[Westheim]

Raccoons (19-13) vs. Cyclones (19-13) – May 10-12, 2011

Hello, Cyclones. Long time no see. Kinda. We have won the last three regular season series between the teams, and we won’t go into detail about any other series we might have played. No, no. I refuse the thought.

The Cyclones were in the top 4 in the Federal League in both runs scored and runs allowed. They even had the highest batting average. It was really hard to poke holes into what they had assembled, but they did have a few significant injuries with SP Juan Garcia, LF César Gonzalez, and 2B/SS Pat Morrison all on the DL.

Projected matchups:
Bill Conway (2-2, 2.92 ERA) vs. Javier Cruz (3-2, 4.85 ERA)
Gil McDonald (1-3, 3.41 ERA) vs. Ron Funderburk (2-0, 0.34 ERA)
Nick Brown (4-2, 3.61 ERA) vs. Luis Guerrero (3-2, 3.55 ERA)

All series games would match handedness for the two starters involved. I’m eyeing Thursday. If Nick Brown doesn’t rebound to decency and at least get a handful of strikeouts I will be genuinely concerned that there is more wrong with him than a simple case of suckery.

Game 1
CIN: 1B Spinu – 2B B. Hernandez – CF J. Silva – RF Bailey – C Jolley – SS Hall – LF Hiwalani – 3B Banda – P J. Cruz
POR: CF Castro – 3B Merritt – RF Morales – LF Pruitt – 2B Nomura – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – C Bowen – P Conway

The opener saw some pretty bollocks starting pitching. Bill Conway’s expressed intent was it to blow our 7-game winning streak by walks alone, and as a matter of principle put every leadoff man on base. The Cyclones scored two runs off him in the first, but the Raccoons were quick to had Javier Cruz a start reminiscent of his playoff performance in 2010. Castro singled, Merritt tripled, and a Morales sac fly tied the score before Pruitt also got on and scored on Quebell’s homer. The Cyclones got a run off Conway in the second, but Morales’ solo shot in the third restored the 2-run lead at 5-3. But Conway tried to lose *really hard*. Top 4th, Bakile Hiwalani singled, and Alfredo Banda, who had stolen his way from first to third on consecutive pitches en route to score in the second, also hit a single that sent runners to the corners with nobody out. Dave Fletcher (brrr) hit for Cruz, but struck out. Georg Spinu singled in a run with one out, before Bartolo Hernandez (the other longtime-Logger on the roster) grounded out. Jose Silva lined a pitch to the left of second base that looked like Conway was done for the day, but Palmer made a lunging grab to end the inning with the tying run at third base. Conway still didn’t retire anybody else and was chased from the game after Will Bailey and Jayden Jolley started the fifth inning with a pair of singles. Law Rockburn was tasked with preserving the unpreservable. Bob hall bunted the runners over before Bakile Hiwalani grounded back to the mound. Law was busy looking back both runners, and Hiwalani reached first base safely to load the sacks with one out. And then just like that, Alfredo Banda and Roberto Hernandez both struck out and the Cyclones continued to trail 5-4 – for another inning. Sergio Vega was tasked with the right-handed 1-2-3 batters in the sixth inning. He walked Spinu, and Hernandez singled, sending Spinu to third. Hernandez was caught stealing by Bowen (whose CS% was a paltry 20%), but Vega just walked Silva to get back to where he came from. Will Bailey homered off Ron Thrasher to put the Cyclones over the hump. The Raccoons weren’t doing anything for a very long time. Tommy Ward allowed another run in the ninth inning in a case of “too many singles”, and in the bottom 9th Ian Johnson sat down Nomura and Quebell before Keith Ayers hit for Ward and walked. Owens hit for a horrendous Bowen and jacked a homer to left that suddenly brought up the tying run … in Manuel Gutierrez … who singled! And then Tomas Castro struck out. 8-7 Cyclones. Pruitt 2-4; Quebell 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Owens (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI;

Turns out the Cyclones were better at hitting and less **** at pitching in this one. And didn’t make two crucial errors. They had the leadoff man on EIGHT times. Pat Slayton in the seventh was the only pitcher who retired the first man in the inning. You can hardly win a game like that.

Ugh, crap game.

Game 2
CIN: 1B Spinu – 2B B. Hernandez – CF J. Silva – RF Bailey – C Jolley – SS Hall – LF P. Estrada – 3B Banda – P Guerrero
POR: 3B Merritt – 2B Palmer – CF Morales – 1B Quebell – RF Ayers – LF Pruitt – SS Howell – C Owens – P McDonald

The Cyclones made a change and moved Luis Guerrero into the middle game, and he was spotted a 3-run lead in the first inning. Spinu was retired by McDonald, who didn’t retire anybody else for a long time after that. Hernandez and Silva singled, Bailey walked, and then Jayden Jolly hit a 2-run single to center. Bob Hall brought in the third run. Four hits, a walk, three runs, despair. McDonald wouldn’t do anything consoling any time soon. He ran a 3-0 count on Guerrero to start the second inning before Guerrero lined out real hard to Keith Ayers. The Cyclones’ pitcher was perfect the first time through the order, walked Merritt in the fourth, but Michael Palmer was right there to hit into a double play. The Raccoons didn’t get a hit until Matt Pruitt hit a horrendous bloop that was completely uncatchable and fell for a single between Banda and Estrada. Nothing came of that, and a leadoff jack by Bob Hall in the sixth ran the score to 5-0 and chased McDonald. The Raccoons fudged on for another inning, Sergio Vega issued another leadoff walk in the top 7th, but the game did come to a merciful end after all. It started to rain already after five innings, and it got worse by the seventh. The umpires sent the game to delay before Vega could walk the bases full, and the game was eventually called due to the bad weather. 5-0 Cyclones.

The Raccoons haven’t won a game against a left-handed starter since the first week of the season. Let’s see what their own left-handed starter can do now in game 3. A win would be very soul-soothing, but I don’t like the chances.

Game 3
CIN: CF J. Silva – LF Hiwalani – 1B Spinu – RF Bailey – C Jolley – SS Hall – 2B D. Fletcher – 3B Banda – P O’Herlihy
POR: CF Castro – 3B Merritt – RF Morales – LF Pruitt – 2B Nomura – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – C Bowen – P Brown

Bad weather was looming, but at least Nick Brown was ahead in the count throughout the first inning, Silva grounded out on a 1-2 count, and Hiwalani and Spinu struck out. Heey, strikeouts!! He walked Will Bailey to start the second in a full count, but then struck out the next three. That looked too good to be true. Is it raining yet?

Brownie put on a show, striking out 10 batters in the first five innings, with that walk to Bailey the only runner he allowed. Offense against Nathan O’Herlihy (3-2, 4.76 ERA) was almost exclusively limited to Matt Pruitt, but it was a good one-man offense, producing two home runs to center in Pruitt’s first two at-bats, the latter of the line drive variety. Rain then started (of course…) in the bottom of the fifth inning, in which Bowen, Brown, and Crown- err, Castro made three quick outs. Brown returned to strike out Banda and O’Herlihy to run the dozen full, then got a pop from Silva to end the inning … and then tarp came on. The rain had gotten too bad and the first puddle was forming next to second base. The rain completely killed off Brown’s 6-inning, 12 K no-hit bid, lasting over an hour. The pitch count had already been over 80, so whether Brown would have lasted nine innings was up for debate, but … ****.

More **** in the seventh, as Law Rockburn allowed a homer to Hiwalani right away. Spinu singled and Rockburn was chased with a lockburn, with Ron Thrasher squeezing out of the inning. With the offense pretty dead right now, Thrasher got another two outs in the eighth before he walked Silva. Angel Casas had not pitched in either game of the set and took over, striking out Hiwalani. Casas came in along with Owens in a double switch, and Owens led off the bottom 8th. Come on guys, get two men on and bring up Pruitt, who then had 75% of the team’s hits. Owens singled, Castro hit into a double play, and there would be no additional offense against Iemitsu Rin. Angel had the 3-4-5 batters to deal with in the ninth, ran full counts to Spinu and Bailey before striking them both out, then handed Jayden Jolley a golden sombrero to salvage at least a W for Brownie in this what-coulda-been. 2-1 Brownies. Pruitt 3-3, 2 HR, 2 RBI; Owens 1-1; Brown 6.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 12 K, W (5-2); Thrasher 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K; Casas 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, SV (11);

Brownie back? For crying out loud I hope so!!

Also, Matt Pruitt took sole possession of the home run (and RBI) lead on the team, which means no current AAA player has a share of it anymore.

Raccoons (20-15) vs. Loggers (16-17) – May 13-15, 2011

The Loggers were better than anybody would have dared to concede to them: .500 in the middle of May wasn’t shabby. What was shabby was their second-worst offense in the league, and their dead-last bullpen, but the Raccoons so far were 1-2 against them.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (3-2, 2.22 ERA) vs. Roy Thomas (2-3, 4.81 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (3-1, 2.15 ERA) vs. Rodrigo Gomez (1-5, 5.51 ERA)
Bill Conway (2-2, 3.51 ERA) vs. Fernando Cruz (3-3, 5.00 ERA)

Cruz is another left-hander for us, the only one they have. As a note, we are missing A.J. Bartels (3-3, 1.69 ERA), who led the majors in ERA, which was puzzling in its own right.

Game 1
MIL: 2B C. Miller – C R. Hernandez – 1B Catalo – CF Davenport – RF Locke – LF Dally – SS Ito – 3B Cuevas – P R. Thomas
POR: CF Castro – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – RF Morales – 2B Nomura – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – C Bowen – P Umberger

Craig Miller’s leadoff double led to a run in the top 1st, but the Raccoons were donated a tied game in the bottom of the first. Roy Thomas drilled Merritt, who advanced on a wild pitch and scored on an error by Willie Davenport, while the rest of the team made three outs. But they did have the bases loaded in the bottom 2nd with nobody out, but unfortunately that was with Umberger batting. The pathetic Umberger struck out feebly, and then Castro hit into a double play…

The Loggers would get a knew lead in the fourth. Justin Dally, who had missed the first series between the teams on the DL, but was batting under .200 anyway, hit a leadoff double and came in to score. But just like in the first, the lead didn’t survive for any length of time. While Umberger was shoddy on the mound and at the plate (though he would hit a single in a meaningless spot later in the game), Roy Thomas was guilty of conceding a leadoff jack to Yoshi Nomura that tied the score. The Loggers got right back with another leadoff hit off Umberger, who was no help in trying to turn our season record against the Loggers around, allowed another run in the fifth inning to fall behind 3-2 and even walked Roy Thomas in the sixth just before going extinct as far as this game was concerned. Logan Taylor hit for Umberger in the bottom 6th with Quebell and Palmer on base and two outs. Bowen had just hacked out and Taylor was down to two strikes in a hurry before zinging a grounder past Miller into right. That scored Quebell and tied the score at three, while Palmer was thrown out at third base on the play to end the inning.

Pat Slayton was in for the top 7th with three right-handers up to bat, and issued another leadoff walk. Guys. The next guy to issue a leadoff walk will be put on half rations! I MEAN IT! HALF RATIONS!! Slayton got the next two and Tommy Ward retired Philip Locke to end the inning. The Coons actually took a LEAD in the bottom 7th, with Merritt reaching on a single and again advancing on a wild pitch. Morales would drive him in, Nomura also got on, but Quebell struck out against newly-sent-in reliever César Fuentes, who would allow two runs in the eighth inning that started so innocently with Manuel Gutierrez hitting for Palmer and reaching on an infield single. He stole second and scored on Keith Ayers’ double. When Castro singled to left, Ayers was sent around third and was SAFE AT HOME. SAFE!! Have you ever seen something like that!? Angel Casas never allowed any suspense to creep into the ninth, striking out the side. 6-3 Coons! Nomura 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Gutierrez (PH) 1-1; Taylor (PH) 1-1, RBI; Ayers (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Ward 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, W (1-0);

Game 2
MIL: 1B Catalo – C R. Hernandez – CF Davenport – RF Locke – SS Ito – LF Dally – 2B C. Miller – 3B Cuevas – P R. Gomez
POR: CF Castro – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – C Owens – RF Taylor – SS Howell – P Baldwin

Colin came in with the third-best ERA in the Continental League, but fell behind 1-0 in the first inning after Leborio Catalo hit a leadoff double and Baldwin couldn’t keep him from scoring. The Raccoons had three singles through five innings, but were never in a position where the Loggers would begin to shiver. The score remained the same into the bottom 6th, when Tomas Castro’s leadoff double was the first genuine threat coming forward from the home team. Merritt grounded out and Pruitt flew out to right, but at least deep enough to tie the game with a sac fly. That bit of hard, tedious work was nixed in a blink in the top 7th on a really stupid error by Quebell, who dropped a Craig Miller pop. Fernando Cuevas singled, Miller went to third, Logan Taylor’s throw was crap and the runners were in scoring position. The Loggers were held to a sac fly eventually before Ricardo Huerta retired Catalo, but still regained the lead at 2-1, and scorched Huerta for three hits and two runs between the first three batters in the eighth inning. The Raccoons had no response to that at all. 4-1 Loggers. Castro 2-4, 2B; Baldwin 6.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, L (3-2);

Oh great. Another series loss to the Loggers. How do I know that after splitting the first two games? Why, there’s a left-hander up in the rubber game!

Game 3
MIL: 2B C. Miller – C R. Hernandez – 1B Catalo – CF Davenport – RF Locke – LF Dally – SS Ito – 3B Cuevas – P F. Cruz
POR: 3B Merritt – SS Palmer – 1B Pruitt – LF Morales – RF Ayers – CF Castro – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – P Conway

Conway was put on half rations for a leadoff walk in the second inning, although the Loggers didn’t score when Davenport was thrown out stealing by Bowen, who had already killed off Miller in the first. The Coons were up 1-0 at that point after Matt Pruitt’s third homer of the week. They got a stellar chance in the bottom of the second inning. Yoshi was on base with one out and Conway was to bunt him over. The bunt was on the poor side, Cruz threw to second, but wildly, and into center. Merritt singled to load the bases with one out for Palmer, who also singled to left center and plated the second run of the game. Pruitt struck out but Morales singled to right. Conway scored, and Merritt was sent, but was rammed a pair of fists and the ball into the abdomen by Raúl Hernandez, and had to be dragged off the field in a serious bit of pain. He was out, too. Gutierrez replaced him defensively, and the Coons led 3-0.

Suketsune Ito hit a leadoff single in the third and finally got a base stolen off Bowen, and promptly scored to cut the gap to 3-1. The Loggers would have the leadoff man on with more singles in the fourth and the fifth. Conway, who was crumbling badly, also walked a man in the fourth, was helped out phenomenally with a double play, and the Loggers stranded a man in scoring position, while the Coons ran up two CS’ when Castro and Gutierrez were caught in the third and fourth, respectively, and didn’t put up any threat. Conway got struck for good in the top 7th after a 1-out single by Ito. Thrasher replaced him, struck out Cuevas and got the third out from Fernando Cruz. Rockburn faced only one batter in the top 8th, Craig Miller, allowed a single, then left with discomfort. Huerta got a double play from Hernandez when he entered and got through the inning without any more bad things happening. The Critters produced a run with two PH at-bats in the bottom of the inning: Howell doubled in place of Castro, and Taylor drove him with a single in place of Nomura. Angel Casas ended his string of EIGHT consecutive strikeouts with a leadoff walk to Willie Davenport (so: half rations!), but the game would eventually end when Justin Dally hit into a double play to Palmer, positioned at second base. 4-1 Raccoons. Ayers 2-4; Howell (PH) 1-1, 2B; Taylor (PH) 1-1, RBI; Conway 6.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, W (3-2);

Yes it’s true. Angel Casas had struck out 8 consecutive batters before walking Davenport. If not for that Ventura double in the 11th inning in Sacramento last Friday, the string would have been 11.

In other news

May 14 – IND SP Curtis Tobitt (5-2, 2.85 ERA) has a sore shoulder that doesn’t get better. The Indians will shut him down for now. He is not expected back before July.
May 15 – The Titans deal 1B Tony Ramos (.293, 1 HR, 21 RBI) to the Capitals for MR Chikara “Dodo” Iwase (0-0, 0.52 ERA) and right-hander Dusty Balzer, 24, the #13 prospect, who appeared in three games for Washington in 2010, and will move onto the Titans’ major league roster immediately.
May 15 – ATL OF Marty Reyes (.272, 0 HR, 13 RBI) has suffered a strained oblique and might not be back until around the All Star break.

Complaints and stuff

Good news on Jon Merritt, who took a hit into the naughty zone by Raúl Hernandez. He cried some, iced the offended area a good bit, and *might* be able to play on Monday, although this would be a good spot to give him a day off in the middle of a 13-game string. No news on Law Rockburn, who needs to be squeezed into one of those tubes with the maddening lights.

On half rations: Bill Conway and Angel Casas. They are under the table, crying and clamoring and clawing my shins, but I’m not budging. Half rations!

Not all struggles he has might be Brownie’s fault. He is pitching with a .317 BABIP, the worst he’s been subjected to outside his cup of coffee in ’01. While .307-ish seems to be the league average, I find that groundballers tend to have a slightly better average. Brownie’s career BABIP is .284. That’s a hell of a lot of bad contact.

Unrelated, the Kounter is at 2,120 after his truncated outing on Thursday. He’s 202 behind Kisho Saito for the franchise mark, which is about five months’ normal work for him. He’s been a Coon for about 10 1/2 years, while Master Kisho was with us for 15 1/2 seasons.

Pitchers by seasons with the Raccoons:
17 – Scott Wade
16 – Kisho Saito (HOF), Grant West (HOF)
12 – Logan Evans, Wally Gaston, Daniel Miller
11 – Nick Brown, Miguel Lopez, Juan Martinez
10 – Christopher Powell

We established that A.J. Bartels was leading the ABL in ERA, but who led in the Federal League? Salem’s Max Shepherd, 1.88 ERA. Despite the loss on Saturday, Colin Baldwin moved into second place in the CL in terms of ERA.

We play the Titans and Condors next week. The Raccoons are in a position to reach another “100” milestone for wins with a winning week.