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Old 05-20-2012, 05:54 PM   #2
Westheim
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Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Germany
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Opening day. The Raccoons were able to open the season (and the whole history of the league) at home, although their opponent was already one of the top contenders for the pennant, the New York Crusaders. They had strong pitching and big bats, and it would take a bit of luck to beat them.

Alex Miranda threw the first pitch in Raccoons history, allowing a single to Crusaders’ 3B Pedro Hermundo. Hermundo was erased on a play later in the inning, but the Crusaders scored their first run in the first inning. The Raccoons had to wait until the fourth inning before they scored Tim Anderson on a Wyatt Johnston sac fly. The weather was also not the best and it rained on and off throughout the game with a 40-minute delay in the sixth inning that forced Miranda out of the game after he had already walked five. Five relievers chained together the last few innings, and all was sugar for the moment – a 3-run home run by Pedro Sánz eventually won the game for the Raccoons 5-4. The only stain was Ben Green, who was unable to close the game and allowed two runs in the top 9th. Kevin Hatfield was the first game winner in Raccoons history. Yay!

The second game went just the other way round, as the Raccoons scored first, but eventually lost 5-4. To close the series, roles switched once more. New York scored three runs early off Juan Berrios, but the Raccoons came back and tied the game in the middle innings. Still tied at 3-3 the game went to the bottom of the ninth, where the Crusaders committed two errors that allowed the Raccoons to score the winning run, 4-3.

Yay, success! The Crusaders were considered one of the best teams in the game, and the Raccoons had gone 2-1 against them in a very tight series. Pedro Sánz had been stellar with two home runs and eight RBIs.

One more series on the home stint remained against the 1-3 Tijuana Condors. Ned Ray started his first game to open the series. While his pitching was mediocre at best, he produced a base clearing double in the bottom 4th to get the Raccoons ahead 3-1. Talking about bad pitching: that was not the Raccoon’s pitching staff’s day. The Condors won 10-4 partly thanks to nine walks given up by my pitchers. The Condor’s Jorge Romero shut down my guys big time in the middle game of the series, allowing two hits in seven innings. On the other side, Miranda struggled with his command again and walked four as the Raccoons lost 3-0 with only four total hits. Poor control continued into the last game of the series, with the Raccoons walking six. The Condors completed the sweep, winning 4-2.

Tijuana had mainly swept us on pitching. Their starters were sharp, mine were just waving batters to first base. That was an issue, but contrary to the New York series, this time the offense didn’t put up. Actually, the five runs from the first game against the Crusaders were still the most for the Raccoons in a game. Now they hit the road, meeting with the 4-2 San Francisco Bayhawks and 2-3 Vancouver Canadiens (the latter series over four games).

The Bayhawks so far had not homered at all, but otherwise the team looked pretty good. The first game was hitting poor on both sides, as the Bayhawks squeezed through 3-1. Freddy Lopez was thrown out at home to end the ballgame in a very close decision. By now, my offensive was last in the CL. Four of my starters were slumping out of the gates, including Ben Simon. Defensively he was fantastic, but he was still trying to get over .200 at the plate. 3-4-5 hitters Sullivan, Johnston, and Sánz were producing well, with Tim Anderson also okay. It was still early but this was something to watch closely.

Simon must have heard me contemplating. Game 2 at the bay, and the Raccoons plated four in the first inning, including three on Simon’s first home run. This was right were things stopped to work out. The Raccoon’s middle infielders then piled up three errors in two innings, and Ned Ray was torched badly by the Bayhawks. Four innings down, the score was 10-4 – for the Bayhawks. There was no comeback from this, and the Raccoons scored only one more to make it a 10-5 loss. Then they looked at Juan Correa in game 3. Correa was one of the best pitchers in the league. In his first two starts he had posted zero walks and zero earned runs, but 16 K’s. The Raccoons struggled, although Miranda made a good start. Down 2-0, the Raccoons loaded the bases with one out in the top 9th, but struck out twice to end the game and take the second consecutive sweep. That was six losses chained together and they were safely tugged away in last place in the CL North.

The Canadiens were at 4-4, 2nd in the CL North (trailing the Boston Titans, who had shot out of the gate, winning eight of their first nine), but had struggled defensively. If the Raccoons wouldn’t score against their pitchers, then there was deep trouble ahead. The first game looked like the Raccoons would recover nicely. Matt Huber pitched eight plus innings and entered the bottom 9th 7-1 ahead. He surrendered a walk off home run and was pulled, but the bullpen collapsed spectacularly. The Canadiens scored five more to go to extra innings, where Wally Gaston walked three in the bottom 10th, including walking in the winning run on four pitches and the Raccoons lost seven straight, 8-7. This one stung, badly.

Fortunes finally turned around in game 2 in Vancouver. Sánz belted a grand slam that started a strong offensive outing that led to a 9-3 win, stopping the bleeding, finally. Juan Berrios was the winning pitcher – it was the first win for a Raccoons starter in the 11th game! Ned Ray surrendered four runs in six innings in his third start, but the Raccoons produced enough to win 8-4 against a struggling Canadiens pen. The series was evened out in the final game with a 4-3 Canadiens win. Juan Miranda pitched well, but suffered a leg injury in the seventh inning, diagnosis pending. That’s very, very bad.

This capped off the first two weeks of the season. The Raccoons had gone 4-9 with a fair share of struggles. There were two good news after all on April 18, an off day. First, Pedro Sánz was the CL player of the week, going 13-28 with three homers and eight RBI. Overall he is .451 with 5 HR and 16 RBI and on triple crown pace. Second, the Miranda injury was not that bad. He had suffered only a mild calf strain and would most likely not miss a start. Phew.

Home stint over the next two weeks up for the Raccoons against the Indians, Thunder, Knights, and (again) Crusaders, enough to close out the month of April.

May I say I’m insanely in love with that raccoon?
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