[Westheim]

Raccoons (74-57) vs. Condors (54-76) – August 27-29, 2012

While their pitching was sound, the Condors’ offense was outright dismal, scoring the least runs in the Continental League. They were really at the bottom of the table or very close to it in almost all categories on offense, except for stolen bases (t-7th). They did have the third-best rotation in the CL, but it wasn’t helping them on bit, lingering in last place in the South, 39 1/2 games out in August. Yet, somehow, they were 4-2 against these Raccoons this season, which was not something to be proud of in Coon City…

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (11-8, 2.76 ERA) vs. Manuel Rojas (7-9, 3.71 ERA)
Scott Spears (8-4, 3.09 ERA) vs. Dave Hogan (6-7, 5.82 ERA)
Rich Hood (7-5, 3.27 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (9-11, 3.19 ERA)

These are all right-handed pitchers. They also had a few batters on the DL, including Tomas Cardenas, so they were even missing some of the little talent they carried around.

Game 1
TIJ: 3B Dasher – 2B Dougal – 1B May – RF Branch – CF Feldmann – LF Eroh – C R. Rodriguez – SS M. Miller – P Rojas
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – RF Carmona – 3B Merritt – CF Castro – C Bowen – P Brown

Both sides would make plenty of outs on the base paths in this game. Ron Eroh was caught stealing in the top 2nd, Tomas Castro was thrown out on a long single that was really not a double in the bottom of the same inning, and Carmona was gunned down at third on a double steal going foul in the fourth. However, Quebell’s leadoff triple in the bottom 2nd had led to the game’s first run, and the Raccoons put up three in the bottom 4th despite Carmona’s mishap, with one run singled home by Brownie with two outs after Bowen had received an intentional walk. The same situation transpired again in the bottom 6th, when Castro was on first with two outs, made it to third on a stolen base attempt during which Rafael Rodriguez airmailed the ball to centerfield, and Bowen was walked again, but this time Brownie grounded out to second base. On the mound, despite facing a lineup of beggars, Nick Brown was not dominant at all, lacking the last bit of bite to get people struck out. The Condors readily put balls in play even with two strikes, but were still shut out over seven innings with four singles and two walks. It was good enough then for Brownie. Micah Steele managed to pitch a scoreless eighth, not something anybody was putting money on in a sane mind, but Pat Slayton only faced one batter in the ninth and was taken deep by Nick May. With a left-hander in Ezra Branch next, Manobu Sugano replaced Slayton right away, whiffed Branch, and then finished the game since he was already on it. 4-1 Brownies! Quebell 2-4, 3B; Merritt 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Castro 3-4, RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (12-8) and 1-3, RBI;

The Elks were destroyed, 9-1, by the Thunder, which put the Raccoons into the lead in the North!

Game 2
TIJ: 3B Dasher – 2B M. Miller – LF Crum – 1B R. Morris – C Bedinghaus – CF Feldmann – RF Newman – SS Eroh – P Hogan
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – C D. Alexander – 3B Sambrano – RF J. Alexander – CF Castro – P Spears

Spears was in trouble in due time. Johnny Crum was close to hitting one out in the first inning, and the Condors loaded the bases with three singles in the second before Spears arrived at Hogan just in time to escape the nightmare with the third out registered on a pop. The Raccoons responded with two walks drawn by Quebell and Sambrano in the bottom of the inning before Castro singled with two outs, scoring Quebell, and that set off a string of four straight 2-out singles, plating four runs in the inning! The 4-run outburst did little to calm a seemingly nervous and insecure Spears, who missed the zone far and wide occasionally, and sometimes came down the middle real good. The Condors were inept, however. They put five men on across the next three innings, and stranded all of them, while John Alexander hit a solo homer in the fourth to extend the lead to 5-0. Carmona hit for Spears in the bottom 6th with our starter already over 100 pitches, while somehow keeping up shutout ball. A sac fly by Carmona brought in Sambrano from third, 6-0, and the ball was handed to Richard Williams to pitch two or maybe even three innings here, and indeed he breezed through the last three innings on just 30 pitches, and it really wasn’t all hard contact at all. The Coons had added a run on a Pruitt groundout in the last few innings. 7-0 Critters. Nomura 2-4, 2B; Palmer 2-4, 2 RBI; Castro 2-3, RBI; Spears 6.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (9-4) and 1-2, RBI; Williams 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (2);

This is Williams’ first save with the Raccoons. He got his other save with the Loggers earlier this year.

Game 3
TIJ: 3B Dasher – 2B Dougal – 1B May – C Bedinghaus – CF Feldmann – RF Raupp – LF Newman – SS M. Miller – P J. Martin
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – LF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – CF Carmona – C D. Alexander – 3B Merritt – RF J. Alexander – P Hood

Jaylen “Midnight” Martin on paper was by far the best player on the Condors, who sent a cleanup batter in Bill Bedinghaus well under .200 in batting average. The Condors got an early jump this time, with Rich Hood, who faced an entirely right-handed lineup, conceding two singles and a walk to load the bases, then allowed a 2-run double to Ryan Feldmann to fall behind in the first inning. Jimmy Raupp struck out and Will Newman rolled out to Hood, but that was some early damage, and “Midnight” was no pushover. The Coons got a leadoff double from Yoshi in the bottom 3rd, and just barely managed to drag him over home plate before the inning ended, and aside from that looked pretty puzzled by Martin. By contrast, Rich Hood never gained control of a ghastly underpowered lineup and conceded another run in the second (involving a bad throw by Pruitt) and one more in the fifth, while showing no sparkle whatsoever. It also rained a bit in the middle innings, then let up, then started again in the seventh.

Into the bottom 7th, Jaylen Martin looked like a winner. Then D-Alex led off with a homer, his 20th of the year, just curving around the inside of the foul pole in rightfield. Merritt walked. J-Alex singled, Merritt to third. Nobody out, runners on the corners, and those were the tying runs. Matt Pruitt batted for Hood and singled up the middle and into center, scoring the third run for the Raccoons. Yoshi struck out, and Palmer nursed a 2-1 count when the rain got too heavy and the tarp came on. Down 4-3, go-ahead runs on base, and the Condors had to leave town urgently. I sent Slappy to lock ALL the gates. Slappy, lock ALL THE GATES. NOBODY’S GONNA GET OUTTA HERE!!

An hour later, rain subsumed and play resumed with Kaz Kichida replacing “Midnight” Martin, and the lights were about to go out for the Condors. Palmer doubled to left to tie the score, Sambrano drew a walk. And then Quebell … (breathes heavily) … Quebell hit into a double play. The ****ing moron!!

When play continued in the eighth, Josh Gibson occupied our #4 slot with Quebell banished to clean the toilets. He put two men on, but Sugano struck out Branch to strand them. Carmona hit a leadoff single in the bottom 8th, stole his 13th base, but nobody hit the ball out of the infield and he was stranded at third base. This one would be a winner after all, however, with Pruitt hitting a leadoff single in the bottom 9th. Yoshi walked, and when Sambrano singled to center, Pruitt had the jetpack ignited by remote control and whooshed around the bases in world record time, and arrived well safe ahead of Ezra Branch’s throw home. 5-4 Critters! Palmer 2-5, 2B, RBI; D. Alexander 2-4, HR, RBI; J. Alexander 2-4, 2B; Pruitt (PH) 2-2, RBI; Sugano 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W 4-1);

5-4 is also our final tally against Tijuana this year, and losing the season series would have been shameful. It also would have ended our string of seven consecutive season series taken from them. We haven’t dropped five or more to them since 2004!

The Elks remain half a game behind after creaming the Thunder on Tuesday and shutting them out on Wednesday. They had tomorrow off, then would play the Loggers on the weekend. We have four with Indy up, and that season series hasn’t been a blast for Portland so far either.

Raccoons (77-57) vs. Indians (57-76) – August 30-September 2, 2012

From the worst offense in the league to the worst pitching in the league, the Indians ranked dead last in runs allowed, with 671 counters against them, or just over five per game. The rotation was also worst in the league with a 4.75 ERA, while their offense was eighth. They were last in stolen bases, but second in home runs, but more than half of their 105 home runs was either on the DL (Jose Paraz, Juan Ortíz, Mun-wah Tsung) or had been traded away. We were 6-5 against them so far.

Projected matchups:
Shunyo Yano (5-10, 5.27 ERA) vs. Sadakuno Imamura (5-7, 5.16 ERA)
Hector Santos (11-8, 3.53 ERA) vs. Tristan Broun (5-12, 5.43 ERA)
Nick Brown (12-8, 2.66 ERA) vs. Tom Weise (12-12, 4.11 ERA)
Scott Spears (9-4, 2.91 ERA) vs. Aaron Walsh (4-3, 4.15 ERA)

Broun is a left-hander, one of two they currently drag around, but we’ll not get to see Sam McMullen, who has similarly horrible numbers to Broun.

The Raccoons will play a bunch more games before their next off day and we will get everybody a day off somewhere. Quebell starts it. (grumbles)

Game 1
IND: CF J. Wilson – RF Bayle – C Padilla – 1B S. Guerra – LF Kui – 2B Mathews – SS R. Miller – 3B R. Garza – P Imamura
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – LF Sambrano – 1B Pruitt – C D. Alexander – CF Carmona – 3B Merritt – RF J. Alexander – P Yano

The Indians led this game in a hurry. John Wilson hit a leadoff triple, and scored on Jimmy Bayle’s fly to center, putting Yano in a hole at 1-0. That didn’t LOOK like a really big hole, but Imamura was spot on from the start, and Yano, despite lining up zeroes on the board after that first inning mishap, kept trailing and trailing. The Coons killed their only early scoring chance with a double play that Palmer hit into in the third, and that was it for a long, long while. When Matt Pruitt hit a leadoff single in the seventh that was enough to cause a mild uproar and excitement in the park, but D-Alex hit into a double play and sadness returned immediately. Yano made it through eight, which was newsworthy in its own right, with only the one run allowed, print a few more of those papers, just to make sure we don’t run out, but he was still trailing in the middle of the eighth. A leadoff walk drawn by Merritt in the bottom 8th was enough reason to bring Castro to run for him, which turned out to be a waste of player material. John Alexander clocked an 0-1 pitch by Imamura and catapulted it far up the rightfield stands, instantly flipping the score in the Coons’ favor! Indians pitching folded after that, issuing four walks, with Ricardo Munoz issuing a bases-loaded walk to Pruitt for an extra run that Angel Casas didn’t need, eating Santiago Guerra, Ming Kui, and Joey Mathews with hair and cap and all, three strikeouts in ten pitches. 3-1 Raccoons! Pruitt 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; J. Alexander 2-3, HR, 2 RBI; Yano 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (6-10);

Angel Casas saved #40, Yano got an out in the eighth inning for the first time in over four months, and the Raccoons were now a full game ahead of Vancouver.

Game 2
IND: CF J. Wilson – SS R. Miller – C Padilla – 1B S. Guerra – LF Kui – 2B Mathews – RF Luxton – 3B M. Clark – P Broun
POR: SS Palmer – 2B Sambrano – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – RF D. Alexander – CF Castro – RF Ayers – P Santos

Hector Santos was horrendous – there was no way around it. The Indians made hard contact, hard contact, hard contact all the time, and hit a leadoff double three times in the first five innings. That they only scored one run from those three leadoff doubles speaks volumes about the overall quality of their team, and then the run was even unearned after an error by Pruitt. But Santos certainly wasn’t fooling anybody, and apart from Pruitt’s ill misgrab, the defense was spectacular, with any number of nice plays made all over the field, and no less then superb defense was necessary to keep Santos from getting culled. He was also at odds with D-Alex behind the dish, and a wild pitch aside Alexander also had some struggles on defense. Santiago Guerra reached with an infield single to start the top 6th that was Alexander’s fault. Offensively, the Coons were silent the first time through the order, but Tomas Castro hit a 2-run homer in the bottom 4th to flip the score. They didn’t follow on, however, and that brings us back to that Guerra infield single. At some point gloves were rendered to have no effect, and eventually the Indians were to turn fully into a meatball, and it was Joey Mathews with a 2-run homer in the top 6th that flipped the score back in their favor.

John Alexander hit for Santos with two outs and two on in the bottom 6th, but popped out to Guerra, which was not helpful at all. Slayton and Thrasher kept the Indians in range with scoreless innings before Quebell ruined Broun’s day in the bottom 8th, slapping a leadoff jack to tie the game and flush Broun off the mound. Ricardo Munoz, who had walked in the insurance run the previous day, replaced him, and within ten seconds drowned in runners as Merritt singled, D-Alex singled, and Castro walked. Three on, no outs for Ayers, which was not the best guy to come up, especially with a right-handed pitcher, and with Yoshi sitting on the bench picking his nose. So Yoshi grabbed a bat, but was soon a part of the biggest bubble burst in a while, teaming up with Bowen to hit into consecutive force outs at home before Palmer rolled out to third for good. Nobody was expecting anything from Bowen except a pretty thick wallet, but Yoshi? Yoshi? I am disappointed. Yoshi hung the furry cheeks and whiskers and blinked at me out of his cute black button eyes, then grabbed his glove, since he now had to field. The bottom of the first inning of unnecessary extras would start with a D-Alex single, which was bad, since a) he was slower than a corpse, and b) Bowen was gone and we couldn’t run for him. Castro flew out, bringing up Yoshi’s slot. With determination he hit a liner to center, Wilson started in, then reversed and ran out, but he wasn’t getting it any which way, this one was to deep center and against the wall! Dylan Alexander chugged around second as Wilson hustled after the ball that stopped dead in front of the wall in the deepest part of centerfield. D-Alex was sent around third with the bat boy jogging alongside him and handing him an oxygen mask. Yoshi slid in at third base before Alexander got to home plate, but he still arrived there way in front of the ball! WALKOFF TRIPLE!! 4-3 Critters!! Sambrano 2-4, BB; Quebell 3-5, HR, RBI; Merritt 3-5, 2B; D. Alexander 2-5; Ayers 1-1, 2 BB, 2B; Nomura 1-2, 3B, RBI;

After that walkoff triple, Yoshi came back to me and scratched at my pants. Those cute black eyes! I handed him a cracker and he rushed off with it. The love continues.

The baseball gods put the roster expansion into the middle of this series. The Raccoons added a few people to increase versatility. Lefty reliever George Youngblood was recalled, plus third catcher Tom McNeela, who was batting .267, but mostly singles, in AAA, Walt Canning, Jason Seeley, who had batted over .340 since being demoted to AAA, and Brett Gentry for the sake of his right-handed bat.

Game 3
IND: CF L. Martinez – LF Bayle – 2B Kym – 1B S. Guerra – 3B Mathews – SS R. Miller – C Dunn – RF Kui – P Weise
POR: 2B Nomura – CF Sambrano – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – C D. Alexander – 3B Merritt – RF J. Alexander – SS M. Gutierrez – P Brown

Nick Brown walked the first two batters of the game before Jong-beom Kym struck out and Guerra bounced into a double play. The next two innings yielded a Ryan Miller single and four strikeouts and we didn’t quite now what we had on the mound after all, but at least D-Alex continued his power campaign and hit a 2-run homer in the bottom 2nd (Quebell had walked) to put the team up 2-0 early on. Brown struck out Kym and Guerra to start the fourth, and Mathews grounded out. We looked at the stats again. The magic number for this game was a round two paws full – he had seven now, but the pitch count was shooting up like a space-bound rocket. Weise also engaged in a strikeout orgy at times, whiffing the side ending with Brown in the bottom 5th. Brown returned the favor – almost – whiffing Weise to start the top 6th, number nine, and then also got Leon Martinez, who made his season debut as a call-up, for #10 before Jimmy Bayle grounded out, but Brownie got another one in the seventh to claim sole possession of 18th place before his time in the game ran out. His spot to hit came up with two on and one out in the bottom 7th, and he wasn’t quite as well with the stick this season as in the last few years, and he was also just under 100 pitches. Nope, nope, let’s get a batter here. Jason Seeley had been blazing hot in AAA, grounded out on a 3-0 pitch, and Yoshi lined out hard to Kym. The score remained 2-0, and when Seeley came back to the lineup, the hitting coach slapped him with a spare glove repeatedly. The Coons got an insurance run in the bottom 8th, with Angel taking over in the ninth, where Leon Martinez’ infield single almost got the Indians rolling. Kym singled with two outs, putting runners on the corners and bringing up Guerra, who had at least nominal power. And he DID hit a 2-2 pitch hard to left, fairly deep, uh-oh, no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-Pruitt had it. But it was closer than all fans with heart ailments would have liked. 3-0 Brownies!! Quebell 1-2, 2 BB, 2B; D. Alexander 3-4, HR, 3 RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 11 K, W (13-8);

Thank heavens for that early hit of Brownie, because I see myself killing him by sending him for a 142-pitch complete game no-hit bid one of these days.

Coons still undefeated this week! Nine wins in a row!

Game 4
IND: CF J. Wilson – C Padilla – 2B Kym – 1B S. Guerra – LF Kui – RF Bayle – 3B Mathews – SS M. Clark – P Walsh
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – C D. Alexander – 1B Quebell – LF Seeley – 3B Merritt – CF Carmona – RF J. Alexander – P Spears

Santiago Guerra hit the one he didn’t quite get in the ninth inning on Saturday, a solo shot to set the Indians ahead 1-0 in the second inning of the Sunday afternoon affair. Ming Kui added a double right away and scored in the same inning, and the Raccoons had a rally to conduct if they wanted to extend their winning streak. They only had a single in the first three innings, however, while Joey Mathews hit a solo home run in the fourth to add to the Indians lead, 3-0. Offensively, the Raccoons were still not doing much, some of them because they weren’t even given a chance. Yoshi Nomura was drilled by Walsh his second and his third time up, and the latter would cost the pitcher. Palmer singled, only the second hit for Portland, before D-Alex flew out to Ming Kui in left. That brought up Quebell, who was in full swing mode on the first pitch and OH DEAR – WHAT A BOMB!! That one was NEVER going to come down again!! FAR AND FAR AND FAR AWAY!!!

With the game properly tied, Spears issued a leadoff walk to Mathews in the top 7th. Mathews was on second with two outs when we sent Thrasher to face the left-handed Wilson, but the Indians countered with right-handed batter Ramón Garza. Thrasher still got him with a soft fly to medium center, however, and the run was stranded. Bottom 7th: Jon Merritt walked, Carmona singled and was forced on a fielder’s choice hit into by J-Alex. Pruitt hit for Thrasher and walked, loading them up for Yoshi. C’MON, WALSH!! HIT HIM AGAIN, YOU SUCKER!! Nope, he didn’t, and neither Nomura nor Palmer got a run in, which was a shame. Don’t gimme those eyes again, Yoshi. No, you can’t have a cracker until you get home a run. No-ho! Now take your glove. Get outta my pockets!!

Things went south much more after that. The ****ty Micah Steele allowed a homer to Guerra in the eighth to put Indy on top, 4-3, and in the bottom of the inning we had D-Alex and Quebell on the corners with no outs before Seeley struck out and Merritt hit into a double play. The bottom 9th saw Helio Maggessi trying to cling onto one for Indy, but he walked Carmona on four straight balls to star the inning. And here was the rookie on first who everybody expected to run now. But as long as John Alexander, who had hit two homers in the last few games and could end this one with a single swipe, was at the plate, Ricardo Carmona wasn’t gonna get a steal sign. Maggessi got ahead of Alexander, but he put the 1-2 pitch in play, a line to right center, and that was a single. Jimmy Bayle picked it up and Carmona was going to third, and so was Bayle’s throw, but he was NEVER gonna get him! Carmona was safe at third with the tying run, and Alexander alertly moved up to second with the winning run – and nobody out! Sandy Sambrano batted for Pat Slayton, popped out, Yoshi Nomura lined out to short, and Michael Palmer flew to deep center, but Robbie Luxton made that play. 4-3 Indians. Palmer 2-5; Quebell 2-4, HR, 3 RBI;

Words can’t describe the agony.

In other news

August 29 – VAN SP Bill King (11-10, 3.55 ERA) 3-hits the Thunder in a 5-0 shutout, the sixth shutout suffered by the Thunder this month.
August 31 – LVA SP Anthony Bryant (8-8, 4.59 ERA) is not only out for this season with radial nerve compression, but he might also miss the start of the next season.

Complaints and stuff

Sunday’s dismal loss dropped the Coons into a tie with the Elks, and like I said, the Elks are up next week … in Elk Town. That’s a TERRIBLE proposition and can make for all kinds of bad stories. Plus the Crusaders on the weekend. Brrrrr. The Crusaders can still swipe this one, even without Stanton Martin, but they have to start beating teams now, and preferably teams like the Raccoons.

At least we’ll miss Rod Taylor and Juichi Fujita in the Vancouver set, and will play their “lesser” starters, that’s a plus for sure.

Nick Brown has 21 scoreless innings going, which is juicy as hell. What was his record? It was a few years back and I can’t remember on the fly…

ABL CAREER STRIKEOUTS (excerpt, 10 guys ahead of Nick Brown, plus now with all active pitchers)

1st – Martin Garcia – 3,783
2nd – Tony Hamlyn – 3,468 (active)
…
6th – Javier Cruz – 3,153 (active)
7th – Chris York – 3,031 (active)
8th – Carlos Asquabal – 2,995 (HOF)
9th – Arnold McCray – 2,900
10th – Bastyao Caixinha – 2,844 (HOF)
11th – Kisho Saito – 2,800 (HOF)
12th – Robbie Campbell – 2,763
13th – Kelvin Yates – 2,665 (active)
14th – Leland Lewis – 2,664 (HOF)
15th – Manuel Movonda – 2,663
16th – Kiyohira Sasaki – 2,640
17th – Craig Hansen – 2,578 (HOF)
18th – Nick Brown – 2,517 (active)

Jimmy Oatmeal was called up by the Condors on September 1, but hasn’t played yet. He was also called up briefly last September and didn’t play then either. His slash in AAA in ’12: .233/.281/.370; why do they even bother?