[Westheim]

The Critters had Monday off and used the spare time to put Walt Canning on the DL with a sore wrist, sustained in an on-base collision with Salem’s Javier Gonzalez over the weekend. We went on to promote our 2010 fourth round pick, 3B Matt Nunley, to the 40-man and 25-man roster. Nunley, a very good defensive third baseman with a rocket launcher for a right arm, was batting a left-handed .306/.381/.329 in AAA at the time of promotion. He has hit 12 home runs in almost three years since being drafted, so nothing much is to be expected in the power department, and he also can’t run. Not much gap power, either. Oh well, it’s only for two weeks.

Raccoons (13-17) vs. Cyclones (16-14) – May 7-9, 2013

For once, we encountered a team on the same way as us in the standings: down. Cincy had lost four straight, but they were conceding the least runs in the Federal League. The offense was not even close in performance, ranking eighth in runs scored. There was also a stark contrast between the rotation and the bullpen. The former ranked 10th, the latter was the best in the FL. The Raccoons had won three straight series against the Cyclones prior to losing two out of three games in 2011, the most recent meeting between teams.

Projected matchups:
Rich Hood (1-2, 4.75 ERA) vs. Shunyo Yano (2-1, 4.50 ERA)
Bill Conway (2-1, 3.81 ERA) vs. Jeremiah Bowman (0-5, 8.02 ERA)
Nick Brown (2-4, 4.06 ERA) vs. Luis Guerrero (2-2, 6.00 ERA)

Their rotation was a mess – except for the usually good Nathan O’Herlihy and his 2.30 ERA – and after playing a double header on Saturday and disabling starter Brian Doumas (1-0, 2.78 ERA) their probables aren’t set in stone. Guerrero is a swingman, whether he actually starts will be anybody’s guess. He is also the only left-hander we expect right now.

Game 1
CIN: SS J. Amador – 1B T. Cardenas – C Jolley – LF DeWeese – 2B Morrison – 3B R. Harris – CF J. Silva – RF Rincón – P Yano
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – CF Carmona – RF Bednarski – C D. Alexander – 1B Quebell – LF Gentry – 3B Nunley – P Hood

Both teams left runners on second and third in the first inning, and the Cyclones did so again in the top 2nd, with no team scoring. Hood was plainly awful, easily hittable, and fooled nobody. A double play dug him out of giant hole in the fourth inning and kept the Cyclones at bay before the Raccoons got a 2-out triple by Dylan Alexander in the bottom 4th, of course with nobody on base. Quebell, however, mashed an enormous home run to right, and the Coons were up 2-0. Rich Hood’s situation remained dicey, not only because his obvious non-stuff, but also because an interruption caused by a rain shower that delayed action for 38 minutes in the fifth inning. The Cyclones came close to a 2-run homer for R.J. DeWeese in the top 6th, but Bednarski made a great catch right against the wall in rightfield to retire him, and the base runner, Jayden Jolley, ended up picked off by Hood afterwards. Jolley was the Cyclones’ only base runner after the fourth inning against Hood, who was ready to topple over in the first inning but was never charged with a run in the game. The Coons’ offense was dead-silent, and when Pat Slayton entered in the eighth, he did his usual thing, which is to mean that he put the tying runs on base and didn’t finish the frame. Ron Thrasher replaced him with runners on the corners against the left-handed DeWeese, but the Cyclones sent a .182/.217/.228-slashing Julio Mata, batting right-handed, in his place. Mata in an 0-2 count, and Pat Morrison in a 1-2 count afterwards, both hit RBI singles, and the lead was blown.

Bottom 8th, Francisco Rodriguez pitching for Cincy, the Coons loaded the bases with one out on a Nomura single, Palmer walking, and an infield single by Bednarski. Dylan Alexander had a chance to be a hero, and slapped the first pitch he got into a double play. Mathis cocked up the go-ahead run for the Cyclones after Jose Silva’s leadoff double in the ninth, and the Raccoons faced Ian Johnson (12.2 IP, 0 BB, 15 K, 0.00 ERA) in the bottom 9th. Quebell struck out. Gentry struck out. Bowen hit for Nunley, down two strikes, wonked a ball to left, and it went – game-tying homer! Next, John Alexander batted for Mathis, ran a full count, and hit a homer to right – walkoff! 4-3 Raccoons. Carmona 2-4; Bowen (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; J. Alexander (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Hood 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K;

Chris Mathis got his first career win, Matt Nunley got his first career hit, a double off Yano … that bullpen, though…

Sandy Sambrano would start a rehab assignment with the Alley Cats on Wednesday.

Game 2
CIN: 1B T. Cardenas – 3B J. Amador – C Jolley – LF DeWeese – SS Morrison – 2B R. Harris – CF J. Silva – RF Rincón – P Guerrero
POR: 2B Palmer – CF Carmona – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – LF Gentry – 3B Rodgers – SS Whitehouse – P Conway

Initially the Goat of the Day award was to go to Bill Conway, who opened the game with a double hit by Tomas Cardenas, which he somehow survived unharmed, but then served up a hit-me cougher down the middle to Robbie Harris after walking Morrison to start the top 2nd. Harris surely hit it, and very far, 2-0 Cyclones. But Conway would ultimately go eight innings with only one more run charged to him, and that was partially balmed on the real Goat of the Day, Dylan Alexander, who made a grievous throwing error in the fourth, trying to keep DeWeese from stealing, which gave DeWeese an extra base and enabled him to score in the inning. D-Alex had already killed the bottom 3rd with two runners on base by hitting into another double play and that virtually ALL the Raccoons did against the swingman Guerrero for seven innings, during which he maintained a 3-hitter. The bottom 8th then started with walks by Yoshi and Palmer, bringing up Carmona, who popped out, and then Alexander. Nah. Pruitt hit for him, a pathetic pop to David Rincón in shallow right. Bednarski’s RBI single was by far not enough. Ian Johnson had another shot with a 3-1 lead in the ninth but started to sweat after Brett Gentry’s leadoff single to shallow right. First base would be the farthest the Raccoons got this time, however, never hitting another ball past the infield dirt. 3-1 Cyclones. Bednarski 2-4, RBI; Conway 8.0 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, L (2-2);

Game 3
CIN: SS J. Amador – CF J. Silva – C Jolley – LF DeWeese – 2B Morrison – 3B R. Harris – 1B Gershkovich – RF Rincón – P O’Herlihy
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – CF Carmona – 1B Quebell – RF J. Alexander – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 3B Nunley – P Brown

Sneakily smuggled into the set, O’Herlihy was looking forward to shut down the Coons, and by the time he got the ball the Cyclones had already put two runs, one earned, on Nick Brown, who was whacked hard for a Jesus Amador double, singles by Silva and Jolley, and then a fielding error by Nomura in the first inning. While Brown settled down after the early assault and didn’t allow another run, the Raccoons’ offense, ranked 10th in the CL for a reason, performed in completely inept fashion once more. Yoshi’s leadoff single in the bottom 1st was answered by Palmer with a double play grounder to short. An inning later, Quebell and John Alexander reached base, but Pruitt, Bowen, and Nunley all made sorry outs. Then, silence for three innings. Bottom 6th, Nomura drew a leadoff walk before Carmona singled with one out. O’Herlihy took away the double play from Quebell with a wild pitch. Quebell, insulted, then struck out in disgust, but John Alexander hit a 2-2 pitch into the gap in right center and all the way to the wall for a game-tying 2-run double. Brown pitched another scoreless inning, but was left with the no-decision. As soon as the pen took over there was danger again. Gibson allowed a single to Jolley with two outs in the eighth. Sugano replaced him to face DeWeese, who was again hit for by Mata, whom Sugano walked. Watanabe then got a grounder to short from PH Tomas Cardenas to end the inning and also pitched a quick ninth. While Brown had retired after 104 pitches through seven, O’Herlihy was still there in the ninth inning for whatever reason, entering on 103 tosses. #108 was a leadoff single for J-Alex, who moved to third on Pruitt’s single. We could not hit for Bowen with D-Alex having already batted for Nick Brown (stupid manager!) and O’Herlihy had him on two strikes quickly before Bowen knocked a high shot to rather deep right. It wasn’t going out, but it was certainly falling in, and the Raccoons had their second walkoff in the series. 3-2 Critters. J. Alexander 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K; Watanabe 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, W (2-2);

Raccoons (15-18) vs. Indians (14-21) – May 10-12, 2013

The Coons had lost two of three in the year’s first series against Indy, but the Arrowheads were dead last in the division and we should really reclaim some ground against them, despite all our injuries. They were ninth in runs scored and tenth in runs allowed, with a -45 run differential that was quite bad for this being still inside the first quarter of the season. They even had a worse bullpen than the Coons, so we had that going for us, and they had a few short-term injuries, including regular coonskinner Ming Kui and their best slugger Juan Ortíz, who were both on the DL for another week.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (1-2, 3.35 ERA) vs. Tristan Broun (3-3, 5.73 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (2-2, 4.25 ERA) vs. Samuel McMullen (0-5, 7.24 ERA)
Rich Hood (1-2, 3.86 ERA) vs. Aaron Walsh (4-3, 5.14 ERA)

The Raccoons are winless against southpaws in 2013, and this series will start with a pair of them. And they are horrible! Even the meager Coons should manage to get something going against them! Walsh on Sunday is a righty. Sandy Sambrano is also to be expected to return some time this weekend.

Game 1
IND: CF J. Wilson – RF Tanner – 2B Kym – 1B Tsung – C Padilla – 3B Mathews – SS R. Miller – LF J. Gonzalez – P Broun
POR: 2B Nomura – 1B Palmer – CF Carmona – RF Bednarski – 3B Rodgers – LF Gentry – C Bowen – SS Whitehouse – P Santos

While Santos retired the first dozen in order with six strikeouts, the Raccoons’ offense was somewhere between despairing and jaw-dropping. Carmona got Palmer forced out in the first inning, then was caught stealing. In the bottom 3rd they patched a run together with a Whitehouse walk and singles by Santos(!) and Palmer, before Carmona made a poor groundout to short to end the inning. Bottom 4th, bases loaded on two walks and an error, but with Whitehouse up and one out already on the board. Whitehouse struck out, Santos popped out to Jose Gonzalez in shallow left. Whitehouse made up for his ineptitude with the stick when he got a line drive by Joey Mathews up the middle to end the fifth inning, but the perfect bid was then broken up by Ryan Miller and his leadoff single in the top 6th. John Wilson’s 2-out homer flipped the score, and the Indians held a 2-1 lead. Santos got hopelessly stuck in the seventh, Gibson replaced him with the sacks full and struck out Gonzalez to end the inning. While the Coons had another near-implosion of their pen in the top 8th before Thrasher got his **** together and struck out a pair to leave runners in scoring position, they also forked up Ken Rodgers’ leadoff double in the bottom of the inning and left him on third base. Bottom 9th, Helio Maggessi issued a leadoff walk to the PH’ing Adrian Quebell, before J-Alex PR’ed for him. Yoshi got Alexander forced with a grounder, however, before Palmer singled to represent the winning run. Carmona chipped a 1-2 pitch up the middle to load the bases with a single, and Bednarski ran a full count before also grounding up the middle, but Clint Philip made a play behind second base, but too late to get anybody anywhere: infield single, tied game, still bases loaded, and still one out. The Raccoons got their third walkoff in due order when Ken Rodgers flew out to fairly deep and certainly deep enough centerfield. 3-2 Blighters. Palmer 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Santos 6.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K and 1-3;

Roster move after this game, as Brett Gentry, who was hitting a docile .308/.308/.308, was demoted back to St. Pete while Sandy Sambrano rejoined the team, very much looking forward to his second game of the season after missing the team’s last 33 contests.

Game 2
IND: CF J. Wilson – RF Tanner – 2B Kym – 1B Tsung – C Padilla – 3B Mathews – SS R. Miller – LF J. Gonzalez – P McMullen
POR: 2B Nomura – CF Sambrano – 1B Palmer – RF Bednarski – C D. Alexander – LF Pruitt – 3B Rodgers – SS Whitehouse – P Baldwin

Not only was Colin Baldwin walking people left and right, he was also entirely and utterly hittable. The Indians got a run on a walk and two really hard singles in the first inning, and Dave Padilla, who had already drive in that run, hit a 2-run double in the third. The Raccoons’ offense was missing in action entirely against the certified pushover Sam McMullen. While Baldwin allowed six hits, four walks, and three runs in 5.1 innings, McMullen threw nothing less than a 1-hit shutout through five frames, and when Pat Whitehouse hit a leadoff single in the bottom 6th, McMullen casually struck out the next three batters, and despite coming in with 19 walks in 41 innings, he didn’t issue a freebie until with two outs in the bottom 8th. That one was drawn by Matt Nunley, who accompanied Whitehouse on the bags with Yoshi coming up as the tying run. And he grounded out pathetically. The ultimate indignity of having a 7+ ERA pitcher fire a shutout against the Critters they were ultimately spared, since the Indians were cowarding out of the situation and sent Maggessi for the bottom of the ninth inning. Quebell reached on an error with one out, Bednarski hit into a double play, fín. 3-0 Indians. Whitehouse 2-3; Vega 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

The semi-ultimate indignity was successfully achieved with this drab contest, however: the Raccoons arrived in last place in runs scored.

Game 3
IND: CF J. Wilson – RF Tanner – 2B Kym – 1B Tsung – C Padilla – 3B Mathews – SS R. Miller – LF J. Gonzalez – P Berry
POR: LF Sambrano – CF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 1B Quebell – C D. Alexander – SS Palmer – RF J. Alexander – 3B Nunley – P Hood

Rather than Walsh, we got Jack Berry (4-2, 3.86 ERA), another right-hander, for the rubber game.

The Portland Amateur Theater gave a grotesque, with Rich Hood in the lead role of a chronic loser getting endlessly humiliated and was tagged for three runs in a nightmarish first inning, where he was not only completely hittable even in 2-strike counts, but also hurt himself with shoddy defense. Dave Padilla drove in two more runs to move up quickly on the list of coonskinners around the division, at least for a while. Padilla played Icarus, who dared to fly too close to the sun, in the vicinity of which he would make two errors inside the first three plays in the bottom 1st. Sandy had led off with a single before Carmona chomped a 3-0 pitch into the dirt in front of home plate, a ball nevertheless thrown into the ether by Padilla, who also threw away another ball when Sandy and Ricardo set out for a double steal. Sambrano scored, Carmona went to third, and Yoshi walked to bring up the go-ahead run in Adrian Quebell, who was cast as the village fool and struck out. Carmona came home on D-Alex’ groundout before Palmer grounded up the middle, where Ryan Miller – giving the banished son – made a clumsy error that put runners on the corners again. J-Alex failed, however, and grounded out to Jong-beom Kym, the mystic prince from a faraway land, who in the top 2nd desired to show Hood from where he had come from, mashing a magic sphere to deep centerfield, where Carmona almost tore out a few legs on a sprawling catch that spared at least one run.

Carmona played the likeable young guy who had suffered a terrible radiation accident as a child and had been granted the superpowers of reaching base whenever he wanted, unless someone managed to contain him with an amulet made up of Doubleplaylite. Guess what, Jack Berry, cast as Moses in the bulrushes, had such an amulet! And so a situation with Nunley and Sandy on the corners and one out in the bottom 2nd turned into less than little and the inning ended. The Coons had their first two batters on the next inning, and this time success was radioed back to earth by Buzz Aldrin, convincingly performed by Dylan Alexander, who hit a real moonshot for a 3-run homer and gave the Furballs a 5-3 lead.

Berry lasted only three innings, while Hood dragged himself through five, while the third act then saw the long-awaited appearance of the mad arsonist, spectacularly performed by Pat Slayton, who entered into the sixth inning with the 5-3 lead, and shoveled the bases full on three singles to Padilla, Miller, and Gonzalez before being locked away in a mental health institution. Manobu Sugano replaced him, struck out Javier Cardenas and got a grounder from John Wilson to end the inning and strand a full set. Kym made another error for the Indians in the bottom 6th, their FIFTH on the day, but the Coons failed to exploit it, and Sugano – to everybody’s surprise – turned out to be another arsonist in disguise in the seventh, allowing singles to Kym and Mun-wah Tsung. Josh Gibson, portraying an FBI agent with low self-esteem, locked him up and got a double play from “Icarus” Padilla to end THAT inning.

The final act dropped off a bit. While there were a few more surprises, like Mike Bednarski hitting a pinch-hit home run in his role as the distant cousin from Wyoming, the play’s conclusion was a bit dull and lacked the special something when Hoshi Watanabe retired the Indians on three grounders. 6-3 Coons. Sambrano 2-5; Quebell 2-4; D. Alexander 1-4, HR, 4 RBI; Nunley 2-4, 2B; Bednarski (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI;

Yeah, people actually paid money to see the Indians make five errors and the Coons strand nine again despite all the involuntary help.

In other news

May 7 – The Capitals blow out the Aces, 19-3, scoring in all but two innings.
May 9 – It’s 300 home runs for RIC 1B César Gonzalez (.353, 1 HR, 7 RBI)! The 40-year old switch-hitter takes Tijuana’s Michael Colvard deep in the first inning to reach the milestone. Gonzalez won three Platinum Sticks and two Gold Gloves in an 18-year career, and was an All Star seven times. He won a championship with the 2010 Cyclones, although his most productive years were with the Blue Sox in the 2000s.
May 9 – A broken finger might cost TOP 3B Pedro Cruz (.202, 4 HR, 9 RBI) two months on the DL.
May 10 – MIL 1B Mike Rucker (.242, 5 HR, 21 RBI) might miss about a month with a broken foot.

Complaints and stuff

The Raccoons last scored more than four runs in a game on April 27, over two weeks ago. That’s some BAD hitting going on here!

Anybody still remember César Gonzalez’ time with the Coons when he should have been in full juice at 26/27? No? Oh, you lucky bastards! I can’t un-see it!

Jason Seeley is slugging .500 in AAA. There ain’t room on the roster, however… or maybe we could go back to the six outfielder setup from last year. But then again there isn’t really a place for him to play in… Hmmmm. Well, it’s the Raccoons. The next broken paw / leg / neck can’t be far around the corner.