Raccoons (89-61) vs. Aces (82-67)
The Raccoons lost the opener 1-0 on a solo homer by Teo Colón off Kinji Kan, who was thus denied his 18th win of the season. The offense didn’t do a lot and never chained hits together. Hall 2-4; Workman 3-4;
We led 3-0 after the first in the middle game, but Charles Young was torn up in the fourth and the pen could not contain the fire, the Aces scored six in the inning to lead 7-3. They did not recover from that blow and lost 7-5. Smith 3-5, 2 2B; Hall 2-3, BB, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Workman 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI;
Steve Walker was back in the lineup starting with game 3. He drove in the go-ahead run for the Raccoons in the bottom 2nd. But the staff again threw it away, this time in the fifth. Ackerman’s control was awful. He loaded the bags and then walked in the tying run, and then the Aces got up 2-1. Jason White came in, but a wild pitch scored another run, before he struck out the pitcher Vicente Cruz. Some oomph from where we least expected it turned the game around, with a 2-run shot by Winston Thompson in the bottom 7th, and then Alex White added another one, 6-3 Raccoons. Díaz and West ended the game without any further scoring. Walker 2-4, 2B, RBI; Thompson, 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI;
Jerry Ackerman was clearly not going to be in the postseason rotation. Although Young was blown up, too, it could have been due to the steady drizzle during game 2.
The Canadiens didn’t perform any better against the Condors. We are still 6.5 games ahead. The magic number is 4 now. I can smell it. This was also win #90 for the team, which is what I said was the minimum for the team before the season.
Raccoons (90-63) vs. Crusaders (68-84)
Powell again surrendered a home run in the first inning, for two runs to Miguel Fuentes. The Raccoons didn’t score for him, grounding into three double plays at the most inopportune moments. Hall 2-5, 2B; Thompson 2-2, BB; this dropped Powell to 10-12 and gave him a losing record for the first time since 1979;
Play of the team got more horrible by the minute now. Daniel Hall dropped a flyball in the first inning, which exploded the inning with a horrible Logan Evans on the mound. He walked seven in the two innings he pitched, and the Crusaders scored seven runs, five unearned, in those innings. It got only more horrible after that – not that the offense didn’t crawl back in today. The game was 8-6 for New York after the eighth, when the ‘Coons pen disintegrated for good with five runs in the ninth, including a grand slam by Miguel Fuentes. Juan Fuentes in turn set a Continental League record by walking five times in a single game. They lost 13-6, complete destruction by the hands of a team that was way below .500 and didn’t score a lot of runs. They drew 14 walks that day.
A 3-2 lead got away from Kinji Kan in the seventh, the Fuenteses were beating the crap out of our staff in this series. David Jones was defeated in the eighth with a triple by pinch hitter Sam Richmond and Cunningham couldn’t keep him from scoring. Raccoons lost again and were swept, 4-3.
Everything’s going down the drain.
The Canadiens lost two in Boston, which is everything that could still save the dying Raccoons. The gap is now at 5.5 games and the magic number is 2. We still have to survive our own Titans series now, which seems doubtful.
Raccoons (90-66) vs. Titans (66-90)
The misery continued. Young was beaten for five runs in six innings, again with awful control. He walked five. The Raccoons scrambled to get back into the game, but entered the bottom 8th trailing 6-3. There, they suddenly connected. Walker brought in a run. Thompson drove in the tying run, and Dicks drove in the go-ahead run, 7-6 Raccoons. With the Canadiens losing at home against the Indians, this was the chance to take it all despite dropping five of six. West even gave an intentional walk to Isto Grönholm, who had homered twice in the game, and still completed the save. Walker 2-3, BB, RBI; Thompson 2-4, 2 RBI; Dicks (PH) 1-1, RBI (the RBI that clinched the division, that is);
WE CLINCHED THE DIVISION!!!
With the division clinched with five games left, we had the possibility to rest our starters one more time, but we didn’t even need it. We had another off day after this series, and one after the Canadiens series before the League Championship series. I would not alter the rotation, either. Starting with Ackerman, everybody got one more start.
Ackerman walked six in his final start of the season, but still managed to leave in line for a W, 2-1, when replaced by Jason White in the top 7th. The two runs were courtesy of a Daniel Hall homer in the first inning, since then the Raccoons had been held off the bases almost completely. But it was enough, Gaston pitched the eighth, and the ninth ended like the day before, with a harmless flyer to Chris Smith, sent platewards by West. Hall 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Workman 2-4;
The ‘Coons stormed out of the gates in the final game of the series, scoring 11 runs in the first three innings off an overwhelmed Titans staff, aided by five consecutive walks drawn at one point. From there it was almost as easy as pie to complete the sweep. Chris Powell was strong, and while three runs scored against him, two were unearned after poor errors by Workman and Walker. Raccoons smashed the Titans, 14-3. Dawson 2-4, BB, 4 RBI; Workman 2-4, 2 RBI; Sanchez 3-5, 2B, 3B, 2 RBI; Walker 3-5, 2 2B, 3 RBI;
We finished 11-7 against the Titans this season, finally giving us a season series win against every Continental League team.
Since the Thunder were crumbling even more than the Raccoons at the moment, we were two games ahead of them going into the final series of the season, giving us a great chance to claim home field advantage for the League Championship series.
Raccoons (93-66) @ Canadiens (85-74)
We did however give Cameron Green a few games starting at third in this final, now meaningless series. Robbie Campbell slaughtered the ‘Coons through the first three plus innings, fanning no less than seven of the first 11 batters we sent up. He left with an injury in the fourth inning. Logan Evans had a hard time getting out batters in the first two innings and fell 2-0 behind, but once Campbell was gone, things improved considerably for the Raccoons at the plate and they scored five through the seventh, with Matt Workman bashing a 2-run homer. Evans went 6.2 and struck out five, getting his K’s over his walks for the season at the last minute (108-105). The Raccoons entered the bottom 9th leading 7-2, but Díaz and Jones walked the first three batters. Cunningham had to come out to put out the fire, one run scored on a flyout to Hall. 7-3 Raccoons. Hall 3-5, 2B, RBI; Dawson 2-5, RBI;
Congratulations went to Jayson Bowling, who successfully played himself out of the playoffs lineup in game 2 with a catastrophic error in the bottom 6th of game 2. The game had been scoreless so far, but two had gotten on off Kinji Kan at the start of the sixth. Bowling threw away a slow sure-hand double play grounder, and the bases were loaded. The Canadiens jumped on that chance and plated five unearned runs. That was all the scoring in the game, 5-0 Canadiens. The Raccoons were held to three hits by September call-up Raimundo Beato.
Congratulations also to iron man Matt Workman, who has started at first base in all the games this year and had his 700th AB in game 2 of this series. (He has 751 PA so far)
Charles Young started the final regular season game and went six with one run allowed. Mark Dawson provided offense with a 3-run home run in the fifth. The team scored in each of the last three innings as well, including a homer by Thompson for a 7-1 win. Carlos Moran struck out Gabriel Torres to end the regular season. Smith 2-4; Dawson 4-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Thompson 2-4, BB, HR, RBI;
In other news
September 22 – The Warriors beat the Buffaloes 5-2 in the only FL game of the day, which eliminates the latter from contention and clinches the division for the Blue Sox. They are the first to reach the playoffs this season, despite having the worst record among current division leaders. It is the first playoff appearance by the Nashville team.
September 23 – The Dallas Stars take a 5-2 win in Salem, claiming the FL West, and thus setting the FLCS between the Stars and the Blue Sox. The Stars make their first postseason appearance as well.
September 23 – SAC SP Parker Montgomery (7-9, 4.15 ERA) hurts his back in an off-field incident and is out for the season.
September 24 – Claudio Rojas continues to hit. The Bayhawks infielder brings his hitting streak to 45 games with a first inning single in a 5-3 win over the Falcons.
September 27 – It is over! The Tijuana Condors chill Claudio Rojas and end his hitting streak at a whopping 47 games!
September 28 – The Aces take an 8-4 loss in Atlanta, eliminating them from contention and setting the postseason field with the Thunder clinching the CL South for the third time. They are the only team not going to the postseason for the first time this season.
September 28 – The Falcons beat the Thunder 4-0 with William Williams (15-11, 3.08 ERA) pitching a 2-hitter.
October 1 – Gold Sox outfielder Tsuyoshi Ishikawa will miss the start of the 1984 season with a badly broken elbow. He went .261 with 15 dingers and 70 driven in for the Gold Sox in ’83.
Complaints and stuff
WE ARE IN THE PLAYOFFS!!!!!!! (screams at the top of his lungs, like a girl of course)
I was going to talk about the performances of players going into the playoffs in the next post anyway, but here’s one hot guy up front: Daniel Hall has – after a long mid-season slump – found back into his rhythm and has been named Continental League Player of the Month of September 1983. He slapped balls at a .347 pace with 1 HR and 17 RBI.
Grant West lost the saves crown on the last day of the season to Jon Butler, who got his 47th SV that day. Mark Dawson also fell one short of the home run crown, which was split again. Chris Lynch again got half of it, the other half taken by Tijuana’s Wayne Baxter, both with 28 dingers. The single season record of Don Sullivan of 31 homers remains unbroken, mainly because Dawson slumped forever after a rapid April-May barrage.
Two Raccoons pitchers still won categories: Logan Evans was one of three pitchers tying for the CL lead with 18 wins, the others being CHA Juan “Mauler” Correa and ATL Carlos Asquabal. Kinji Kan tied for fourth with 17. But Kan took the ERA crown by a HUGE margin. He finished with a 2.02 ERA for the season, besting all the majors by almost half a run. Logan Evans was 6th in the CL with a 2.92 ERA. Kan also tied Boston’s Ruben Lopez for most shutouts (3), and won the WHIP title, too, with a 1.02 WHIP mark. Chris Powell was 5th in that category with a 1.16 WHIP. Kan and Powell were 3rd and 4th and BB/9. The Raccoons had nobody even close to the truth in strikeouts, though.
No batters took top honors in the CL, but Daniel Hall ranked high on a couple of charts, with a .397 OBP (8th), .484 SLG (2nd), 39 doubles (t-6th), 7 triples (t-7th), 16 dingers (7th). Had he just stayed healthy! Work horse Workman was 2nd in hits with 203 behind TIJ Jim Wood.
One could state that the division was largely decided in head-to-head competition, where we took 12 of 18 from Vancouver. Drop three earlier and that last series would have been much different – and Jayson Bowling would have gotten the boot by now.
NEXT: PLAYOFF TIME!!!
