[Westheim]

The reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated!

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Raccoons (3-0) vs. Condors (1-3) – April 7-9, 2045

Game 2
TIJ: SS Banuelas – LF Rossi – 1B Gibbs – RF Ito – 3B Barcia – C Pasko – CF B. Oliver – 2B M. Lopez – P Hubbard
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – RF Fernandez – 1B Gurney – SS Waters – C Zarate – 2B Martell – P Wheatley

For something new, the Raccoons’ starter didn’t get torched right out of the gate, and, y’know, for a nice start, retired the leadoff man in a game, too. The Condors had 2-out singles in the first two innings, but with Brian Oliver also thrown out by Herrera in an attempt to stretch his into a double. Pat Gurney then became the first Critter to actually steal a base on the year, swiping second after a 1-out single in the bottom 2nd. He had certainly been an outside bet for that distinction. Unfortunately, Waters and Zarate went down meekly, but Derek Baskins would give the Raccoons the first 1-0 lead of the season with a third-inning jack off … Kevin Daley. Hubbard had left the game just prior to him coming back to the plate, apparently with some lower core issue.

No issues with Wheats – he didn’t pitch with a runner on base between Ron Gibbs’ single in the first and Mark Pasko reaching on Wheatley’s own hard-luck error in the fifth. Oliver and Lopez both went own on strikes after that to end the inning and protect the 1-0 lead. We weren’t yet concerned when he walked Jesus Banuelas with one out in the sixth, but with two outs in the inning, Gibbs and the ex-Critter Rikuto Ito piled on two line drive hits to bring the runner around and tie the game. Sergio Barcia flew out to Baskins, stranding two. The Raccoons got on the lead horse again soon, however; Herrera opened the bottom 6th with a double to center, Maldo walked, and Manny hit into a double play, but that moved Herrera to third base, from where Gurney singled him home, 2-1. Waters singled to move Gurney to third base, which also ended the day of Daley after a valiant three innings in long relief. Bobby Klopotek got Zarate to ground out then, and another pair of runners were left on.

Pasko singled in the seventh, and left-hander Tom Rudd would pinch-hit for Klopotek with two outs. The Raccoons called on Chuck Jones, who got the strikeout to bail out of the seventh. In turn, the Raccoons got Baskins on in the bottom 7th, he stole second, and was driven in on a Herrera single, 3-1. The extra run came in handy when Nelson Moreno was taken deep by Ron Gibbs in the eighth, which reduced the lead to a single marker, but that was still something that Josh Rella could save in the ninth – and did, retiring the Condors’ 5-6-7 like 1-2-3 for the W. 3-2 Critters. Herrera 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Gurney 3-4, RBI; Waters 2-4, 2B; Wheatley 6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (1-0);

Could the Raccoons open the season with an undefeated week? I’d like that!

Game 3
TIJ: SS Banuelas – 1B Gibbs – C T. Black – RF Ito – LF Rossi – 3B Barcia – CF J. Sullivan – 2B M. Lopez – P R. Porter
POR: 2B Carreno – CF Baskins – LF Fernandez – RF Toohey – 1B Gurney – C Kilmer – 3B Jimenez – SS Martell – P Okuda

Trailing almost came back in the third inning of the Sunday game, which Miguel Lopez opened by reaching second base on a throwing error by Al Martell. On Porter’s bunt, though, Ricky Jimenez pounced and tossed the ball back to third base where Lopez was slapped out by Martell, and even a wild pitch later, the Condors were no closer to a run than before. Banuelas walked, but Okuda struck out Gibbs, and Terry Black grounded out to Jimenez. The Raccoons weren’t doing much in the early innings, but Baskins opened the fourth with a double to right-center, only the second Critters hit in the game. A wild pitch advanced him to third base right away, so there was the go-ahead run with nobody out. Porter lost Manny on four balls before Toohey got the run home… unfortunately on a double play grounder that left the bags empty. That kept the Raccoons to a 1-0 lead, although they doubled it the following frame with a Kilmer single and a Martell triple, 2-0.

Okuda, on a 2-hitter, appeared entirely solid until the seventh when Baskins had to chase after fly balls twice, but caught both Ito’s and Barcia’s drives to deep center. Boldly, Okuda hit for himself in the bottom of the inning with Gurney on second, Jimenez on first, two outs, and Porter staring down at him still, having whiffed him twice already. He didn’t get him three times, and didn’t even get him out. Okuda chopped a 2-1 pitch through the right side for a single, Gurney darted for home plate around third base, Ito threw a ball over Black’s head, and while the runner might have scored anyway, the trailing runners reached scoring position, too. That one came up costly on Carreno’s single to left, on which Nate Rossi fumbled the ball for another error, allowing two runs to score. Okuda, now ahead by five, got through the eighth without hiccups, and started the ninth on 101 pitches, as we’d wait and see how it would go. After a Banuelas single and a Gibbs homer, we judged it to be going badly and went to the pen. Rella wasn’t brought out after 65 pitches in four days; we went to Craig instead. Three Condors later,the game was over. 5-2 Raccoons. Baskins 2-4, 2B; Kilmer 2-4; Okuda 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (2-0) and 1-3, RBI;

In other news

April 4 – The Miners score *16* runs in the fifth inning of a 17-4 win over the Rebels. Miners hurler Jesus Sanchez (1-0, 5.14 ERA) makes two of the three outs, once bunting, but also hits a 2-run triple. While 18 Miners reach base, none of them hits a home run.
April 8 – SAC LF/RF/1B Nate Culp (.105, 0 HR, 0 RBI) will be out two weeks with a knee contusion.
April 9 – DAL INF/CF Jose Rivas (.444, 0 HR, 3 RBI) slaps six hits in the Stars’ 21-4 rout of the Rebels, including two doubles and four singles, and drives in two runs. Rivas even has a chance for a seventh hit in the ninth inning, but grounds out. He is the sixth Dallas player to join the 6-hits-in-a-game club.

FL Player of the Week: SFW C/1B Timóteo Clemente (.435, 3 HR, 7 RBI)
CL Player of the Week: VAN C Julio Diaz (.435, 2 HR, 7 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

Undefeated! I didn’t quite see it coming, but we didn’t get put into the L column yet this season. Never mind that four wins were by one run and that a few of them were daytime TV drama material.

Not *everybody* is raging hot at this point, but it’s only a week… Quite a few guys are still hitting zilch (or very close to it), with Jimenez and Zarate hitting a combined 0-for-16. We’re even 2-for-6 in stolen bases. The first (few) inning(s) has been a stepping stone pitching-wise.

But we’re 6-and-*******-0, which counts for something!

Fun Fact: The Rebels have allowed 56 runs in six games this week, so even in non-routs, they were still pretty dim.

I can’t remember any Raccoons week like that, and I don’t know whether that would be down to it never having happened or me having drunk my sorrows away successfully.