[Westheim]

Raccoons (30-21) vs. Falcons (19-30) – May 31-June 2, 2011

The Falcons sat in last place, but that kind of was what lingering in the bottom 3 in both runs scored and runs allowed would get you. They had the worst rotation and weren’t particularly good in any category. But was it quite believeable that the Raccoons were in the top 3 in runs scored in the league? The season certainly hadn’t felt like that could be true so far. We had won two of three from them so far.

Projected matchups:
Colin Baldwin (4-3, 3.06 ERA) vs. Manuel Ortíz (2-7, 5.26 ERA)
Bill Conway (4-2, 2.98 ERA) vs. Alfredo Collazo (3-4, 5.19 ERA)
Nick Brown (6-3, 3.26 ERA) vs. Manuel Hernandez (2-3, 3.90 ERA)

Hernandez will be the only left-hander we get in this set, pitching on Thursday.

McDonald was pushed in the rotation to start on Saturday. He might not have the highest ERA in the rotation (that’s a certain 11th round pick), but overall he’s not overwhelming everybody most of the time. This has the added benefit to not have Nick Brown lit up by the Crusaders yet again. Normally you would like to have your best guys to pitch to the meanest teams, but Brown and the Purple Poopers hasn’t been a success story for years.

Game 1
CHA: C L. Ramirez – CF Reya – 1B Valenzuela – 3B Ladd – RF J. Flores – SS J. Amador – LF D. Richardson – 2B D. Silva – P M. Ortíz
POR: LF Castro – 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – RF Morales – 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – C Bowen – CF White – P Baldwin

Jon Merritt stole his first base as a Raccoon in the first inning, which didn’t lead to anything nice, and in the top 2nd, the offensively inept Falcons tore Baldwin to shreds. Jesus Flores led off with a homer, and it got only worse. The Disgusting Daniels, Richardson and Silva, both reached base, Silva even swiped one, and both scored on Manuel Ortíz’ single to left. Silva would score on a Leon Ramirez double with two down, and the Falcons took a 4-0 lead. The Raccoons wouldn’t even get a hit until the fourth inning, when Quebell hit a leadoff double, Jose Morales walked, and then nothing ever moved again on the bases. White was plunked to start the fifth inning and then singled in by Castro after a good bunt by Baldwin that sent Pat White to second base. Down 4-1, Morales led off the sixth with a walk, but got forced by Nomura’s grounder. Michael Palmer’s single to center brought up the tying run in … Craig Bowen … who was batting soundly under .200, and all that power he had was of no help to us. While he put the ball in play, it was an easy fly to Richardson, and Pat White was no help either in producing anything if he didn’t quite lean into one. Baldwin didn’t allow a hit between the third and the sixth innings, then allowed another single to Ortíz at the start of the seventh. Two outs moved the runner around and then we asked Pat Slayton to get out Jose Valenzuela, Slayton failed, Valenzuela doubled, and Baldwin was laden with five runs on five hits after all. The Raccoons never threatened again, keeping the tying run safely away from even the batter’s box. 5-2 Falcons. Castro 2-4, RBI; Gutierrez (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Owens (PH) 1-1;

Good news: Nick Brown no longer has the worst ERA on the staff. Ah, well, it’s good news for Nick Brown’s ego, I guess. Ah, well. (shrugs)

Game 2
CHA: CF A. Solís – SS J. Amador – C F. Chavez – 1B Valenzuela – RF D. Richardson – 3B N. Chavez – LF Reya – 2B D. Silva – P Collazo
POR: CF Castro – 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – LF Morales – 2B Nomura – RF Taylor – C Owens – SS Howell – P Conway

Nelson Chavez hit a 2-piece off Conway in the second to get the Falcons into the lead. The Raccoons would have a Logan Taylor single in the bottom of the inning, and then nothing for a long, long while. The attendance, already sparse, even for a Wednesday night, was not amused at all, especially after Baldwin served up a few easily hittable fastballs down the middle, resulting in Luis Reya driving in Richardson in the top 6th. At that point, the Raccoons’ number of total bases and runners was still one apiece. While I appreciated that Richardson tore out a leg in retiring Rob Howell to start the bottom 6th and had to be replaced by Jimmy DeBoer, and Castro hit a second single to our growing collection with two out in the inning, Collazo was not in trouble. Jon Merritt flew to deep right, but DeBoer got there easily.

Like Baldwin the day before, Conway went six and two thirds in this one and left with a runner in scoring position and an opposite-handed batter at the plate. Tommy Ward did a better job than Slayton the day before and struck out Fernando Chavez to end the seventh inning. Ward then dug himself a 2 on, 1 out hole in the eighth and had to be shoveled out by Huerta, who struck out Rickey Jackson to end the inning. By then, the Raccoons had actually scored an actual run, “Dingus” Morales dingering a solo shot in the bottom 7th. Collazo would have a bit of a mess on his hands in the bottom 8th. Howell grounded out to short, but Craig Bowen hit a single past Valenzuela, and then Collazo hit Castro to put the tying runs on base. Merritt popped out to shallow right, but when the left-handed heart of the order came up, the Falcons didn’t make a move to replace Collazo. And why would they? Quebell flew out to center, and the inning was over. Morales, Nomura, and Taylor all hit hard balls to the outfield against Robert Parsons in the ninth, and none fell in. 3-1 Falcons. Bowen (PH) 1-1;

Well! That’s … that’s doubtlessly gonna be a long, long, long and somber homestand. No need to stay sober while the team is unravelling. I hit up Moe’s Liquor & Firearms on the way home from the park that night – there was no need to watch Brownie get imploded for a sweep in an alert state of mind.

Game 3
CHA: LF DeBoer – CF A. Solís – 1B Valenezula – 3B Ladd – SS J. Amador – C L. Ramirez – RF Reya – 2B D. Silva – P M. Hernandez
POR: CF Castro – 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – LF Morales – RF Ayers – SS Palmer – C Owens – 2B Nomura – P Brown

The first pitch of the game was into Jimmy DeBoer’s ribs and that was enough to get a bottle of booze opened, despite Solís hitting into a double play and nobody scoring in that top 1st. The Coons took their first lead of the week (it was Thursday…) on Tomas Castro’s leadoff jack in the bottom 1st, but Brown gave it away in a hurry with a walk and a single putting Falcons on the corners in the top 2nd, and then the disgusting Silva singled in the tying run. Hernandez would strike out, Brown’s only K the first time through. It didn’t get better. Brown walked the leadoff man DeBoer in the third before Owens had a ball escape through the wickets for a passed ball that moved DeBoer to second. That was actually ball three to Solís, who also walked. A Merritt error (…!) loaded the bases and with two outs Brown walked Leon Ramirez to give the Falcons the lead. Merritt tried his best to avoid *somebody* barfing into his locker in anger and singled up the middle to score Yoshi from second base with two outs in the bottom of the inning. The game was tied again at two, but Brown still sucked. He had logged an out in the seventh inning of ONE of his last seven games, and this one certainly wouldn’t end the spell. Three strikeouts apiece in the third and fourth or not – Brown had already thrown a wrench into the gears of this one with three walks in the third.

The Coons had runners on the corners in the bottom 4th, with nobody out, when Morales and Ayers hit a pair of singles. Palmer, Owens, and Nomura popped out three times in a row to prevent the team from taking another lead. Much the opposite in the top of the fifth, where Wes Ladd, Jesus Amador, and Leon Ramirez lined up three 2-out singles to shove two more runs down Brown’s throat. The Falcons made three quick outs in the sixth and Brown actually struck out Solís to start the top 7th, but then yielded for Slayton to retire the righties coming after that. Josh Gibson and Tommy Ward took care of the eighth, although that included Luis Reya singling to right, trying to get two, and being thrown out at second base by Ayers. The Coons had scratched out a run in the bottom 6th and trailed 4-3, but could they take another swing at Manuel Hernandez to get Brown off the hook? Merritt led off the bottom 8th and was smacked to represent the tying run on base. Merritt moved up on Quebell’s groundout (great grab by the crap hat Silva), and on a wild pitch. All we needed was a deep fly by Morales, who wound up walking, but Merritt came home on Ayers’ sac fly to right. Angel Casas struck out two in the top 9th to maintain a walkoff chance for the Critters. Coons didn’t score. Top 10th, Angel was perfect. Castro flew out to left against Alex Ramirez to start the bottom 10th, but Ramirez would then walk Merritt and allow a single to center to Quebell. Winning run at second, Morales up, right-hander pitching. Can it get better? Probably. Morales flew out to center, and Merritt remained stuck. Keith Ayers batted with two outs and put a 1-1 pitch into play, up the middle and threw. Angel Solís was playing shallow and came in quickly, Merritt was sent around third base, and the throw was late – walkoff! 5-4 Coons! Quebell 2-5; Ayers 2-4, 2 RBI; Casas 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (1-0);

Ayerssss! Sasss how se gamesssslayd!!

Raccoons (31-23) vs. Crusaders (34-18) – June 3-5, 2011

The Crusaders were in the top 3 in runs scored and runs allowed as these two teams squared off, and with the amount of pain the Raccoons had inflicted on themselves against a team in the bottom 3 in either category midweek, this was a recipe for disaster. The Falcons’ rotation had been the worst, the Crusaders’ was the best. We had swept them to open the season, but the series was now at 4-2 in 2011. I better stop here.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (5-2, 2.14 ERA) vs. Kelvin Yates (5-4, 4.11 ERA)
Gil McDonald (3-5, 3.23 ERA) vs. Takeru Sato (5-4, 2.78 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (4-4, 3.39 ERA) vs. Ken Maddox (7-0, 2.67 ERA)

I couldn’t help but feel certain doom heading into this weekend set. If the Coons got swept, they would trail by seven games, which was over halfway to “certainly fatal”. What’s “certainly fatal”? Well, as the 2007 Coons can assure you, 10 1/2 games in June ain’t.

Game 1
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C G. Ortíz – 3B Bond – SS J. Reed – P Yates
POR: CF Castro – 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – LF Morales – 2B Nomura – RF Ayers – SS Palmer – C Bowen – P Umberger

Jong-hoo looked quite good from the start, sitting down the Crusaders in order the first time through, with one strikeout (to Kevin Bond), one soft fly to left (Jeffrey Reed) and seven groundouts involved. The Coons had a runner in each of the first three innings, but never made it past first base. Martin Ortíz would be the first Crusader to get on base, hitting a 2-out single in the fourth, but he wasn’t going to advance from there, either. A tightly pitched ballgame would see some runs finally in the fifth inning, lots of them, and of course in the wrong line of the linescore. Two outs in the top 5th, Umberger had Gabriel Ortíz on second base after a double, and faced Jeffrey Reed. With first base open, and the Coons unable to afford even giving up one run, Reed got a rare intentional walk from us. Of course, Kel Yates would single to load the bases, and then Umberger just imploded. Roberto Pena drew a walk to force in a run, and then Francisco Caraballo singled to right to score two more on a wild throw by Ayers. Reed, who had been bypassed in the fifth, would get his revenge in the sixth, drumming a 2-out, 2-run double to sink Umberger and the Raccoons for good. Beltran allowed a run in the seventh, and while Yoshi Nomura hit a home run off Yates in the bottom of that inning, and Morales doubled in a pair in the eighth that were charged to Manuel Reyes, this game was long lost. 6-3 Crusaders. Quebell 2-4, 2B;

Game 2
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C G. Ortíz – 3B Bond – SS J. Reed – P Sato
POR: CF Castro – 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – LF Morales – RF Ayers – SS Palmer – C Owens – 2B Nomura – P McDonald

Kevin Bond homered in the second to give the Crusaders a 1-0 lead in the top 2nd that didn’t last despite Nomura hitting into a double play after Palmer and Owens had reached to start the bottom 2nd. Owens had been drilled by Takeru Sato just like Morales in the first inning. But McDonald came through with a single to right that scored Palmer and tied the game, and Sato briefly unraveled and loaded the bases with Castro (single) and Merritt (walk) before Quebell singled to center softly enough to score a pair and give the Coons a 3-1 advantage.

The Coons were a mess, though. The fourth inning saw Martin Ortíz lead off with a single. Stanton Martin fired a hell of a liner to deep left where Morales for a moment couldn’t decide between attacking the blazing bomb or running for cover. He picked the former and made a strong play. After Ortíz was then caught stealing by Owens on a high 2-2 pitch to B.J. Manfull, McDonald threw another high ball to immediately sent another occupant to first base. A Morales double in the bottom 5th was not enough to generate a run, but when Caraballo doubled to lead off the top 6th, Stanton Martin was stepping up readily and homered to left to tie the score. The last act for McDonald was a leadoff walk to Bond in the top 7th, and Huerta and Ward cobbled together three outs just barely to get out of the inning. The game remained tied through eight, with the ninth starting with a heck of a drive to right that was given up by Thrasher to Manfull. Ayers made that play and got away with a singed glove. Gabe Ortíz singled, but Thrasher came back and struck out Bond and Reed to present the scuffling team with another walkoff chance. We had three lefties lined up against Manuel Reyes, a right-hander, but the Coons had enjoyed only two hits past the third inning. Yoshi hit a leadoff single, but Manuel Gutierrez couldn’t even get a bunt down and made a pathetic out. Castro grounded to Caraballo to get Yoshi forced out, but then stole second base while Merritt worked his way from 0-2 to 3-2 against Reyes, then grounded out to Bond.

Extras! Yay. Angel Casas was in for the 10th, allowed a double to Daryl Anderson to get started, and plunked Caraballo, but somehow wasn’t torched and struck out Ramiro Cavazos in between allowing runners, and then both Martin Brothers to strand them. That was his only inning, as a Morales double and Ayers’ flyout to right brought up Casas in the #6 hole with Morales on third and two outs. Logan Taylor hit. The Crusaders still stuck with Reyes. For once, it cost them. Logan Taylor took a 3-1 pitch and grounded it up the middle, and Reed wasn’t getting it. Morales came home, and the Coons walked off. 4-3 Raccoons. Quebell 2-5, 2 RBI; Morales 2-4, 2 2B; Taylor (PH) 1-1, RBI;

The Crusaders used their off day on Thursday to make a flip in the rotation, and we would not get to see the undefeated Ken Maddox. Instead, Sunday’s rubber game was to be started by Pancho Trevino (5-3, 2.43 ERA).

Game 3
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C G. Ortíz – 3B Bond – SS J. Reed – P P. Trevino
POR: CF Castro – 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – LF Morales – RF Taylor – 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – C Bowen – P Baldwin

Baldwin was taking a page out of Brown’s book and showed about no command over anything he usually threw, the fastball, the cutter, the curve, a phone book – nothing hit the zone, and especially not to the first batter of the inning. Through five, he walked the leadoff man three times (one eighth rations?). The first time that was to Roberto Pena to start the game, and Stanton Martin was readily cashing in and hit a 2-piece to give the Crusaders an early lead. Pena had another one of those leadoff walks in the fifth, although this time both Martin Brothers struck out to keep him on. Baldwin struck out seven in this start, but completely lost things by the sixth inning. 1-out walk to Gabe Ortíz, and then Bond and Reed singled to load them up. Slayton came in, Trevino sent a fly to center on a 1-2 pitch, and Castro’s throw back home was thoroughly wild, not only scoring Ortíz, but also advancing the other runners. Pena would fly out to Taylor to end the inning.

When Jon Merritt hit a leadoff triple in the bottom of the sixth, this represented the first time in the game that the Raccoons had noticeably done anything on offense. Quebell singled to left, scoring Merritt and bringing up Morales as the tying run in the 3-1 game. While Morales kept the line moving with a single to right center, the lineup soon enough went on strike, Taylor flew out to center, Nomura struck out, and Palmer hit a ****ty pop. When Slayton went back out in the top 7th, Caraballo and Martin Ortíz soon reached with singles, but Stanton Martin hit a grounder fast enough to Merritt for a double play, and Beltran got the third out from Manfull. The Crusaders also failed to do anything with Gabriel Ortíz’ leadoff double surrendered by Josh Gibson in the top 8th, the score remained 3-1, and when Merritt walked facing left-hander Francois Picard in the bottom of the inning, the tying run came to the plate – although we now had four left-handed batters coming up. Quebell singled, Morales hit into a fielder’s choice that left runners on the corners with one out. Keith Ayers batted for Taylor, prompting the Crusaders to replace Picard with righty Jose Ramos. Ayers converted an 0-2 pitch for an RBI single to left, but Nomura hit into a double play to end the inning down 3-2. The Raccoons sucked just too hard to get anywhere and Thrasher allowed another run in the ninth. 4-2 Crusaders. Quebell 2-4, RBI; Morales 2-4; Ayers (PH) 1-1, RBI; Owens (PH) 1-1;

In other news

May 31 – The month of June will take place without NAS 3B/1B Antonio Esquivel (.277, 3 HR, 22 RBI), who has strained an oblique.
June 1 – MIL 3B Fernando Cuevas (.277, 0 HR, 12 RBI) bangs out five hits, including a triple and two doubles, with 2 RBI in the Loggers’ 15-10 win over the Condors.
June 4 – PIT 1B/3B Marc Williams (.230, 2 HR, 21 RBI) will be out for about a month with a broken foot.

Complaints and stuff

At the end of May, the Continental League ERA was the lowest it had been since 1991, at 3.76 – so the Raccoons weren’t scoring, but nobody was, really. The league ERA had been fairly consistent in the 3.90 to 4.00 band the last decade, but this year runs were hard to come by. None of this applies to the Federal League, which continues to run a 4.20 ERA. The ERA over there hasn’t been under four since ’94.

Which is a long way to say that not only the Coons can’t score, but they can’t score REALLY HARD.

Deep down in my heart, I wish we had an insane slugger named Bonkers. Whenever he’d homer, which would be frequently, we could yell out “Bonkers goes yard - and the yard goes bonkers!” …