You know, some things never change.
1983 WORLD SERIES
Portland Raccoons (95-67) vs. Dallas Stars (96-66)
Game 1 – Kinji Kan (17-11, 2.02 ERA) vs. Kiyohira Sasaki (18-6, 3.11 ERA)
These are not the Japanese Championships, no, no. This is the World Series. Get over it.
It got scary right away, when the Stars loaded the bags in the bottom 1st, but Angel Potter (talked about him above), grounded out harmlessly. In the bottom 2nd Sasaki played a terrible bunt right to Kan, who threw out the runner from second at third. The game remained scoreless.
That changed in the third, when to fast grounders zinged past Bowling on the treacherous Starturf and the Stars went up 1-0. Alex White didn’t look good twice in the next inning, 2-0 Stars.
Meanwhile the Raccoons weren’t going anywhere, murdered without any empathy by Sasaki. He struck out nine in the game, and the Furballs didn’t even know where the bases were on the field after the second inning.
Kan was gone after a leadoff walk in the seventh, from where the pen got out again. Top 8th then. Bowling led off with a single. The pitcher’s spot was next and I brought Borjón to counter the right-handed Sasaki, but the Stars erased Bowling. But then White and Smith had singles, and Borjón was waved on and scored on the latter. The runners advanced. Then White scored on a wild pitch and the game was tied! Hall flew out to end the inning.
Sasaki was out of the game after that. But the Raccoons didn’t score and Gaston walked the leadoff batter in the bottom 9th. Jones came out to face lefty Gabriel Cruz, but threw a wild pitch and Cruz singled, putting runners on the corners with nobody out. Cunningham came out, he had the highest K rates in the pen. But Felix Montalvo stabbed at the first pitch and lobbed it over Bowling into right. White actually dashed for it and CAUGHT it, but Ramon Lafrosia tagged third and made it home, 3-2 Stars.
Game 2 – Christopher Powell (11-12, 3.16 ERA) vs. Justin Marshall (16-8, 3.73 ERA)
Marshall was a starter comparable to Logan Evans with underdeveloped control that could walk the bases full in no time. The Raccoons were good in drawing walks, so …
Alex White clubbed a leadoff homer off Marshall to get the Raccoons up, who then grounded into double plays in both of the first two innings. Powell was not a good match against the power faction of the Stars, but held them scoreless early on (the outfielders made some catches for those fancy highlight videotapes).
Then came the top 3rd. In that inning, Christopher Powell made two outs, facing different pitchers. The Raccoons blasted Marshall for six runs in the inning and he was removed for the fifth starter, Dave Miron.
Powell now was pumped up and briefly went into Sasaki mode racking up a few K’s. The Raccoons added solo runs in the fifth and seventh innings, while Powell held the Stars off the board entirely.
Steve Walker made an error to lead off the bottom 8th, and while Powell got the next out, it removed him from the game with the lefty battery of Doug Belding, Gabriel Cruz, and Felix Montalvo coming up. Jones got through those.
Gonzalez pinch hit and drove in another run in the top 9th, and while Jason White was hit for a run in the bottom of the inning, this still left enough for a convincing win. The Raccoons topped the Stars, 10-1, to tie the World Series up again. A. White 4-5, BB, HR, RBI; Workman 2-5; Walker 3-5, 2 2B, RBI; Gonzalez (PH) 1-1, RBI; Powell 7.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K;