was stranded on third base in the next inning. All the missed chances were definitely going to hurt, and when the permanent butt pain Silva reached on an infield single in the bottom 5th, you knew the time had come. He stole a base, was bunted to third, and scored on Jose Ramirez’ single. Ramirez also stole second base, but was stranded, yet you had to wonder whether Bowen had any arm at all.

Jong-hoo was a pathetic batter, but he actually managed to hit a single off reliever Jason Long in the sixth inning. That loaded the bases with two outs, leading to Quebell flicking the ball right into the ground in front of home. In a good break, Leon Ramirez (ex-Coon, no wonder!) failed to make a play, everybody was safe and the Raccoons reclaimed the lead. Castro’s following shot to right would have been a slam in Portland, but it wasn’t in Boston and was taken by Rudy Garrison to end the inning. Umberger went seven innings, struck out eight on 115 pitches, and left a 2-1 lead to the bullpen. With three left-handers due to bat, starting with Javier Gusmán, in the bottom 8th, Sims got the ball rather than Bruno. When Austin reached with a 2-out single, we skipped right to Angel, who was well-rested. He walked Ramirez before getting out of the eighth, and in the ninth walked the other catcher, “Quasimodo” Suda, and plunked Jesus Ramirez. Javier Gusmán ended the game with a triple into the corner in deep right. 3-2 Titans. Castro 2-4; Black 2-4, 2B; Barrón 2-2, 2 BB; Umberger 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K and 1-3;

Second straight games where the suckers leave 11 men on base. Everything’s going south.

Game 2
POR: CF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – 1B Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – LF Crespo – 2B J. Gutierrez – SS Barrón – P Baldwin
BOS: 3B M. Austin – LF Bayle – RF Brulhart – CF Ja. Gusmán – 1B R. Vargas – 2B Heffer – C L. Ramirez – SS D. Silva – P Conner

After the Raccoons slowly and painfully had grinded out a run in each of the first three innings, Baldwin, wild and walky, made it all implode in one big blast, a 2-out, 2-run Brulhart triple in the bottom 3rd (common theme, huh?), with Brulhart scoring on a sac fly by Gusmán. Another inning, another run in the top 4th with a Gutierrez sac fly plating Bowen. The Coons didn’t score in the fifth despite a Martinez triple. Pruitt hit one far, but not far enough (far enough in Portland, though…), but Martinez, after a first inning RBI double and a third inning homer now had all extra base hits ticked off. Baldwin issued his fifth walk (against on strikeout) to Leon Ramirez at the start of the bottom 7th to get yanked. Lefty Rudy Garrison had a pinch-hit single off Ed Bryan, who then struck out Mark Austin. Bruno whiffed Jimmy Bayle to exit the inning. Martinez led off the eighth, looking for a single, but the Titans’ Ramiro Román threw him only junk for a 4-pitch walk. We loaded them up with an infield single by Pruitt and a Bowen walk. Crespo struck out before Quebell hit for Gutierrez to counter the righty Román and grinded out a full count walk. Barrón lined out to Bayle, leaving a flimsy 4-3 lead to become a flimsy 5-3 lead. Martinez came up once more in the ninth, two outs and nobody on, facing young lefty Matt Collins, and struck out. Angel struck out two in a perfect ninth. 5-3 Coons. Martinez 3-4, HR, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; Bruno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Game 3
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – SS Barrón – 2B Nomura – P Brown
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – 3B M. Austin – RF Brulhart – C Suda – CF Ja. Gusmán – 1B R. Vargas – LF Garrison – SS D. Silva – P Hildred

We had to fear the worst with Brownie after the last two games in which he went just 9 1/3 combined innings, but for starters, Bryce Hildred walked three men in the top 1st, with the Coons plating two runs. Whatever Brown was going to do, and he did plunk Gusmán in the second inning, he could not possibly do worse than Hildred. Martinez and Black opened the third inning with back-to-back doubles, and from there the inning just wouldn’t end for Hildred. He was yanked with a 7-0 score, a steady stream of base hits knocking him out for Jeremy Peterson, a former starter. He actually still had two men on with Martinez at the plate, who hit his second double of the inning, plating Brown and Castro, 9-0. And then the Duke doubled again, 10-0! Pruitt finally struck out to end that 8-run top 3rd.

Brown however at least tried to keep the game close, plating a run with a wild pitch in the bottom 3rd and allowing a 2-run homer to Suda to get the Titans back to 10-3, and in the fourth a leadoff walk to Vargas and extra base hits by Garrison and Silva cut the once formidable lead in half. The Coons were ready to disintegrate after errors by Peterson and Austin in the fifth put runners on the corners and they didn’t score, only for Brownie to strike out the 3-4-5 guys in order in the bottom of the inning. He struck out Silva to reach double digit K’s, but that was his last batter with a man on and two outs in the sixth. Rockburn faced pinch-hitter Jimmy Bayle and got a groundout to short. It was the Titans’ last at-bat. The skies had darkened in the middle innings and the rain started with two outs in the top 7th. It rained and rained and rained, the game was in delay for two hours, and with the Raccoons having to get out of town in this Sunday night game, we eventually had the win called early. 10-5 Brownies. Martinez 2-3, 2 BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Black 3-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Nomura 2-3, BB, RBI;

In other news

May 13 – OCT 1B Tomas Cardenas (.287, 3 HR, 13 RBI) goes onto the DL with back spasms and is not expected back within the next month at least.
May 13 – NAS 1B/2B Georg Spinu (.226, 1 HR, 5 RBI) is out for the rest of this month with rotator cuff tendinitis.

Complaints and stuff

Can a Pitcher of the Month award be revoked when the guy stinks up the joint to a double digit ERA the next month? It’s critical. I know somebody who has surrendered 14 earned runs his last 15 innings after surrendering FOUR in all of April.

Ralph Ford pitched a 5-hitter this week for the Knights. He’s 4-1 with a 2.70 ERA. Dan Nordahl signed a 3-yr, $5.8M extension with the Warriors two days after killing our hopes in the rubber game.

Also this week, the Capitals put infielder Adriano Lulli, a 28-year old recent Gold Glover and Platinum Stick wielder on waivers. We couldn’t claim him because the Pacifics were also claiming him and had higher priority, but you have to wonder whether everybody in the Capitals management floor headshotted each other and the last guy twitching pressed the “WAIVE!” button before expiring.

More and more I get the impression that this team won’t make the playoffs. We ARE second in runs scored and runs allowed, but … ugh. The pitching is … well, it isn’t bad overall, but they have a fatal tendency to implode in huge innings. Of course you could say it’s bad luck and bad luck will even out, so things are working in favor of the Coons, but … blech!

We will head down to New York for a 3-game midweek set, so watch out for more bad breaks.

One issue we will need to address is at shortstop. Barrón currently has no overly qualified backup with Ryan Miller being demoted. Gutierrez hit for two days, then vanished. Nomura can’t play short, and Gutierrez can’t either. Nobody can, really. We might want to exchange that Gutierrez for that other Gutierrez, the one that can play all positions. But that’s a left-handed batter. Ugh. Tough stuff…

Below, also, one hot rookie, possibly underscouted. Also, just when I wanted to dump Jimmy E somewhere roadside, he went 9-for-25 with one of each extra base hit in Aumsville this week.

Really, the one guy that pitches most consistently is Jong-hoo, who has been complaining that he can’t find a single joint in Portland that serves Kaiserschmarrn. I will have to do some research into what this actually is. Maybe we can capitalize on his early success and introduce a line of traditional Austrian food at the park. Fans will line up to take a - … do you take a bite out of a Kaiserschmarrn? Maud! Maud! I need something!

Boston Titans franchise leaders below. None of the pitchers debuted for them before 1991, pointing to the dire pointlessness to their existence throughout the 80s. The batters are more well mixed, and headed by a certain skunkhead.

WINS
1st – Jason O’Halloran – 234
2nd – Jorge Chapa – 110
3rd – Jesus Bautista – 99
4th – Bryce Hildred – 97
5th – Doug Morrow – 82

STRIKEOUTS
1st – Jason O’Halloran – 2,104
2nd – Bryce Hildred – 1,092
3rd – Doug Morrow – 986
4th – Jorge Chapa – 940
5th – Jesus Bautista – 902

HITS
1st – Daniel Silva – 2,047
2nd – Hjalmar Flygt – 1,800
3rd – Luis Lopez – 1,429
4th – Jose Martinez – 1,350
5th – Rudy Garrison – 1,291

HOME RUNS
1st – Luis Lopez – 165
2nd – Gonzalo Munoz – 146
3rd – Isto Grönholm – 92
4th – Mark Austin – 80
5th – Josh Thomas – 79

STOLEN BASES
1st – Daniel Silva – 373
2nd – Francisco Dominguez – 148
3rd – Vicente Elizondo – 120
4th – Rudy Garrison – 119
5th – Alejandro Espinoza – 112