[Westheim]

Raccoons (12-6) @ Aces (8-11) – April 27-29, 2010

The Aces had the best batting average in the Continental League and had scored the third-most runs after three weeks. By a sharp contrast, their pitching was a complete mess, with the most runs allowed and a -17 run differential. Their rotation was 10th with a 5.23 ERA, their pen was even worse, with a 5.55 ERA (11th). The Coons had gone 6-3 against Las Vegas last season.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (4-0, 0.31 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (2-1, 2.79 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (1-2, 5.09 ERA) vs. Jimmy Young (1-3, 7.89 ERA)
Javier Cruz (2-2, 3.46 ERA) vs. Jaquan Wagoner (1-1, 5.01 ERA)

Three more right-handers! And the quality is not all sugar. We could use some runs. We could especially use some home runs. It doesn’t befit this team to be 10th in home runs. We’re even last in stolen bases, despite the Mexican Prick’s insistence to improve our ninth rank from last season.

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – LF Pruitt – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – P Brown
LVA: 2B H. Jones – CF Melendez – RF R. Garcia – SS Dahlke – C Durango – 3B F. Soto – LF L. Taylor – 1B McDermott – P Valdevez

It was home run galore early on, and not all of it was welcome. Tomas Castro and Howard Jones both led off the first inning with a home run, and Eduardo Durango hit another leadoff jack in the bottom 2nd. Valdevez struck out four in a row at one point, but Pruitt reached on an infield hit in the fourth inning and then scored on Nomura’s triple to tie the score. Brown was not quite as sharp as in his previous starts and allowed quite a bit of contact (as if two homers in the first two innings weren’t already evidence of that…), but the Raccoons would knock out Valdevez in the top of the fifth. Castro got on first and was doubled in by Ron Alston, who then scored on Bowen’s 2-out single up the middle and just barely past Tom Dahlke. When Pruitt also hit a single, a little looper, the Aces pulled their starter and sent lefty Arnaud Vautrin, who allowed a single to Yoshi, but it wasn’t enough to get Bowen to score, and Rob Howell ended the inning with a groundout, the Coons up 4-2. It was a lead that was in no way secure. Tom Dahlke hit a leadoff single in the bottom 6th, advanced on a wild pitch, Brown walked Durango and when Soto grounded out, the Aces had the tying runs in scoring position with one out. They, however, also had two left-handers coming up in Logan Taylor and Sean McDermott, and they both struck out.

Vautrin was still pitching for the Aces in the seventh, who thought it was a good idea with the heavily lefty-laden lineup the Coons offered. Quebell walked, Pruitt singled, and Yoshi hit a double to deep right to add a run. There was one out and two in scoring position when Rob Howell continued his bid for banishment with another strikeout. Brownie batted for himself and launched a bouncer up the middle that escaped Howard Jones and scored both runners! On the mound Brown pitched into the bottom 8th, where Dahlke hit another leadoff single. Durango flew out to Castro in fairly deep center, and with Brown just over 100 pitches now it was probably better to relieve him. Ray Kelley struck out Soto, and Beltran allowed a single to Taylor, but then whiffed McDermott to keep the Aces down. 8-2 Brownies!! Castro 2-6, HR, RBI; Pruitt 5-5; Nomura 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Martinez (PH) 1-1, RBI; Brown 7.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (5-0) and 2-4, 2 RBI;

Rob Howell already has four errors this season after another (inconsequential one) in this game. He made nine errors in 126 games in all of 2009!

Game 2
POR: CF Castro – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – LF Pruitt – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – P Umberger
LVA: 1B McDermott – CF Melendez – RF R. Garcia – LF L. Taylor – SS Dahlke – C Durango – 3B F. Soto – 2B H. Jones – P Young

Jimmy Young’s WHIP coming sat at slightly more than 2, and he allowed four hits and a walk for two runs in the first inning. Just when we had him on the throat, Rob Howell came to bat and grounded out to Francisco Soto, leaving three men on base. In the following innings, the Coons didn’t achieve all too much, while Umberger acted clumsily on defense and received partial blame for two infield singles in the early innings, but the Aces didn’t do anything with either chance. The Raccoons were still up 2-0 in the bottom 5th, when Soto hit a leadoff single to center. Soto stole second; with one out Jimmy Young grounded to short, and Howell bobbled another one. Runners on the corners, Umberger struck out McDermott, then lost it completely once again, walked Melendez and Garcia and gave a 2-run single to Logan Taylor that gave the Aces a 3-2 lead.

After four hits in the first inning, the Raccoons only had two more in the next six against Young before Greg Sampson came into the game in the eighth, retired Quebell, and the Aces would send a new pitcher for every batter in the inning, to great effect. In the ninth, Yoshi led off against righty Dave Hughes, but grounded out to short. Ayers batted for the useless Howell and grounded out to Soto at third. Pat White singled batting for Tom Reese, bringing up Castro, who rolled another one over to Jones. 3-2 Aces. Alston 2-4; White (PH) 1-1;

Well, that was one big **** game. And Rob Howell is playing with his career here… Walt Canning was doing well in AAA and a move was becoming more and more likely…

Game 3
POR: LF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – RF Alston – 1B Pruitt – CF P. White – 2B Nomura – C Owens – SS Heathershaw – P Cruz
LVA: 1B McDermott – 3B F. Soto – RF R. Garcia – LF L. Taylor – SS Dahlke – C Durango – CF Sambrano – 2B H. Jones – P S. White

The Coons flashed some stick in the third inning, when Castro and Martinez hit hard singles before Pruitt and Pat White went deep back-to-back for a 4-0 lead. The Coons would knock 11 hits off Shawn White in six and a third, but not score anything else. The last of those hits was a double to center by Pruitt, who grabbed his thigh half the way to second base and tumbled into the base in a way that was not aesthetically pleasing, nor comforting. Quebell replaced him for obvious reasons, while the Aces went to the pen and Nehemiah Jones. Cruz also went 6 1/3 innings, without much glory, pitching to a lot of contact, but he was in a dangerous spot only once in the fifth inning when the Aces drew two walks. Beltran and Rockburn ended the seventh inning, but Rockburn got hit hard by two hits and a walk in the eighth as the Aces scored a run on him. With two out we went to Angel Casas, who struck out Howard Jones to end the frame, and also ended the game without too much issues. 4-1 Coons. Castro 3-5; Pruitt 3-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Cruz 6.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 3 K, W (3-2) and 1-3; Casas 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (7);

Typical! Just as Matt Pruitt got hot, he also got hurt. He might be Daniel Hall’s offspring after all, black skin or not. He had a really bad hamstring and could barely walk even the next day, and while he was not diagnosed with a strain, the trainer put his recovery time at one week at least. With that, we placed him (just when he had gone to .316/.349/.456 with that powerstick) on the disabled list, and called up Walt Canning to give an audition to a proper shortstop, hopefully.

Canning, a 24-year old right-hander, plays excellent defense on the left side of the infield, and has some speed at least. His bat is a bit that of a typical shortstop, with a bit of gap power, but he won’t ever be a home run king. He draws a few walks. With Howell struggling abysmally, Canning should get a number of starts the next two weeks. We got him from the Crusaders for the failed Eric Thrift in January 2009.

Raccoons (14-7) @ Indians (12-10) – April 30-May 2, 2010

The Indians had the worst offense in the league right now, having scored only 77 runs, but they also had allowed only 79 (t-3rd). They somehow had an utterly horrendous bullpen with a 5.29 ERA, the second-worst in the CL. We had dropped two of three games to them at the start of the season.

Projected matchups:
Kenichi Watanabe (2-1, 2.87 ERA) vs. Curtis Tobitt (2-1, 4.32 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (1-1, 3.26 ERA) vs. Bob King (1-2, 2.43 ERA)
Nick Brown (5-0, 0.74 ERA) vs. Tom Weise (4-1, 2.29 ERA)

And that’s another three right-handers.

Game 1
POR: LF Castro – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – CF White – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – P Watanabe
IND: 1B Tsung – SS Barrón – LF Graham – C Paraz – RF Pacheco – 2B J. Lopez – CF Luxton – 3B C. Aguilar – P Tobitt

Watanabe continued to get raped in the worst way imaginable, walking four in the first three innings, in which the Indians also scored four runs. The lone run the Coons had wrestled from Curtis Tobitt in the first inning was dwarved entirely. As was to be expected, a 3-run deficit against Tobitt was about as good as a loss, no matter how many innings were left over in the game. Pat White would plate Bowen with a double in the sixth inning, but that still left the Coons down 4-2, but Tobitt didn’t return for the eighth inning. Alston doubled off Marcos Bruno, but merely scored on two groundouts against two other relievers, and that lone run was rendered moot when Pat Slayton gave the Indians that extra base with a wild pitch in the bottom 8th that allowed Roberto Pacheco to score another run with a productive groundout. We trailed by two in the top 9th against Salvadaro Soure, and Yoshi led off with a single. Ayers and Owens struck out, and Castro popped out to Jose Lopez to end the game in a rather uninspiring manner. 5-3 Indians. Alston 2-4, 2B; Bowen 3-4, RBI;

Ugh, that offense. Granted, facing Curtis Tobitt doesn’t help. And what’s wrong with Watanabe suddenly? He can’t suck now. Brendan Teasdale has an ERA of almost 10 in AAA.

Game 2
POR: LF Castro – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – CF White – 2B Nomura – SS Canning – P Baldwin
IND: 1B Tsung – SS Barrón – C Paraz – LF Graham – RF Pacheco – CF Cavazos – 2B J. Lopez – 3B C. Aguilar – P B. King

Castro singled and was caught stealing (by Paraz…!), and Bob King faced the minimum through three innings, much like Baldwin, who walked Mun-wah Tsung in the bottom 1st before Canning started a double play in his major league debut. But Baldwin forked up in the bottom of the fourth, walking Paraz, Pacheco hit a blooper, and Baldwin then drilled Ramiro Cavazos. Jose Lopez emptied the sacks with a double over Castro’s glove, and the dam broke in record time, washing away Baldwin in a 4-run fourth. Baldwin went six, allowed only two hits outside that fourth inning that shall be damned, but the Raccoons did literally nothing. In the top 6th they had at least two men on base with one out and both Merritt and Alston failed completely to at least get a single. Bob King issued his first walk in the top 7th to Quebell, and then Bowen doubled. The tying run was in the on-deck circle with no outs and it was really go time now! White whiffed, Yoshi hit a sac fly, but then Canning came up with his first major league hit, an RBI single, and the Indians’ lead was halved. Ricardo Martinez hit for Baldwin … and struck out. Sims put the first two batters on in the bottom 7th, which the Indians left on. So it wasn’t quite over yet. King was still pitching in the eighth, which Castro led off with another strikeout. Merritt tripled (his favorite pastime, apparently) and scored on Ron Alston’s single. Quebell hit a drive to deep left that … ended up with Robbie Luxton. Bowen batted, another drive, now to left center, and Cavazos DIDN’T get it. Alston was in full forward motion and scored on the double, and we were in fact tied!

We weren’t tied for long. Pat White flew out to center before Rockburn took over the bottom 8th, but gave up a single to Cavazos right away. The Indians moved their guy around to put him at third base with two outs for left-handed PH Angel Solís to come out to bat. Luis Beltran came in, allowed three 2-out singles, and the Indians took this one as well. 6-4 Indians. Castro 2-4; Merritt 2-4, 3B; Bowen 2-4, 2 2B, RBI;

And I have a bad feeling that Brownie will be turned into mush by the worst offense in the league as well. Maybe they have the worst offense, but the Raccoons clearly have the worst everything…

Game 3
POR: LF Castro – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – CF White – 2B Nomura – SS Canning – P Brown
IND: 1B Tsung – SS Barrón – C Paraz – LF Graham – RF Pacheco – CF Cavazos – 2B J. Lopez – 3B C. Aguilar – P Weise

The Coons scored first on a Ron Alston solo homer in the first inning. Brown’s control seemed off at the start with a poor walk to Juan Barrón, but Paraz hit one hard to Merritt for a double play. Barrón was the only Indian to reach the first time through as Brownie turned it around quickly to strike out four in those three innings. In the fourth, Tsung tried to reach on a bunt (…?), but was thrown out by Brown, who then walked Barrón again, and Paraz hit into a double play to Merritt again, but the Indians got their first hit in the bottom 5th, a game-tying solo shot by Dave Graham. The Coons just couldn’t do anything right with the sticks, had five hits through five innings, but of those two were by Brownie himself.

Top 6th, maybe something was moving: Alston hit a 1-out double, Quebell walked, and Bowen got brushed by Weise to load the sacks for Pat White. White lined out to right, Pacheco caught it, but Alston tagged and scored. A wild pitch by Weise moved up the remaining runners into scoring position, but Yoshi flew out to left to end the inning. Top 7th, Canning made an out before Brownie (still unretired on the day!) doubled(!), and can we finally get something done here? Weise and Castro ran a full count before Castro tattooed a pitch to right that was curving towards the pole and was … fair! Home run!!

Things got wicked by the bottom of the inning. Brown walked Barrón again, and Paraz hit into a double play – again! That was the third time in the game. Brown walked another one, Lopez, in the bottom 8th, but got around that as well, but didn’t return in the ninth after being hit for – to no great result – by Bradley Heathershaw in the top 9th. Angel Casas took over and the Indians never got another chance. 4-1 Brownies! Alston 3-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Bowen 2-3, 2B; Brown 8.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 8 K, W (6-0) and 3-3, 2B;

Screw Dave Graham!! If not for that homer, Brownie would of course have continued…

In other news

April 26 – ATL OF Jose Morales (.361, 4 HR, 10 RBI) has hit in 25 consecutive games with two hits in the Knights’ 3-2 win over the Indians.
April 27 – And just like that, it’s over: ATL Jose Morales (.345, 4 HR, 10 RBI) goes 0-for-4 in the Knights’ 4-1 loss to the Indians on Tuesday, thus ending his 25-game hitting streak.
April 29 – The leader of the Continental League batting race, IND SS Ryan Miller (.440, 3 HR, 10 RBI) goes down with an intercostal strain. He should miss about two weeks.
April 30 – OCT SP Edgar Amador (3-1, 2.55 ERA) throws a 3-hit shutout in a 3-0 win over the Bayhawks.
May 2 – The Bayhawks beat Thunder, 2-1, with both Bayhawks runs driven in by 3B David Lopez (.211, 4 HR, 12 RBI), who hits his 300th home run in the course of beating the Thunder. He becomes the eighth player to reach the 300 HR plateau. Lopez has batted .253/.310/.460 with 1,066 RBI in a career that started with the Indians in 1997.
May 2 – SAC OF/1B Julio Garcia (.316, 0 HR, 11 RBI) retires from baseball at age 35 after tearing his labrum. The Cuban right-hander had only signed with the Scorpions prior to this season.

Complaints and stuff

Ron Alston hit his 279th homer this week, taking sole possession of 10th place on the all time list, passing Mac Woods. He has to get going now if he wants to improve further this year.

Unsurprisingly, Nick Brown was named CL Pitcher of the Month, going 5-0 with a 0.74 ERA and 42 strikeouts. He also won POTM honors in April of 2008.

Apart from that… it isn’t even worth the try. This team will never have a working offense. This must be some kind of curse. They are built all around power, and they aren’t hitting any ****ing home runs at all. They hit their ****ty singles and leave all the runners on base, if they even hit the ****ty singles.

Matt Pruitt snagged Player of the Week honors despite being dragged off with a rope around his ankle on Thursday after going 9-for-13 with 1 HR and 4 RBI. Wicked world.

Life sucks.