[Westheim]

3B Mike Crowe was added to the roster during the final week of the season. With Neil Reece especially having a history of going down just before the playoffs, we would give all the regulars at least two days of rest before the CLCS.

Raccoons (105-50) vs. Indians (83-72) – September 23-26, 1996

The Indians were responsible for 14% of our losses this season, as we only managed to go 7-7 against them.

Projected matchups:
Scott Wade (14-7, 3.88 ERA) vs. Dan George (13-12, 3.75 ERA)
Antonio Donis (12-6, 3.52 ERA) vs. Michael Koch (3-2, 3.18 ERA)
Jose Rivera (14-1, 2.39 ERA) vs. Vernon Robertson (18-10, 2.49 ERA)
Kisho Saito (19-7, 3.64 ERA) vs. Chang-se Park (14-12, 3.64 ERA)

The first three were all left-handers, providing many chances to give guys like David Brewer and Liam Wedemeyer a few days off.

Game 1
IND: SS J. Martinez – C Cicalina – 3B Brown – 1B Paredes – RF A. Roldán – LF Ayala – CF Sakaguchi – 2B Chevalier – P George
POR: LF Buell – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B O’Morrissey – C Vinson – SS Salazar – 3B Crowe – RF Strong – P Wade

Wade had been battered his last two games, and he was battered again, but not until putting up three zeroes and taking a 1-0 lead. In the top 4th, the Indians got on base every which way, which included the first four batters in the inning. Jamal Chevalier would resolve the game in the Indians’ favor with a tie-breaking 2-out, 3-run double. In seven innings that Wade pitched, he put only seven Indians on, but five of them in this inning… Bases loaded, two out in the bottom 7th, O-Mo struck out. Tim Hess, the veteran, came out for the eighth and that usually signaled that the lights would be going out soon, but here Hess struggled abysmally. He walked Vinson, walked Salazar, walked Brewer, who pinch-hit, and walked Strong – with no outs. Higgins flew out, but Buell tied the game with a single. And then? Ingall struck out, Reece struck out. De La Rosa appeared to pay the bill for those whiffs, falling victim to a leadoff bloop single by Claudio Ayala in the top 9th, and the Indians brought him in to score. Jim Durden tried to close the 5-4 game, but issued a 1-out walk to Vinson, who was run for by Conceicao Guerin. Salazar popped out, but Guerin stole second and scored on Brewer’s double. But Brewer was not scored and we had to play on. Doubles by Alejandro Roldán and Claudio Ayala put the Indians on top again in the 11th. This time they won it, at the expense of Daniel Miller. 6-5 Indians. Buell 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Vinson 2-3, 2 BB, 2B; Guerin 1-1; Brewer (PH) 1-2, BB, 2B, RBI;

We left 14 on base to the Indians’ six. Great job, guys, really. You’re gonna hit that way in a week, too? I need to know because I will need another prescription for painkillers then…

Game 2
IND: CF Maguey – RF Sakaguchi – C Cicalina – LF L. Maldonado – 1B Ayala – SS J. Martinez – 3B C. Gonzalez – 2B M. Carter – P Koch
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Buell – 3B O’Morrissey – 1B Wedemeyer – C Vinson – RF Strong – CF Newton – SS Guerin – P Donis

There was no offense to speak of in this game, on neither side. Donis struck out nine while pitching seven innings, but broke up a scoreless game with a wild pitch after Jose Martinez had doubled in the seventh. Gonzalez would score him on a sac fly, and the Raccoons were hopelessly behind, 1-0. Well, actually Wedemeyer would tie the score with a leadoff home run in the bottom 7th, and we left a pair on. And once again that came back to bite us. Otero and Martinez were beaten up in the ninth inning, and the Raccoons lost once more. 4-1 Indians. Wedemeyer 2-4, HR, RBI; Vinson 2-4; Donis 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K;

Great, all hitting is stopping in time for the playoffs. Wonderful. Where’s my gun? I gotta shoot myself right away.

Game 3
IND: SS J. Martinez – LF Sakaguchi – 3B Brown – 1B Paredes – RF A. Roldán – CF Maguey – C Cardenas – 2B Chevalier – P Robertson
POR: 2B Brewer – 3B O’Morrissey – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – SS Ingall – RF Buell – LF Kinnear – C McDonald – P J. Rivera

And more of no offense! The Indians clawed out a run against Rivera after two leadoff walks in the third inning, but O-Mo tied it right back with a solo shot in the bottom of the frame. That was it – no team threatened until the seventh, and then not through offensive prowess. Stephen Buell hit a single just barely past Chevalier to start the bottom 7th. Kinnear sent a hopper to Paredes, who had it get past him for an error and by the time he was in possession of the ball, we had two runners in scoring position with no outs. McDonald grounded out to third, holding the runners. Vinson hit for Rivera and struck out. Brewer grounded out to first. Between Burnett and Martinez the Indians would score four runs, including a sealing 3-run shot by Carlos Paredes off the latter, in the eighth. After managing three hits through eight innings, the first two Raccoons in the ninth (Ingall, Buell) hit singles, prompting an appearance from Jim Durden. Kinnear singled. Strong hit for McDonald and singled to left, 5-2. Salazar grounded out to first in place of Iván Costa, 5-3. Brewer walked. Now, O-Mo. Brace for that double play. No, he hit it to center, and to Maguey – who dropped the ball. Kinnear scored, and Strong was sent home and scored, and we were tied! The runners moved into scoring position. Well, the run that mattered (Brewer) was at third base with one out. Reece was not pitched to. Wedemeyer grounded into the force at home, and Ingall flew out. Extra innings, again. And again, the Indians rolled over some baboon out of the bullpen, this time Padilla, as Matt Brown (I HATE YOU) drove in a run in the top 10th. Jorge Escobar pitched for the Indians. Buell singled his way on, stole second, and took third on a wild pitch. No outs. And it took ANOTHER ****ING WILD PITCH to get the run home! Bottom 11th. After walking Reece to start the inning (his third walk of the day), Escobar also uncorked another wild pitch (his third) to get Reece into scoring position. Wedemeyer struck out. Lacombe grounded out and Reece stayed at second. Buell grounded to left, it got through, Reece was waved around home – NOW OR NEVER!! – and was ……….. SAFE!! 7-6 Raccoons. O’Morrissey 2-6, HR, 3 RBI; Buell 4-5, RBI; Strong (PH) 1-1, RBI; Rivera 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 3 K; Costa 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Oh my god the offense. Oh my god the offense. They are so horrible. Right down the stretch!

But. Yeah, let the raping begin. Next to be gangbanged: Saito. No number 20. No, we are going down hard. The hard way. Everything’s going to hell.

Next week: four free rides for the Aces.

Game 4
IND: CF Maguey – RF Sakaguchi – C Cicalina – LF L. Maldonado – 1B Ayala – SS J. Martinez – 3B M. Givens – 2B M. Carter – P Park
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – RF Strong – SS Salazar – C Vinson – P Saito

The park was crammed full, eager to witness Saito’s 20th (and 215th overall). KI-SHO! KI-SHO! He had never won 20 games for Portland in one season (just 20 in the season we traded for him from Vancouver). The offense would have to do its goddamn job, however, and the defense, too. That part was checked already in the first inning when Neil Reece threw out Tadanobu Sakaguchi at home plate to end the frame. The Indians would soon load the bags with one out in the third. Saito struck out Cicalina, and Maldonado fouled out to O-Mo. Phew. The Raccoons did not protrude further than second base in the early innings, while the Indians had runners on the corners with one out in the fourth again. This time Martin Carter popped out and Saito struck out his opposite, Park. The Coons had NOTHING going. Saito in turn was constantly walking that line you wouldn’t want to walk on. Ayala was on third base with one out in the sixth. Givens popped out. Carter was put on intentionally to get to Park, who made contact, but flew out to Strong. OFFENSE!!! No. Nothing from them. Leadoff walk to Maguey in the seventh, he was on third with two out. O-Mo made a great play on Maldonado’s grounder. Seven zeroes in the top line of the score, six at the bottom. Wedemeyer put up a “1” in the seventh, a solo home run. Now, Saito was on 100 pitches. Do you trot him back out for the eighth against all right-handers? It was the bottom part of the lineup. And I would kill anybody blowing his lead anyway. KILL and … and … KILL AGAIN. It was a mistake. Ayala got on. And with one out, Malcolm Givens, that scrub from nowhere, homered. Miller and Santana gave up two more runs. 4-2 Indians. Brewer 3-4; Saito 8.0 IP, 11 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, L (19-8);

Raccoons (106-53) vs. Loggers (86-73) – September 27-29, 1996

All hopes and dreams were in the process of breaking, so why not get swept to make a miserable week complete with a 1-6 record?

Projected matchups:
Jason Turner (13-9, 3.02 ERA) vs. Davis Sims (8-5, 3.41 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (4-1, 3.94 ERA) vs. Kevin Williams (0-2, 17.61 ERA)
Scott Wade (14-7, 3.92 ERA) vs. Martin Garcia (19-9, 2.00 ERA)

Game 1
MIL: CF Fletcher – 1B D. Evans – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – SS Grant – 2B J. Perez – 3B Rush – C L. Ramirez – P Sims
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – 3B O’Morrissey – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Strong – CF Newton – SS Salazar – C Kondo – P Turner

Turner managed to fall 3-0 behind in the first inning, but for the first time this week the Raccoons showed some actual offense on their own before the 11th inning. We got one run in the second, and Weeds tied the game with a 2-run rocket in the fourth. In the fifth, Drake Evans and O-Mo exchanged solo home runs, 4-4. To get a shot at the lead, however, they needed an error by Evans in the bottom 6th. Strong had singled, and Newton reached on the error. Salazar walked to load the bags, no outs. Sims was giggling with excitement about how the Coons would blow this one up, but then threw a run-scoring wild pitch to Nori Kondo. Brewer with an infield single and Kinnear with a groundout would score two more runs. Turner was out of the game after six, and De La Rosa relieved him with a clean inning. The bullpen would hold on for once. 8-4 Raccoons. O’Morrissey 3-5, HR, RBI; Wedemeyer 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Strong 3-3, 2 BB, 2B; Newton 2-5, 2B;

I managed to put Salazar in as a pitcher instead of making a double switch in this game, because this laptop may have cost a butt ton of money, but the touchpad is utter horse ****. Nothing came of that for the Loggers in the eighth, which was all that saved this bitch of an electric device from meeting face to face with the wall.

And whatever is wrong with Vern Kinnear, he is totally useless at the plate. He was batting .311 with a .923 OPS on June 16. Now he is down to .250 and .750. He has basically been batting .200 for three and a half months now.

Game 2
MIL: CF Fletcher – 1B Rush – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – SS Grant – 2B J. Perez – C R. Rivera – 3B I. Sasaki – P K. Williams
POR: 2B Brewer – SS Ingall – CF Reece – 1B O’Morrissey – LF Buell – C Vinson – RF Newton – 3B Crowe – P M. Lopez

The Loggers came out storming again, putting two runs on Miguel Lopez in the first inning, while the Raccoons faced a pitcher who had surrendered 15 runs in not even eight innings of work this season, and did – nothing. While Lopez allowed three runs in six innings, the Loggers’ 37-year old semi-retired Kevin Williams pitched eight innings of 1-run ball on five hits. The brown team was that abysmal. John Bennett struck out the side in the ninth. 3-1 Loggers. Newton 2-3, 2B;

Wanna bet that Garcia wins his 20th and does not allow a run?

Game 3
MIL: CF Fletcher – 1B D. Evans – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 2B J. Perez – 3B Rush – SS B. Hernandez – C L. Ramirez – P M. Garcia
POR: 2B Ingall – RF Newton – 3B O’Morrissey – 1B Wedemeyer – LF Buell – C Vinson – SS Guerin – CF Lacombe – P Wade

I lose the bet; the first run of the game didn’t score until the fifth inning, and then Guerin hit a triple with one out for the Raccoons. Lacombe grounded out to second, but Guerin scored, and the Coons led 1-0. Both teams were 2-hit at that point. But of course the Loggers would find a way to turn Scott Wade inside out, even if it took them until the seventh. In that inning, they got three hits off Wade, stole three bases off Vinson, and scored two runs to turn the score around. Since Garcia was whiffing people at will, we would not manage to win games at a .666 pace for the year. The Raccoons loaded the bags in the bottom 7th with two out? Don’t you worry, they won’t score. See, Ingall popped out. The only mistake the Loggers made was to take out Martin Garcia when O-Mo doubled in the eighth. While Raymond Leger got out of that situation, John Bennett served up a game-tying homer to Vinson to lead off the bottom 9th. The winning run was left in scoring position, though, and we played extra innings for the umpteenth time this week. Bottom 10th, Bennett still in. Newton grounded out, but then O-Mo singled. Weeds was 0-4 on the day, but now singled to right, and O-Mo went to third in sprinter fashion. From there he yelled at youngster Stephen Buell who stepped in at the plate to squeeze the furry halves of his butt together and send the team to October, and O-Mo looked like he meant it. Buell was walked intentionally though, bringing up Vinson. In an ending as anticlimactic as you could imagine, Bennett’s first pitch to Vinson was rampant wild, and O-Mo scored with ease. 3-2 Raccoons. Ingall 2-5; O’Morrissey 2-5, 2B; Guerin 2-4, 3B; Strong (PH) 1-1; Wade 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K;


In other news

September 23 – The playoff field is set: the Rebels’ Antonio Diaz hits a walkoff home run to beat the Cyclones 8-7, with the Miners watching in agony on their off day. The Rebels will make their second playoff appearance, and will play October baseball for the first time in 18 years.
September 25 – SFB SP Min-tae Kim (14-16, 4.15 ERA) 3-hits the Knights in an 8-0 San Fran win.

Complaints and stuff

This last week was horrible. It sucked all momentum out of the team.

How could I expect anything else?

Even last week, although they were not utterly brilliant then, I was confident they would chop up the Aces to go for the real deal, the Scorpions.

I have zero confidence now.