[Westheim]

Raccoons (88-61) @ Condors (66-83) – September 22-24, 2008

The Raccoons could be mathematically eliminated as early as this series, depending on how much they would display themselves as fools against a team that had started playing out the string in June. The Condors had allowed a rousing 778 runs (11th in the CL), which was the main key to their failure to procure a decent W-L record. Their rotation was the outright worst with a 5.40 ERA, and the offense had sputtered as well, producing merely the eighth-most runs. The Coons had won four of six from the Condors this year.

Projected matchups:
Kelvin Yates (11-7, 4.30 ERA) vs. Santiago Chavez (9-12, 4.17 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (17-5, 2.10 ERA) vs. Jimmy Sjogren (8-9, 3.74 ERA)
Nick Brown (14-10, 3.52 ERA) vs. Doug Thompson (4-8, 5.56 ERA)

We would get their two best starters (but “best” is sometimes relative), and Sjogren will be the only southpaw we face in this series.

Game 1
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Fletcher – LF Alston – RF Black – 3B R. Martinez – 2B Nomura – SS Barrón – C Esquivel – P Yates
TIJ: 3B Harris – C Leach – 1B Valenzuela – 2B J. Diaz – CF W. McCormick – RF Barnes – LF B. Román – SS S. Walker – P S. Chavez

Whenever some Condor managed to make contact with Yates’ offerings, you usually heard it well. They drove the ball like crazy off him, which had to lead to runs sooner or later, and it happened sooner. In fact, both teams had 2-out RBI triples hit by their leadoff men in the third inning. While Fletcher flew out to leave Quebell on base, Foster Leach singled to right to score Robbie Harris and give the Condors a 2-1 lead. Through five innings, Yates struck out eight (Chavez struck out none), all other outs being fly outs, and yet the Raccoons kept trailing after having Barrón thrown out at home with the tying run in the fifth inning. Alston was denied extra bases by McCormick in the sixth inning, preventing potential runs there with Fletcher on first base. In the seventh, Martinez led off with a double to left center, but never got further than second base. Foster Leach’s ****ty single remained the difference in the game into the ninth inning, where the good news was that we faced Charlie Deacon and had some drivers up to bat with Alston the first. While Alston hit a leadoff single, Black and Martinez struck out. Yoshi hit a single that moved Alston to third base, bringing up Barrón, who struck out in a hurry. 2-1 Condors. Martinez 2-4, 2B; Esquivel 2-3, 2B; Yates 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 12 K, L (11-8);

Well, that was a **** game. We out-hit them 9-4, and the bloody heck didn’t anything ever work out in this game.

Game 2
POR: CF Fletcher – SS Barrón – LF Alston – RF Black – C Bowen – 3B R. Martinez – 1B Pruitt – 2B Pollack – P Umberger
TIJ: LF Crum – C Leach – 2B J. Diaz – CF W. McCormick – RF Barnes – 3B Harris – 1B R. Morris – SS S. Walker – P Sjogren

Umberger got unraveled early after Leach lined a ball past his ear in the first inning. He walked Diaz on four pitches to add to Leach on the bases, who had ended up with a single to center. Wes McCormick’s grounder to right defeated Pruitt for an RBI single and the first tally of the game. A Steven Walker triple to lead of an inning would lead to a second run somewhere later, but where was the Raccoons offense? What were they doing? Well, they weren’t scoring any for sure. In a wholly pathetic display of hitting, the team didn’t reach second base at all for five innings, and when they finally managed to move Craig Bowen there with a leadoff double in the sixth, they simply left him there to figure out how to score himself. This was no way to go about baseball in a winning fashion, and the Condors didn’t see a need to remove Jimmy Sjogren in the ninth inning in a 2-0 game. Alston and Black struck out, and Bowen flew out to Johnny Crum as the Raccoons were chocked up in a 5-hitter. 2-0 Condors. Umberger 8.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, L (17-6);

Just like I imagined this season to end. Defeated, and stomped, and suffocated.

Game 3
POR: 1B Quebell – C Esquivel – LF Alston – RF Black – 2B Nomura – 3B Pollack – CF Trevino – SS M. Gutierrez – P Brown
TIJ: CF Ward – C Leach – 1B Valenzuela – 2B J. Diaz – LF Crum – 3B Harris – RF Barnes – SS S. Walker – P D. Thompson

Spotted with a sliver of a 1-0 lead, Nick Brown retired the first 13 Condors he faced, including six strikeouts, before Johnny Crum hit a clean single to right in the bottom 5th. Of course that was soon enough followed by a Robbie Harris single, and in his year of the pest, Brown sure enough walked the bases full in due time before striking out Thompson to finally end the inning. Some air in the score was created in the following top of the sixth. The Duke led off with a single, his first productive AB of the series, before Harris misfielded Yoshi’s grounder into an error. After Pollack struck out, Trevino doubled to right to score the Duke. Gutierrez got walked intentionally, bringing up Nick Brown, who was still batting .294, and with one out. Brown would chop the ball back to the mound, where Thompson fired home for an easy force on Nomura. While Brown stayed out of the double play, Quebell also stayed out of an RBI by flying out to center.

Up 2-0 after six, Esquivel hit a leadoff single before Alston worked a full count walk in the seventh. The Duke gave a ball a ride to right, but not deep enough. Artie Barnes caught it on the track. In the end, it was just enough to create a sac fly by moving Esquivel to third, from where he scored on Nomura’s sac fly to left, 3-0. The next inning we had Gutierrez on first and called a hit-and-run with Brownie batting. Juan Diaz was so confused at second base that he completely botched the easy play on Brown’s soft pop. Quebell would plate Gutierrez with a single, before both Brown and Quebell were driven in by Esquivel with a double. With the lead thoroughly expanded to 6-0, Nick Brown was left out to see whether he could shut out the Condors. A walk in the bottom 8th certainly constituted unnecessary pitches, and he entered the ninth with 102 tosses, facing leadoff batter Tommy Ward, who grounded out to Pollack on the second pitch, and Foster Leach took only one more before flying out to Trevino. Jose Valenzuela would drill the 111th pitch of the game pretty well to center then, but Trevino got that as well. 6-0 Brownies!! Quebell 2-4, BB, RBI; Esquivel 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Alston 2-4, BB, RBI; Trevino 2-5, 2 2B, RBI; Brown 9.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K, W (15-10);

Nick Brown’s sixth career shutout was the first this season, and even the first since 2006. He also spun his first complete game of the year, and has a dozen in total for his career.

We staved off mathematical elimination for another day, but the Crusaders just don’t ever lose …

Raccoons (89-63) @ Titans (86-67) – September 26-28, 2008

The Titans were unhappy with their fourth place and would like to hang it on the Coons. The two teams were almost equal in scoring (which means average), but the Titans were fourth in runs allowed rather than second (Coons). We had beaten them 10-5 so far this year.

Projected matchups:
Brendan Teasdale (0-2, 8.80 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (6-2, 2.49 ERA)
Javier Cruz (10-8, 3.98 ERA) vs. Mauro Castro (10-9, 3.51 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (8-10, 3.42 ERA) vs. Jesus Elmore (12-9, 4.51 ERA)

Jorge Chapa was back after missing about four months of the season on the DL. He is the only left-hander we face this weekend, unless the Titans shift something around. This is our final road series of the year. Brownie’s shutout on Wednesday already clinched a winning road record (41-37), but overall we didn’t get nearly enough wins on the road this season.

Game 1
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Fletcher – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – C Bowen – LF Pruitt – SS Barrón – 2B Pollack – P Teasdale
BOS: 2B D. Silva – LF Garrison – C Suda – RF Brulhart – CF Ja. Gusmán – 1B R. Vargas – 3B M. Austin – SS Nelson – P Chapa

While Chapa appeared to not have missed a beat while being in rehab all summer, the Titans romped over Teasdale quite well. After a perfect first, he was tagged with a run on four singles in the second inning, another run in the third, and more runners, and more singles, and more runners, and even more runners, until they choked him out of the game in the fifth inning. Down 3-0, two on, one out, eight hits and a walk in 4 1/3 innings. Ed Bryan came and ****ed up the game for good with a single to Gusmán and then a bases-loaded walk to Vargas. All runs on Teasdale scored, leaving him with five for this particularly sad start. All his starts had been particularly sad.

Chapa went six and two thirds without showing much weakness or rust at all, and was removed when the Coons had two on in the seventh. Ron Alston hit for Law Rockburn against the Titans’ Law Rivers, but flew out to center. No run came forward in the top half of the line score, while in the bottom 7th Kaz Kichida added to the Titans’ output by allowing a single and three walks before getting peppered the heck outta there. John Richardson actually managed to do worse in the eighth, allowing a single and FOUR walks. The Titans were held to one run only for a double play started by Martinez, so THAT kid does something right ONCE and the whole thing still stinks. The Raccoons were swiftly routed. 7-0 Titans. J. Gutierrez (PH) 1-1;

We were mathematically eliminated with this loss.

Strangely, the longer I think about it, the more it seems like the offense started dying in August. Just after Ron Alston came along. That is strange.

Game 2
POR: 1B Quebell – SS Barrón – LF Alston – RF Black – 2B Nomura – 3B R. Martinez – CF Trevino – C Rios – P Cruz
BOS: 2B D. Silva – LF Garrison – C Suda – RF Brulhart – CF Ja. Gusmán – 1B R. Vargas – 3B M. Austin – SS J. Amador – P M. Castro

In a rotten week, the Duke of Smack came up with Barrón on second base and Alston on first base, and less than two outs, not in one, not in two, but in his first THREE plate appearances in the game. He almost hit into an inning-ending double play the first time, but narrowly beat the relay to allow Yoshi to plate the first run of the game with a single in the first inning. In the third inning, he grounded out to third base, moving up the runners, but the Coons only scored on a wild pitch by Castro, 2-0. While Cruz was holding his own so far, we had been around him for long enough to know he needed support eventually. So when the Duke was up with the same two guys on for the third time in the fifth inning, we definitely hoped for some smack. He didn’t disappoint three times. A hard drive to right narrowly missed the fence and instead hit off the wall for a 2-run double! Yoshi would hit another RBI single to bring the Duke home, and the Critters were up by five runs.

And the Duke’s next plate appearance? That came in the sixth, with one out, Barrón on second, and Alston on first, for the FOURTH time in the game. Alston had just singled to score Quebell to run the score to 6-0, but the Duke struck out in a full count and the Coons didn’t score any more in the inning. Sooner or later Cruz had to give up a run, too: Jim Brulhart hit a solo home run in the bottom of the seventh. Another Brulhart homer in the eighth cost Cruz another run, although by then the home run was off Rockburn, the second reliever in the game after Cruz had walked the leadoff man Daniel “Disgust” Silva. The Titans were back within three.

Before that, in the top half of the eighth, Barrón flew out and thus ended the streak of Luke Black coming up with in the ever same base state, but Alston was on with two outs, yet Black grounded out. Manuel Martinez choked his old team in the top 9th, before a Leon Ramirez triple cost Angel Casas a run in the bottom of the inning. He still saved his 45th of the year. 6-4 Critters. Barrón 4-5; Alston 3-3, 2 BB, RBI; Nomura 2-5, 2 RBI; Cruz 7.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, W (11-8);

Game 3
POR: 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – CF Black – SS Barrón – 3B R. Martinez – 2B Nomura – C Bowen – P Baldwin
BOS: SS J. Amador – LF Garrison – C Suda – RF Brulhart – CF Ja. Gusmán – 1B R. Vargas – 2B Heffer – 3B Ju. Gusmán – P Elmore

“Quasimodo” Suda drove in the first run of the game with a single scoring Jesus Amador, who had doubled to right to start the first inning, but the Raccoons weren’t idle for long. Black walked, Barrón singled, and then Martinez hit a ball over the third base bag that was just fair and amounted to an RBI double and leaving the go-ahead runs in scoring position with no outs for Nomura, who popped out, and Bowen and Baldwin both whiffed. Soon after that raging disappointment it started to rain and a delay occurred in the middle of the third inning. When play resumed over half an hour later, Baldwin was stomped by the Titans for three runs in the third, and left the game with two runners on base in the fourth inning. Matt Cash entered and allowed one run on a Suda single before Brulhart hit into an inning-ending double play. The Raccoons now trailed 5-1 against their former farmhand Elmore, and didn’t really know why.

So it was a good thing they came back for a 3-run fifth of their own, key piece in that a 2-run homer by Alston. The joy was short-lived when the Titans came right back with two runs off Cash in the bottom of the inning, one unearned after an error by a certain third baseman. The Raccoons got the tying run to the plate again in the seventh. Elmore was still pitching after allowing singles to Jose Gutierrez and Pruitt and was now facing Alston. The Titans probably knew this was not the best way to go about things, did so anyway, but didn’t incur the maximum damage. Alston hit a sac fly to center, and while the Duke singled in Pruitt, the Coons remained short at 7-6. Against Manuel Martinez the tying run didn’t get on base until Pruitt’s 2-out single, but at least that brought up Alston and another favorable match, but Alston grounded out to short. 7-6 Titans. Pruitt 2-4, RBI; Barrón 2-4; J. Gutierrez (PH) 1-2; Kichida 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

In other news

September 24 – Other then Portland’s Nick Brown, Nashville’s Stanton Taylor (9-10, 4.69 ERA) also spins a Wednesday 3-hitter in a 7-0 win over the Stars.
September 26 – Both Federal League divisions are clinched on the same Friday. The Stars beat the Wolves on the road, 3-1, to lock up the West regardless of the Warriors’ 1-0 loss to the Pacifics. The Cyclones smash through the Capitals, 13-5, then get the news that the Miners blew their lead late and lost 6-5 to the Buffaloes, with both events in combination locking up the East. The Cyclones will make their sixth playoff appearance and third consecutive, while the Stars will play October baseball for the 10th time, and fourth year in a row. They will tie the Blue Sox for most playoff appearances.
September 26 – Career win #200 has been counted for TOP SP Dan George (10-16, 3.27 ERA), who beats the Miners 6-5 in eight innings of work. 200-176 with a 3.71 ERA for his career, George was a 3-time All Star after initially being taken by the Miners in the supplemental round of the 1991 draft. He wound up with the Indians, for whom he debuted in 1993 and pitched until 1999 before signing with the Buffaloes.
September 28 – The Crusaders lose 8-2 to the Loggers, but get to celebrate their division title anyway after the Canadiens’ 8-3 loss to the Indians becomes final. For the defending champions, this will be their fifth playoff appearance and also the second consecutive one.
September 28 – The Cyclones lose C Felix Hernandez (.256, 4 HR, 57 RBI) for the rest of the year after the 32-year old has suffered a knee sprain.

Complaints and stuff

Jorge Chapa’s choker on Friday was the 2,600th regular season loss for the franchise. We aren’t even close in franchise wins. Some months ago I said that we’d reach 2,600 wins sooner by playing .667 from then. Yeah, me and my big, fat, ugly mouth of lies.

Let’s just say I’ll be glad when this season is over.