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Old 03-04-2016, 11:31 AM   #1735
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Raccoons (8-4) vs. Loggers (6-6) – April 20-22, 2010

On average, the Raccoons have taken 13 games from the Loggers in the last three seasons, with a 14-4 trouncing handed to the then last-place Loggers, who right now were more like going “We’re ahead of the Crusaders, wheeee- oh.” But they had scored a few more runs than the Raccoons so far, ranking sixth (POR: t-8th), yet their pitching was still horrendous. Only two weeks in, and their rotation was already getting butchered to a 5.74 ERA (11th).

Projected matchups:
Kenichi Watanabe (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Alfredo Rios (0-2, 5.91 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (1-1, 2.02 ERA) vs. A.J. Bartels (0-0, 10.24 ERA)
Nick Brown (3-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Fernando Cruz (1-2, 5.50 ERA)

Third week, game #15, and Cruz will already be our second left-handed opponent, unless the Loggers move something around until then.

Game 1
MIL: C Baca – 2B Luján – 1B Catalo – LF T. Austin – SS Mateo – CF Brissett – 3B S. Johnson – RF Roberson – P A. Rios
POR: CF Castro – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – LF Pruitt – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – P Watanabe

As a low-scoring contest broke out, the sum of the Raccoons’ offensive attempts could be summed up in the run-scoring double play Rob Howell grounded into in the bottom of the second inning. They didn’t do anything else, although Ron Alston scared the visitors briefly with a drive to left center that ended up in Amari Brissett’s glove on the track. The Loggers were held to an early single by Watanabe, who issued a leadoff walk to Antonio Luján in the seventh inning. Leborio Catalo grounded into a double play immediately. Watanabe appeared for the eighth, where Jaime Mateo disturbed the heavenly silence rather rudely with a leadoff single. Brissett grounded to Nomura, who only got the lead runner, and with right-hander Jose Valenzuela grabbing a bat, we made a move for Law Rockburn. He struck out Valenzuela, then also faced J.R. Richardson batting for long-long-long-ago-Coon Chris Roberson, who sent a drive to deep right that Alston managed to intercept before it could do anyone harm. In the bottom of the inning, Howell made another one of his numerous outs before Ricardo Martinez hit for Law and upset the silence greatly with a triple into the leftfield corner. From here, a string of events unexpectedly caused the game to turn into a rout. First, Pat White hit for Castro and barely scored Martinez with a sac fly. Two down, Merritt singled, but the inning was about over when Ron Alston grounded to Luján, except that Luján threw well over the head of Catalo and two men were in scoring position. Quebell also grounded to Luján, who couldn’t make that play either and Quebell was scored with an RBI infield single. When Craig Bowen uncorked his first homer of the season in the resulting two out, two on state, the game was apparently decisively bagged, despite the inning not ending until Luján made ANOTHER error on Pruitt’s grounder. And the game wasn’t bagged either. Pat Slayton was sent out for the ninth and got crumpled badly. Freddy Rosa and Alonso Baca reached on a single and a walk to start the inning, and it got well worse from there. In a 6-1 game, two outs and the bases loaded, Donald Sims came in to face the lefty Brissett and finally ended the game with a K. 6-1 Raccoons. Bowen 1-3, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Martinez (PH) 1-1, 3B; Watanabe 7.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W (2-0);

Well, there ARE things about the offense I don’t like. But at least we don’t have to play Antonio Luján ourselves. He also struck out against Slayton in the ninth and I feel compelled to confirm that he is in fact NOT on our payroll. Also, the Crusaders lost their seventh straight game.

The Loggers decided to shake things up and moved Fernando Cruz into the middle game.

Game 2
MIL: CF J.R. Richardson – 2B Luján – 1B Valenzuela – RF T. Austin – 3B Townsley – C Rosa – SS Mateo – LF Delaney – P F. Cruz
POR: 1B Merritt – CF White – LF Alston – C Bowen – RF Ayers – 3B R. Martinez – 2B Heathershaw – SS Howell – P Baldwin

The Loggers also burst out all over Colin Baldwin’s face from the time of the first pitch. Richardson and Luján singled, Valenzuela beat Ayers’ range for a double, and a walk, another single, and wild pitch ensured that three runs scored in a hurry. He never really got his act together in this game, giving up singles and also added a balk in a stupid spot with two on and nobody out in the fourth inning, leading to the Loggers’ fourth run while the Coons were still puzzled as to how to go about that guy out there who threw from the wrong side. When they did figure him out in the bottom of the fourth, they quickly put up three runs, with Colin Baldwin contributing a crucial 2-out single to keep the line moving.

Cruz was constantly behind in the count in both that fourth inning and also in the fifth. There, Alston singled, but Bowen’s liner to left was denied falling in by Chris Delaney. Ayers then walked, and Martinez singled on a 2-0 pitch, loading the bases with one out, but unfortunately this came with Heathershaw and Howell next in line, and those two were batting a *combined* (meaning: addition) .227; Heathershaw popped out to the shortstop, and Howell’s fly to right was easy as pie for Tim Austin. We did get the game tied in the bottom 6th, though, on a Merritt double and White single. With the score knotted at four, Beltran struck out Baca in the #9 hole to start the top 7th. With Roberson hitting for Richardson, Ted Reese replaced Beltran, got Roberson, but then issued three consecutive 2-out walks to right-handers before getting banished. Law Rockburn ran a full count with Bob Townsley at the plate, but struck him out. Rockburn and Kelley would issue leadoff walks in the eighth and ninth respectively, but the Loggers didn’t utilize them, with Howell turning a nice double play in the ninth. In the bottom of the eighth the Coons would almost have taken the lead after a 2-out double by White, but Alston’s drive to left center was caught by Roberson. Bottom 9th, lefty Jason Long pitching. Bowen popped out, but Castro, who had hit for Ayers the last time through, drew a 5-pitch walk and then stole second base, representing the winning run. No move to the pen as the Raccoons had Ricardo Martinez at the plate, who grounded out anyway. Castro was at third with two outs for Heathershaw, who combined with Howell by now batted .212, but we only had left-handers on the bench. Nomura batted for Heathershaw anyway (and Quebell remained on the bench) as we were looking for a solid contact guy. Yoshi made contact with the first pitch, ticketed it to shallow center, and it was game over. 5-4 Furballs! Merritt 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; White 3-5, 2B, RBI; Alston 2-4, BB, 2B; Nomura (PH) 1-1, RBI; Rockburn 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

The Crusaders ended their losing spill with a ninth-inning rally past Salvadaro Soure and beat the Indians 6-3.

Game 3
MIL: CF J.R. Richardson – 2B Luján – 1B Valenzuela – RF T. Austin – 3B Townsley – C Rosa – SS Mateo – LF Roberson – P Bartels
POR: CF Castro – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – LF Pruitt – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – P Brown

After not getting scored upon so far this season, Nick Brown finally got an ERA worth something when Jose Valenzuela took him deep in the first inning, putting the Loggers on top 1-0. They didn’t stay on top for very long after this, as A.J. Bartels was raked for five hits and a walk in the bottom of the first, conceding three runs and then plating a fourth with a wild pitch, as the Coons batted through the order once. The troubles would never cease for Bartels, who survived putting Castro and Merritt on in the second inning mainly because of Roberson stealing doubles from both Alston and Bowen, but then collapsed for good in the third. Out of nobody on with two outs, the Coons got a Howell double, an RBI single by Brownie, and then Castro’s first homer of the year, taking a 7-1 lead and sending Bartels for the showers, where dropped the soap onto his big toe, presumably. With the big lead, the game became a bit about whether Brownie could exploit the Loggers to run up his strikeout total, but he didn’t overwhelm them all too easily and also missed a few pitches here and there to run up his own pitch count early. He spent 100 pitches through six innings. 110 was about the rule of thumb to not push him over, which resulted in three batters faced and two retired. Bob Townsley hit a leadoff single. Pat Slayton replaced Brown with a 7-run lead and struck out Roberson to end the inning. He also turned in the eighth, and Reese pitched the ninth without accident. 8-1 Brownies!! Castro 3-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Merritt 3-4, BB, 2B; Howell 2-2, 2 BB, 2B; Brown 6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, W (4-0) and 1-3, RBI; Slayton 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Ron Alston had a bit of a rotten series. In this game, he hit the ball hard three times, and went oh-for, barely notching a sac fly in the sixth inning.

And screw you, Jose Valenzuela! Well, what to you expect. He’s a former Canadien.

Raccoons (11-4) vs. Condors (8-8) – April 23-25, 2010

The Condors had led their division after week 1, but now they were a game back of the Thunder. They had scored the most runs in the CL so far with 87 (POR: 70), and were average in conceding runs, with 75 counters against them (POR: 37). We have taken the season series against them seven times in the last eight years (all except 2004), with two 7-2 turnouts in the last three years.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (1-1, 4.50 ERA) vs. Harry Wentz (2-1, 3.32 ERA)
Javier Cruz (1-2, 4.66 ERA) vs. Zach Boyer (1-0, 3.18 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (2-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Doug Thompson (1-1, 12.79 ERA)

Three more right-handers, which gets our total season split to 15-3 in favor of right-handers. Still not complaining.

Game 1
TIJ: SS Ybarra – CF Tanner – LF Crum – 1B R. Morris – RF M. Cruz – 3B D. Jones – C Leach – 2B Dougal – P Wentz
POR: CF Castro – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – 2B Nomura – C Owens – SS Howell – P Umberger

For the third straight day the Raccoons suffered a setback in the top of the first inning. As Jong-hoo Umberger’s H/9 and ERA kept skyrocketing, the Condors hit four consecutive singles off him, plating the first run when Rowan Tanner got on, stole second, and came home on Johnny Crum’s one-baser, and plated three runs total. Umberger would balk in another run in the third, while Harry Wentz smacked Castro to start his day, but then got a double play grounder from Alston and went once through the order with the minimum of batters faced. He potentially opened a terrible door with walks to Castro and Merritt to start the fourth, but the best the Raccoons managed was a Quebell sac fly, and they remained hitless and down 4-1. At least the hitless thing changed when Travis Owens doubled to left with one out in the bottom 5th, and while Howell singled to put runners on the corners, Ricardo Martinez, batting for Umberger, hit into a two-piece, Pancho Ybarra to Stanley Dougal to Rob Morris.

The Raccoons never got their heads out of their arses against Wentz, which meant eight long innings of futility, but with the 4-1 lead the Condors decided to try out their closer Jayden Reed in the ninth inning. Pat White hit for Merritt and struck out before Reed walked both Alston and Quebell and the tying run appeared at the plate in Pruitt. Completely out of whack, Reed didn’t throw anything close to a strike and the bases were loaded for Yoshi, who struck out, which had Craig Bowen bat for Owens. He hit a looper to right that Manny Cruz was never going to get, but he held him to a single and two runs scored, and that meant that we had to rely on Rob Howell to scored Matt Pruitt from second base – somehow. Striking out lowered his average to .189 on the year. 4-3 Condors. Bowen (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Kelley 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K;

So much for our 8-game winning streak.

Game 2
TIJ: SS Ybarra – CF Tanner – LF Crum – 1B R. Morris – 3B D. Jones – C Leach – RF Wall – 2B Dougal – P Boyer
POR: LF Castro – CF White – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – 3B R. Martinez – 2B Nomura – SS Heathershaw – P J. Cruz

That rotten first inning streak ended when Pancho Ybarra was thrown out trying to steal third base after his leadoff double off Javier Cruz. While Cruz would plate the first run of the game with a sac fly in the second inning, he would never cease walking the edge. First off, he was all over the place, as three hit batsmen can attest to, and second, he relied on Ron Alston to make critical plays with several men on base all the time. The Condors had three on (including a hit batter…) in the top 2nd when Alston made a difficult play in the gap to end that inning, and with two outs in the fourth he had to move those paws rather quickly to keep a Boyer blooper from falling in with two Condors in motion.

At least a 2-run home run off Yoshi Nomura’s bat created some breathing space, and Cruz wasn’t shy to use it. After two more decent and rather quick innings in the fifth and sixth he allowed another single to Stanley Dougal in the seventh (Dougal’s third on the day), and then the defense reared its ugly head when Ricardo Martinez completely butchered Zach Boyer’s bunt into an error. At least he got the lead runner when Pancho Ybarra grounded straight to him for the second out. With no right-hander in sight in the Condor’s lineup, Donald Sims replaced Cruz with Rowan Tanner approaching as the tying run, but Sims wouldn’t get out of the inning until after Tanner had singled in the Condors’ first run. The Condors knew how to trump Martinez’ defense, however, and Dougal and Ybarra made consecutive errors to put Castro and White on base to start the bottom of the seventh inning. The Coons’ offense however was absent. Alston flew out to center, Quebell flew out to left, and Bowen hopped out to Ybarra, and none of the flies were in any way a threat. The game remained a scary beast when Sims and Rockburn walked a man apiece in the eighth, but somehow Rockburn pulled through and struck out Dougal, who had been unretired so far, to end the frame, and Angel Casas wasn’t immune to panic either now. He was ALMOST through with the game. Two down, nobody on, a bouncer by Rowan Tanner … and nobody had a play. Infield single, and then Cruz sent one through between Merritt and Heathershaw, bringing up Rob Morris, who found right-handers utmost delicious. He ended up with a walk, the bases were loaded, and Angel came back to strike out Dan Jones – finally!! 3-1 Furballs! White 2-4, 2B; Martinez 2-4, 2B; Nomura 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Cruz 6.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, W (2-2);

Bsssssss, that was a tight one. Heathershaw, in addition to not showing much range, also went 0-4 with 3 K. But – but – but – … but I said he had a winner’s name! Batting .048 ain’t quite within the definition of a winner…

Game 3
TIJ: SS Ybarra – CF Tanner – LF Crum – 1B R. Morris – 3B D. Jones – C Leach – RF Ward – 2B Dougal – P D. Thompson
POR: CF Castro – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – LF Pruitt – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – P Watanabe

Watanabe’s own scoreless innings streak ended at 14-and-some, as the Condors readily made contact off him, and in the second inning plated two runs on three hits. Doug Thompson was allowing 26 hits through 12 2/3 innings on the season, but that didn’t stop the Coons from making six outs to start their batting day. And it had yet to get worse. Watanabe allowed a leadoff single to Ybarra in the third before Howell blew a double play grounder by Tanner into an error. Watanabe would get only one more out. Crum singled, he walked Morris to force in a run, and then Jones doubled. After Leach’s sac fly he allowed another double to Tommy Ward, the game was lost real hard with a 7-0 deficit and Pat Slayton as thrown in to have a go at pitching, resulting in a line drive single to center by Stanley Dougal. Ward turned third but was gunned down by Castro at home – not that it mattered a whole lot by now. The royal junkballer Thompson wasn’t hit until Howell rolled a grounder between their middle infielders in the bottom 3rd and didn’t allow a run until a Pruitt sac fly in the fourth. Merritt’s leadoff triple just barely resulted a run in the bottom 6th when Alston struck out (…) and Quebell grounded hard to Dougal. Merritt was also past giving a damn and was running anyway. Dougal didn’t even attempt to throw him out. Not to confuse this 8-2 score with a rally. Beltran got booked a run in the seventh and they just weren’t getting to Thompson AT ALL. Nope, the guy with a WHIP galloped well past 2 at the start of the game turned in a complete game 5-hitter, and the Raccoons left town in shambles. 9-3 Condors.

In other news

April 20 – Atlanta’s Jose Morales (.339, 4 HR, 10 RBI) homers off the Condors’ Ian Ward in the Knights’ 7-6 win, extending his hitting streak to 20 games despite a 1-for-5 performance.
April 22 – A great player reaches a major milestone: 37-year old CIN 3B Sonny Reece (.288, 1 HR, 11 RBI) connects for his 3,000th major league hit, a first inning single off Dean Merritt in the Cyclones’ 6-5 win over the Capitals. Reece, besides hitting .313/.367/.462 with 211 HR and 1,382 RBI, has won too many accolades to list them easily, including four Gold Gloves, four World Series rings, two Player of the Year awards, and he also holds the distinction as the only player in ABL history to hit Game 7 game-winning home runs TWICE in the same postseason.
April 22 – DEN C Eugene Carter (.417, 2 HR, 16 RBI) also has a 20-game hitting streak pieced together thanks to a single in the Gold Sox’ 4-3 loss to the Wolves.
April 23 – An elbow contusion will keep SFW INF Oliver Torres (.298, 0 HR, 6 RBI) off the field for the next week.
April 24 – Eugene Carter (.415, 2 HR, 16 RBI) has his streak die off after 21 games, being held dry by the Blue Sox in the Gold Sox’ 6-3 loss.
April 25 – Career Falcon Hubert Green (.162, 0 HR, 2 RBI) has been struggling to start the season, but two hits in the Falcons’ 4-2 win over the Loggers on Sunday find him entry into the 2,000 hits club. The career .258, 155 HR, 976 RBI infielder gets the milestone in with a seventh inning double off Andrew Wills. Green’s career highlights are two All Star nominations and the 2005 World Series.

Complaints and stuff

When Jose Valenzuela homered off Nick Brown on Thursday, a streak of 40 1/3 scoreless innings ended (38 innings if you only allow complete innings), dating back to September 22, 2009 and Logan Taylor’s seventh inning homer.

To anybody wondering where the heck Bakile Hiwalani was, the last remaining piece of the Loggers’ once formidable lineup from the first half of the decade, well, the Loggers waived the wreck of an old man, and the upstate Wolves were dumb enough to claim him and his $2.32M salary for 2010, getting a .572 OPS out of him so far.

But the Coons lead the North, Nick Brown leads all Triple Crown stats, and the CL batting race is led by … Indy’s Ryan Miller, batting .453/.493/.656.

Always knew it…
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