[Westheim]

Raccoons (80-58) @ Canadiens (79-57) – September 3-5, 2012

The Canadiens had a 5-game winning streak going (brr…), while ranking fourth in offense and third in pitching in the Continental League, with a +97 run differential. Their rotation had the second-best ERA in the CL, but the bullpen was scuffling at times. So far, the Raccoons had the upper hand in the season series, leading 8-4, and they would better keep up this pace in this 3-game midweek set. The Elks will also be our opponents on the final weekend of the season.

Projected matchups:
Rich Hood (7-5, 3.39 ERA) vs. Johnny Krom (12-6, 3.02 ERA)
Shunyo Yano (6-10, 5.05 ERA) vs. Bill King (11-10, 3.55 ERA)
Hector Santos (11-8, 3.51 ERA) vs. Juichi Fujita (17-7, 3.59 ERA)

We’re actually not missing Juichi Fujita, who was swapped with Brad Osborne while the Raccoons got chocked in Sunday’s game against the Indians. Any which way you comb this, however, we’re facing a left-hander on Monday, and none after that.

Game 1
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – C D. Alexander – CF Castro – RF Ayers – P Hood
VAN: CF Holland – 2B T. Pena – 1B Gilbert – LF Cameron – 3B Suzuki – RF Southcott – SS Lawrence – C M. Thomas – P Krom

Johnny Krom came out wild and walked two on his way to fill the bases in the first inning, but nothing came of that for the Raccoons. Rich Hood had two outs in the bottom 2nd with nobody on until Clint Southcott – or as I like to call him, Hell’s Offspring No.16 – hit a looper to right that Keith Ayers appeared to catch in a dive, but that was ruled a trapped ball, giving Southcott a single. Hood mentally unwound immediately, walked Jaylin Lawrence, and fell to a 2-run double by Mark Thomas that was not far from a 3-run homer at the 412’ sign in centerfield. Ray Gilbert chucked his 23rd homer of the season in the next inning, giving the Elks a 3-0 lead while the Raccoons engorged in more futility, leaving Castro on second base in the top 2nd and killing a leadoff single by Rich Hood and Yoshi getting plunked with two pathetic grounders to Tony Pena in the fifth. Johnny Krom was cruising (Krosing?) right along until he suddenly forgot how to pitch at all and threw right down the middle to three consecutive Raccoons in the sixth inning. Jon Merritt homered, D-Alex doubled, and Castro homered as well, and all of a sudden this was a tied ballgame.

Yet as these things go, Rich Hood was still not exactly befuddling anybody. Gilbert drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the inning, and bloop singles by Don Cameron and Clint ****head did Hood in, plating the go-ahead run for the Elks again. There was a most awkward pseudo-rally in the top of the seventh inning in which Quebell drew a 2-out walk and Merritt and D-Alex reached on consecutive infield singles, but ultimately that one fizzled out with Castro’s first-pitch fly out to Cameron in left, and with their despicable RISP hitting the Raccoons once again dropped a game in which they swiftly out-hit the opposition (10-7). 4-3 Canadiens. Merritt 3-3, BB, HR, RBI; D. Alexander 2-4, 2B;

Micah Steele had another game in which he didn’t retire anybody, issuing a single and a walk to two right-handers. Can’t wait for that dork to pack his **** and disappear.

Game 2
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – CF Carmona – RF J. Alexander – C Bowen – P Yano
VAN: CF Holland – RF K. Evans – 1B Gilbert – LF Cameron – 3B Suzuki – SS Rice – 2B Lawrence – C M. Thomas – P B. King

Matt Pruitt had killed an inning on Monday with a double play, and he did so again in the top 1st of the middle game. Yoshi had singled, Palmer had reached on an error by Mitsuhide Suzuki, and then – nada. Then came Yano, walked Ross Holland and Kurt Evans, following by a titanic 3-run homer trebucheted outta left centerfield by Gilbert. And thus the Raccoons’ season came to a sticky end.

Top 2nd, the bases were loaded after a Gilbert error on Yano’s grounder, bringing up Yoshi with two outs, and sometimes a .400 OBP was just not enough, was it? Nomura popped out, and the Raccoons were already shooting up the LOB count again. Top 3rd, Palmer singled, Quebell walked, and Mark Thomas couldn’t dig out Merritt’s bouncer, and the bases were loaded AGAIN, now with one out, and for Ricardo Carmona to hit into a double play. The Coons didn’t get onto the board until Craig Bowen’s solo homer in the fourth, then trailing 3-1. Then Yano singled while probably fearing for his life with me having another 24 hours to come up with an elaborate death trap to spring in front of his locker back in Portland, and Yoshi singled as well. At some point, the sheer gravity of brown-clad baserunners HAD to cause that infield to topple over and flush them across home plate! And here was Palmer, hitting a double into the gap in right center, and that brought in Yano with the second run. Runners on second and third, Pruitt-in-a-hole grounded out to first to keep them on, but Quebell finally came through and singled to right, flipping the score to 4-3 (and 9-2 in hits, and 13-5 in total runners) before King threw eight straight balls to load the bases again with walks to Merritt and Carmona, but obviously John Alexander would foul out in a full count…

King was gone after five, Yano stumbled through six, and the 4-3 lead was handed to Thrasher in the bottom 7th, which started with the switch-hitter Gary Rice and the left-hander Lawrence, got both, and then Josh Gibson retired Mark Thomas on a grounder. The Elks got the tying run on base briefly against Sugano in the eighth inning, but left him at first base, and while the Coons’ own offense had gone to sleep with Bill King out of the game – they had only one hit in four innings against the pen – Angel Casas was completely not in danger in the ninth. 4-3 Raccoons. Nomura 2-4, BB; Palmer 2-4, 2B, RBI;

Game 3
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – C D. Alexander – RF Sambrano – CF Carmona – 3B M. Gutierrez – P Santos
VAN: CF Holland – RF K. Evans – 1B Gilbert – LF Cameron – 3B Suzuki – SS Rice – 2B M. Austin – C M. Thomas – P Fujita

No no-no for Fujita this time, as Yoshi opened the game with a single, but ended up stranded on third base in the first inning. The Elks took the lead on back-to-back doubles by Evans and Gilbert in the bottom 1st, but their first base slugger hurt himself sliding (or rather tumbling) into second base, and was replaced by Tony Pena. Well, it was enough damage for a single series anyway. But having Gilbert out didn’t make Santos exempt from allowing runs to the first-sacker: Pena singled home Ross Holland with the second run in the bottom of the third…

By then there had already been a rain delay of almost one hour, so Santos’ time in the game was likely limited, but at least there was movement on the base paths in the top of the fourth, too. Quebell and D-Alex led off with definite singles before Sandy Sambrano wrestled a full count walk from Fujita to load the sacks with nobody out, but a Carmona sac fly was all the Critters got and kept trailing, 2-1, for another inning. Yoshi led off the fifth with a double, which was just barely enough to get him home on a Pruitt sac fly to tie the score. In return, Fujita reached base on a Gutierrez error to start the bottom 5th. Holland bunted, yet badly, and Fujita was out at second, yet next another one of those dreadful sequences unfolded that made you wish you would have picked a purposeful job decades ago. Holland stole second base, then made it to third when Quebell botched Kurt Evans’ grounder, putting runners on the corners. Then EVANS stole second base. Santos was no help in maintaining order, either, and conceded both runs on a single hit by – you bet – Tony Pena. The Raccoons would have the tying runs on base in the sixth, and a runner in scoring position in the seventh and eighth, and didn’t score squat, but the Canadiens got two singles and another huge 3-run homer by Gary Rice in the bottom 8th off Dirk – err, Dick Williams. The Coons put two meaningless runs on Jayden Reed in the top 9th, bringing in closer Pedro Alvarado with two outs, but a very quick K to Sandy Sambrano ended this game. 7-4 Canadiens. Nomura 2-4, 2B; Quebell 3-5, 3B, 2B, RBI; D. Alexander 2-5, RBI; Youngblood 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Raccoons (81-60) vs. Crusaders (74-65) – September 7-9, 2012

The Crusaders had lost a few key pieces of their lineup by now, with most notably Stanton Martin out for the year, but to be fair they had been in fourth place even before that, mostly because the pitching had never been much good the entire season. They were second in runs scored, still, but they were eighth in runs allowed. They also had been nothing short of butchered by the Raccoons this season, winning only three of the 15 games between the teams so far!

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (13-8, 2.56 ERA) vs. Pancho Trevino (7-13, 4.42 ERA)
Scott Spears (9-4, 2.98 ERA) vs. A.J. Bartels (13-7, 4.00 ERA)
Rich Hood (7-6, 3.50 ERA) vs. Rodrigo Moreno (9-14, 4.90 ERA)

We face three right-handers. Nick Brown would enter this series with a 21-innings scoreless streak. He used to get clobbered by the Crusaders in recent years, but this year had conceded only one run in 16 innings; he only faced them twice.

Game 1
NYC: CF R. Pena – SS J. Ortega – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Manfull – 2B Caraballo – C G. Ortíz – 3B Kester – RF T. Austin – P P. Trevino
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – LF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – C D. Alexander – CF Carmona – RF J. Alexander – 3B Merritt – P Brown

The weather radar looked dreadful to the west as this game got underway. Nick Brown ran three 3-ball counts in the first five batters, but none of them reached, and he was perfect the first time through. Early support came via Adrian Quebell’s 20th homer of the season, collecting Yoshi, too, for a 2-0 lead in the first inning. The Crusaders continued to not get on despite Brownie running more and more 3-ball counts, but they always grounded out to some infielder. The Raccoons didn’t amount to much additional offense early on, either, but Yoshi Nomura doubled in Merritt in the bottom 5th to run the score to 3-0. Brownie retired the first 17 batters in the game before Trevino hit a ****ty first-pitch blooper to shallow left into no man’s land for a single, causing A LOT of moaning in the stands – and in an office above. Although: his pitch count was at almost 80 in the sixth, so… The rain finally came in the bottom of the sixth, and boy, did it come. Quebell reached base with a walk before it became obvious that Mother Nature had been influenced by Neptune and tried to drown mankind in one big storm. D-Alex made an out before the tarp was brought onto the field, with two groundscrew members almost getting swallowed by the tarp which developed some mean-spirited man-killing consciousness. With the Crusaders never getting past first base in the game, the umpires decided not to delay the conclusion of the game until tomorrow, but rather called the game very quickly before paddling back to their hotel in a small rubber boat. 3-0 Brownies. Nomura 2-3, 2B, RBI; Quebell 1-2, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Brown 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K, W (14-8);

Well, I’ll take this. Brownie wouldn’t have been able to keep up over nine at his measly pace (six 3-ball counts, and none of them got on!), but he ran his scoreless innings streak to 27 and also won his fourth consecutive start.

Game 2
NYC: CF R. Pena – SS J. Ortega – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Manfull – 2B Caraballo – 3B Bond – C G. Ortíz – RF Bowden – P Bartels
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – RF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – C D. Alexander – CF Castro – 3B Merritt – P Spears

The Crusaders got the early offense in the middle game which started once the field had been cleared of stranded and still snapping sharks. For Scott Spears bad control mingled with hard contact allowed to conspire to knock him out in the third inning. He walked two in the first, in which Sambrano made an error that made the two runs unearned, but the Crusaders just kept pressure-cooking him and he was yanked after a 2-run homer by Kevin Bond, trailing 5-0 after just 2 1/3 innings.

That was a deep hole to get out of, but the Raccoons, who were mostly held silent the first time through the order, actually made noise in the middle innings. Sambrano singled in the fourth, stole his 20th base, and Quebell singled him in, 5-1, and in the next inning we had Castro and Merritt on to start the frame. Richard Williams was pitching in long relief and was to lay down a bunt, which he did nicely, and Gabriel Ortíz made a grisly throwing error past B.J. Manfull that not only put in a run for the Coons, but also put two runners in scoring position with nobody out, and Yoshi Nomura at the plate as the tying run. Unfortunately, his rocket to deep right went more or less right into Jeff Bowden’s glove, with Merritt scoring on a sac fly, but that was all the Critters got. Top 7th, George Youngblood was pitching and had already retired Roberto Pena and Jorge Ortega when Dylan Alexander dropped an easy foul pop by Martin Ortíz. Given a second life, Ortíz singled to right two pitches later, and Youngblood exploded in two doubles that gave the Crusaders a 7-3 lead.

Bottom of the inning, Merritt led off with another single. Jason Seeley hit for Youngblood and singled to center, and Bartels then hit Nomura to load the bags with no outs, bringing up the tying run again. While the Crusaders very casually started to get a reliever up, the Critters kept rolling: Palmer singled to right, plating two, and Sambrano singled up the middle to restock the sacks for Quebell. Still no relief coming for A.J: Bartels, who conceded a sac fly, Quebell to Bowden, 7-6, before the Crusaders finally had Charlie Deacon – a right-hander! – ready to replace the battered Bartels. My opinion of Deacon is well known, I guess, but here he was 0-2 on Matt Pruitt, who then grounded out to first base, the remaining runners moving up. D-Alex was down 0-2 as well, then grounded hard to left and that one went through between the infielders! Into left! Palmer scored! Sambrano already around third, and he scores as well! Coons have the lead!!!

The eighth was uneventful – something new in this game – and Angel Casas came into the ninth to forcefully extinguish the Crusaders, eliminating Roberto Pena and PH Jaime Kester with strikeouts before Martin Ortíz grounded out to Nomura. 8-7 Furballs!! Sambrano 2-4; D. Alexander 2-4, 2 RBI; Merritt 2-3, BB; Seeley (PH) 1-2; Williams 3.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K;

The Elks out-hit the Titans 11-5 in their game, but lost 3-2 anyway, which hands sole possession of first place to the Furballs!

Also: we have run 14-4 seasons against every North opponent except the Canadiens in the past, but we have NEVER gone 15-3 against anybody. Now’s the chance. Rich Hood has the ball.

Game 3
NYC: CF R. Pena – SS J. Ortega – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Manfull – 2B Caraballo – C G. Ortíz – 3B Bond – RF Talamante – P R. Moreno
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – RF J. Alexander – CF Seeley – C Bowen – P Hood

Yet it was again the Crusaders to score first. Francisco Caraballo hit a triple in the second inning and was comfortably scored by Gabe Ortíz. Those were the latter two of three consecutive deep flies to right, as Rich Hood scuffled early on. That was the only run early on in the game, with neither team putting up a whole lot of pressure. The next scoring opportunity arose via Caraballo as well, who hit a leadoff double in the fifth inning. Ortíz struck out, Bond grounded out, moving up the runner to third base, and we walked Carlos Talamante intentionally before Hood struck out Moreno to escape his tight spot unharmed. But some offense would be nice now!

The Critters had their own leadoff double in the bottom 5th, John Alexander hitting a hard rocket off the top of the fence in right center. Puzzlingly, it would be Rich Hood to bring in the run. Seeley and Bowen just failed, but Hood singled to right to score J-Alex with the tying run, 1-1. Unfortunately, Rich Hood got hopelessly stuck in the very next inning. He walked Pena, and then Ortega reached on an infield single. Martin Ortíz’ proper single loaded the bases with nobody out, and Pat Slayton was asked to get out of the inning, which he very didn’t. Gabe Ortíz singled, he drilled (!!) Bond, and Talamante hit another single, plating four runs total. Down 5-1, the Coons started the bottom 6th by also loading the bases without being retired. Palmer walked, Pruitt and Quebell singled. Merritt grounded to short where the ball escaped Ortega in mysterious fashion and became a 2-run single into left center, but the inning then quickly ended on a fly to right by J-Alex, and Seeley hitting into a pretty fat double play. His grounder to short was a double play so hard from the start, Merritt didn’t even run to second, but rather returned to the dugout right away.

The tying runs were on again in the bottom 7th. Bowen hit a leadoff double to right center before Tomas Castro hit for Thrasher and singled. Tying runs on the corners, nobody out, Moreno, who had no strikeouts in the game, got Yoshi to 0-2 before leaving a waste pitch up in the middle and Yoshi slapped it to the opposite field, up the leftfield line and almost all the way to the wall! Bowen in, Castro got a good start on it and turned third and they weren’t gonna get him! TWO-RUN DOUBLE BY YOSHI, AND WE’RE TIED!!! The Crusaders then set fire to their own team bus, and a throwing error by Caraballo allowed Nomura to score on a grounder by Pruitt. Up 6-5, the ball went to Steele, who had carefully tended to a 1-run lead in the eighth the day before, too, and here struck out Caraballo and Gabe Ortíz before Sugano was brought in to retire Bond. The most uproar was actually caused with Angel pitching in the ninth. Paco Batlle hit a 1-out single, but again that was the furthest the Crusaders got. 6-5 Raccoons!! Bowen 2-4, 2B; Castro (PH) 1-1, BB;

15-3!

Yet this game is another example of why Pat Slayton is a crap pitcher. His ERA might still be around 2, but his CRAP-RA is about ****ing eleven.

Except for Seeley, every Coons starter had a hit.

In other news

September 3 – DAL 3B/2B Hector Garcia (.292, 12 HR, 71 RBI) could be out for the year with an intercostal strain.
September 3 – LAP INF Adriano Lulli (.230, 11 HR, 52 RBI) is quite definitely out for the year with a broken knee cap.

Complaints and stuff

The Thunder bundled up the CL South on Monday, September 3 (!!), shutting out the Aces 3-0 behind Ed Michaels. They not only raced towards the playoffs at breakneck speed, they also built on their lead in total playoff appearances, making October for the 12th time. The Stars and Blue Sox have ten appearances each, with at least the Blue Sox not getting one this year.

I missed this last week – sorry, Adrian – but Adrian Quebell hit his 100th home run last Sunday in the loss to Indy. Side note: he’s also the only player to fail to appear in only game this year. The rain-shortened affair on Friday was Pruitt’s second game entirely without appearance this year.

The remaining games for the three still competing North teams – New York is done now:

POR: 3@IND, 3@OCT, 3vsATL, 3vsBOS, 3@MIL, 3@VAN
VAN: 4@MIL, 3@LVA, 3vsCHA, 3vsIND, 4@NYC, 3vsPOR
BOS: 4vsNYC, 3@SFB, 3@TIJ, 3@POR, 4vsIND, 3vsMIL

Infielder Aaron Tolwith (mostly Loggers, now Rebels) was on waivers this week, but while we could use a right-handed bat off the bench for the last month I fear that him and Nick Brown still want to take each other’s heads off, so I passed.

As we’re on Loggers infielders, Sharpie has been laboring on a hip strain/sprain/disarticulation for over a month now, and he suffered another setback this week and might not come back until the last week of the year. He’s batted .290/.363/.375 for the Loggers this year, roughly his career slash of .279/.358/.382, but was it worth the $1.46M they paid him? For a broken team like the Loggers with the smallest budget in the league, probably not. Sharpie, 35, is a free agent this fall.

Ralph Ford pitched a shutout for the Blue Sox this week. His record is grisly, the ERA a bit over four. While neither has torn out any trees away from Portland, both Ford and Randy Farley had better success after they were contemporary Raccoons, but we’ll always have Carl Bean’s best few years from that time, a decade ago when Nick Brown came up.

I’ve gotten my greedy paws on a closed alpha of a game that came out of Kickstarter on not much of a budget at all and lingered in will-it-ever-be-playable limbo for a good while; I'm into this one quite badly, and will be chasing bugs and collecting data for balancing, which will cut into the Raccoons’ available playtime the next weeks.