Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

You'll have to take my word for it....

I made a really, really funny joke, but then thought better of it.....

If anyone other than Salazar can field a good shortstop, I'd be tempted to shop him around, since he's probably going free agent anyway and not helping us much with his bat so far this year.

But always mind the 10/5 rights.

--

Ha! I have a great question that hardcore followers will surely be able to answer on the fly, it just sprung to my eye:

Who are the only two position players (so, not pitchers) to spend a double digit number of seasons with the Raccoons?

Probably no update today, either. I am dead tired after not getting a good nights sleep for three days and am barely able to follow the Mariners-Knights game that is on.

[Questdog]

Teacher's Pet and that guy that used to hit home runs and play gold glove defense at third, but hit .220.....forget his name though......Mark, something?.....

[pjh5165]

Originally Posted by Questdog

Teacher's Pet and that guy that used to hit home runs and play gold glove defense at third, but hit .220.....forget his name though......Mark, something?.....

Dawson

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

Teacher's Pet and that guy that used to hit home runs and play gold glove defense at third, but hit .220.....forget his name though......Mark, something?.....

Originally Posted by pjh5165

Dawson

Daniel Hall (17 seasons) and Mark Dawson (11 seasons) are correct.

We have/had a few guys on the team who have been here eight or nine years, but only those two made it ten or more. Tetsu Osanai is one example for a 9-season guy.

[Westheim]

Played the Indians series on Wednesday, when I was really tired and didn’t focus all the time, making a few bad decisions, most notably forking up the lineup for game 4. All losses incurred are on me alone for that series.

Raccoons (48-28) @ Indians (43-35) – June 27-30, 1996

Quite important 4-game set coming up here. The Indians are seven back in the division and we really don’t want to invite them back into the race. The amount of categories they ranked 6th in was astonishing, including runs scored, runs against, and starters’ ERA. So while they were not a bad team, they were not a great team. MR Tim Hess, SP Lorenzo Ángel, INF Angelo Duarte were all on the DL, although Hess could come off during this series.

Projected matchups:
Antonio Donis (9-3, 3.99 ERA) vs. Dan George (7-6, 4.15 ERA)
Jose Rivera (6-0, 1.98 ERA) vs. Kerry Mills (2-11, 7.67 ERA)
Kisho Saito (10-4, 4.05 ERA) vs. Chang-se Park (6-5, 3.59 ERA)
Jason Turner (5-4, 3.07 ERA) vs. Michael Koch (3-2, 3.18 ERA)

Game 1
POR: 2B Brewer – 3B O’Morrissey – RF Green – 1B Wedemeyer – C Vinson – CF Newton – LF Strong – SS Salazar – P Donis
IND: CF Maguey – C Cicalina – 3B Brown – LF Maldonado – 1B Ayala – RF Sakaguchi – SS J. Martinez – 2B M. Carter – P George

The Raccoons’ only hit for a very long time was a leadoff double by Donis in the third, and he was brought in to score the maiden run in the game. Donis was dominant through five, and again just deflated in the sixth, in which the Indians tied the game. O-Mo made strong plays to end the sixth and seventh innings with the go-ahead runs at third base in both innings. Buell actually had a second hit for us in the eighth, but nothing came about it. O-Mo then led off the top 9th with a bloop single, and was also left on there. We went into extras, and in the 10th, Scott Strong had his first hit as a Furball, a 1-out double. Salazar grounded out, and then Kinnear hit for Otero, and grounded to the right of the mound. Ayala hustled in and lobbed the ball – OVER Matt Brown!! The throw went into the seats, and Strong was awarded home. O-Mo drove in two more runs after Brewer had drawn a walk, and De La Rosa sat the Indians’ top 3 batters down in the bottom 10th. 4-1 Coons. O’Morrissey 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Buell (PH) 1-1; Donis 6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K and 1-2, 2B; Otero 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (1-2);

I used De La Rosa over Ban because Ban had thrown 40 pitches the last three days and we led by three. De La Rosa has even better stuff than Ban in my eye, and he did not disappoint.

We will chalk up this one to luck entirely. The Indians left the bags full in the sixth and and another man at third in the seventh, and our runs in the 10th don’t score if Claudio Ayala doesn’t make that throwing error, because the inning ends with Kinnear then.

Game 2
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Green – 1B Wedemeyer – C Vinson – 3B O’Morrissey – SS Salazar – RF Strong – P J. Rivera
IND: LF Espinoza – C Cicalina – 3B Brown – RF A. Roldán – 2B Ayala – 1B D. Thompson – CF Maldonado – SS J. Martinez – P Mills

Against the alleged pushover Mills, the Raccoons grounded into double plays in the second, in the third, in the fourth inning. The last one at least brought in a run, our first of the game. Meanwhile, the Indians were hitless against Jose Rivera. The Coons then put away the childish singles in the sixth, as Wedemeyer came to the plate with Big Bertha, the biggest Knoxville Slapper bat he could find in the dugout. He homered off Kerry Mills, and Vinson followed with a shot of his own. The inning continued and Rivera singled home a run with two down, 4-0. Meanwhile, the Indians failed to get on base. Rivera issued his third walk of the day in the sixth, but nothing came of that, and sat down the side in the seventh. Brewer drove in a pair in the top 8th, 6-0, and all eyes were on Rivera entering the bottom 8th. Jose Martinez sent home all hopes for Rivera, though, with a leadoff double. Gone was the no-hitter. Tadanobu Sakaguchi homered to left, and gone was Rivera, too. The game however was not in danger again, as Martinez and Burnett closed it out. We even managed to hit into our fourth double play on the day in the ninth inning. 6-2 Furballs. Green 2-3, 2 BB, 2B; Wedemeyer 2-5, HR, RBI; Vinson 2-5, HR, RBI; Salazar 2-4; Strong 3-4; Rivera 7.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, W (7-0) and 1-2, RBI; Burnett 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

So, no no-no. And I am still stunned by the fact that after two months (almost), still nobody was taken a bat to bruise Rivera. He is chasing after Saito and Donis for most wins on the staff by now!

Oh yes, six in a row. With Saito pitching next, the next 8-game losing streak could be around the corner, though.

Game 3
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – 3B O’Morrissey – 1B Wedemeyer – C Vinson – RF Strong – CF Newton – SS Ingall – P Saito
IND: CF Maguey – C Cicalina – 3B Brown – LF Maldonado – 1B Ayala – RF Sakaguchi – SS J. Martinez – 2B M. Carter – P Campbell

The Indians toppled their rotation by throwing in 36-year old Robbie Campbell (1-1, 3.95 ERA in 27.1 IP) into this game, and there was also rain in the forecast.

Saito didn’t have it, and it became clear early on. Matt Brown homered for two in the first inning, and Martin Carter hit a leadoff jack in the bottom 2nd, which then tied the game at three, since Campbell had been rocked in the top 2nd, too, including a 2-run homer by Scott Strong. Neither starter could surrender much more as heavy rain put the game on hold once Saito struck out Carter to end the bottom 3rd. After a one hour delay, neither hurler came back out. The Coons left the bags full in the top 4th when both Kinnear and O-Mo popped out. We also had the bags full in the fifth. Royce Green pinch-hit for Otero with two out, but whiffed against Jorge Escobar. I then hoped for De La Rosa to give me three frames, but the Indians whacked him in his first, with another Brown homer and a bases-loaded walk plating a pair, and he would be removed after a leadoff walk to Urbano Cicalina in the sixth. By then however, he was in the lead thanks to a 3-run homer by O-Mo that made it 6-5 Furballs. Mallandain took over from De La Rosa, despite a mostly right-handed lineup, and although he walked a pair, he managed to go through seven. In the top 8th, we got some much-longed-for insurance with an RBI double by Strong and then one run scoring on an error by Jose Martinez. But in the bottom 8th, Juan Martinez walked the bases full with two outs. Tzu-jao Ban came in to face Sakaguchi, but the Japanese hit an infield single that Ingall failed to dig out, and Ban walked in a run with four errant ones to Martinez, but then struck out Carter, so we were still up by one. Now, Ban had entered along with Higgins in a double switch, since the #9 slot led off the ninth. Higgins got on, stole second, and Brewer walked. O-Mo hit a 1-out single but Higgins was held – and now Ban had to bat. Only Burnett and a gassed Miller were left in the pen, and I really wanted Ban to pitch the ninth. So he had to bat against Jim Durden. Of course, he struck out, and so did Vinson. I had to see it coming from far, far away, but Ban blew it. Matt Brown, that disgusting bag of filth, singled in the tying run, and we went to extra innings with basically no bullpen. And on top of that, we left runners in scoring position in the 10th (Brewer), and the bags full in the 11th (Newton). Burnett dropped Higgins’ throw to first in the bottom 11th that put leadoff man Cicalina on, and Burnett never surrendered another batter. 9-8 Indians. O’Morrissey 2-6, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Vinson 2-5, 2 BB, 2B; Strong 2-6, BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Newton 3-7; Ingall 2-5, BB; Higgins 2-2; Mallandain 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K;

We left TWENTY men on base in this game. TWENTY. That should have been plenty enough of chances to score some more runs against those Indians.

Game 4
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – 3B O’Morrissey – 1B Wedemeyer – C Vinson – RF Strong – CF Newton – SS Ingall – P Turner
IND: 1B D. Thompson – LF Sakaguchi – 3B Brown – RF A. Roldán – CF Maguey – 2B Ayala – C Cardenas – SS J. Martinez – P Park

Sakaguchi’s RBI triple got the Indians going in the bottom 1st, in which they scored a pair. Turner didn’t really have his stuff and command ready and was down 3-0 before the Raccoons ever really threatened. Vinson drove in O-Mo with two out in the sixth to get us on the board, but there wasn’t really a lot happening in the top halves of innings. Turner and Otero at least held the Indians to their three runs, and when Jim Durden issued a 1-out walk to Luke Newton, we got the tying run to the plate in the top 9th. Salazar hit for Durden and singled, bringing up Green in the #9 slot. Grounder up the middle, Ayala had it and turned the double play. 3-1 Indians. Strong 2-3, BB; Salazar (PH) 1-1; Otero 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Of course I forked up here with the lineup. I was mentally fixed on the left-hander Koch pitching the final game and then ran that sub-par, experimental right-handed lineup without checking and didn’t realize it until not the first, but the second inning. I suck. I suck, I suck, I suck. Let’s go on.

Raccoons (50-30) vs. Canadiens (31-50) – July 1-4, 1996

The Canadiens continued to suffer horribly from their pitching, with them conceding the most runs in the league, (425 at the half way point), with their starting and relief pitching almost equally bad. SP Jose Dominguez was on the DL, and outfielder Jorge Ledesma was on the shelf with an undiagnosed ailment coming in here.

Projected matchups:
Scott Wade (5-6, 4.01 ERA) vs. Lucio Munoz (4-5, 3.65 ERA)
Antonio Donis (9-3, 4.81 ERA) vs. Fernando Chavez (6-7, 3.80 ERA)
Jose Rivera (7-0, 2.04 ERA) vs. John Collins (4-4, 4.22 ERA)
Kisho Saito (10-4, 4.19 ERA) vs. Glenn Ryan (6-7, 5.29 ERA)

Those were all right-handers, but maybe the Canadiens would shuffle their guys some, too.

Game 1
VAN: SS McFarland – 2B S. Mendez – RF Arroyo – 1B Mosley – 3B Galindo – CF D. Edwards – LF Moore – C J. Lopez – P Munoz
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – 3B O’Morrissey – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Green – C Vinson – CF Newton – SS Salazar – P Wade

In the third inning of a scoreless game, both pitchers led off their teams’ offensive innings by getting on base. Munoz singled, while Wade actually reached on an error. Munoz scored, but the Raccoons followed up Wade’s ROE by taking the lead with a 1-out, 2-run double by Wedemeyer with the bags full, and Green hit a sac fly, 3-1. Wade went seven, not surrendering another run until his last inning, but the Raccoons had not added runs either. Strong hit for Wade to lead off the bottom 7th and singled, and Brewer also singled. Kinnear hit a hot liner into right that Luis Arroyo caught, but Strong moved to third, and from there he scored on O-Mo’s groundout, 4-2. Miller pitched a 5-pitch eighth, and we added a run in the eighth, and then put Ban into the ninth, and he didn’t throw strikes at all. Two walks and a single, the bases were loaded, and no outs. De La Rosa replaced him, popped up Forest Hartley, and while he surrendered an RBI single to Alberto Durán, he got the game over with in time. 5-3 Raccoons. Brewer 2-3, BB; Ingall (PH) 1-1; Strong (PH) 1-1; Wade 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (6-6);

Closer woes starting again? Also, at this point David Brewer is our last .300+ batter. Nobody is hitting for more than a week. We have four players BNN labels as “hot”, and they are all pitchers.

Game 2
VAN: RF Arroyo – CF Ledesma – LF Hartley – 1B Mosley – 3B Galindo – SS McFarland – 2B B. Butler – C J. Lopez – P F. Chavez
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – 3B O’Morrissey – 1B Wedemeyer – CF Green – SS Salazar – RF Strong – C Kondo – P Donis

Jorge Ledesma was in the lineup, but came out of the game in the first inning, hurting. Hartley’s solo home run got the Canadiens ahead in the first, but it was their only hit for a long time. The Raccoons scored three again in the bottom 3rd, this time with a 2-run triple by O’Morrissey as the center piece. Donis struck out five in a row at one point, but only seven in total while pitching into the seventh. When he put Mosley on, he was removed with two down. Martinez faced Jesus Galindo, but surrendered a game-tying home run, then put two more on and had to be dug out by De La Rosa. It got worse in the eighth. Mallandain walked two left-handers, and when Daniel Miller came in, he provided little relief. The game went down the drain in a hurry, as the Canadiens raped our bullpen for six runs. 9-3 Canadiens. Kinnear 2-4, 2B; O’Morrissey 2-4, 3B, 2 RBI; Donis 6.2 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K;

We have no hitting. It is not that we are lacking Neil Reece (who didn’t hit **** before being hurt either), but the whole team is not hitting anymore. In 7 of the last 13 games, we have scored three runs or less, and with the pitching not stellar, this brings us to playing to a .500 tune for the last 13 games. Well, almost, 7-6.

The bullpen continues to be an area of concern, too.

Game 3
VAN: SS McFarland – 2B S. Mendez – RF Arroyo – 1B Mosley – LF Hartley – 3B Galindo – CF D. Edwards – C J. Lopez – P J. Collins
POR: 2B Brewer – RF Strong – 3B O’Morrissey – 1B Wedemeyer – CF Green – C Vinson – SS Salazar – LF Buell – P J. Rivera

Stephen Buell hit his first big league home run, a leadoff job in the bottom 3rd, then tying the game. Jose Rivera was very hittable in this game, which quickly got out of the Raccoons’ reach. Rivera was down 5-1 in the sixth, but came back out for the seventh, facing McFarland leading off. He surrendered a leadoff double, then was in pain, and was removed. Between Mallandain and Otero, the run scored, 6-2 Canadiens, while the Raccoons had zero going for them. The best chance one could get was facing Albert Matthews in the bottom 9th, down 6-3. Matthews walked Vinson, and walked Salazar. The tying run came up in Buell, and no outs. Matthews continued to miss, and also walked Buell. Ingall hit for Burnett in the #9 slot, but struck out. Brewer came up, another left-hander, and those continued to tear up Matthews, as Brewer singled into left, which scored a pair. Down 6-5, the winning runs in scoring position, one out, Strong to the plate. He grounded to second, where Bob Butler faked to home, which had Buell scrambling back in a hurry, then put out Strong at first. O-Mo had to get something done, and took Matthews’ second pitch to left. IT GETS THROUGH!! Buell comes home, Brewer turns third, Brewer goes home, the throw! Is! LATE!! RACCOONS WALK OFF!!! 7-6 Furballs!! Brewer 4-5, HR, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Green 2-4; Buell 2-3, BB, HR, 3B, RBI; Kinnear (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Martinez 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

To be fair, this was the Canadiens’ game, if they had put in somebody other than Albert Matthews. ANY guy who doesn’t walk the first three men in an inning would have closed this one easily.

Scoring four in the bottom 9th is sweet, regardless. It is double sweet against the Canadiens.

Unfortunately, I had to send down Stephen Buell the morning after his first home run in the Bigs. We needed another arm in the bullpen and we brought up Cesar Salcido as additional pitcher for the last four games before the All Star Game. I did not get Pancho Padilla, because he had worked regularly the last few days and was tired already. Salcido can at least be used to eat innings in a deflating loss, should we run into one of those. By the way, Kisho is pitching next, and between zero and eight runs everything is possible for the Canadiens.

The news on Jose Rivera are good: he came out with back spasms and won’t be available for a week. However, the All Star game cancels his next start anyway, so we will not have to DL him or anything like that. I don’t see any pitcher out of our rotation go to the All Star game anyway.

Game 4
VAN: CF Ledesma – 2B S. Mendez – LF Hartley – 1B Mosley – 3B Galindo – RF Moore – SS B. Butler – C J. Lopez – P Ryan
POR: 2B Brewer – RF Strong – 3B O’Morrissey – LF Kinnear – CF Green – 1B Higgins – SS Salazar – C Vinson – P Saito

A man on second, two out, 0-2 on Mosley, Saito was almost out of the first. Then the Canadiens jumped on him for three hits and three runs. A throwing error by Salazar cost an unearned run in the second. The Raccoons were still waiting for a hit, which would come with a double off Vinson’s bat in the bottom 3rd, which put him and Salazar in scoring position. Saito and Brewer at least got them in with productive outs. Two out in the top 5th, nobody on, Galindo hit a soft bloop into shallow right for a single. Roland Moore hit an infield single to Brewer. And then Butler singled to left to score another run. Lopez was walked intentionally to get to Ryan, who buried Saito with a 2-run single. ARGH!!! Seven runs on Saito on ten hits, nine of which had been soft bloops, grounders, or infield knocks. I gave up on the game, put Salcido in, and closed my eyes to cry some. In the bottom 6th, we got our second hit of the game, a Strong single, and the next two Inepticoons also singled, loading the bags for Royce Green against Glenn Ryan. Green lined out, and Higgins flied out, inning over. 8-2 Canadiens.

This sucks.

Raccoons (52-32) @ Loggers (56-30) – July 5-7, 1996

Last series before the All Star game, and we are three games back. So, winning this series seems like a good thing to do. But with their offense humming, I see hard times upon us. But with Davis Sims and Rafael Garcia on the DL the rotation of theirs we were facing consisted of a few fill-ins, too, so maybe … nah, stop kidding.

Projected matchups:
Jason Turner (5-5, 3.16 ERA) vs. Simon Walton (2-0, 5.34 ERA)
Scott Wade (6-6, 3.92 ERA) vs. Cole Johnston (1-1, 5.28 ERA)
Antonio Donis (9-3, 3.73 ERA) vs. Jorge Casas (5-4, 4.45 ERA)

Stephen Walton was a 23-year old left-hander, who had not been taken in the 1991 amateur draft and had bounced around before ending up with the Loggers. Johnston had not been picked in the 1988 draft.

Game 1
POR: 2B Brewer – 3B O’Morrissey – RF Green – 1B Wedemeyer – C Vinson – LF Kinnear – SS Ingall – CF Newton – P Turner
MIL: CF Fletcher – 1B Evans – RF C. Ramirez – SS Grant – LF McGuire – 3B J. Perez – C L. Ramirez – 2B Chevalier – P Walton

In the first, Walton alternated walks and K’s to the Coons before Vinson hit a 3-run homer. That was the Raccoons’ last hit until the fifth, when Newton shoved a double through Jose Perez to put himself and Ingall in scoring position with no outs. In a throwback to the last game, the pitcher and Brewer brought home the runners with groundouts. The Coons led 5-1 while Turner was well adrift, putting runners in scoring position in every inning so far, and the Loggers hit four singles off him to get their two runs back in the bottom 5th. They had two more singles in the bottom 6th, knocking out Turner after 5.1 frames. Drake Evans lined out hard to Ingall against Ken Burnett, who felt the need to load the bags by hitting Cristo Ramirez, before Bob Grant struck out. De La Rosa pitched the seventh, and entered the eighth, but found himself with two on and one out in the 5-3 game and left-handers coming up. Burnett used, Salcido useless, that left Mallandain. The ship was sinking hard, as Ricardo Rivera hit for Evans and doubled, before Ramirez hit a single in a 2-2 count and the game was tied. Tzu-jao Ban and Nori Kondo entered in a double switch, and Ramirez found it necessary to run on Kondo, who nailed him at second. Runner on third, two out, tied game, and Bob Grant grounded out to O-Mo to end the eighth. We went into extras. O-Mo hit a ball to deep left to lead off the top 10th, but it was caught. Green then singled to left, and got an extra base when Jessie McGuire missed the pickup. He never advanced, as we left on a pair, as we would do in the 11th. We were running out of arms rapidly at this point. Royce Green hit a leadoff double in the 12th. GET HIM IN!!!!! Wedemeyer was put on intentionally, bringing up Strong, who shot a double up the right field line, scoring Green. No outs, two in scoring position, and we only managed one sac fly. Up 7-5, only Martinez and Miller were left to pick from, and they had thrown 35 and 57 pitches, respectively, the last few days. Martinez was the fresher arm and was put in. McGuire took his first pitch into center for a single. Jose Perez grounded sharply to third, but O-Mo made a sparkling play and got McGuire at second base. Leon Ramirez grounded even more sharply to third then, but O-Mo made that play, too, and zinged it to Brewer, to first, out, over! 7-5 Raccoons. Green 2-5, BB, 2B; Strong 1-2, 2B, RBI; Newton 2-5, BB, 2 2B; Ban 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K; Otero 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (2-2);

We were out-hit 15-9 in this one. And Mallandain sucks. And even with an 8-man pen we can not get through games right now without guys ending up on oxygen support.

Game 2
POR: 2B Brewer – RF Strong – LF Kinnear – CF Green – 3B Ingall – 1B Higgins – C Vinson – SS Salazar – P Wade
MIL: CF Fletcher – 1B Evans – RF C. Ramirez – SS Grant – LF McGuire – C L. Ramirez – 3B Golunski – 2B Chevalier – P Johnston

Cole Johnston, 30, in his tenth big league start, failed to retire any of the first five Raccoons, and we ended up 5-spotting him in the first inning. Now, a semi-decent start by Wade, and we have this in the bank! Bottom 2nd, Bob Grant led off with a vicious liner to the deepest corner in left that kept running away from Kinnear, while Grant hurried around the bases and came up with an inside-the-park job. The next three guys would single off Wade, who managed to survive with two K’s sandwiching a sac fly. 5-2. While the Raccoons did nothing offensively with Johnston gone after two innings, Wade gave up a solo home run to Leon Ramirez in the fourth. 5-3. After the Raccoons left pairs of runners on in the fifth and sixth, Jerry Fletcher put down Wade with a game-tying home run in the bottom 6th. Top 7th, bases loaded, one out. Wade was to be hit for anyway here and O-Mo came out with a bat. After grounding to Grant, he narrowly beat out the throw from the pivoting Chevalier to be safe at first, and we led 6-5, but then Brewer struck out. The bullpen was dead. Burnett pitched a perfect seventh, and with two right-handers next, was left in to start the eighth, too. Ramirez got on, and Golunski hit a triple. Of course he would NOT stay on base, scoring on a Fletcher triple off Daniel Miller. Ingall got on leading off the top 9th, but Vinson’s double play ended the game. 7-6 Loggers. Kinnear 2-4; Green 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Ingall 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Vinson 2-4, BB; Salazar 2-4, RBI;

Again 15 hits against Raccoons pitching. Everything keeps to come crashing down.

You MUST – NOT – LOSE … a game in which you lead 5-0 after the first. Especially not for first place.

Oh come on, I feel completely sucked dry by now … I know they lose the last one anyway. Donis is pitching, and he can’t go more than six, and the pen sucks even more than the starting pitching.

And it became even worse. Antonio Donis was put onto the All Star Game, and that kicked him from the start in the rubber game. Worser: Rivera was hurt, and was not available, and so was any other guy on the team. Even worserer: nobody on the AAA team that was on the 40-man roster was available. So we had to throw in one of our precious relievers. Congrats, Loggers on being up by four then.

Game 3
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – 3B O’Morrissey – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Green – C Vinson – SS Salazar – CF Newton – P De La Rosa
MIL: CF Fletcher – 1B Evans – RF C. Ramirez – SS Grant – LF McGuire – 3B J. Perez – C L. Ramirez – 2B Chevalier – P Casas

To make things worstestenst, game 3 was held under a more or less steady rain. Everybody was soaked. The Loggers still hit triples, though, with Cristo Ramirez getting one with two out in the bottom 3rd for the first run of the game. Vinson hit a homer in the top 4th to re-tie the game. While De La Rosa gave it all he had and pitched his heart out, the offense was denied again and again. With Kinnear on first and no outs, O-Mo, Wedemeyer, and Green would hit into three line drive outs, for example, in the sixth. They left two on in the seventh. De La Rosa went seven innings in the greatest start we had seen in a while. Top 8th, Kinnear on first again. O-Mo and Wedemeyer were retired by Cristo Ramirez on huge fly balls to the warning track. In Portland, both would have been gone. Green singled to left, and Vinson flew out to … Ramirez. Mallandain put two on in the bottom 8th, and Miller walked the bags full, but Leon Ramirez grounded out to end the inning, still 1-1. Newton was left on third base in the ninth, and then Jamal Chevalier led off the bottom 9th with a single to center. Miller remained in. Bob Rush made an out, before Chevalier stole second and took third on a throwing error by Vinson. One out. Fletcher popped out to O-Mo, two out. Golunski against Miller. 1-0 pitch grounded back to Miller, throw to first, out. Extra innings. A recently ravaged Burnett came out to face Cristo Ramirez leading off the tenth, but gave up a double on the first pitch. Exit Burnett, enter Otero. Ramirez went to third on a groundout, then went for home when McGuire grounded to O-Mo, who was well alert and rocketed the ball to Vinson, who tagged out Ramirez in time. Kinnear made a huge play on an Alex Gonzalez fly ball to end the frame. Vinson led off the 11th with a double, Salazar singled, and then Newton blooped a single into shallow left. FINALLY A ****ING RUN!!! Strong singling in place of Otero loaded the bases against Raymond Leger, who didn’t have much, maybe due to pitching every day in this series. And HERE, in the 11th, the rain became so bad they called a delay, which lasted almost an hour. When play finally resumed, we still had the bags full, and no outs in a 2-1 game. Mario Chaves replaced Leger, as Brewer and Kinnear flied out to shallow left. Oh my … O-MO!! O’Morrissey hit a 2-run double to deep left, and Wedemeyer turned an 0-5 day around with a 2-run single. Cancel your euphoria, Ban still has three outs to get. He got the first two, before he went into full counts to the next three batters … losing them all. And Ramirez was coming up. And he singled. And the tying run came to the plate. I stormed the field swinging a bat and took a swing at Ban before Wedemeyer and the first base coach dragged me out. Bob Grant hit a 2-run double. 6-5, and STILL an out to collect. Jessie McGuire was eager to be the hero … too eager. Even for the kick-me version of Tzu-jao Ban on the mound, and struck out. 6-5 Raccoons. O’Morrissey 3-6, 2B, 2 RBI; Vinson 2-4, BB, HR, 2B, RBI; Newton 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; De La Rosa 7.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K; Miller 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

Just let me go to sleep now.

In other news

June 28 – RIC 3B Antonio Gutierrez (.254, 6 HR, 43 RBI) is out for the year with a broken elbow.
July 2 – TIJ INF Bruce Boyle (.294, 7 HR, 41 RBI) will be missing for a week or so with a mild oblique strain.
July 6 – IND CL Jim Durden (3-2, 1.51 ERA, 24 SV) closes down a 3-0 Indians win over the Crusaders. It is the 500th time for Durden that he claims a save, and he becomes only the third member of the 500 SV club after Andres Ramirez and Grant West. Durden, a first round pick by the Scorpions in 1979, has been with the Indians for ten years now. His career numbers are 79-65 with a 1.88 ERA in 988 games.

Complaints and stuff

I am mentally exhausted. This team is mentally exhausting. Everything is mentally exhausting. I am mentally exhausted. Did I mention that I am mentally exhausted? Everything is mentally exhausting.

That Kisho Saito gets rectally impaled every other game – it is the fact that the singles fall in where they don’t belong. BB/9, K/9, FIP are all more or less in line with his career stats, for the season and recently. The H/9 are through the roof, massively. He has 8.3 H/9 for his career, but 9.3 on the year, and 10.1 in June, and 18 in this last start. He has surrendered six or more runs (earned or not) in four starts this season:

April 23 @ Falcons, 6 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 0 HR, 4 BB, 5 K
June 2 @ Loggers, 3.2 IP, 8 H, 8 R, 5 ER, 2 HR, 1 BB, 1 K
June 18 @ Titans, 5 IP, 11 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 0 HR, 0 BB, 6 K
July 4 vs. Canadiens, 5 IP, 10 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 0 HR, 1 BB, 3 K

He has not surrendered a long ball but in the Loggers game, and only seven on the season (which projects to 14 now, and he used to give up 15 to 21 the last few years), so home runs are NOT the problem. Hits by bases in these four games:

CHA: 4 singles, 4 doubles
MIL: 4 singles, 2 doubles, 2 home runs
BOS: 7 singles, 2 doubles, 2 triples
VAN: 8 singles, 2 doubles

In the Falcons game, he walked four, which only turned that into a disaster. In the other games, the opponents would just not stop hitting against him, and in the last two there were a LOT of singles. Why can’t anybody defend against that? And it is not that it has only been Saito! This ties in to the metric butt ton of 4-run innings we have run into this season. It just keeps happening, and I have only that curse explanation for it.

Don’t even get me started on a closer almost blowing out a 5-run lead with one out to collect and nobody on base to start with.

Everything is so depressing.

And exhausting.

[Westheim]

All Star Game

The Raccoons sent four representatives to the annual All Star Game: SP Antonio Donis (rookie), CL Tzu-jao Ban, 1B/2B David Brewer, and OF Royce Green. They tied with the Loggers for most players on the CL roster (the Loggers sent SP Martin Garcia, CL John Bennett, INF Bob Grant, and OF Cristo Ramirez). In the FL, the Scorpions put up six players, the Pacifics five, the Warriors four, and there was not much room for anybody else.

Pitching was the topic in the game, as the Continental League won by the slimmest of scores, 1-0. OCT Tommy Norton hit a pinch-hit single scoring ATL Tom Nicks in the eighth to plate the only run.

Donis pitches a scoreless sixth, while Ban faced and retired one batter. David Brewer started at first and went 0-4. Green played the whole game in center and went 1-3.

Also, over the break we sent down Cesar Salcido and added Jeff Martin to the big league roster again as the fifth outfielder. Time to improve that 1-12 track record of yours, Jeffie.

Raccoons (54-33) @ Canadiens (34-54) – July 11-14, 1996

Same old Canadiens. We play four.

Projected matchups:
Kisho Saito (10-5, 4.49 ERA) vs. Lucio Munoz (4-7, 3.57 ERA)
Jason Turner (5-5, 3.26 ERA) vs. Fernando Chavez (8-7, 3.56 ERA)
Scott Wade (6-6, 4.11 ERA) vs. Glenn Ryan (7-7, 5.05 ERA)
Antonio Donis (9-3, 3.73 ERA) vs. John Collins (4-4, 4.15 ERA)

Game 1
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – RF Green – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – C Vinson – SS Salazar – CF Newton – P Saito
VAN: RF Arroyo – 2B S. Mendez – LF Hartley – 1B Mosley – 3B Galindo – SS McFarland – CF Ledesma – C J. Lopez – P Munoz

And another horrible game, especially for Saito. Bill Mosley reached to lead off the bottom 2nd, and he did so on Saito’s error. The inning didn’t want to end until Jorge Lopez hit a 3-run homer, all runs unearned. Well, kinda. In the bottom 5th, Saito failed to get people out all around. The Canadiens loaded the bags with one out, then scored a run on a sac fly. An error by O’Morrissey plated another run. Lopez was walked to get to Munoz, who then singled to left for two runs to score. The Canadiens had scored seven runs (six unearned), and the Raccoons were blacked out by Munoz. Against a mediocre pitcher with a dime a dozen stuff, they failed to hit anything. Two on, one out in the top 9th, Wedemeyer lined into a double play to end the game. 7-0 Canadiens. Green 2-4;

We made it 87 games before being shut out this season. And OF COURSE it had to happen in a Saito game. And OF COURSE against those despicable Elks. They are worth every bit of hate I can muster. That has more weight than the embarrassing four hits the team managed to accumulate.

Next, Oregon Horror Story, Part LXXXIX:

Game 2
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Green – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – RF Strong – SS Salazar – C Kondo – P Turner
VAN: CF Ledesma – 2B S. Mendez – RF Arroyo – 1B Mosley – 3B Galindo – SS McFarland – LF D. Edwards – C J. Lopez – P F. Chavez

The next day, the Raccoons scored three runs before making an out, when Brewer singled, stole second, scored on Kinnear’s single, and then Green sent one outta here. O-Mo added a solo shot with one out, and Turner’s first pitch came with a 4-0 lead. That was not our last dinger on the day: Wedemeyer made it twenty on the year with a 2-job in the third, which exited Chavez and prompted an appearance by old star Kiyohira Sasaki. The veteran surrendered two more runs in the same inning, which made eight for the Coons through three, but the problem was with Jason Turner, who actively tried to keep the Canadiens in the game. He had surrendered a run in the first (big deal, at least no 4-spot), and then walked and plunked the bases full in the bottom 3rd and surrendered two more, and Jorge Lopez hit a solo homer in the fourth. 8-4. Turner then knocked himself out in the sixth, up 9-4, by allowing a leadoff single to Lopez and then throwing away Orlando Blanco’s bunt. Mallandain replaced him, surrendered a huge ballooning flyer to Ledesma, which Royce Green made a fine play on, and then was dug out by a double play turned between Ingall and Brewer. The Raccoons would cut deep into the Canadiens’ bullpen in the end, scoring five runs in the ninth inning, and holding an 11-run lead into the bottom 9th, with Burnett still in. Forest Hartley reached on an error, and Burnett then surrendered three soft singles every which way. Otero came in and retired the next three batters, holding the damage to three runs. 15-7 Raccoons. Brewer 2-5, BB, RBI; Kinnear 2-5, BB, RBI; Green 4-6, HR, 5 RBI; Wedemeyer 3-6, HR, 3B, 4 RBI; O’Morrissey 2-6, HR, RBI; Strong 2-5; Salazar 2-2; Miller 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

As we are talking about losses, Jorge Salazar became entangled in a collision with Michael McFarland at second base in the fourth inning. We are not sure yet, but he knocked up his elbow pretty good, possibly on the base itself. He suffered a contusion that would put him on the shelf for up to two weeks, and that meant a trip to the DL.

Since Salazar had not hit a lot all season, but had still fielded very well, I picked a replacement from AAA that would also field well at short, while hitting only .260 even in the minors. He is a 22-year old Venezuelan (signes as a free agent), who is described as one of the finest young shortstops with their upside on defense, and the ABL’s #43 prospect. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome Conceicao Guerin.

Game 3
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Green – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – C Vinson – RF Strong – SS Guerin – P Wade
VAN: CF Ledesma – 2B S. Mendez – RF Arroyo – 1B Mosley – LF Hartley – 3B Galindo – SS McFarland – C J. Lopez – P Ryan

Guerin had a single in his first big league at-bat in the top 2nd in this game, and his second AB came in a 2-1 game with the bags full and two out. He flew to deep center, but not deep enough, and Ledesma got it, but in turn Guerin used his speed in the top 5th when with runners on the corners and two out, he grounded to the vicinity of third base, but beat out Jesus Galindo’s throw to first base and Vinson scored from third base, 4-1. Wade hit another infield single, but Brewer struck out to leave the bags full. Those two runs we scored in the top 5th however got right away again from Wade in the bottom 5th, as Ledesma hit a 2-run home run. Wade wobbled through six, before Burnett was brought in with two lefties leading off the bottom 7th. Roland Moore was retired by Kinnear, but Ledesma reached. Burnett got Mendez to ground out, which was good, since he was supposed to face Arroyo here. The rightfielder struck out, and our scant 4-3 lead lived another inning. The Coons then crowded Holden Gorman in the top 8th. Martin hit for Burnett, but struck out, but then Brewer, Kinnear, and Green all hit singles, and Brewer scored on the last one. Wedemeyer worked a walk. Bags full, one out. In a full count, O-Mo showed off his eye and worked an RBI walk. Vinson then grounded into an out at home, and Strong popped out. Bottom 9th, the first two Canadiens reached against Ban, and the latter of those was Lopez, and he hit another home run. That cut our lead to 6-5, but the defense did the rest of the work. 6-5 Raccoons. Brewer 3-6, 2B; Green 3-6, RBI; Vinson 2-4, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Strong 2-5; Guerin 2-5, RBI;

We need a new closer.

But what a good debut for the young Cun- … Can- … I will just call him Chip. Chip from Venezuela.

Game 4
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – RF Green – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – C Vinson – SS Ingall – CF Newton – P Donis
VAN: RF Arroyo – 2B S. Mendez – LF Hartley – 1B Mosley – 3B Galindo – SS McFarland – CF Moore – C Durán – P Collins

Wedemeyer got the Coons ahead with a solo homer in the second inning, and we added two more in the third. Donis had been killing Canadiens the first time through the lineup, punching out four, but would not get another strikeout after that. Starting with the third inning, the leadoff batter reached every frame, but they didn’t score through five. In the sixth, Arroyo got on with a single, and then Mendez and Hartley hit back-to-back home runs off Donis to tie the game. Home runs remained the main source of scoring in the game: O-Mo hit a 2-out solo dinger in the top 8th to get us ahead again, 4-3. Bottom 8th, De La Rosa had no luck with singles and put two on with one out. Mallandain was reluctantly entered to face the lefty Roland Moore, but walked him. He then surrendered a fly ball to deep center to Durán, which Newton caught – and Mosley failed to score. Ledesma came out to pinch-hit. He was a lefty and he struck out. The Raccoons left two on in the top 9th, and so Ban was brought into a 4-3 game to face the top of the lineup. Disaster was in the cards. He blew it and got yanked with the game tied and one out, but runners on the corners. And we brought in RIVERA. Monday was off, so his spot in the rotation could be skipped. Rivera came in, hoping for a ground ball and to eat innings after that. He struck out Galindo and McFarland grounded out to Brewer. Works as well. Extra innings. The Canadiens left two on in the 10th against Rivera, and both teams left a runner in scoring position in the 11th. By the 13th, we faced Jackie Lagarde on the mound. Vinson walked, Newton singled, and Guerin walked. Bags full, one out. Brewer walked! Kinnear walked! Lagarde was trashed!! Lagarde struck out Green and Rivera batted for himself grounding out. We needed him to finish this game. Struck out Mendez! Struck out Hartley! STRUCK OUT MOSLEY!!! 6-4 Raccoons!!! Brewer 2-4, 3 BB, 2 RBI; Newton 3-5, BB; Rivera 4.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, W (8-0);

We need a new closer. Also, some guys had pretty ugly “ohfers” in this game, as Kinnear went 0-7 and Green 0-6. By the way, I went with and stayed with Rivera because the only two guys left in the pen were Martinez and a much-abused Burnett.

In other news

July 8 – DEN LF Dale Wales (.305, 5 HR, 36 RBI) just can not stay healthy. He will miss the rest of the month with an abdominal strain.
July 12 – The Loggers lose INF Bob Grant (.334, 6 HR, 74 RBI) for the month with a sprained thumb.
July 14 – NO-HITTER!!! Boston’s Vicente Navarro (5-7, 2.95 ERA), acquired from the Blue Sox just this year, puts the Crusaders away effortlessly in a 9-0 blowout in New York, surrendering only three walks en route to the 19th no-hitter in ABL history and the second this season. In fact, the Crusaders have been no-hit twice this year (IND Dan George, April 3)! This is the second no-hitter for the Titans franchise (Luis De Jesus, 1990).

Complaints and stuff

Former Raccoon SP Jose Fernandez, by now 33, tossed a no-hitter for the Loggers’ AAA team this week. More needles into my vulnerable parts. Is that all the pain the world can inflict!? Don’t I have to suffer any more!? Pathetic!

Well. Our pitching is definitely at the soft side at the moment. And we have no closer. Once more.

You know, moving Donis to the closer spot would actually solve two issues. He has lights out stuff, and can’t go six without blowing up. But whom to put into the rotation? Hmmmmmm…

[Questdog]

I either forget or never knew in the first place, but why is Otero not a candidate for the Closer role?.....0.79 WHIP ain't nuthin' to sneeze at....

And maybe the Korean would bring us something on the market like a 4th outfielder or a shortstop?....

[Westheim]

Andres Otero does not have very good stuff. He's scouted 12/16/13, and lurks around 4.5 K/9. His BABIP is .198.

Ban has 7 K/9, and the BABIP has shot up to .266 now. He is scouted 19/10/13. That lack of movement may be one source of trouble.

Neil Reece will be back in two weeks. Then, Newton will be the fourth man again, a role I like him much more in, and we still have Scott Strong, who won't play a lot then, either.

I am still thinking about Donis in the closer role. His rating? 20/13/12.

But at AAA, there is not much left in untapped starter potential (but I didn't anticipate Rivera going 8-0 either). Ivan Costa is 8-6 with a 3.13 ERA, but his stamina is Donis-like. Jose Galvez is 3-7 with a 3.97 ERA (he was that wound up veteran pickup we did in May or so). The others are not better.

[Questdog]

Movement = HR

It also helps some on the BABIP.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (57-34) vs. Titans (42-52) – July 16-18, 1996

The Titans came into this series ranking bottom half in most of the important categories, and 8th in runs scored and 7th in runs allowed. They had OF Claudio Garcia on the DL, but he was not regularly starting games for them anyway. Both teams came in having taken their last three games from the opposition. We are 7-2 against them this season.

Projected matchups:
Kisho Saito (10-6, 4.30 ERA) vs. Jason O’Halloran (7-9, 5.07 ERA)
Jason Turner (6-5, 3.44 ERA) vs. Doug Morrow (8-9, 2.81 ERA)
Scott Wade (7-6, 4.13 ERA) vs. Jesus Bautista (5-9, 3.85 ERA)

Game 1
BOS: SS Silva – LF Quinn – CF J. Martinez – C L. Lopez – 1B Burbidge – 3B J. Ramirez – RF Espinosa – 2B Elliott – P O’Halloran
POR: 2B Brewer – 3B O’Morrissey – RF Green – 1B Wedemeyer – C Vinson – LF Kinnear – SS Ingall – CF Newton – P Saito

Saito Demolition Weeks continued. The Raccoons took a 2-0 lead in the bottom 2nd, including a solo home run by Marvin Ingall, before the Titans started to hit in the top 3rd. Bobby Quinn drove in the first run with a 2-out single, and Saito became more unglued in the fourth. With two on and one out, he plunked Manny Espinosa (his second HBP this game), then walked Elliott to tie the game. He got out thanks to pop outs by O’Halloran and Silva, but was wildly adrift in the game. Still, the Titans failed to knock him over because of the small things they didn’t get done, like O’Halloran just failing to get down a bunt in the sixth. That cost the Titans’ Espinosa a base when O’Halloran finally struck out on a foul bunt, and the Titans didn’t score. Bottom 6th, O-Mo and Green drew walks to start the frame, but Wedemeyer struck out and Vinson double-played us back to the bench. Saito finished his day with a strong seventh, punching out Burbidge in the end, but would not get into position for a win with an Ingall double play killing off our bottom 7th. The game remained tied, and tense. A Wedemeyer error and Miller following that with a walk created a tight spot in the eighth, but Burnett got out of that. Green left Brewer on third base in the bottom 8th, but the Coons pen held up. Bottom 9th, Wedemeyer led off with a walk. He stole second base right away. Vinson flew out, and Kinnear was walked intentionally by Javier Navarro, and when Ingall and Newton flew out to right, we went into overtime. Mallandain, the sucker, was scored on in the top 10th, and the Raccoons failed to come back. 3-2 Titans. Saito 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K;

Six hits for the Raccoons, not including any RISP hits.

Game 2
BOS: SS Silva – 1B Quinn – LF J. Martinez – C L. Lopez – 3B Burbidge – RF Thomas – CF Espinosa – 2B Elliott – P Morrow
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Green – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – RF Strong – C Vinson – SS Higgins – P Turner

Jason Turner surrendered single runs in both of the first two innings in the middle game, before settling in and clicking off the Titans from there. Unfortunately, Doug Morrow was stellar from pitch one. We didn’t get a runner in scoring position until the seventh, when O-Mo first hit an infield single with two down already, which Morrow didn’t get to after slipping on the grass which was soaked by a steady drizzle, and then Strong singled through on the right side. O-Mo went to third. Strikeout machine Vinson was up next, but was pinch-hit for with Ingall instead. Ingall singled into shallow right. A 24-minute delay was called then, but Morrow re-entered the game facing Higgins, who popped out. Otero replaced Turner in the eighth, and never retired a batter, also owing to a Higgins error, but Luis Lopez’ 3-run homer put the game away. Or did it? Morrow did not come back for the eighth, and the bottom fell out of the Titans pen in time. On their third guy of the inning, the Titans were only up 5-3 anymore, and the bags were full with two out, as Ingall faced Pedro Cruz. But Ingall grounded out. Bottom 9th: Higgins led off with a single, but was forced on Kondo’s grounder, who was forced on Brewer’s grounder. Kinnear grounded to Silva for the – first Titans error of the game. That brought up Royce Green representing the winning run. Punish them!! He grounded to Silva for the … final out of the game. 5-3 Titans. Brewer 2-5, 2B; Martin (PH) 1-1; O’Morrissey 2-4, RBI; Higgins 2-4; Turner 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, L (6-6);

Yeah, the offense is dead. We don’t score enough runs to outpace spotty, but mostly merely average pitching anymore. We’re going down hard.

For game 3, with Scott “Groundball” Wade pitching, I optimized infield defense. Not that Liam Wedemeyer was mounting up much outside of strikeouts.

Game 3
BOS: SS Silva – 1B Quinn – LF J. Martinez – C L. Lopez – 3B Burbidge – RF Thomas – CF Espinosa – 2B Elliott – P Bautista
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – 3B O’Morrissey – CF Green – RF Strong – 1B Higgins – C Vinson – SS Guerin – P Wade

“Groundball” fell 1-0 behind in the first with a Bobby Quinn homer. Okay, Wade’s actual nickname was “Gobbler”. Not that that helped any, either. The Coons tied the game on a groundout in the bottom 2nd. In the bottom 4th, Higgins got on with one out. He stole second base off Bautista, only his ninth of the year. Vinson struck out, but Guerin singled to center, but not in a way that allowed Higgins to score. Scott Wade came to bat, with an ugly .089 mark in his ledger for the year. Down 0-2, he singled through on the right side, untying the game, 2-1. Brewer and Kinnear added two more singles, and Wade was up 4-1 after his clutch hit. Singles had their way with the opposing pitcher for once, as Bautista gave up *16* hits in 6.1 innings, all but one being singles. The Raccoons added a run in the sixth, and came down on the Titans in the seventh, where Wade batted in his second run of the day. But with the bags full in that seventh, O-Mo grounded into an inning-ending double play. Scott Wade’s day ended almost as it had started: Bobby Quinn took him deep in the ninth. Burnett collected the last two outs. 7-2 Raccoons. Brewer 3-5, 2 RBI; Kinnear 2-4, BB, RBI; O’Morrissey 2-5, RBI; Green 2-5; Strong 2-5, 3B; Higgins 2-5, RBI; Wade 8.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, W (8-6) and 2-4, 2 RBI;

Okay, we got three consecutive 2-out RISP RBI singles in this game, and one more in the sixth. I will shut up now.

Why exactly did I let Bobby Quinn go? He was 6-14 with two dingers, a triple, and 3 RBI in the series. The Titans have him on the trading block regardless.

David Brewer ramped up a hitting streak to 12 games here.

Raccoons (58-36) vs. Falcons (51-43) – July 19-21, 1996

The Falcons had scored 367 runs and had allowed 342 runs so far this year. Either mark led the Continental League on the dead ball era end of the scale. Scoring could become a pain for us in this series.

Projected matchups:
Antonio Donis (9-3, 2.79 ERA) vs. Alejandro Venegas (8-7, 4.11 ERA)
Jose Rivera (8-0, 2.49 ERA) vs. Kent Cahill (3-1, 4.23 ERA)
Kisho Saito (10-6, 4.20 ERA) vs. Carlos Castro (10-6, 2.89 ERA)

We had another off day after this series, but a grueling 3-week stretch with 20 straight games, the last two weeks on the road, is coming up next. So, no regulars were rested for rest’s sake in this series against left-handers (cough, Brewer, cough).

Game 1
CHA: LF P. Flores – SS M. Hall – 1B H. Green – CF Dunphy – 3B J. Jackson – C Lozano – 2B Kent – RF Velez – P Venegas
POR: 2B Brewer – 3B O’Morrissey – RF R. Green – LF Kinnear – C Vinson – 1B Ingall – CF Newton – SS Guerin – P Donis

We knew Venegas, a former Furball, and that he had been hardly unbeatable even years and years ago, but the fact that Donis was rocked hard in the first inning, and surrendered much forceful contact in this outing, did not help our chances. Donis surrendered two in the first and three in total over six innings, but at that was helped by some stellar defense, f.e. Conceicao Guerin making a sprawling catch on a line drive in the fifth, and converting that for an inning-ending double play. Venegas gave up only two runs through seven, and when Miller was hit for a run in the top 8th, we trailed 4-2 in the bottom 8th. O-Mo led off with a double, and Green walked, which brought ex-Coon Richard Cunningham into the game. He got three groundball outs, conceding one run. An Ingall error cost us the run again in the ninth, and we trailed 5-3 in the bottom 9th, but the first two Coons got on against Alex Byrd. In that spot, Kondo hit for Miller, and grounded out, but moved up the runners. Brewer grounded out, not moving up the runners, which brought up O’Morrissey, who lined out to Hubert Green. 5-3 Falcons. O’Morrissey 3-5, 2B, RBI; Wedemeyer (PH) 1-1; Guerin 2-4;

And while we left tying runs in scoring position for an evening, the Loggers’ Martin Garcia spun a 4-hit shutout against the Aces to drop us to two games back. Ugh. Note we are also not hitting home runs on this homestand, apparently, only the opposition does so. One problem is that Royce Green is ice cold by now, batting .083 on the homestand. That puts you on the bench for a game at times.

Game 2
CHA: SS Kent – C Escobedo – 1B H. Green – 2B Barrón – RF R. Garza – LF Young – CF A. Lopez – SS M. Hall – P Cahill
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – 3B O’Morrissey – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Strong – SS Ingall – C Vinson – CF Martin – P J. Rivera

For the fourth game in a row, the Raccoons fell behind in the top 1st, 1-0. We left plenty of runners on the first few innings. In the bottom 4th, still down 1-0, Rivera came up with runners on first and second and one out, and his terrible bunt got David Vinson tagged out at third. Brewer then walked to fill the bases, bringing up Kinnear, who gladly took one to the hip to force in the tying run. And then, finally, O-Mo came through with a line drive single up into centerfield that scored two runs, 3-1. Jose Rivera pitched seven strong frames, not getting into danger for the most part, end when the Falcons got a man into scoring position in the seventh, it was because of an error by Ingall. They still didn’t score, but neither did the Raccoons. Ban was put into the ninth of the 3-1 game. He started by punching out Juan Barrón, then walked Ramón Garza, but came back with a K to Grady Young. He also walked Arturo Lopez, before Mark Hall grounded out to short. 3-1 Raccoons. O’Morrissey 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Martin 3-4; Rivera 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (9-0);

David Brewer’s hitting streak ended at 13 games with an 0-4 day with a walk.

Game 3
CHA: SS R. Garza – C Escobedo – 1B H. Green – CF Dunphy – 2B Barrón – 3B J. Jackson – LF P. Flores – RF Young – P Castro
POR: 2B Brewer – 3B O’Morrissey – RF Green – 1B Wedemeyer – LF Kinnear – C Kondo – CF Newton – SS Guerin – P Saito

David Brewer, not being subbed for against the left-hander, was hit by the left-hander in his first AB, and the ball went right onto his middle finger. Brewer left the game as we were uncertain as to the extent of the incurred injury and played the rest of the game in health limbo and with Higgins manning the keystone. An erratic Castro loaded the bags with walks to O-Mo and Green, then struck out Wedemeyer, but Kinnear grilled him with a bases-clearing double. Kondo singled home Kinnear, and we were up 4-0 after the first. Saito was in no constitution to defend a 4-0 lead for any length of time, however, throwing more balls than strikes. The Falcons got one run in the top 2nd, and another, unearned, run in the top 3rd, with a Kondo throwing error contributing there. In the fourth, it all exploded on him, with hits, walks, more hits, a wild pitch, and finally the death knell, a 2-run double by Antonio Escobedo that gave the Falcons the lead. The Raccoons did zero apart from a leadoff double by Kinnear in the fifth against Cunningham pitching long relief as neither starter went very deep. Saito probably didn’t deserve it, but was taken off the hook in the bottom 8th in the most embarrassing of circumstances. Mike Dye pitched, walking Kinnear to lead off the frame. Kondo got the bags emptied with a double play grounder to Garza at short. Then Newton doubled to left, and Guerin grounded up the middle where Garza’s glove managed to tip the ball as he lunged at it, but it still went into the outfield. Newton scored easily from second. The Falcons tagged a run on Juan Martinez in the top 10th, and Kinnear then hit a leadoff double in the bottom of the inning. After Kinnear had doubled to right, Kondo doubled to left, and we were tied, and the winning run on second with no outs, and the distance to home was halved by Alex Byrd with a wild pitch. Newton was put on intentionally, before Guerin popped out. Ingall hit for Burnett, but grounded into a force at second and Kondo had to hold. Higgins to the plate, 0-4 on the day, a bloop into shallow center, and Christian Dunphy charged at it in vain, but to no avail. 8-7 Raccoons. Kinnear 4-4, BB, 3 2B, 3 RBI; Kondo 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI;

Now some good news. David Brewer’s finger was dislocated, but not broken. He was put back together at the hospital and was back at the ballpark the next day, which we had off, sporting a splint on the hand. He will be DTD for the next series, and we will use him sparingly.

Raccoons (60-37) vs. Bayhawks (42-58) – July 23-25, 1996

The Bayhawks weren’t scoring a lot either (9th in CL), but their pitching was in a boat load of trouble. They had the second-worst rotation in the league, and conceded the second-most runs.

Projected matchups:
Jason Turner (6-6, 3.38 ERA) vs. Ricardo Sanchez (11-5, 2.79 ERA)
Scott Wade (8-6, 4.00 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (5-7, 4.70 ERA)
Antonio Donis (9-4, 3.82 ERA) vs. Charles Bywaters (6-9, 4.62 ERA)

So Sanchez was a tough not to crack, but Brewer would sit. Chapa was a left-hander, and Brewer would sit, too. We will see how things are for game 3 and the right-handed Bywaters.

Game 1
SFB: 2B J. Gomez – 3B P. Hernandez – 1B Dean – RF P. Perez – LF J. Thompson – CF Marquez – SS Powys – C J. Ortíz – P R. Sanchez
POR: RF Strong – LF Kinnear – 3B O’Morrissey – 1B Wedemeyer – CF Green – C Vinson – 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – P Turner

Jason Turner did all he could to throw the game away in the first inning, giving up three hits and three walks, including two of the bases-loaded variety, to fall 3-0 behind. Vinson would drive in a pair in the fourth, but for the most part the Raccoons were obliterated by Sanchez. In the top 7th, Turner put a man on and was removed with the four left-handers of the middle of the Bayhawks lineup coming up. Mallandain came in, and surrendered not one, but TWO 2-run home runs on the way to the end of a big league career. 10-2 Bayhawks.

Tim Mallandain is a useless piece of ****. I want no part of that sucker anywhere near my clubhouse anymore, and never again. He will be traded for a bag of baseballs at the first opportunity. Pancho Padilla was recalled from AAA in his place.

At the pace our pitching was going at, we would be in the bottom half of the CL in runs allowed by August. This battering dropped us to 5th.

Game 2
SFB: 2B J. Gomez – 3B P. Hernandez – 1B Dean – RF P. Perez – LF J. Thompson – CF Marquez – SS Powys – C J. Ortíz – P Chapa
POR: 2B Higgins – 3B O’Morrissey – LF Kinnear – RF Green – 1B Wedemeyer – C Vinson – CF Newton – SS Ingall – P Wade

The Bayhawks took the lead in the second inning with kind assistance of a passed ball on Vinson. They added a run the next inning, while the Raccoons looked like pre-schoolers clanging a bat against the tee trying their clumsy little hands at tee ball. Since even the angels in heaven couldn’t help but to cry, both starters were knocked out in a lenthy rain delay in the fifth inning. As Jose Matos appeared in relief in the bottom 5th, Newton and Ingall got on. With no outs, Brewer hit for Wade, but only managed a sac fly. An O-Mo single and a walk to Kinnear loaded the bags with two out, prompting Royce Green to pop up the first pitch for Mike Powys to catch. Bases loaded, two outs again in the bottom 6th, and Higgins came through to deep center. The double scored two runs, but Ingall was thrown out at the plate by Pedro Perez. We got two innings from De La Rosa, and an insurance run in the bottom 7th, but ended up with Tzu-jao Ban in the ninth anyway, facing two left-handers at the start of the inning. Jim Thompson hit a huge fly ball to deep center to start the frame, but Jeff Martin made the play on that, and Ban also got the next two. 4-2 Furballs. Higgins 1-3, 2 BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Wedemeyer 2-4; Newton 1-2, BB; Ingall 2-4; Wade 5.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K; De La Rosa 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K;

Luke Newton was injured running the bases in this game. He will be heading to the DL with a groin strain and should miss two to three weeks. Stephen Buell was called up.

Game 3
SFB: 2B J. Gomez – C J. Ortíz – LF P. Perez – 1B Delgado – 3B P. Hernandez – SS Powys – CF J. Thompson – RF Cavazos – P Bywaters
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – 3B O’Morrissey – 1B Wedemeyer – CF Green – SS Higgins – RF Strong – C Vinson – P Donis

Donis came out throwing laser beams, and for a nice and welcome change, the Coons actually scored first, and also ended a home run drought, when Wedemeyer hit his 22nd of the year in the bottom 2nd. Donis hit a 2-out RBI single in the same inning, but most spectacular was his mound work. At one point in the game, he punched out for Bayhawks in a row, and had nine K’s through six innings. Delgado and Hernandez made hard outs in the top 7th before Donis made it ten by punching out Powys, but he also crossed 90 pitches in that at-bat. What would he have in the eighth? We were up 5-0 after the bottom 7th, so Donis at least had some breathing space, but any signs of fatigue, and he goes for the shower. He sat down the birds from the bay in order, including #11 to Ramiro Cavazos. When his turn to bat came in the bottom 8th, up 6-0, with runners on first and second an no outs, Donis bunted them over. We scored three in the inning and led 8-0, and now the whole ballpark tried to chant Donis towards finishing his 2-hitter, while going out on 106 pitches. But Jorge Gomez worked a walk in a nerve-wrecking 13-pitch at-bat, and that was it for Donis, he came out. Padilla collected the last three outs. 8-0 Furballs. Brewer 3-5, 2B, RBI; O’Morrissey 2-5, RBI; Higgins 2-3, BB; Strong 3-4, 2 RBI; Donis 8.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 11 K, W (10-4) and 1-3, RBI;

Raccoons (62-38) vs. Aces (60-42) – July 26-28, 1996

The Aces, who had never been to the playoffs after 19 years, were leading the CL South at this point, and they did this with a very well rounded team that didn’t blow away the competition in any one category, but was very good throughout. For example, they were only 5th in runs scored, and 4th in runs allowed, but somewhere they had some glue that they used to keep it all sticking together. They had won their last three, but were 2-4 against us this season.

Projected matchups:
Jose Rivera (9-0, 2.38 ERA) vs. Jou Hara (9-9, 2.92 ERA)
Kisho Saito (10-6, 4.18 ERA) vs. Carlos Guillén (10-5, 2.93 ERA)
Jason Turner (6-7, 3.50 ERA) vs. Rafael Espinoza (12-5, 3.33 ERA)

Just look at the rotation that we are going up against. They were totally dialed in, and they also had no injuries weighing them down. Guillén, who no-hit us 11 years ago, is a left-hander. We will get Salazar back in time for the middle game, so Guerin got another start at short before heading back to St. Pete.

Game 1
LVA: SS R. Gutierrez – LF Douglas – CF J. Vargas – RF Mashiba – 1B A. Maldonado – C Manuel – 2B Marino – 3B Petipas – P Hara
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – 3B O’Morrissey – 1B Wedemeyer – CF Green – C Vinson – RF Strong – SS Guerin – P J. Rivera

The series opener was about losing things and coping with it. Jou Hara for example lost a few fly balls into the stands to Ben O’Morrissey, a 3-run homer in the third, and a solo job in the fifth. In turn, he made all the other Raccoons batters entirely redundant. Nobody but O-Mo did anything useful against Hara in his six innings. The Raccoons’ Jose Rivera lost a good outing of six innings of 1-run ball in the seventh, when the Aces put two on and I had a hunch to get Burnett, who struck out Joe Douglas to end the inning. And we lost Liam Wedemeyer who hurt himself hustling first-to-third on a Green single in the fifth inning and had to leave the game. Will we cope with that? Otero pitched a perfect eighth, conserving the 4-1 lead for Ban in the ninth. He put down the first two Aces, before Bob Petipas took him deep, 4-2. Then pinch-hitter Michael Sanders got on, but Gutierrez grounded out to end the game just in time. 4-2 Furballs. O’Morrissey 3-4, 2 HR, 3B, 4 RBI; Green 2-4; Rivera 6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, W (10-0) and 1-2, RBI;

So, let’s sort all this out. Liam Wedemeyer strained a rib cage muscle. His hunt (which was not very ferocious for most of the last four weeks) for a home run record of some kind ends for the year as he may miss up to a month with that injury. He was put on the DL and Jorge Salazar was added to the roster from the DL for game 2. However, Cun- … Cam- … Chappy Guerin was still sent back to Florida, because I didn’t want that many shortstop type players on the roster. Instead, we brought up 3B Mike Crowe with the intention of having O-Mo play first in Weed’s absence, and having Crowe play regularly at third base to see whether he can swing it in the big leagues.

Game 2
LVA: SS R. Gutierrez – LF Li – CF J. Vargas – RF Quintela – 2B Zamora – C Manuel – 1B A. Maldonado – 3B Petipas – P Guillén
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Buell – 3B O’Morrissey – RF Green – 1B Ingall – SS Salazar – C Kondo – CF Martin – P Saito

The Raccoons plated single runs in the first two innings on four and three hits, respectively. Then, the 7 in their hit column remained in place. Guillén had settled in, and showed it. Kisho Saito was very good despite some more control problems, but despite working on a shutout, trouble found him later rather than sooner. In the seventh, Andres Manuel hit a leadoff single, and Petipas drew a 1-out walk. Guillén remained in, bunting over the runners. Two outs, Robinson Gutierrez coming up. Have Saito pitch to him or get a right-hander? Ah, Saito came out. We put in De La Rosa, and Gutierrez ruined Saito’s line with an infield single to the second base bag that neither Salazar nor Brewer got to in time. Mashiba then hit for Xiao-wei Li and flew out to deep center, so we were still up 2-1. Otero walked the first two Aces in the eighth, but they failed to score, ‘nother bullet dodged. Saito was looking from the dugout, eyebrows (the little he had) pulled up high. He saw O-Mo get on with a leadoff single in the bottom 8th, and move to second when Green grounded out. Ingall was put on intentionally, followed by Salazar singling up the middle. O-Mo was waved around third and was merely safe at home. That knocked out Guillén, who exited after an intentional walk to Kondo(!!). Bags full, one out, but Martin at the plate, so Strong came out to bat, and worked a walk, pushing home our fourth run against reliever Jose Sotelo. Crowe hit for Otero and singled to left, putting another run up on the board, and when Sotelo uncorked a run-scoring wild pitch, Saito began to relax and stopped choking a defenseless towel in his hands. 23 pitches by Martinez in the ninth later, the game was over, and Saito had his first W in five weeks. 7-1 Raccoons. Brewer 2-4, BB; O’Morrissey 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Salazar 2-4, RBI; Strong (PH) 0-0, BB, RBI; Kinnear (PH) 1-1, 2B; Crowe (PH) 1-1, RBI; Saito 6.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (11-6) and 1-2;

That was a real nailbiter. Saito walked three, but this was a very good start overall. He would not have gone much deeper even without the tying runs in scoring position, since he needed 106 pitches to collect 20 outs.

Another player came off the DL for us at this point. Let’s all scream his name in a really high-pitched girly voice. It rhymes with cheeeese: Neeeeeil Reeeeeece!! Buell was returned to AAA for him.

Game 3
LVA: SS R. Gutierrez – 2B Zamora – CF J. Vargas – RF Mashiba – 1B A. Maldonado – C Manuel – LF Douglas – 3B Petipas – P Espinoza
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B O’Morrissey – C Vinson – RF Strong – 3B Crowe – SS Salazar – P Turner

Both teams had plenty of scoring chances in the early innings, but wouldn’t. The Aces left the bags full in the second, and we left runners in scoring position twice in the first four frames. There were 12 hits in the game before a run was scored: in the bottom 6th, Reece led off with a single, followed by O-Mo. Vinson hit into a double play, but Strong zinged a liner over Gutierrez into shallow left and Reece scored. The Aces put runners on the corners in the top 7th, knocking out Turner. As lefty Michael Sanders came out to pinch-hit for Zamora, Burnett was brought in and got a grounder right to Brewer, who had no trouble to convert the out to first, and we remained up 1-0. We loaded the bags with one out in the bottom 7th, with Reece to the plate, and while he grounded out, 2B Francisco Marino’s only play was to first, and one run scored. That run was key for Turner, since Daniel Miller was beaten with a leadoff double by Javier Vargas in the eighth. Vargas pulled something and had to leave the game, but Li scored the run regardless on two groundouts. Ban pitched through a 2-out walk to Carlos Quintela in the ninth to save this one. 2-1 Furballs! Brewer 3-4, 2B; Salazar 2-3; Turner 6.2 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 4 K, W (7-7);

And after a really, really, really sub-par first week to the homestand, we have now won five in a row again!

Trade

On this last Sunday of the homestand, we also struck a minor trade with the Bayhawks. Really, minor. No player involved can be a big help for any ball club right now. First place, last place, doesn’t matter.

We sent over Tim Mallandain, and in exchange got a young AA SP in Anthony Mosher, who was 9-7 with a 3.46 ERA so far this year, and was assigned to our own AA team in Ham Lake. Mosher, 21, and the Bayhawks’ first round pick in ’93, has four pitches, which all work very well, but his control does not quite so far, but he should see the light in AAA before the end of the year.

In other news

July 17 – ATL 1B/2B Manuel Guzman (.307, 2 HR, 40 RBI) is out for the season with a broken kneecap.
July 20 – RIC SP Jose Ramos (9-3, 3.58 ERA) spins a 1-hit shutout against the Gold Sox, as the Rebels win 6-0. Jorge Villegas accounts for the lone hit for the Gold Sox, a seventh inning single.
July 21 – In Oklahoma, 35-yr old 1B/2B Dave Browne, who has never played for another franchise, signs a 3-yr extension. A .283 hitter with 158 homers and 1,026 RBI, Browne will cash in another $2.85M.
July 21 – As the Crusaders beat the Bayhawks, 4-0, Anibal Sandoval (13-7, 3.46 ERA) tosses a 3-hit shutout.
July 22 – The Aces swap SP Ben Carlson (6-6, 3.43 ERA) to the Miners for CF/LF Xiao-wei Li (.338, 1 HR, 22 RBI in 160 AB), who is 36, and a minor leaguer.
July 26 – The Cyclones’ young closer Leonardo Sosa (1-4, 3.82 ERA, 22 SV) is out for the better part of a year with a torn labrum that will need reconstructive surgery.
July 27 – LAP SP Angel Romero (8-8, 3.01 ERA) takes the W in a 3-0 win of the Pacifics over the Capitals, while also spinning a 2-hit shutout.
July 28 – The season ends with a broken ankle for OCT OF Lucio Hernandez (.250, 3 HR, 39 RBI).
July 28 – Not quite as bad, but still hurt: SAC OF Joey Humphrey (.347, 3 HR, 43 RBI), who will miss about a month with a strained oblique.

Complaints and stuff

Antonio Donis could be the beast of the league. If he just had more than 5 stamina. On a 20 scale. Sigh.

Meanwhile I still have no clue where Jose Rivera’s 10-0 record is stemming from. He is scouted 10/15/10 by Vicente Guerra, and OSA has him slightly better. That should not be enough to go undefeated. Again, his BABIP is .210, so we can still wait for the inevitable crash.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (65-38) @ Thunder (46-57) – July 29-31, 1996

Regardless of the Raccoons’ own rapidly fluctuating performance, a CLCS rematch with the Thunder in 1996 was more than just unlikely. They were 13 games out in the CL South, with horrible pitching, and going a hair over .400 the last two months. Their #3 offense wasn’t helping them a lick.

Projected matchups:
Scott Wade (8-6, 3.92 ERA) vs. Jon Robinson (14-5, 3.24 ERA)
Antonio Donis (10-4, 3.55 ERA) vs. Lou Corbett (5-7, 5.37 ERA)
Jose Rivera (10-0, 2.30 ERA) vs. Millard Wilson (3-7, 5.06 ERA)

Game 1
POR: 2B Brewer – 1B O’Morrissey – CF N. Reece – RF Green – LF Strong – C Vinson – 3B Crowe – SS Salazar – P Wade
OCT: SS J. Sanchez – CF Camacho – 3B S. Reece – 2B H. Ramirez – RF Barnes – LF Browne – 1B Preston – C Guidry – P Robinson

In addition to the biggest stud in the Thunder rotation, Wade also faced six left-handed batters, and the odds were not in his favor. And while Robinson struck out Raccoons in bushels, they still spotted him two runs in the fourth, Reece and Green scoring on groundouts after starting the inning with two hits, and another one in the fifth, when Brewer singled home Salazar, and Wade was shutting out the Thunder through five. Wade held on to that until with one out in the eighth, when Sonny Reece singled up the middle against him, extending a hitting streak to 17 games. Ken Burnett was called on, but Ramirez got on with a single. Artie Barnes grounded out, putting two in scoring position, as Travis Shaw pinch-hit for reliever Andy Castle in Browne’s slot. De La Rosa got him to pop out to O-Mo. And because Gabby was already in, he finished the game despite Dan Preston’s leadoff single in the bottom 9th. 3-0 Critters! Brewer 2-4, RBI; Reece 2-4; Green 1-2, 2 BB; Wade 7.1 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 4 K, W (9-6); De La Rosa 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (4);

And we are at six. Considering the adversities faced by Wade with this lineup (which was not a bad lineup!), he pitched a very good game, despite four walks incurred.

The Thunder struck a deal the same night, sending Travis Shaw away to the frost-bitten Arctic (literally!), so his final Thunder AB would be popping out to the eighth as the tying run in a 3-0 loss.

Game 2
POR: 2B Higgins – 1B O’Morrissey – CF N. Reece – RF Green – LF Kinnear – C Vinson – 3B Crowe – SS Ingall – P Donis
OCT: SS J. Sanchez – RF Barnes – LF Norton – 3B S. Reece – CF Camacho – 1B Browne – C Ikeda – 2B De Jesus – P Corbett

Antonio Donis set a new record for patheticness in respect to reaching exhaustion. By the fourth inning of a 2-0 game, he failed to throw strikes and loaded the bags, even walking Lou Corbett with two down. Otero came in, struck out Jose Sanchez, and now we just had to cobble another 15 outs together with the bullpen. Now you hoped you hadn’t used De La Rosa for four outs the previous day. Otero pitched the fifth, but then I went to Padilla and hoped for him to cover three, no matter how. He allowed a run in the sixth, which Neil Reece homered back off Corbett, 3-1 Coons, and after a wild bottom 7th, I had enough of Padilla, too. Ingall ended that frame with a splendid play on Camacho’s grounder, and Brewer singled in a run PH-ing for Padilla in the top 8th. Things were still tense, but Miller retired the Thunder in order in the bottom 8th. Top 9th, Royce Green put the game away, bombing a 3-run homer off Andy Castle. With the game out of range (seemingly at least), Miller even batted in the top 9th, hitting an RBI triple! The whole idea was of course to have pitch the ninth, too, and he finished the game despite two singles in the ninth. 9-1 Raccoons! O’Morrissey 2-5; Reece 2-5, HR, RBI; Green 2-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Kinnear 2-5, RBI; Salazar (PH) 1-1, 2B; Ingall 4-5, HR, 2 RBI; Brewer (PH) 1-1, RBI; Otero 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Miller 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (11) and 1-1, 3B, RBI;

So the game didn’t have a bad ending despite Donis collecting only 11 outs with 88 pitches (despite surrendering no runs!), while walking four and allowing two hits. That big starter career may never come to fruition. It is one thing if you can’t go nine, but if you can’t go five, you’re in trouble.

Game 3
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF N. Reece – 1B O’Morrissey – RF Green – C Vinson – SS Salazar – 3B Crowe – P J. Rivera
OCT: SS J. Sanchez – LF Browne – 3B S. Reece – 1B H. Ramirez – RF Barnes – CF Camacho – C Guidry – 2B De Jesus – P MacGruder

The Thunder toppled their rotation for the last game in the series after acquiring Fernando Chavez in the Shaw trade two days earlier, and we faced Bob MacGruder (2-4, 5.86 ERA) in the series finale.

While Rivera still had not been figured out by the opposition, the game remained close despite a 3-run homer by Green in the first inning. Crowe drove in another run in the fourth, but the Thunder began to crowd Rivera soon enough. They loaded the bags in the sixth, but didn’t score. They had runners on the corners in the seventh, but didn’t score. Still 4-0, Rick Nicholls walked the bases full in the top 8th, but the Raccoons didn’t score when Vinson AND Salazar fouled out. Jose Sanchez’ leadoff single in the bottom 8th removed Rivera from the game, and when Burnett came in, he was shelled. He walked Browne, Reece blooped into shallow left, Ramirez scored the first run with a groundout, and Barnes drove in a pair with a double. De La Rosa put out the fire to advance the game to the ninth with a 4-3 score. When Ban came in to save this one, he inevitably surrendered a mighty fly ball to deep left to PH Tashiro Ikeda, which Kinnear made a MAGNIFICIENT play on, and only that held the game together, a 4-3 with staples and tape and band-aid all over it. 4-3 Raccoons. Green 2-2, 2 BB, HR, 3 RBI; Crowe 2-4, RBI; Rivera 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (11-0);

And we are at eight, with a black eye. We also moved into a tie with the Loggers for first place just in time before the dawn of August.

Raccoons (68-38) @ Crusaders (43-65) – August 1-4, 1996

New York was 11th in runs scored, and 8th in runs allowed, with the second-worst rotation in the league. Whenever they sniffed at the upper half of the division, they lost their players to free agency, and dumped back to the dump. Would their new owner give them a budget you could actually work with for 1997?

Projected matchups:
Kisho Saito (11-6, 4.04 ERA) vs. David Ramirez (6-10, 4.63 ERA)
Jason Turner (7-7, 3.32 ERA) vs. Cipriano Miranda (0-3, 6.46 ERA)
Scott Wade (9-6, 3.71 ERA) vs. Dan Barnes (4-9, 4.91 ERA)
Antonio Donis (10-4, 3.43 ERA) vs. Anibal Sandoval (14-8, 3.41 ERA)

Game 1
POR: 2B Brewer – 1B O’Morrissey – CF Reece – RF Green – LF Kinnear – 3B Crowe – SS Salazar – C Kondo – P Saito
NYC: 2B Lammond – SS R. Rodriguez – LF A. Johnson – C Melendez – 3B Wilson – RF Orosco – CF P. Jenkins – 1B M. Williams – P D. Ramirez

O-Mo homered off Ramirez in the first inning, giving Saito a 1-0 lead early on, and then hit a 2-out triple in the third, upon which he scored on a single by Neil Reece. Royce Green showed off being hot (merely a week after being ice cold) with a 2-run homer after that, and we were up 4-0. A cycle was in the air, but O-Mo struck out and popped out in his next AB’s and that was that. Meanwhile, Saito was surrendering plenty of line drives, and Green made a few great plays in rightfield on those, plus double plays turned behind Saito kept the Crusaders off the board. The Coons would not score past the third, while Saito started the eighth by loading the bags. Raúl Rodriguez grounded back to the mound and Saito got the out at home, which brought up Avery Johnson, who was chasing after the CL home run lead in Liam Wedemeyer’s vacation on the DL. Burnett had almost blown the last game he was thrown into, so Saito would try to get him himself. Johnson doubled over Reece in center, scoring two, which exited Saito and entered Otero, who struck out Ruben Melendez and Larry Wilson was retired on another monstrous catch by Green in deep right to get us out of that frame. Ban came in for the ninth, and put the tying runs on with one out. PH Ed Rigg shot a grounder to Salazar, but between him and Brewer we were a bit too slow to turn the double play and runners were on the corners. That brought up Haywood Lammond, and he popped out to Mike Crowe – ballgame. 4-2 Saito’s Minions. O’Morrissey 2-4, HR, 3B, RBI; Reece 2-4, 2B, RBI; Green 1-2, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Saito 7.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (12-6);

Nine in a row! Also, our #5 through #9 batters produced one measly hit (Salazar). Thank god we can hit home runs and do so more frequently recently. Also, for another somewhat sad stat, Kisho reached 12 wins here – which TIES the highest mark for him in FIVE years! There were a few no-run-support years in there, but WOW. You expect your ace to win more than 12 a year (and we won two titles in that time span, too). He will have to stretch pretty badly to reach the mark from 1991, the first year before that 5-year span, when he won 19.

For better news, the Loggers lost in Vancouver, 3-2, leaving us with sole possession of first place.

And doesn’t Haywood Lammond have the coolest name ever? I like him as long as he doesn’t homer in a situation like in this game here.

Game 2
POR: 2B Brewer – C Vinson – LF Kinnear – 1B O’Morrissey – CF Green – RF Strong – 3B Crowe – SS Salazar – P Turner
NYC: 3B Wilson – CF C. Clark – RF A. Johnson – LF P. Jenkins – 1B Rigg – SS R. Rodriguez – C F. Gonzalez – 2B Lammond – P Miranda

The Raccoons took an early lead with a Kinnear home run in the first, but Turner struggled with the 2-3-4 left-handed battery in the Crusaders’ lineup all day long. Clement Clark drove in the tying run in the third, and Johnson homered off Turner to tie Wedemeyer’s mark of 22 dingers on the year in the sixth. Down 2-1, Jorge Salazar led off the seventh with his first home run in two years, tying the game in the process. Turner then hit a shy single to left, and Brewer walked on four pitches, which got Miranda out of the game. Jose Hernandez walked Vinson to load the bags with no out. The Coons had left the bags full in the sixth, but this time scored three more on a walk to Kinnear and two sac flies to lead 5-2. Turner was removed when he put a man on in the seventh, and Burnett waved the runner home. We got an insurance run in the ninth, but left the bags full again. With Ban a bit out of breath, Martinez was put into the bottom 9th, with Miller as backup in the pen, but Martinez sat the Crusaders down in order, although the final out was more on Salazar making an awesome play on Clark than anything else. 6-3 Coons! Green 4-4, BB;

Make it ten!!

With Ken Burnett as cold as he is – he is our only left-hander in the pen! – we could run into more trouble soon enough. Must think of something.

Game 3
POR: 2B Brewer – 1B O’Morrissey – CF Reece – RF Green – LF Strong – 3B Higgins – C Vinson – SS Ingall – P Wade
NYC: 3B Wilson – CF C. Clark – RF A. Johnson – LF P. Jenkins – C Melendez – 1B Rigg – SS R. Rodriguez – 2B Lammond – P Barnes

Scotty struggled with the left-handers in this game, surrendering a run in the first, as much as with battery mate Vinson in this game, as both were charged with either a wild pitch or a passed ball by the third inning. By then however, Scott Strong had put the Coons ahead with a 2-run home run in the second, and Green added a solo job in the fourth, 3-1. Wade got better in the middle innings (Vinson too), and while the Furballs drew walks like crazy off a wild Barnes, they didn’t get too many hits. When they got hits, they usually counted, like a 2-run homer for O-Mo in the seventh, 5-1. In the bottom 8th then, Wilson got on with two outs and Wade surrendered the first big hit since the start of the game, a double to Clark. That put two in scoring position and with Burnett going like he was going, and having to pick between him and Wade, as well as the poisons Johnson and Jenkins, I went with Wade and pitching to Johnson. If Johnson hit his 23rd, we would still lead, and could still have Burnett surrender the game-tying homer to Jenkins. Avery Johnson swung for the fence, but popped the first pitch from Wade to Ingall for the third out. Against Jose Hernandez, Royce Green then put the game away with his second dinger of the day, a 3-job with one out in the ninth. It didn’t matter that Wade ran into Melendez’ bat for a solo homer in the bottom 9th, he finished the deal. 9-2 Furballs! Green 2-3, 2 BB, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Strong 3-3, 2 BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Ingall 2-5, 2B; Wade 9.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (10-6) and 0-3, 2 BB;

Way to go, SCOTTY!!! ELEVEN!!! And this means two things: a) 11-game win streak for the Raccoons, and b) 11 consecutive seasons with double-digit wins for the “Gobbler”! Ha-hah, life is great in Portland!

Game 4
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – RF Green – 3B O’Morrissey – C Vinson – 1B Higgins – SS Salazar – P Donis
NYC: 2B Lammond – SS R. Rodriguez – LF A. Johnson – C Melendez – CF Diéguez – 3B Wilson – RF C. Clark – 1B F. Gonzalez – P Sandoval

Sandoval was perfect through three innings against the Raccoons, but the Crusaders failed to capitalize on Donis starting out wild and left the bags full in the first. In a scoreless game, Sandoval tried to extend a blossoming bid in the fourth inning, which began with a David Brewer double, and which saw Sandoval in the showers by its conclusion. The Raccoons sent 11 men to the plate, hammering Sandoval for EIGHT runs, including a 2-run home run by Kinnear and a bunch of doubles. And yet, Donis almost didn’t get the win. Two out in the bottom 5th, he walked the bags full before Armando Diéguez was dumb enough to put a 2-1 pitch into play and O-Mo zinged to Higgins for the third out, but then still pitched the sixth, when the Crusaders squeezed only four pitches out of him while making three outs in that inning. Johnson hit a 3-piece off the sucker Padilla in the bottom 7th, but that still had us up 10-4, and we came up with another huge inning in the top 8th, plating another five runs, starting with a 2-run single by Salazar, and continuing with run-scoring hits by Martin and Kinnear. The Crusaders were smothered to ashes, as even Juan Martinez singled to lead off the top 9th, and we loaded the bags with no outs. 17-4 Furballs!! Brewer 4-7, 2B, 3 RBI; Kinnear 3-6, BB, HR, 2B, 5 RBI; Green 3-6; Vinson 2-4, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Higgins 2-5, BB, RBI; Salazar 2-4, 2B, 5 RBI; Martin (PH) 3-3; Donis 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 5 K, W (11-4) and 2-3, RBI; Martinez 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K and 1-1;

TWELVE!!! Nothing remains of those Crusaders but a few teeth and a shin bone in the sand. Millions of years from now, alien archaeologists will recover these and rightfully find out that these guys were a truly horrid baseball team. Oh yeah, and the Canadiens took three of four from the Loggers, but we have to go there next. (shivers)

In other news

July 29 – The Loggers and Indians deal at the deadline, with the Indians sending INF Jamal Chevalier (.277, 5 HR, 43 RBI) to Milwaukee for MR Andrew Schaefer (1-0, 1.22 ERA, 1 SV).
July 29 – The Capitals’ OF/1B Jeffery Brown (.350, 10 HR, 65 RBI) has shoulder woes and will head to the DL. Team doctors think his shoulder tendinitis will keep him out for at least three weeks.
July 30 – The Thunder trade INF Travis Shaw (.230, 2 HR, 13 RBI in 165 AB) to the Canadiens for SP Fernando Chavez (9-9, 3.95 ERA).
August 1 – Hitting home runs is bad for your back, it seems. At least RIC RF/LF Raúl Vázquez (.319, 24 HR, 80 RBI) will be out for two weeks with chronic back soreness.
August 1 – As the Thunder beat the Condors, 5-3, OCT 3B Sonny Reece (.311, 9 HR, 58 RBI) extends his hitting streak to 20 games with a ninth inning single.

Complaints and stuff

Jorge Salazar’s first 2-run single in the final game in New York was also his 2,000th big league hit! He also played for the Condors and Indians, but 1,083 of his hits came as a Furball. An international discovery out of the Dominican signed by the Condors in 1980, he debuted two years later and became a fixture by ’85. He was swapped to the Indians at the deadline in 1987 for Bob Haines (who had pitched a no-hitter a few years earlier), and then came to us in January 1990 for three players that included then-prospect Luis Maldonado, who is struggling to be a starter for the Indians in his fourth big league season. Salazar, 36, was Hitter of the Month once when with the Indians, and has four Gold Gloves and is a three-time All Star. Remarkably, he won Gold Gloves in two different positions: 1987 at 2B with the Condors and Indians, and every year from 1990 to 1992 while manning short for us.

He was also paid princely for his troubles.

Batting .346 with 4 HR and 24 RBI, Ben O’Morrissey was named the CL’s Hitter of the Month for July. This is of course nothing that will drive up his asking prize. (sobs)

And because we are not done with accolades YET, Royce Green was named Hitter of the Week due to a power outburst that left opposing pitching in the dust. He batted 12-17 (.706!!!) with five dingers and 12 ribbies this week! He also had TEN walks, and his total slash line for the week reads: .706/.815/1.941!!!

Gotta let that sink in. His OPS was a crisp 2.755, too.

But I learned something during this run. Although we have a masher lineup this year, I like great pitching more than great hitting. Scott Wade befuddling the Crusaders and extending his streak of double-digit wins seasons was a great thing to witness. Well, past the first few innings, where he and Vinson got crossed up a few times.

Scott Wade was the first of our would-be free agents to receive a contract offer, and he signed it on the last day of July. Wade will remain a Raccoon for another two years, for $550k total. He has always pitched for much less than he deserved, and I will chalk that up to his decency (rather than an OOTP glitch where 2-pitch guys will not only be ranked abysmally as starting pitchers, but will also not ask for starter’s money, even if they are 144-93 for their career).

I tried to trade for reliever Tony Simpson, a left-hander with control issues, but everything’s better than Mallandain, that ……. But for budgetary reasons, I could not strike a deal with the Titans. They would have liked to get their hands at one of our youngsters like Conceicao Guerin, but I had none of that, plus they had issues covering our budget deficiency with cash. So, no trade came together. However, I threw in a waiver claim for the Indians’ lefty Alonso Santana, who is nothing special, but better than having only Burnett. (If he were something special, they wouldn’t have waived him anyway)

Not only did we finish the season series against the Thunder at 6-3 with the sweep, we also ramped up our all time record against them to 97-83 (.539). This is the best we are against any Continental League team. Not that the Thunder have been a bad team. They were 8th all time among the 24 teams, when we left Oklahoma. The Raccoons’ most recent win streak then had pushed them past the Cyclones and into the top 10!

The sweet life!!

GO COONS, GO COONS, GO COONS!!!

[Questdog]

It's fun to be furry!

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

It's fun to be furry!

Except when it is like 90°F for four days and counting like here where I live.

---

Raccoons (72-38) @ Canadiens (41-70) – August 5-8, 1996

The Canadiens had just trashed the Loggers, so we knew we had to be cautious, a dozen W’s in a row here or there. However, whatever they had done to the Loggers, they still remained a team with a terribly terrible pitching staff, which was surrendering more than five runs a game, and 576 runs in total in 111 games. With a merely average offense, this was bound to go wrong for them of course. They were without their shortstop Michael McFarland, who was out with a torn hamstring.

Projected matchups:
Jose Rivera (11-0, 2.23 ERA) vs. Lucio Munoz (5-9, 3.92 ERA)
Kisho Saito (12-6, 3.96 ERA) vs. Jose Marquez (1-0, 1.29 ERA)
Jason Turner (8-7, 3.36 ERA) vs. John Collins (6-5, 4.19 ERA)
Scott Wade (10-6, 3.61 ERA) vs. Glenn Ryan (7-11, 5.32 ERA)

Marquez was the only left-hander in the pack. At age 27, he had all of four appearances in the big leagues in the last four years and had been called up after the Canadiens had flipped starter Fernando Chavez to the Thunder.

Game 1
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – RF Green – 1B O’Morrissey – C Vinson – 3B Crowe – SS Salazar – P J. Rivera
VAN: CF Ledesma – 2B S. Mendez – LF Arroyo – 1B Mosley – 3B Galindo – SS Shaw – RF Moore – C J. Lopez – P Munoz

First inning, the Coons left the bags full, and the Canadiens left runners on the corners. But Rivera found his masters in the Canadiens, and they chopped him up for four runs in the second inning. Rivera was gone after three innings of 5-run ball. Munoz got hurt in the fourth, and Jackie Lagarde came in, walking the first two batters he faced, bringing up Rivera’s spot, where Scott Strong was put to bat. He struck out, and we didn’t score. In fact, we left two on in the third, and in the fourth, and the win streak was going down, it seemed. We were down 5-2 after five, after Neil Reece had taken his old buddy Lagarde deep, and Lagarde surrendered a leadoff triple to Vinson and walked Crowe, which got him out of the game. Orlando Blanco walked Salazar, and Daniel Miller was hit for with Marvin Ingall, who knocked a 3-1 pitch from Blanco into the gap in left center for a 2-run double. And here, it stopped working. While Brewer tied the game with a sac fly, Kinnear and Reece failed to get Ingall home, 5-5. De La Rosa came in for the bottom 6th. With one out, the Canadiens had runners on the corners with Luis Arroyo batting. He drilled a grounder to the right side, which – OH, O-MO!! O-Mo made a SPECTACULAR play on Arroyo, gobbling up the grounder, hurled it to Salazar, and Brewer had the presence of mind to hustle to first and receive the return throw – DOUBLE PLAY!! De La Rosa took care of the Canadiens for two more frames, before another ex-Coon presented us with another chance. Albert Matthews put the first two Coons in the ninth on base. Royce Green came up, and singled to left. Bases loaded, no outs in a tied game in the ninth. O-Mo popped out. Vinson grounded into a force at home. That brought up Crowe, and we had only Kondo and Martin on the bench, so it was Crowe to bat, and he singled on a liner to right that Roland Moore JUST failed to collect. It scored only one run, but Salazar worked a walk off Matthews’ replacement Holden Gorman for another one, and then Kondo came out and singled to right as well. Brewer flew out to the warning track and Arroyo. Up by three, Ban came in and surrendered Mendez (K), Arroyo (fouled out to Crowe), and Mosley (flew out to Kinnear) at rabid speed. 8-5 Furballs! Reece 2-5, HR, RBI; Green 3-4, RBI; Ingall (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Kondo (PH) 1-1, RBI; Miller 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K; De La Rosa 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, W (2-1);

So Jose Rivera was human after all? Who’da thunk that? Well, he is still undefeated, but that ERA was kicked up a notch or two.

Anyway, THIRTEEN!!

We added Alonso Santana onto the 25-man roster after our waiver claim was executed. This happened at the expense of Pancho Padilla. Santana is 28, and a southpaw reliever. He is not the best pitcher, and he has been frequently bounced around between the Bigs and AAA by the Indians since 1990! In 31 appearances, he is 6-11 with a 5.11 ERA, but that includes 16 starts. We do not intend to use him as a starter, but as a second-rate left-hander out of the bullpen. He still makes the minimum because of not even two years of service time despite flying in and out of Indy for seven years.

Game 2
POR: 2B Higgins – 1B O’Morrissey – CF Reece – RF Green – LF Kinnear – C Vinson – SS Salazar – 3B Ingall – P Saito
VAN: SS Shaw – 2B S. Mendez – LF Hartley – 1B Mosley – 3B Galindo – RF Moore – CF D. Edwards – C J. Lopez – P Marquez

Marquez, in his fifth major league appearance and his fourth start, was raped with bats by the Raccoons. By the second inning, veteran Kiyohira Sasaki appeared to soak up innings. Royce Green had put two on the board in the first inning with a home run, and after Marquez retired the first two in the second, an infield single by Ingall opened a can of worms. Saito singled, Higgins singled, which scored Ingall, and then O-Mo sent one out. 6-0 for the brown-clad team. Saito also had one of those innings that dragged on after reaching two outs, in the third, but struck out Bill Mosley before the Canadiens could score more than one run. The 1996 Sasaki was not the 1983 Sasaki, however, and gave up three runs in the fourth, but the 1996 Saito was not the 1986 Saito either. The Canadiens whacked him good in the fifth inning, scoring three runs, and they would have scored five or more if Kinnear had not made an AMAZING play on Drew Edwards’ fly ball into the gap with two down. Saito put leadoff man Jorge Lopez on base in the sixth and was removed. In a 10-4 game, Santana would make his first appearance as a Raccoon in the bottom 8th, and pitched a clean inning. Otero gave up a run in the ninth, but the Canadiens could not close the gap. 10-5 Raccoons!! Higgins 3-6, 3B, 2 RBI; O’Morrissey 3-4, HR, 3 RBI; Reece 2-4, BB; Kinnear 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Ingall 2-4, BB; Martinez 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

FOURTEEN!!! Playing twenty straight and losing the first one of those games, we have won 14 in a row, and have to play five more before we will have an off day in the middle of the third interleague week of the year.

Saito got the W, despite surrendering four runs in five frames. I don’t know what I liked better: him playing ace a few years ago with zero run support, or him getting shelled but being carried by enormous run support. Tough choice. I hate him getting blown up. Makes my heart sad.

Also making my heart sad was David Vinson, swinging for a golden sombrero in this game and making many defensive errors recently. Nori Kondo may or may not get a few more starts soon.

Game 3
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – RF Green – 3B O’Morrissey – 1B Ingall – SS Salazar – C Vinson – P Turner
VAN: SS Shaw – 2B S. Mendez – LF Arroyo – 1B Mosley – RF D. Edwards – CF Hartley – 3B Locke – C Durán – P J. Collins

After Rivera and Saito had been rocked the last two days, the string continued with Turner in the third game. He gave up two in the first, and another one in the second, surrendering lots and lots of big contact. The Canadiens made it 4-0 in the fourth, leaving a pair on, as Turner didn’t have nothing (and I didn’t have a pen left to throw in), while John Collins was keeping the Raccoons guessing. We couldn’t even reach third base. The win streak was going down! Brewer singled to lead off the eighth, and then Kinnear squared up on Collins’ offering and homered to left, cutting our deficit in half. 4-2 Canadiens now, but Collins sat down the next three batters, and the score remained like this into the ninth. Ingall singled off Holden Gorman to start the frame, but Salazar grounded into a double play and that was it. Vinson flew out gingerly. 4-2 Canadiens. Brewer 2-4; Ingall 2-4;

Hurts.

Brewer and Green both came in with active 12-game hitting streaks, but Green went 0-4 to have his end. Brewer is at 13.

Game 4
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B O’Morrissey – RF Strong – SS Salazar – 3B Crowe – C Kondo – P Wade
VAN: CF Ledesma – SS Shaw – LF Arroyo – 1B Mosley – 3B Galindo – 2B Locke – RF Hartley – C J. Lopez – P Ryan

Wade struck people out frequently in this start, and strangely whenever this happens, he gets battered. The Raccoons scored one run in the first, then left runners on and on and on. Wade got through four with some hiccups, but a 2-out, 3-run homer by Luis Arroyo put the Raccoons far behind. Ryan walked six Coons through seven innings, and they didn’t do anything with it. O-Mo singled to lead off the eighth, and Strong followed up with a single to center, on which O-Mo aggressively went to third base and was safe. Runners on the corners, no outs, down 3-1. Salazar singled over Colin Locke to score O-Mo, and now it was 3-2, runners on first and second, and still no outs. No excuses, turn this around, boys! Crowe and Kondo groundballed Ryan to safety. Top 9th, Gorman pitching. Martin popped out, and Brewer grounded to short, but Travis Shaw threw it away and Brewer was at second as the tying run. Kinnear grounded out, moving Brewer to third. Reece walked, not helping a great deal here, but O-Mo came up, who had driven in our first run. He lined an 0-1 pitch to third, Galindo jumped, DIDN’T GET IT!! O-Mo’s liner fell into shallow left, and Brewer scored the tying run. And Galindo would once more become the focus. After Strong walked, Salazar fell behind 0-2, then grounded up the left foul line. And Galindo didn’t get that one either. Until Arroyo brought the ball back in, two runs had scored. Gorman was brought in, and Momsilo Plavsic came in. He walked Ingall (batting for Crowe), and Kondo for the next run. Martin would have had the dubious honor to make an out twice in one inning, but Shaw made ANOTHER error on his grounder, and the Canadiens just could not get out of the inning! One run scored, and then Brewer singled in a run, and Kinnear did, and Reece singled in two. We scored nine in the ninth in total. 11-3 Furballs! Brewer 2-3, 3 BB, RBI; Kinnear 2-5, BB, RBI; Reece 2-5, BB, 2 RBI; O’Morrissey 3-6, 2 RBI; Salazar 2-5, 3 RBI;

Now, I hate the Canadiens with every fibre of my heart, but in this ninth inning, even I felt a little sorry. Not for them as a team, but mainly Holden Gorman, who was betrayed by his defense and paid with a blown save. Mainly Gorman, that’s it.

Raccoons (75-39) @ Scorpions (74-42) – August 9-11, 1996

Assuming we win the division, and survive the CLCS, this could well be the team we’d face in the World Series. The Scorpions led the Federal League in runs scored, in runs against, starters ERA, and are overall an intensely hard nut to crack. You need to be 100% spot on to get to them. Heck, we had scored 610 runs so far this year, and they outpaced us by 29 additional runs! You are in for a tough job if you want to contain that storm.

Projected matchups:
Antonio Donis (11-4, 3.34 ERA) vs. Joe Mann (12-2, 3.31 ERA)
Jose Rivera (11-0, 2.53 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (9-5, 3.14 ERA)
Kisho Saito (13-6, 4.07 ERA) vs. Steve Rogers (10-8, 3.51 ERA)

Average age of that chunk of their rotation? Fricking 23. They have an AWESOME team, and it is young, and it comes cheap. They had two important players on the DL in infielder Germán Roldán and outfielder Joey Humphrey, and that was all the perks we’d get here.

I made a quirky roster move before this series, returning Mike Crowe to AAA and calling up another catcher in Ron McDonald. I wanted to use Kondo to start more games as Vinson was struggling now, but use Vinson as pinch-hitter at times. This may well backfire at some point.

Game 1
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – 3B O’Morrissey – CF R. Green – RF Strong – 1B Higgins – SS Salazar – C Vinson – P Donis
SAC: LF Horn – 3B O’Molony – RF A. Jenkins – 1B S. Green – SS Garrett – CF Stinton – 2B Reed – C Aycock – P Mann

Someone appeared to have given Joe Mann’s number to Royce Green. Green CRUSHED a 3-run homer in the first inning, and a solo shot in the third. It could have been a nice game from there, if only Donis had not blown it up in the bottom 3rd, getting battered for four runs to tie the game. Both pitchers were knocked out in the fourth, with Brewer doubling home Vinson, 5-4, but Donis put the first two men on, a mess that could not be sorted out in time by De La Rosa, and the tying run scored again. 5-5 through four, here come the bullpens. Right-hander Leon Walker appeared for the Scorpions and lived up to name, if not fame, walking the bags full with no outs for Higgins. Matt Higgins was the only guy to bring in a run, and it was only one run. At this point, up 6-5 in the mid-5th I had to decide between emptying the bullpen in this game, risking the next two games as well, or sticking with a guy. It was option B, and Santana that was put in. He pitched two clean ones, and to lead off the seventh, O-Mo homered. We loaded the bags with two out, but that meant Santana batting. Stick to the plan, Santana had to pitch another inning. He lined into center, where R.J. Stinton made a stellar play for the final out. Of course, it was a bad decision. Two out in the bottom 7th, the Scorpions had the tying runs in scoring position, and righty Art Garrett to bat. Behind him was Stinton, a left-hander. Garrett got four wide ones, and Santana went after Stinton, who saw only one pitch, and Kinnear saw the result only quickly as it zipped past him for a 3-run double. Another run scored against Otero, and this game was properly blown. 9-7 Scorpions. Brewer 2-5, 2B, RBI; Green 3-3, 2 BB, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Higgins 2-5, RBI;

I suck.

Game 2
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – RF R. Green – 1B Higgins – 3B Ingall – SS Salazar – C Kondo – P J. Rivera
SAC: CF Stinton – 2B Stein – LF A. Jenkins – 3B O’Molony – SS Reed – C Aycock – RF Horn – 1B Ball – P Reeves

This game was much the opposite. The Raccoons squeezed out a run on a Higgins single in the first, and Reece lifted one outta here in the third, but that was all the scoring for a while. Rivera failed to strike out anybody, but the defense did a spectacular job at preserving the shutout. When Mark Ball singled up the middle with one out in the seventh, the Scorpions sent Fernando Vasquez, a left-handed batter, to hit for Reeves, and that also got Rivera out. Burnett appeared, and surrendered both Vasquez and Stinton. Burnett faced three more in the bottom 8th, including lefties Stein and O’Molony, and everybody reached. The game was about to go bust, with one run in, and two runners on base. PH Art Garrett sent a De La Rosa pitch to short, where Salazar only got the out at second. Aycock also grounded to short, to second, to first – double play! Still up 2-1. We failed to score in the top 9th, so that left Ban with no margin for error (and little backup available) for the bottom 9th, while facing Martin Horn, Mark Ball, and Bob Potts. Horn struck out. Then, Jorge Leyva, a left-hander, hit for Ball, but grounded out to short. Potts blooped his way on base, and Stinton grounded to the right side of the infield, where Higgins picked it up and delivered to the hustling Ban – OUT! 2-1 Coons. Brewer 2-4, BB; Kinnear 2-5, 2B; Kondo 2-3, BB; Rivera 6.1 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K, W (12-0);

Luke Newton started a short rehab assignment in AAA, mainly because I have not made up my mind as to whether I want to get rid of Strong or Martin. Or both.

Game 3
POR: 2B Brewer – 3B O’Morrissey – CF Reece – RF R. Green – LF Strong – 1B Ingall – SS Salazar – C McDonald – P Saito
SAC: LF Horn – 3B O’Molony – RF A. Jenkins – 1B S. Green – SS Garrett – CF Stinton – 2B Stein – C Aycock – P Rogers

Saito didn’t fool anybody in this game, and the Scorpions quickly put three runs on him. In the top 4th, after leaving four men on already, we had the bags full with no outs, and McDonald at the plate. He popped out, Saito struck out, and Brewer rolled out. No runs scored, and that could have been the game right there. Top 5th, still down 3-0, Rogers put the first two Coons on. Green whiffed, but Strong shot one out of his cannon, a massive game-tying home run to deep right. While Saito’s pitching got much better deeper into the game, the Raccoons’ clutch hitting didn’t necessarily follow the pace and they left another three men on the next two innings. A single by McDonald, an intentional walk to Brewer, and a non-intentional walk to Reece loaded the bags with two out in the eighth. And Green came through, a single to left, 4-3! Strong also singled home a run before Ingall popped out to end the inning. Aaron Jenkins sent Saito to bed then with a 1-out home run in the bottom 8th. And then Burnett came in and surrendered the game-tying home run to Sam Green. Back to square one. We left the go-ahead run on third base in the ninth, as this game was coming to a certain conclusion. But no, the Scorpions didn’t walk off yet, and also left a runner on third against Miller in the bottom 9th. After leaving two on in the 10th, we found ourselves with the bags full in the top 11th, and one out with Reece batting. Jose Lopez was pitching and had just walked O-Mo, and now walked Reece, too. It was a good timing to take a lead, since Tzu-jao Ban was realistically the last man available from the bullpen. I wouldn’t mind a big rip from Royce Green, though. He ripped, but grounded up the middle, and just past the reach of Art Garrett, as two runs scored on the single. Ban had an 8-5 lead and better no intentions to blow it. Ball, Aycock, Reed up in the bottom 11th. Mark Ball reaching on a bunt base hit brought the sweats out again, but Ban surrendered the next three without Ball ever moving off first. 8-5 Furballs! Brewer 2-4, 3 BB; O’Morrissey 2-6, BB; Green 4-7, 3 RBI; Strong 2-6, BB, HR, 4 RBI; Ingall 3-6, BB; Vinson (PH) 2-2, 2B; Miller 2.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, W (2-3);

Phew. Should this become a World Series matchup, it could become close. The Scorpions lost Jim Stein to injury in this game, but no diagnosis was given.

By the way, David Brewer has a 17-game hitting streak going.

In other news

August 7 – While the Thunder lose, 3-2, in Atlanta, their 3B Sonny Reece (.317, 9 HR, 59 RBI) keeps going, knocking two singles to extend his hitting streak to 25 games.
August 7 – Career in limbo for LVA 2B Francisco Marino (.248, 1 HR, 8 RBI), who has torn his labrum and will be out until next season, if not forever. Losing him is the last thing the first place Aces needed now.
August 10 – Sonny Reece’s hitting streak ends at 26, held dry over 3 AB in a 6-2 loss against the Buffaloes.
August 11 – The Warriors shut out the Crusaders, 4-0, but they can’t quite shut out OF Clement Clark (.271, 5 HR, 29 RBI), who has a single to extend a hitting streak to 20 games.

Complaints and stuff

Edit: fixed an error in a lineup that resulted from too many catchers on the 40-man roster and me being a turd

Since the start of July, we are 27-10, and we have won 17 of our last 19. But…

Never in the history of humanity … has anything been so badly mismanaged than what I did with the first game in Sacramento. Never before, and probably never again. Jacques Necker’s finance policies in Louis XVI’s France? Marshal Ney’s charge at Waterloo? The Bay of Pigs invasion? All perfectly executed when compared to what *I* did in that game to my staff!

I am thus deeply ashamed of myself and vow to never come close to baseball ever again!

[Westheim]

While everybody used the off day (our first in three weeks) to catch some breath, I looked at our situation as a whole. We were a week’s worth of games ahead of the Loggers now. We were also about a week removed from getting Liam Wedemeyer back from the DL. We also had three catchers on the roster going into this week, although the flexibility it added for catchers, it took away from everything else. Luke Newton would be recalled from his rehab assignment at the expense of Ron McDonald.

The latest news on Miguel Lopez were that he was about six weeks away from his return. That would of course put his return date in late September, and minor league seasons would be over by then. He would thus have to be added to the expanded roster and make a rehab start under intense fire. I didn’t really like that outlook.

Raccoons (77-40) vs. Cyclones (56-61) – August 13-15, 1996

With Cincy, it was all about their offense, which ranked 4th in the Federal League with 595 runs scored. This still could not pick up their pitching staff, which had surrendered 624 runs already, which was the third-most in the FL. Rotation and bullpen were almost equally bad for them. They also had two of their better pitchers on the DL in young closer Leonardo Sosa and Nobuyoshi Matsui, as well as infielder Raúl Duenas.

Projected matchups:
Jason Turner (8-8, 3.41 ERA) vs. Manuel Garza (11-6, 4.39 ERA)
Scott Wade (10-6, 3.64 ERA) vs. Mark Burt (7-10, 4.82 ERA)
Antonio Donis (11-4, 3.62 ERA) vs. Russ “Cool Papa” Ewing (16-6, 3.79 ERA)

Game 1
CIN: 3B Munoz – 1B Nava – LF Morris – RF Root – CF Harris – SS Connolly – 2B P. Parker – C Morán – P Garza
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 3B O’Morrissey – RF Green – 1B Higgins – SS Salazar – C Vinson – P Turner

Our battery sucked. After we moved 1-0 ahead in the bottom 2nd, David Vinson led off the top 3rd with a throwing error for two bases on Garza’s slow grounder. Garza was brought in to score, tying the game. Turner failed to have either command or stuff ready. He would pitch seven inning of 2-run ball, but the Cyclones dropped two chances to grill him, including in the seventh, when they had runners on the corners with one out, and pinch-hitter Ramiro Gonzalez grounded into a 4-6-3 life-saver. He left in a 2-2 tie, as the Coons had gotten only three hits off Manuel Garza in six frames. The Cyclones brought in ex-Titan and Coon-torturer Arthur Young in the bottom 7th, and Turner did not get a decision when Royce Green left two on. Otero walked leadoff man Munoz in the eighth, but we pitched around that. Bottom 9th, still tied. Martin hit for Daniel Miller, but flew out. Brewer walked against Randy Gregory, and Kinnear singled to center. That brought up Neil Reece, who was looking for success of some kind in this game. He took a wide one, then got a middle one and drilled it. Dan Morris chased after it, to the track, to the wall, he jumped in vain, but it was GONE!!! 5-2 Raccoons!! Reece 1-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Salazar 1-2, BB, RBI; Turner 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 1 K;

David Brewer collected one hit (no Coon had more than one) to extend his streak to 18 games. Also, Daniel Miller picked up the W in back-to-back games pitching in relief.

Game 2
CIN: 3B Munoz – 1B Nava – LF Morris – RF Root – CF Harris – SS Connolly – 2B P. Parker – C Morán – P Burt
POR: 2B Brewer – SS Salazar – CF Reece – 3B O’Morrissey – RF Green – LF Strong – 1B Ingall – C Kondo – P Wade

Burt allowed hits to the first four Raccoons, before hitting Royce Green in the hand. Green immediately threw the bat to the side and jumped up and down, holding his hand, obviously in pain. Obviously as well, he had to come out. The fans were stunned in silence. That the Raccoons scored three runs in the inning didn’t help. Little happened the next few innings. Scott Wade was at the peak of his game, giving up mostly very soft contact for the infielders to collect more or less casually. There were two situations in the game, where Ingall and Kondo were on base for Wade with one out, in the fourth and sixth innings. Wade failed to lay a bunt down the first time and we didn’t score in the inning. In the sixth, I called a hit-and-run on an 0-1 pitch, but Wade whiffed and Ingall was thrown out at third. Wade then took the right next pitch by Mark Burt into deep left, where it eluded Morris and fell in for an RBI double. Brewer singled and Wade would score on Connolly’s error on a fast grounder by Salazar, 5-0. We left the bags full in the eighth, after loading them with one out when both O-Mo and Martin popped out. Wade entered the ninth on exactly 100 pitches, but faced the tough 2-3-4 batters, who were all switch- or left-handed batters. David Brewer would create a problem when he bobbled Dan Morris’ grounder with one out. But Wade was only shortly shaken. Root flew out to Reece, and then Wade struck out Robert Harris to end the game. 5-0 Coons!! Brewer 3-4, BB; Salazar 3-5, 2B; O’Morrissey 2-5, RBI; Ingall 2-4; Kondo 2-4; Wade 9.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K, W (11-6) and 1-4, 2B, RBI;

Scottyyyy!! This was his 10th career shutout, and the second this season, and also his 17th complete game (4th in 1996). I love this guy!

So. Now for news on Royce Green: the hand looked bad, but X-rays showed no fractures anywhere. He had suffered a bad contusion and would be unavailable for a week or so.

And this presents a dilemma. Lacking an outfielder for a week is bad enough, even worse when it is powerhouse (or powerhorse?) Royce Green. But wouldn’t it be worse to DL him and miss him for TWO weeks? Green was thus not disabled (yet) and we would play a man short.

The injury however prompted us to set our catching staff straight. McDonald was sent back to AAA, and we recalled Luke Newton.

Game 3
CIN: 2B Berrios – 3B R. Gonzalez – RF Morris – CF Aguilar – SS Connolly – C Morán – 1B Munoz – LF Root – P Ewing
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 3B O’Morrissey – RF Strong – 1B Ingall – SS Salazar – C Vinson – P Donis

A wild Donis walked a pair in the first without nasty consequences, then with two out in the second and nobody on hit Michael Root. Nothing came of that either, but in the bottom 2nd, Ingall was hit by Ewing, putting two on with one out. Fans grew unruly. The Coons made Ewing pay with three runs in the inning but there were a few grim looks in the Browns’ dugout. Leon Berrios then stole home successfully against Vinson in the top 3rd. Donis went six before running out of gas, backed by a solo home run by Neil Reece in the fifth that made it 4-1. No additional batters were hit – the next HBP would certainly have emptied the benches. I would have jumped in with a bat myself. A cloudy day became rainy, for both the Cyclones and everybody in attendance as the Raccoons had a big inning going against Arthur Young in the bottom 7th when rain forced a delay of more than an hour. Once play resumed, our inning quickly ended against Salvador Franco. Dan Morris homered off Burnett in the eighth, cutting our lead back to 6-2, and trouble was brewing in the ninth with De La Rosa in. The first two Cyclones reached. Berrios grounded out, putting them in scoring position. De La Rosa then came back to strike out Gonzalez. That brought up Morris with a base open, but he was not the tying run, and with both left-handers used (unsuccessfully), De La Rosa would pitch to him, and after that, Ban would come in. De La Rosa walked him anyway. Ban faced Gonzalo Aguilar as the tying run with two outs, and struck him out. 6-2 Raccoons! Brewer 4-5, RBI; Reece 2-4, HR, 3B, 2 RBI; Kondo (PH) 1-1, RBI; Donis 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, W (12-4) and 1-2, RBI;

Oy, a sweep! The Cyclones’ offense never clicked in the entire series. Wade annihilated them outright, and they didn’t see much land in the other two games either, with Turner escaping annihilation the closest (and he also got no W).

And oy, David Brewer’s streak soared to 20 games!!

But Vinson was so good the first half of the season. And now? Moah. Same for Ken Burnett. Well, Burnett was never any good all year, but the last two batters he faced have homered.

Raccoons (80-40) @ Indians (69-52) – August 16-18, 1996

How the Indians were playing .570 ball with the worst batting average in the league was their secret. I could not make it out. Their pitching ranked 4th, but their offense was nowhere near the pace for a 93-69 record. The Indians also had five players on the DL, including outfielder Tomas Maguey, infielder Angelo Duarte, and pitchers Tim Hess, Lorenzo Ángel, and Fernando Pena. They were weakened, but they were bravely fighting on!

Projected matchups:
Jose Rivera (12-0, 2.37 ERA) vs. Chang-se Park (11-7, 3.27 ERA)
Kisho Saito (13-6, 4.11 ERA) vs. Steve Holcomb (2-9, 4.84 ERA)
Jason Turner (8-8, 3.31 ERA) vs. Dan George (11-9, 3.42 ERA)

The last guy, Dan George, was the only left-hander we would face all week. We had another off day coming after this series, so David Brewer would play through this week. Kinnear had been off in the second game against Cincy, but he was more durable than Brewer anyway. I just wanted Scott Strong’s bat in the game for a day.

Game 1
POR: 2B Brewer – SS Salazar – CF Reece – 3B O’Morrissey – LF Kinnear – 1B Higgins – RF Newton – C Vinson – P J. Rivera
IND: SS J. Martinez – CF L. Maldonado – 3B Brown – RF A. Roldán – 1B Paredes – LF Sakaguchi – C Cardenas – 2B Chevalier – P Park

The Raccoons had six hits in the first two innings, but scored only one run with those, which Rivera gave back in the bottom 2nd with a home run to Carlos Paredes. And then nobody got on base again! It was not until the seventh that a runner got into scoring position again. After Park bruised Vinson to lead off the top 7th, Rivera bunted him to second. But the Indians made the right call in putting Brewer on intentionally, and Salazar grounded into a double play. Bottom 7th, and Alejandro Roldán was homerless in 195 AB on the season, but managed to take Rivera deep. A Salazar error cost an unearned run in the eighth, and the Raccoons had nothing going. Jim Durden came out for the ninth. Newton led off with a single to center. Strong batted for Vinson and walked. Ingall hit for Otero and singled to left. Bases loaded, no outs, and nowhere to put Brewer. Durden ran the count full on Brewer, and then threw a wide one Brewer didn’t want to fish for. That walk pushed in the first run we needed. Salazar then grounded into a force at home. And Reece grounded into a force at home. And O’Morrissey? Grounded into a force at first. 3-2 Indians. Brewer 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Reece 2-4, BB; Ingall (PH) 1-1;

Losing that one this way? Stinks. Bah. Disgusting.

Also, Rivera has been defeated, but that had to happen at some point.

Liam Wedemeyer came off the DL in time for the last two games of the set. Jeff Martin was designated for assignment.

Game 2
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – RF Strong – SS Salazar – C Kondo – P Saito
IND: 3B J. Martinez – C Cicalina – 1B Brown – CF Ayala – LF L. Maldonado – RF Sakaguchi – 2B Carter – SS Cerdeira – P Holcomb

Matt Brown pierced Saito with a solo homer in the first inning, but the Raccoons came right back. Salazar hit a 1-out triple in the second, and scored on Kondo’s single. Saito bunted, but Jose Martinez threw the bunt away, putting our Japanese pair in scoring position with one out. David Brewer extended his hitting streak to 22 games with a grounder up the middle that JUST eluded Victor Cerdeira, and both runners were able to score, 3-1. Holcomb was torn open quickly, with another run in the third, and O-Mo’s 1-out, 3-run double in the fourth put him to bed, and our Japanese pair would both come up with 2-out RBI singles before the inning fizzled out, as far as you can call anything like that for a 6-run inning. We were up 10-1. While that game was under normal circumstances in Saito’s W column, we added a few more. Meanwhile, Saito did not allow a hit after the Brown home run until the seventh, when Claudio Ayala hit a 2-out double. Of course, being Saito he was immediately singled against by Luis Maldonado for Ayala to score. Regardless, Saito had a bear of a game, on the mound and at the plate. Martinez, Santana, and Salazar crumbled in the bottom 9th, allowing an extra run to the Indians, but this one was a rout. 13-3 Raccoons. Brewer 3-4, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Reece 2-5, BB, RBI; Wedemeyer 2-4, 2 BB, 2B; O’Morrissey 2-6, 2B, 4 RBI; Salazar 3-6, 3B, 2B, RBI; Kondo 2-6, 2 RBI; Saito 8.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, W (14-6) and 2-4, RBI;

Game 3
POR: 2B Brewer – 3B O’Morrissey – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – SS Ingall – LF Kinnear – RF Newton – C Vinson – P Turner
IND: CF Espinoza – C Cicalina – 3B Brown – RF A Roldán – LF Sakaguchi – SS J. Martinez – 1B Ayala – 2B Chevalier – P George

Top 2nd, no outs, bases loaded, Newton to the plate. He flew out to right, but that was deep enough to score Wedemeyer from third. Vinson then drummed a double off the wall in center, scoring another run. After Turner made the second out, but Brewer singled into left, and we got another run home. Up 3-0, the action stopped. The Indians failed to get the bat on Jason Turner. Yes, their offense was as good as advertised: very slow. Turner would go into the eighth before issuing back-to-back walks and being removed, still shutting out the Indians. His mess was cleaned up, but in the ninth Daniel Miller suddenly stopped working like the clockwork he had been recently. He loaded the bags with two outs with us leading 5-0. Tzu-jao Ban came out, and issued a walk to Urbano Cicalina, bringing up Matt Brown as the tying run. Oh dear … he grounded out. 5-1 Coons. Brewer 2-4, BB, RBI; Strong (PH) 1-1; Turner 7.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K, W (9-8);

In other news

August 13 – Oft-injured DEN LF Dale Wales (.303, 5 HR, 38 RBI) could be out for the year with a bad oblique strain.
August 14 – SAC 2B/SS Jim Stein (.320, 2 HR, 48 RBI) will miss five weeks with back spasms.
August 16 – CHA 2B/SS Adam Kent (.231, 6 HR, 44 RBI) has fractured his foot and will miss four weeks.
August 16 – As the Crusaders dump the Canadiens, 10-5, Clement Clark (.287, 5 HR, 34 RBI) rips five hits to extend his hitting streak to 24 games.
August 17 – The Canadiens beat the Crusaders, 4-3, but they can’t beat Clement Clark, who goes 1-4 to reach 25 games for his hitting streak.
August 18 – The Canadiens finally stop Clement Clark’s hitting streak at 25 games, but still lose the series to the Crusaders with a 3-1 loss.

Complaints and stuff

Good news! We won’t finish with a losing record this year! XD

Neil Reece’s walkoff home run on Tuesday not only warmed by heart, it also gave us six batters with double-digit home runs (including the still DL-ed Wedemeyer) on August 13. I checked, what’s the most double-digit dinger heroes the Raccoons have ever had in a season? My first guess was four, some year in which Tetsu Osanai, Mark Dawson, Daniel Hall, and Cameron Green would combine for that. The actual answer?

Six! In 1985, Mark Dawson hit 22, Ricardo Gonzalez 21, Sam Dadswell 18, Tetsu Osanai 16, Cam Green 14, and Daniel Hall 12. (That year, Osanai was traded for with the Canadiens; it was also one of the few years Hall was NOT hurt)

Years in which four or more Raccoons hit 10 or more home runs:
1977 – 4 – Ben Simon (21), Ed Sullivan (20), Pedro Sánz (17), Wyatt Johnston (15)
1982 – 5 – Mark Dawson (25), Matt Workman (19), Daniel Hall (18), Ramón Borjón (15), Cam Green (11)
1987 – 5 – Tetsu Osanai (21), Mark Dawson (16), Armando Sanchez (16), Daniel Hall (11), Sam Dadswell (10)
1988 – 5 – Mark Dawson (31), Tetsu Osanai (25), Sam Dadswell (14), Armando Sanchez (14), Daniel Hall (13)
1989 – 4 – Tetsu Osanai (35), Mark Dawson (26), Sam Dadswell (19), Daniel Hall (18)
1990 – 4 – Mark Dawson (21), David Vinson (21), Tetsu Osanai (20), Daniel Hall (16)
1991 – 4 – Tetsu Osanai (14), Neil Reece (13), Bobby Quinn (10), David Vinson (10)
1992 – 4 – Daniel Hall (24), Neil Reece (21), Vern Kinnear (16), Ben O’Morrissey (14)
1993 – 4 – Ben O’Morrissey (20), Neil Reece (18), Alejandro Lopez (18), Mark Allen (11)
1994 – 4 – Royce Green (38), Mark Allen (14), Vern Kinnear (13), Ben O’Morrissey (12)
1995 – 4 – Royce Green (16), Neil Reece (15), Vern Kinnear (13), Ben O’Morrissey (12)

We had three in almost every other season. Wow, so many loud shots fired unheard by me.

Well, we won’t make it seven, it seems. Nobody is even close to ten.

Other thoughts. Neil Reece was hurt more often than not during our playoff runs in the early 90s. I consider sitting him once a week from here, similarly to what I’ve been doing with David Brewer for two years now. Newton will play a very adequate center in his place, but of course you lose some offense. Although you could rightfully state that this is far from the best Neil Reece has ever been at the plate.

On David Brewer, he now has the longest active hitting streak at 23 games, and trails only the “deceased” streaks of Clement Clark (25) and Sonny Reece (26) for this season. And he has been BLAZING hot. It came as no surprise to me that he was named Player of the Week for this last stretch of seven days, going 15-23 with 5 RBI.

On July 24, his AVG was .313. Since then he has been on a tear, batting 46-93, so almost .500!! Among those 46 hits are just six doubles and no “bigger” hits, but hey, he added 19 walks for good measure, and has struck out only SEVEN times!

I love this boy!! Worth every million he’s due!! Never mind that sound. That's just owner Carlos Valdés crying.

[Questdog]

Hey! The Canadians are officially eliminated! Awesome!

Hate 'dem boogers.....

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

Hey! The Canadians are officially eliminated! Awesome!

Hate 'dem boogers.....

I would like to thank you at least twice for that statement.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (82-41) vs. Titans (60-65) – August 20-22, 1996

The Titans continued to be about average throughout. “About average” should be properly read as “bleak”. However, they had no injuries to cope with, while we would miss Royce Green at least for the series opener, and some of their pitchers were on a hot streak, including all three starters we were going to face, who had all pitched to an ERA of 1.56 or less in their last three starts.

Projected matchups:
Scott Wade (11-6, 3.44 ERA) vs. Vicente Navarro (8-9, 2.82 ERA)
Antonio Donis (12-4, 3.52 ERA) vs. Jason O’Halloran (10-10, 4.17 ERA)
Jose Rivera (12-1, 2.38 ERA) vs. Doug Morrow (11-11, 2.63 ERA)

Game 1
BOS: SS Silva – 1B Mullins – LF J. Martinez – C L. Lopez – 3B Burbidge – RF Thomas – 2B Elliott – CF Espinosa – P V. Navarro
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – RF Strong – SS Salazar – C Vinson – P Wade

Wade came out struggling after pitching a shutout in his last start. Josh Thomas got him for a 2-run homer in the second inning, and the Titans added an unearned run in the third, where Kinnear inexplicably dropped a fly ball. Through three, the Raccoons had mustered but one hit against Vicente Navarro, but what stated with an infield single by Kinnear in the bottom 4th rapidly evolved into a nightmare for Navarro. Reece hit an RBI double, followed by Wedemeyer parking his first homer off the DL, which also tied Royce Green for the team lead, and also tied this game. We continued to put people on, and Vinson and Wade drove in 2-out runs for a 5-3 lead. Navarro was removed for pinch-hitter Enéas Spinelli leading off the top 5th, and Spinelli singled off Wade and came around to score soon. Wade did not have a good start, but in the 5-4 game struck out Jack Burbidge with two on to at least get out of the fifth. Thomas’ leadoff single in the sixth was of the infield variety, and after he struck out Elliott, Wade was removed for Alonso Santana to pitch to the lefty Manny Espinosa. Santana proved useless, surrendering a double, which brought in De La Rosa, who collected the last two outs in the sixth from Jose Ramirez and Daniel Silva. More woes in the seventh, as Burnett failed to get through the inning, loading the bags with two out. Miller punched out Pat Elliott to protect our 6-4 lead. Miller also pitched the eighth. Wedemeyer had driven in a run in the bottom 7th, and we led 7-4, but something was in danger: Brewer’s hitting streak. He was dry going into the eighth, but would come to bat again, and did so with two out and nobody on against reliever Willis Cramer. He singled up the middle, provoking a burst of excitement from the fans in attendance. We didn’t score however, and Ban came in for the ninth. He issued a leadoff walk to Jose Martinez, then walked Luis Lopez, too, and was 3-0 against Burbidge, when the third baseman put the ball in play ill-advisedly, grounding into a double play. Ban walked Thomas! GET OUTTA THERE!! Otero came in for Ban and struck out Elliott before foam could come out of my mouth. 7-4 Raccoons. Reece 3-4, 2B, RBI; Wedemeyer 3-4, HR, 3B, 2B, 3 RBI; Miller 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Talk about Weeds missing the cycle by a SINGLE.

Royce Green took batting practice with the team before this game and seemed fine, despite some tape on the hand. He was cleared to play in game 2.

Game 2
BOS: SS Silva – CF Spinelli – 1B Burbidge – LF J. Martinez – 3B M. Chavez – C L. Martin – RF Espinosa – 2B Elliott – P O’Halloran
POR: 2B Brewer – 3B O’Morrissey – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Green – SS Ingall – LF Newton – C Kondo – P Donis

Royce Green splashed back into the lineup in spectacular fashion, driving in a pair with a double in the first, and upped the score to 3-0 with a solo home run in the third, both times with two out. For more aggravating news, Antonio Donis got to three balls to just about everybody. Pat Elliott homered off him in the fourth and with 94 pitches expended through just four frames, Donis was toast. He walked Silva to lead off the fifth and was yanked. Silva was brought in to score and tie the game, and the Titans would leave the go-ahead run at third base in the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings. The Raccoons failed to get the offense going until Royce Green came up again with Wedemeyer on first and two out in the bottom 7th. He wouldn’t do it again, would he? He would. Green tripled into deep left center to put us ahead again. And now Green was a single shy of a cycle, and Brewer was still hitless in the game. Would they get another chance!? At least Brewer was guaranteed an appearance in the eighth, into which we still led 4-3, but he struck out to end the inning. But with Tzu-jao Ban coming in to try and close this one, anything was possible. Luis Lopez batted for Spinelli, but fouled out, and while Burbidge reached, Ingall turned a double play on Martinez that ended the game. 4-3 Raccoons. Reece 3-4; Green 3-3, BB, HR, 3B, 2B, 4 RBI; De La Rosa 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K; Santana 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (4-3);

So that’s back-to-back days where guys lack a single for the cycle, and David Brewer lost his streak. So, yes we won, but we lost aplenty, too.

Slight melancholy, which lifted a bit already when we got the result from New York, where the Crusaders had trashed the struggling Loggers, 12-3. That put us TEN games ahead in the division. The Aces also lead the CL South by ten games at this point.

Game 3
BOS: SS Silva – 1B Mullins – LF J. Martinez – C L. Lopez – 3B Burbidge – RF Thomas – 2B J. Ramirez – CF C. Garcia – P Morrow
POR: 2B Brewer – 3B O’Morrissey – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Green – LF Kinnear – SS Salazar – C Vinson – P J. Rivera

Royce Green got that single that eluded him the day before in the fourth inning, and it was the first hit for the Raccoons against Morrow. Then, it put two on with two out in a scoreless game. Kinnear worked a walk, and then Salazar singled to left and we scored a pair. Rivera shut out the Titans into the eighth, but when he walked Silva with one out, was removed for Burnett. The score was still 2-0 since the Raccoons had not gotten a hit since Salazar had put us on the board. Burnett gave up the game-tying home run to Jeremiah Mullins right away, so there went Rivera’s good start. Martinez held the Titans in the tie in the ninth, and we had a chance to walk off, O-Mo drew a leadoff walk off Javier Navarro. Now, you don’t bunt with Neil Reece, but while Luis Lopez has immense power as a catcher, his arm is … “inviting”. Reece lined out before O-Mo got a good jump. The Titans almost got O-Mo in a pitchout on the 0-1 pitch to Wedemeyer, but he scrambled back to first just in time. Green singled, putting O-Mo on second, but Kinnear flew out and we had to play on. Silva reached second base with one out in the 10th on an error by Green, but Silva went for third against Vinson, and was thrown out for the second out. Vinson reached base with a 1-out single in the bottom 10th. Newton ran for him, while Kondo batted for Juan Martinez. Newton stole second base while Lopez didn’t even make a throw. The right next pitch was lobbed into shallow center by Kondo, where it fell in as Spinelli came in. Newton got the stop sign at third, but the ball took a wicked bounce on Spinelli and hit his upper arm and bounced away and Newton powered the thrusters again as he made for home. WALKOFF … err … ERROR!!! 3-2 Raccoons!! Green 2-4; Rivera 7.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K; Martinez 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, W (4-0);

And another sweep! That puts our recent winning streak at five games again. Our last 5-game streak didn’t live to six.

Raccoons (85-41) vs. Knights (60-66) – August 23-25, 1996

While their records were eerily similar, the Knights had a much more significantly below average team than the Titans. They were clearly in the lower half of the CL teams in all important categories, including ranking 10th in runs scored and 9th in runs against.

Projected matchups:
Kisho Saito (14-6, 4.02 ERA) vs. Pat Cherry (9-6, 3.47 ERA)
Jason Turner (9-8, 3.15 ERA) vs. Chet Sloan (3-6, 5.16 ERA)
Scott Wade (12-6, 3.49 ERA) vs. Jim Harrington (9-10, 3.62 ERA)

Game 1
ATL: SS Tanaka – C J. Johnson – 3B Nicks – 1B Tinker – RF Hatch – CF Utting – LF M. Smith – 2B J. Rojas – P Cherry
POR: 2B Brewer – 3B O’Morrissey – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Green – LF Kinnear – SS Salazar – C Kondo – P Saito

The first two Knights reached on a single and a walk and were in scoring position with one out for Bill Tinker. Saito struck him out on a close one, and Tinker snorted at the ump, who snorted back and tossed him. Gerald Hall replaced him. Saito struck out Hollis Hatch, too, Hatch remained silent and was allowed to play on, and after that stutter start, Saito settled into a groove. Neil Reece provided him with a lead with a solo homer, but Pat Cherry also began to shut down the Raccoons starting in the second inning. No offense persisted until the bottom 5th, which was opened by Salazar with a double to left. He could not move as Kondo and Saito made outs, and then Brewer hit an infield single. O-Mo singled over Jose Rojas, 2-0, before Reece flew out to Mark Smith in left. Saito surrendered only one run all the way to the seventh, when Jai Utting suddenly hit a home run to left center, cutting our tender lead in half. Cherry singled off Saito in the eighth, and when he walked Johnny Johnson for the second time on the day, Saito was removed. We sent for Otero to resolve the inning positively against Tom Nicks with two down. Nicks popped up the first pitch from Otero, and Saito’s lead lived on for the moment. An insurance run would be swell. Weeds whiffed to start the bottom 8th with Cherry still pitching. Green then doubled to left, Kinnear was put on intentionally, and while Salazar flew to deep left, he flew into Mark Smith’s glove. Kondo was hit for by Strong, but he bounced out to second. And Otero remained IN, as we did NOT go to Ban. Otero struck out Gerald Hall, and Otero struck out Hatch. Utting then rammed a double past O-Mo, and Mark Smith came up and hit a bloop into shallow right center, where nobody could get to it before it dinked in. Green got there first as Jai Utting turned third base and went home. Green hurls the ball back in, perfect throw right to Vinson, Utting sliding into a tag and – he – is – OUT!!!!! The mighty arm of Royce Green!!! 2-1 Furballs!!! O’Morrissey 3-4, RBI; Salazar 2-4, 2B; Saito 7.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (15-6) and 1-3; Otero 1.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (3);

Royce! Green! Royce! Green! Royce! Green!

Royce Green preserved Kisho Saito’s 210th career win here, and I threw up my arms and squealed in ecstasy! Ecstasy! ECSTASY!!!

The next game was the middle of our current 9-game stretch, and against a left-hander, which would give Brewer, Wedemeyer, and Kinnear days off. Neil Reece was penciled in for an off day in the last game against the Knights.

Game 2
ATL: 2B Corona – C F. Ramirez – 1B Nicks – RF Hatch – SS Tanaka – LF F. Gonzalez – CF Utting – 3B J. Rojas – P Sloan
POR: 1B Ingall – 2B Higgins – CF Reece – RF Green – 3B O’Morrissey – SS Salazar – LF Newton – C Vinson – P Turner

The middle game was fought at close ranges. The Raccoons had lots of singles and such, but failed to get a significant amount of runners home. They scored one in the first, and one in the third. In the top 4th, Turner had his no-hitter broken up by the Knights, and a throwing error by O-Mo created a tight situation. While O-Mo turned a double play, third and first, in the inning, too, the Knights scored a run. The Coons got a run in the fifth, the Knights got one in the sixth. 3-2 for the Coons so far, despite out-hitting the opposition 9-4. Turner held that 3-2 advantage, pitching eight frames with only five hits allowed. We got runners onto the corners with one out in the bottom 8th. Strong batted for Newton, but struck out, and Vinson popped out. That left no cushion to Ban. The Taiwanese struck out the first two, and look who was up again: Utting. But he popped the first pitch from Ban to Salazar, and that was the game. 3-2 Raccoons. Reece 2-4, RBI; Green 2-4; O’Morrissey 3-4, RBI; Salazar 2-4, RBI; Turner 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (10-8);

We have now won seven in a row(!), of which the last four were all 1-run games! They were all low-scoring. It can’t get much more tense here.

Game 3
ATL: 2B Corona – C F. Ramirez – 1B Nicks – RF Hatch – SS Tanaka – LF F. Gonzalez – CF Utting – 3B J. Rojas – P Harrington
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – 3B O’Morrissey – 1B Wedemeyer – CF Green – RF Strong – SS Ingall – C Vinson – P Wade

Whenever a pitcher is credited with the first RBI, there is a good chance that a pitchers’ duel is going on. As was the fact in this game. Harrington and Wade traded zeroes, until Ingall led off the bottom 5th with a double. Vinson grounded out, moving Ingall to third, and Wade then lifted a ball out to center. While Utting got that ball, Ingall still tagged and scored for a sac fly credited to Wade. The Knights crowded Wade in the top 6th after Harrington singled to lead off. A walk and an infield single loaded the bags with two down, when Sosa Tanaka flew deep to center. But Royce Green was there and made the play and the Knights remained shut out. Scott Strong drove in Wedemeyer with a 2-out single in the bottom 6th, putting Wade ahead 2-0. Wade held on through eight, but by then had an advanced pitch count (110). The Coons left Wedemeyer on third base in the bottom 8th. Wade went back out for the ninth, but would leave when the first Knight reached base. That turned out to be leadoff man Tom Nicks with a double. Ban had pitched quite a bunch this week, so I would try to mix and match with a mostly rested bullpen. De La Rosa came in to face Hollis Hatch, and got him to ground out to Brewer. Burnett then followed, facing Sosa Tanaka, struck him out, and then remained in to face Freddy Gonzalez, a weak-hitting right-hander, who grounded out to Ingall on a 3-1 pitch. 2-0 Furballs! O’Morrissey 2-4; Wade 8.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K, W (13-6) and 1-2, RBI;

Eight in a row!

In other news

August 25 – OCT SP Lou Corbett (8-10, 5.00 ERA) tosses back-to-back shutouts, taming the Loggers on a 5-hitter in a 4-0 Thunder win. Corbett had shut out the Bayhawks on four hits in a 5-0 win on Tuesday.

Complaints and stuff

So, I made up my mind about Ken Burnett. He’s not coming back. Too many game-tying or go-ahead home runs surrendered recently, which always annoys the crap out of me. He’s coming in to get somebody out, and that somebody is NOT THE BALL.

Barf.

Happy news now. The sweep over the Titans puts our all time record against them at 179-179, which obviously is .500. This leaves only six opponents against which the Raccoons all time are worse than .500:

Falcons (86-91, .486)
Condors (85-92, .480)
Capitals (10-11, .476)
Knights (84-96, .467)
Warriors (13-17, .433)
Rebels (7-14, .333)

The offense was certainly on the slow side the last week, but if you go undefeated it was certainly sufficient. These Coons are a joy! Hopefully they don’t cool off in time for the playoffs to start.

We are also going hard for 100 wins. In fact, we would have to collapse pretty badly from here on to NOT win 100 games this season. The Raccoons have never won triple digits. Our best was 99 games in 1992, the year of our first title. (cue dramatic music)

[Questdog]

Wow....the hottest the Racoons have ever been.....amazing.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (88-41) @ Falcons (66-63) – August 26-28, 1996

Now we faced the least-scoring team in the Continental League, with only 490 runs on the Falcons’ ledger, 129 games into the season, something that could be rightfully called anemic (or in Portland Retro Style: very 70s-ish). They were however also conceding only 498 runs, with a very strong rotation, which ranked 2nd in the league.

Projected matchups:
Antonio Donis (12-4, 3.62 ERA) vs. John Douglas (3-3, 3.44 ERA)
Jose Rivera (12-1, 2.31 ERA) vs. Alejandro Venegas (11-10, 3.41 ERA)
Kisho Saito (15-6, 3.89 ERA) vs. Terry Wilson (11-13, 3.62 ERA)

The difference in offensive culture is best illustrated by comparing the records of Donis and “Loudmouth” Wilson. Nuff said.

Do I sound arrogant?

Game 1
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF R. Green – 3B Ingall – C Vinson – SS Salazar – P Donis
CHA: SS R. Garza – LF P. Flores – 1B H. Green – CF Dunphy – 2B Barrón – 3B Jackson – C Lozano – RF Young – P Douglas

Brewer led off the game with a single off Douglas, who only recently had gotten back to health and off the DL. Brewer found himself picked off first by Douglas soon enough. It would be the last hit for the Raccoons for some time. Donis struggled in the bottom 1st, putting the first two Falcons on, but wiggled through that, and became dominant from there. Both pitchers had shutouts on a total of three hits going through six innings. Neil Reece then bashed a leadoff double in the seventh. We tried to have Wedemeyer *bunt*, and he popped it up for an easy out. Green was walked intentionally. We brought Strong in to bat for Ingall, who hit a bases-loading single. And then Vinson grounded to Barrón, 4-6-3. We pressed a seventh inning out of Donis, who had to be walked off the field by Salazar and Higgins after that, and would not finish the SHO, again. Salazar singled to lead off the eighth. O-Mo struck out in Donis’ spot, but Brewer hit a double to center. Salazar had to hold at third base. Kinnear walked, and Reece hit into a double play. Uhhh. Wedemeyer led off the ninth with a bloop to left that Pedro Flores horribly misplayed for it to become a double. Green got the finger again, which brought up Higgins. Higgins bunted them over, and then Vinson was walked intentionally. Now, the last two innings, we had double-played us out of bags-full-one-out. Salazar came up. Douglas’ first pitch to him was wild and eluded Lozano for Wedemeyer to score. Salazar popped out foul, and Kondo grounded out to end the inning. Ban was put in with the slimmest of leads, walked two, threw a pitch even Kondo couldn’t come up with, and Grady Young singled in the tying run with two outs. Extra innings! The odds were severely against the Falcons now, though, since they had managed to use up both their catchers and now infielder Mark Hall had to catch. Brewer got on with a walk, then didn’t go on the first pitch to Kinnear. The Falcons smelled what was going on, called a pitchout and Brewer was thrown out by Hall at second base. Rain was setting in, not only on the field, but also on our offensive prowess. De La Rosa pitched three innings to get us to the 13th. There, we met ex-Coon Richard Cunningham. With two out, Higgins reached on a single, and we expended our last bench warmer, Luke Newton, for De La Rosa. Newton singled to left. Higgins then stole third base before Salazar shoved a single into right for a run! Newton scored on a passed ball on Mark Hall, and we gave a 3-1 lead to Otero. Flores tripled to get the bottom 13th going. Hubert Green’s grounder was botched by Higgins, Flores scored, and Green was safe at first. Dunphy lined out to Kinnear, but Barrón singled up the middle. Ex-Coon Joe Jackson found himself 2-2 when he made contact and sent it up the middle – but Salazar was there. Salazar to Brewer to Weeds, ballgame! 3-2 Raccoons. Brewer 2-5, BB, 2B; Strong (PH) 1-1; Higgins 2-2, 2B; Salazar 2-4, 2 BB, RBI; Donis 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 8 K; De La Rosa 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (3-1);

Nine, but with a black eye, or two. (Although black eyes don’t necessarily are very visible on coons…)

I originally had wanted Royce Green to play through the 9-game set (minus the game he missed to injury against Boston), but with this long grinder here, I sat him aside for the middle game. Gotta keep the boys healthy!

Game 2
POR: 2B Brewer – 1B Ingall – CF Reece – 3B O’Morrissey – LF Kinnear – C Vinson – SS Salazar – RF Newton – P J. Rivera
CHA: RF R. Garza – 2B Barrón – SS H. Green – LF A. Lopez – C Escobedo – CF Young – 3B M. Hall – 1B Jackson – P Venegas

Our offense continued to struggle early on, and we also had David Brewer thrown out at the plate in the third inning. After that we didn’t even get back into scoring position until a throwing error by Hubert Green put Salazar on second base with one out in the seventh, the score still reading nothing. Newton grounded out, and ex-Coon Venegas even balked Salazar to third base, but Rivera also grounded out and we didn’t score. Bottom 8th, the Falcons replaced Venegas with Dunphy to lead off the inning, and he hit a single on a hobbler that kept spinning away from Brewer and into the outfield. Dunphy tried to take second, but was gunned down by Vinson. Still no score, O-Mo drew a walk off reliever Ray Hoskins to start the ninth. Nope, we never moved O-Mo off first. Jose Rivera went nine without a lick of support from the offense, and the Falcons walked off against Miller in the tenth. 1-0 Falcons. Green (PH) 1-1; Rivera 9.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K;

Okay, now is the time to start bitching about the offense again. I don’t know what is going on. They whiffed 11 times against Venegas and Hoskins, which aren’t necessarily the kings of pitching. What a miserable display of hitting. They have not scored a lot last week, but by now it is becoming a problem.

Game 3
POR: 2B Brewer – 3B O’Morrissey – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF R. Green – SS Ingall – LF Kinnear – C Kondo – P Saito
CHA: SS R. Garza – C Escobedo – 1B H. Green – CF Dunphy – 2B Barrón – 3B Jackson – LF P. Flores – RF Velez – P Wilson

More zeroes. And not only those in brown uniforms wielding bats. On the board, too. But we finally got a key hit in the fourth, when Kinnear came to bat with two in scoring position and two out and squeezed a low liner into left field for a 2-run single. Saito had yet to yield runs, but put two on with hard line drives in the bottom 4th. He came back, though, punching out both Felix Velez and Terry Wilson to end the inning. Back-to-back leadoff doubles by Green and Ingall produced another run in the sixth, 3-0. Saito’s game became to unwind in the eighth. Up until then he had surrendered the occasional hard contact, but the outfielders had done a good job and he had gotten a K whenever he needed one. In the eighth, he drilled Christian Dunphy with one out. Barrón shot a double to left, which Kinnear hurled back in. Dunphy was trying to score, but Kinnear drummed him out at the plate. But that was it for Saito, as Otero came out to strike out Joe Jackson, keeping Saito’s ledger clean. And then came the ninth, Ban came, too, with a 3-0 lead, and set out to blow it. He got the first batter, and the next three reached on a walk, a single, and a double. The tying runs in scoring position, one out, Martinez came in to face PH Bernard Combes. At 2-2, Combes hurled a high fly ball to fairly deep right field. Green caught it easily, but Pedro Lozano tagged from third and made for home. Green’s throw, which was accompanied by thunder, arrived at the plate two seconds before Lozano. Kondo got it, dug in and braced for impact, and Lozano bowled him over. Where was the ball!? Kondo had it! And the umpire punched Lozano OUT!!! 3-1 Raccoons!! Ingall 3-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Saito 7.2 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (16-6) and 1-3;

Royce! Green! Royce! Green! Royce! Green!

Raccoons (90-42) @ Crusaders (55-78) – August 30-September 1, 1996

Another team that wasn’t scoring, but also had bad pitching on top of that. I was really hoping for the offense to come back to life in this series.

Projected matchups:
Jason Turner (10-8, 3.05 ERA) vs. Anibal Sandoval (16-11, 3.76 ERA)
Scott Wade (13-6, 3.34 ERA) vs. David Ramirez (9-12, 4.58 ERA)
Antonio Donis (12-4, 3.44 ERA) vs. Francisco Garza (5-9, 4.76 ERA)

We were starting another string of 20 games against the Crusaders, but this time we would get help from callups by game 3, or until back home against the Loggers on September 2 at the latest.

Game 1
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Green – 3B O’Morrissey – C Vinson – SS Salazar – P Turner
NYC: 2B Wilson – CF C. Clark – RF A. Johnson – LF P. Jenkins – C Melendez – 1B Rigg – SS R. Rodriguez – 3B Delgado – P Sandoval

A terrible Jason Turner was pulverized for five runs in the first two innings by the Crusaders, and also bunted into a double play in the third inning. Weeds had put up a home run in the second, and we got two more runs in the fourth, but the hole dug by Turner was deeper than that. Royce Green led off the sixth with a home run, but we still trailed 5-4 then. Martinez then failed to keep the Crusaders off the board in the sixth, as Raúl Rodriguez drove Ruben Melendez in with a double. But the game was not over yet. Royce Green gave his left butt cheek to reach first base with one out in the eighth. While O-Mo got him forced out at second, we were still alive in the inning. Vinson singled, and then Scott Strong hit for Burnett, who was in Salazar’s spot after a double switch. Strong hit a liner off Dane Sanders that whizzed right through Ed Rigg at first base and danced merrily into the corner in deep right. O-Mo scored easily, and Vinson was sent, and barely arrived in time, but the game was tied! But the fat lady still prepared to sing as Daniel Miller came in to pitch the eighth. He walked Melendez, Rigg singled, and Rodriguez was hit. Delgado lined out to Ingall, and De La Rosa replaced Miller to face PH Armando Díeguez. We soon found out that De La Rosa would not get anybody out, either. The Crusaders spotted four on those two goons and we went down in flames in this one. 10-7 Crusaders. Wedemeyer 3-5, HR, 3B, 2 RBI; Green 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; Vinson 2-4, RBI; Strong (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Burnett 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Well, the Crusaders got every hit they needed in this game. We were just thrown under the bus by bad pitching here.

Game 2
POR: 2B Brewer – 3B O’Morrissey – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Green – SS Ingall – C Vinson – LF Newton – P Wade
NYC: 2B Wilson – CF C. Clark – RF A. Johnson – LF P. Jenkins – C Melendez – 1B Rigg – SS R. Rodriguez – 3B Delgado – P D. Ramirez

Pat Jenkins’ 2-out double in the first inning scored the first run of the game for the wrong side again. Not that Scott Wade was pitching badly. But he gave up something here and there and the offense was astonishingly incapable with runners on base. Wade led off the fifth with a single himself. Brewer made an out before O-Mo hurled a low flyer to right. Avery Johnson, no hero with the glove, tried to catch it before it hit the ground, failed, and that became a game-tying RBI triple for O-Mo. Reece was walked intentionally, but Weeds singled to left to score O-Mo. Wade surrendered occasional hard contact throughout the middle innings, but the 2-1 lead stood as the end of regulation drew closer. Clement Clark, with one out in the bottom 8th, hit a hard one, too, but Newton snagged it out of the air. After the bullpen had forked up so colossally the day before, Wade batted in the ninth, in which nobody got on base, and trotted back out for the ninth. That was risky, as he faced Jenkins, Melendez, and Rigg. Jenkins singled up the middle. We brou- NO! Stick to the plan!! Wade struck out Melendez. Rigg lined out to Reece, who hardly moved for this one. That brought up Raúl Rodriguez, who was hitting .242 with no power. The 1-2, fouled away. Oh, Weeds was hustling after it, to the stands – HE GOT IT!!! 2-1 Raccoons!! Green 2-4, 2B; Wade 9.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (14-6) and 2-4;

SCOTTYYY!!!! His 14th win of the year ties his high water mark for the 1990s. He won 21 games in 1989, but time will not be sufficient to challenge that mark in September. (But including three or four wins in the playoffs ……)

As the calendar flipped to September, we added Ron McDonald and Pancho Padilla to the roster, with more possibly following soon.

Game 3
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Green – 3B O’Morrissey – C Vinson – SS Salazar – P Donis
NYC: CF Diéguez – RF Heseltine – LF A. Johnson – C Melendez – SS R. Rodriguez – 2B M. Williams – 3B J. Vega – 1B Lammond – P F. Garza

You know the baseball gods are against you whenever the opposing catcher hits an inside the park home run on you, and Ruben Melendez did just that in the bottom 3rd to put Donis and the Furballs 4-1 down. Salazar would produce a 2-out, 2-run double in the top 4th, but Donis was not going to get far in this game. A homer by Diéguez made it 5-3 in the fifth, and that was all for Donis, although he struck out NINE. The Crusaders that didn’t whiff just hit him all the harder. Royce Green restored the 1-run gap with a leadoff homer in the sixth, 5-4. O-Mo singled. Vinson bunted him to second, but Salazar also made an out. Higgins hit for Donis, singled, but O-Mo had to stop at third. Brewer came up and got a grounder just past Jorge Vega into shallow left for a game-tying single, but Kinnear struck out before we could take the lead. Neither team managed to get a bat up here, but the Raccoons lost Royce Green to injury in the eighth inning on a defensive play. And the game was going away, too. Daniel Miller hit Jorge Vega with a pitch in the bottom 9th, and with two out, Larry Wilson rolled a pitch between Brewer and Wedemeyer into right to walk off his team. 6-5 Crusaders. Wedemeyer 2-4, HR, RBI; Green 2-4, HR, RBI; O’Morrissey 1-2, 2 BB; Higgins (PH) 1-1; Martinez 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

(wipes tears from the eyes) Not Royce Green …! (lips are shaking)

In other news

August 27 – VAN OF Luis Arroyo (.299, 11 HR, 50 RBI) hits a first inning single in the Canadiens’ 6-1 win over Oklahoma City to bring his hitting streak to 20 games.
August 29 – Big day for LAP OF Antonio Rodriguez (.300, 3 HR, 45 RBI). The 30-yr old Puerto Rican had three hits in an 11-5 win of the Pacifics over the Stars, which was enough to join the 2,000 hits club. Originally signed by the Blue Sox in 1983, he reached the majors quickly, and has since also played for the Canadiens and Aces. The milestone hit was an RBI single in the eighth inning against reliver Juan Padilla.
August 29 – The season is over for PIT SP Jorge Rosa (8-10, 4.66 ERA), who has suffered a torn triceps tendon.
August 29 – The playoffs are in danger for SAC RF/1B Sam Green (.358, 14 HR, 78 RBI), who is expected to miss six weeks with a hamstring strain.
August 29 – SAC OF Aaron Jenkins (.352, 12 HR, 107 RBI) knocks two hits in a 6-0 win over the Warriors, extending a hitting streak to 20 games.
August 30 – The Miners lose another important player, as their LF Carlos Torres (.303, 18 HR, 91 RBI) will miss a month with an oblique strain.
August 31 – Warriors CF John Hensley (.291, 20 HR, 94 RBI) seems to be out for the year with a broken finger.
August 31 – The Warriors beat the Scorpions, 3-2, and also kill off Aaron Jenkins’ hot streak at 21 games.

Complaints and stuff

Royce Green was named Hitter of the Month in the CL. In August, despite missing a week with a hand contusion, he punished pitchers to a .468, 8 HR, 23 RBI tune.

If he goes down for the year, we will get routed in the playoffs … again. -.-

--- BREAKING NEWS --- BREAKING NEWS --- BREAKING NEWS ---

The Portland Raccoons have just announced that their outfielder Royce Green, who was injured on a play in yesterday's 6-5 loss to the Crusaders, has been diagnosed with a torn labrum.

The recovery time is difficult to estimate, but should be at least ten months at the very least.

--- BREAKING NEWS --- BREAKING NEWS --- BREAKING NEWS ---

What's that? Ah. My depressions comin' round the corner.

(sits in the corner and slowly rocks back and forth, weeping)

[Questdog]

That just sucks....