[Westheim]

Raccoons (6-6) vs. Titans (4-8) – April 20-22, 2015

The last set of the depressing homestand were three games against the Titans, who had lost four in a row and had the worst offense in the Continental League overall, having scored only 30 runs (2.5 R/G). How that would mingle with the Raccoons’ pitching, which had yet to be scraped off the front of that bus, remained to be seen. The Titans’ pitching was fifth in ERA. The season series had been split evenly in 2014, nine games each.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (2-0, 1.62 ERA) vs. Chae-ku Lee (1-1, 3.00 ERA)
Bill Conway (0-1, 3.46 ERA) vs. Johnny Krom (0-1, 1.80 ERA)
Daniel Dickerson (0-2, 5.59 ERA) vs. Melvin Andrade (0-1, 2.30 ERA)

Krom was a left-hander, the only one the Titans had in their rotation.

Game 1
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B S. Butler – CF J. Alexander – C T. Robinson – RF R. Lopez – LF J. Silva – 3B Rentz – P C.K. Lee
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – 1B Reya – 3B Nunley – C D. Alexander – SS Taylor – P Santos

The weekend’s nightmare continued unabated with Mike Rivera’s and Jose Gutierrez’ hard singles to start the game, a passed ball and a wild pitch, John Alexander’s RBI double and stolen base, and finally a deep fly to third base for the last out, plating two runs on Santos in the first inning, which took him well over 30 pitches to complete. It didn’t get better after that, either, with Gutierrez’ leadoff double in the third inning being followed by a walk to Steve Butler, Santos’ first walk issued after 18.2 innings in the season. But the Titans kept whacking it, with J-Alex ramming a double off the wall in right. Gutierrez scored, 3-0, Butler tried to, but was thrown out on Sandy Sambrano’s relay, however, the Titans also brought in Alexander to run the score to 4-0. The Coons had stranded two men in scoring position in the first inning when Luis Reya had flown out to Rodrigo Lopez in right, but they had the bases loaded with nobody out in the third inning after Cookie doubled and Sandy and Richards both walked. The next three batters each brought home a single run as Bednarski grounded out, Reya reached on Mike Rivera’s error, and Nunley singled, getting the team back to 4-3 before Dylan Alexander hit into a two-for-one with Rivera to end the inning.

None of that helped Santos, who remained awful, allowed another run in the fourth inning and didn’t make it out of the fifth. Zack Entwistle had to come in and strike out Lopez with two men to end the inning. Mathis pitched two scoreless innings, keeping the Titans close, and in between the Coons had the tying runs on when Sandy and Richards drew walks – the last of six for Chae-ku Lee – but were left on by the presumed big bats. Bottom 8th, the pen was at it for Boston, and the bases were loaded with nobody out as Nunley walked, D-Alex singled, and Murphy walked in place of Taylor against the new reliever, lefty Bill Dean. Bergquist batted for the reliever Mathis, and hit a 2-0 pitch hard up the middle, and through between the fielders, for an RBI single. The bases remained loaded for Cookie, who fell behind 0-2 before looping a ball up the leftfield line for a 2-run double, which flipped the score. Dean was bowled over completely on Sandy’s following 2-run single to center, but he also had to watch that sixth run score after Richards’ single and a pinch-hit sac fly from Danny Margolis. That put the game out of save range for Angel Casas, who didn’t have any saves so far (nobody on the team had one), and Ron Thrasher wasn’t creating one, retiring the Titans in order in the ninth. 9-5 Raccoons. Carmona 3-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Sambrano 1-2, 3 BB, 2 RBI; Richards 2-3, 2 BB; Nunley 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Bergquist (PH) 1-1, RBI; Mathis 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (1-0);

Game 2
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B S. Butler – CF J. Alexander – C T. Robinson – RF R. Lopez – LF Thurman – 3B Rentz – P Krom
POR: CF Carmona – SS Sambrano – RF Bednarski – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – 2B Bergquist – 3B Canning – C Margolis – P Conway

Steve Butler was thrown out at home for the second day in a row, this time in the first inning. It was not the only run the Titans forfeited on the bases, as Mike Rivera had been caught stealing by Margolis after a leadoff walk. Butler had been hit by a pitch, and was thrown out on J-Alex’ double to center. And that was not the only mistake made by anybody early in this mess of a game. Cookie was thrown out stealing in the bottom of the inning when Sambrano fell asleep on a hit-and-run call, but in the bottom 2nd the Coons had their first two batters on when Krom threw a wild pitch to Bergquist, and when Bergquist grounded over to Tommy Rentz, the third baseman made a capital throwing error for two bases, allowing both Raccoons on the paths to score the first runs of the game. Walking canned, Margolis doubled, and Cookie hit a sac fly to run up four runs total in the inning, two of which were earned, and two of which were blamed on Rentz.

In a game of two’s, Margolis would have a second extra-base hit, a solo homer in the fourth, Carmona was caught stealing once more right after that, and Conway allowed two runs in the fifth after a rain shower had forced a delay of just over 30 minutes. He got two more outs in the sixth – Krom had been done after four – but was replaced after Zachary Thurman’s double. Bruno retired Rentz to stifle the Titans in the 5-2 game. Manobu Sugano faced five Titans and retired them all, including four left-handers, in the seventh and eighth, and with two outs, Constantino was supposed to retire Tim Robinson, but walked him. Okay, bring Angel. The first 4-out save hadn’t worked, but this was his now. Rodrigo Lopez grounded out to short to end the inning. Angel had come in along with Reya, double-switching out Richards. Bergquist walked and Canning singled to go to the corners with one out in the bottom 8th. Margolis popped out against Bill Dean, but Reya came up now and rammed a double off the leftfield fence. Both runners scored, and Angel Casas had a comfy ninth. 7-2 Raccoons. Carmona 2-4, RBI; Murphy 2-4, 2B; Bergquist 2-3, BB; Margolis 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Reya 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Sugano 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Casas 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (1);

Cookie is now 3-for-8 in stolen bases this year, so lock the showers.

The Titans made a switch with their rotation, sending Ian Rutter (1-1, 1.08 ERA) into the final game on Wednesday.

Game 3
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B S. Butler – CF J. Alexander – C T. Robinson – RF R. Lopez – LF X. Williams – 3B Rentz – P Rutter
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – RF Reya – 3B Nunley – C D. Alexander – SS Taylor – P Dickerson

Dickerson was shackled early, as Rivera and Butler both doubled in the first, and he also walked two, conceding two runs. Luis Reya was the death for all offense the Raccoons tried to generate, flying out to end the first with two Furballs on base, and also in the third, when the bases were loaded. Nobody scored, while the Titans were smelling Dickerson’s corpse having more runs in them. In a telling moment, Ian Rutter was told to swing away with Xavier Williams on first and one out in the fourth inning and lined out hard to Palmer Taylor at short. The Coons would finally come up even in the bottom of the fourth inning when Carmona tripled with Nunley and D-Alex on base, tying the game at two. Ron Richards then gave the Coons the lead with a leadoff jack in the fifth. That was the last run off Rutter, who was hit for in the sixth when his spot came up just after a walk to Tommy Rentz that loaded the bases with nobody out and ended Dickerson’s shoddy performance. Entwistle had PH Jose Silva at 0-2, but failed to clean up when Silva singled in the tying run, and surrendered another run on a sac fly. Thrasher came on to face Steve Butler with two men still on base in a 4-3 deficit, but the Titans again ran themselves out of a big inning when Rentz was caught stealing third base. Thrasher surrendered an RBI double anyway, and the Coons were down 5-3 before J-Alex struck out. Xavier Williams further opened the score in the seventh with a 2-run blast off Constantino. The Raccoons looked on, and amounted to nothing in the final few innings. 7-3 Titans. Carmona 3-5, 3B, 2 RBI;

We keep having the very worst defense in the league… Hits just fall in everywhere, all the time.

Raccoons (8-7) @ Aces (9-6) – April 24-26, 2015

The Aces had gotten off well, ranking second in both runs scored and runs allowed in the Continental League. Most of the pitching merits rested with the rotation, however, as their bullpen had been sub par, ranking ninth with a 4.28 ERA – nothing compared to the Coons, however. The Coons had taken last year’s series, 7-2.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (1-2, 7.79 ERA) vs. Jaquan Wagoner (2-1, 0.42 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (1-0, 2.45 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (1-2, 3.79 ERA)
Hector Santos (2-0, 3.38 ERA) vs. Alonso Alonso (1.1, 7.00 ERA)

This is a full set of right-handed pitchers. Have we had something like that this year? I don’t think so. The Aces also led the league in stolen bases with 16, with Cookie Carmona getting close in getting caught stealing…

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – RF Bednarski – 3B Nunley – C Alexander – SS Taylor – P Brown
LVA: 3B R. Avila – C D. Rice – 1B B. Thomas – SS B. Burke – CF Kelsey – 2B Beard – LF J. Garcia – RF J. Alvarez – P Wagoner

Stan Murphy doubled home the first run of the game in the first inning, plating Ron Richards, who had singled, but it remained to be seen how Nick Brown, who had effectively been dismembered in his last two starts, conceding more than a run per inning, would fare against the high-offense Aces. Turns out: not well. Ricky Avila singled hard to left to start the Aces’ night, stole second base on a tardy Alexander, and scored easily on a sac fly by Brent Burke after Bill Thomas had been smacked by Brown. Avila found himself with runners in scoring position in the bottom 2nd after Brown had walked both Jaime Garcia and Jesus Alvarez and that also came back to bite him when Avila hit a bloop into shallow left. Both runs scored, and Brown’s ERA was closing in on nine. Friggin’ nine!! The same situation came up again in the fifth, Garcia and Alvarez in scoring position – this time after singles – and two outs for Avila, who this time bounced out to Matt Nunley.

By then, D-Alex had been struck in the leg by a Wagoner pitch and had left the game, leaving catching duties to Danny Margolis, who hit into a double play in the seventh, the third straight inning in which the Raccoons hit into a two-for-one to completely blast the foundations off any comeback opportunity. Brownie was nothing special, but kept the team in the game all the way through eight innings, striking out seven, most of those in the sixth inning and later.

The Raccoons had the tying run at the plate once more in the ninth against Manuel Reyes after a 1-out, pinch-hit single by Jason Seeley. Canning hit for Brown, singled to right to bring up the go-ahead run, but Cookie lined out to Jaime Garcia. Bergquist hit for Sambrano, who had suffered through a completely black day, and managed a single to center, plating a run to get the Coons to 3-2. Ron Richards hit a 2-1 pitch hard to right, Rusty Beard lunging – NOT GETTING IT!! A single, Canning scored, and the game was tied! Murphy bounced to short on the first pitch to hand Brownie a no-decision. The Aces loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth against Bruno and Sugano, but Carmona made a flying grab on Avila’s soft line to shallow center to retire the side and send the game to extras. The Coons had a 2-out double by Margolis in the top 10th, but had an empty bench and Sugano’s spot came up. Sugano struck out, but at least also got Danny Rice with a K to start the bottom 10th. Mathis then took over, Nunley made a throwing error to put the winning run at second base with one out, but Mathis somehow made it through. Cookie doubled in the 11th, but was stranded when Geoff Struck gobbled up two wannabe-doubles by Bergquist and Richards. Reya then reached second base on Bill Thomas’ throwing error in the top 11th (Thomas had been the runner reaching on Nunley’s error), but Nunley was walked intentionally and Margolis hit into a double play. Nunley would strike out with runners on the corners to end the top 14th, as this game dragged on way longer than anybody appreciated. The bottom 15th was Ron Thrasher’s second inning. Bill Thomas singled with one out, Brent Burke doubled, and rookie Justin Bellows zinged the very next pitch into leftfield to end this stinker. 4-3 Aces. Richards 2-5, 2 BB, RBI; Murphy 3-7, 2B, RBI; Reya 2-4; Margolis 2-5, 2B; Seeley (PH) 1-1; Canning (PH) 2-4; Brown 8.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 K; Mathis 3.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

The little ****s left EIGHTEEN men on base. I don’t even know what to do…

Dylan Alexander had a bruised thigh, and this would not put him out for longer than a week, so I didn’t want to disable him, but I also couldn’t go with only one catcher. D-Alex claimed he could play and was only listed as day-to-day, but I didn’t feel easy about this. Tom McNeela in St. Petersburg was put on alert to have a bag ready with a toothbrush and two fresh sets of underwear, just in case.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – 2B Bergquist – SS Taylor – C Margolis – P Toner
LVA: 3B R. Avila – C D. Rice – SS B. Burke – LF Bellows – 1B Bovane – CF Kelsey – RF Struck – 2B Beard – P Valdevez

Toner faced the minimum the first time through, though not without a single by Bellows and drilling Geoff Struck. Both leadoff runners were erased on double play grounders, while the Raccoons were already up 1-0 thanks to Ron Richards’ fifth home run of the season and would add their second run on another solo homer, this one by Mike Bednarski, his third, in the fourth inning. While Jonny Toner more or less had the Aces under control except for the fourth inning when he suffered a short bout of wildness, ran back-to-back full counts and issued a walk to Brent Burke, which raised his pitch count suddenly, the offense kept trickling at the pace of a run every other inning. Carmona was on third base and scored on Richards’ sac fly in the sixth inning, giving Toner a 3-0 lead.

Jonny finally had his bell rung in the bottom 7th when out of nowhere between K’s and soft pops and grounders Justin Bellows got hold of one and ripped a solo homer to right. This one was outta here so clearly, Bednarski didn’t even look, he stood motionless and kept staring at home plate as the ball vanished in the cheap seats. Toner completed eight innings, getting another double play in the eighth, in the top of which the Coons had missed their usual even-inning run when Richards had been called out on strikes with Carmona and Canning in scoring position and two outs, and they had the fourth run thrown out at home plate in the ninth inning. Bergquist had been clunked by Kevin Johnston, had been bunted over by Taylor and had tried to score on Margolis’ single, but it was not enough. Avila hit a leadoff double off Angel in the ninth, but that was all the Aces got. 3-1 Raccoons. Carmona 2-3, BB, 2B; Toner 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (2-0);

This was Justin Bellows‘ first career homer. He was the first overall pick in the 2008 draft, taken out of high school, but it had been a long struggle for him before he made it to the majors. He had cups of coffee in each of the last three years, never hit much at all, and only this season, at age 26, had fought his role into a starting spot.

Jason Seeley has yet to start a game this season. Poor kid does his best, let’s put him in for Sunday.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 1B Murphy – RF Richards – 3B Nunley – SS Canning – LF Seeley – C Margolis – P Santos
LVA: 3B R. Avila – C D. Rice – SS B. Burke – 1B Bovane – CF Kelsey – RF Struck – LF J. Garcia – 2B Beard – P A. Alonso

The Coons scored two on Alonso Alonso in the first inning, which started with a Cookie single and stolen base, with Sandy walking, before the Raccoons made consecutive force outs at second base, but that allowed Carmona to score, and Richards would come home on Canning’s single after Nunley had worked a walk to shove him to second base. Unfortunately, Santos couldn’t even hold on for one inning, getting whacked for a Danny Rice single, a Brent Burke triple, and a Raúl Bovane single, all hard, all line drives, to fall back to a 2-2 tie after one. The Aces had three more hits in the second inning, scoring two more runs, and it was the obnoxious Avila again, that highly annoying pest, with a 2-out, 2-run single.

The Raccoons put up a threat in the fifth inning, but Carmona made a baserunning mistake, not going all-out from first base on Murphy’s 2-out double to right, which had him then stop on third base, and he was stranded along with Murphy and Richards, who walked, when Nunley grounded out to Rusty Beard. Chances wound up few and far between for the Raccoons in this game. A pinch-hit triple by Bednarski would at least bring up the tying run again in the eighth inning, but that was with two outs and Margolis coming up, and Margolis could not be hit for. He grounded out. Luis Reya hit for Thrasher to start the top 9th against Reyes, who had blown the save on Friday, and singled hard to right. The tying run was up again, since the Aces hadn’t scored since Avila’s evil deed in the second inning. Santos through six and a third, Bruno, and Thrasher had held the Aces where they were. Cookie grounded out, Sandy popped out, and Murphy whiffed to end the game and lose the series. 4-2 Aces. Murphy 2-5, 2B; Bednarski (PH) 1-1, 3B; Reya (PH) 1-1;

In other news

April 20 – It looks like the Rebels will be without RF/LF Winston Jones (.279, 1 HR, 13 RBI) for a while. The 31-year old sprained his ankle and might need a month of rest.
April 21 – SAC 2B Ricky Luna (.175, 1 HR, 3 RBI) is hit in the face by Dallas’ Chris Domingue (3-0, 0.75 ERA), who pitches a 4-hit shutout in a 7-0 Stars win, and gets away with a fractured cheekbone. He will be out for at least one month.
April 22 – It’s a 20-game hitting streak for LAP LF Jimmy Roberts (.328, 3 HR, 8 RBI), who hits three singles in the Pacifics’ 4-2 win over the Warriors.
April 22 – The 500-save milestone has been reached by VAN CL Pedro Alvarado (0-1, 1.08 ERA, 4 SV), who saves the Canadiens’ 9-5 lead over the Indians from mortal danger to become only the fifth pitcher to reach 500 saves, following Andres Ramirez, Lawson Steward, Grant West (all Hall of Famers), as well as Jim Durden.
April 22 – The Blue Sox outlast the Rebels in a wild slugfest, beating them 15-11. There are four innings in which a team scored four runs or more in the contest, but not a single player with more than two runs batted in!
April 23 – The hitting streak of SFB 3B Javy Rodriguez (.377, 0 HR, 6 RBI) has reached 30 games with a second-inning single in Randy Farley’s (2-0, 1.80 ERA) 6-hit shutout of the Falcons. The Bayhawks win 3-0.
April 23 – The Capitals have found out what’s wrong with SP Brian Benjamin (0-2, 8.79 ERA). The 25-year old right-hander has a tear in his flexor tendon and needs surgery, ending his season.
April 24 – TIJ SP Manuel Rojas (2-1, 0.73 ERA) might miss most of the season with a torn labrum.
April 24 – As they beat the Scorpions 8-0, the Buffaloes score all their runs in the eighth inning.
April 25 – The Titans snap the hitting streak of SFB 3B Javier Rodriguez (.364, 0 HR, 6 RBI) at 31 games, holding him dry in a 4-1 defeat against the Bayhawks.
April 26 – Also no more: the hitting streak of LAP LF Jimmy Roberts (.354, 3 HR, 9 RBI), which ends after 23 games as Roberts goes 0-for-3 in the Pacifics’ 8-1 rout at the hands of the Cyclones.

Complaints and stuff

Defense remains questionable. Lots of innings where they won’t make a play for three, four batters, and that is how these 3-run innings happen. Every day, more or less, although the pitching was much better in the Aces series – but the offense went sour.

Canning has been really inefficient at short, but has been hitting, while Taylor has been good at short, but has not been hitting a lick. Ronnie McKnight can come off the DL on Tuesday, solving this issue, thankfully. McKnight is ready to go, but his 15 days aren’t up yet…

Should have signed ancient Randy Farley. He can basically take anybody’s spot in the rotation right now, except Jonny Toner’s. Everybody else looks like last week’s leftover vegetables.

Graham Wasserman made his second start for the Cyclones this week but left the game with an injury after getting socked for six runs early, which I guess is called adding injury to insult.

We’ll play the two fifth-place teams next week, but I dare say that the Crusaders are already merely a tiny silhouette against the setting sun.