[Westheim]

2047 WORLD SERIES
Portland Raccoons (104-58) vs. Dallas Stars (100-62)

The Raccoons would begin the World Series at home, having attained the superior record during the regular season.

Game 1 – Victor Merino (14-10, 3.34 ERA) vs. Arthur Pickett (15-9, 3.63 ERA)

The Critters did not change the lineup much, but replaced Ben Coen with Al Martell. Ruben Gonzalez, who had won the CLCS MVP decoration – which gave him an MVP award at both playoff levels at age 26! – continued to bat seventh for reasons only known to me and Honeypaws. At least I hope we have reasons.

The opener would be started by Victor Merino, who would hopefully blossom against a mostly left-handed lineup. The turnaround after the CLCS was too quick for Wheats to take the ball in Game 1, but it was enough for him to go out in Game 2.

Was I confident we’d win? Depends. Can Tylor Cecil play with birdshot in his bottocks? – (has the blunderbuss taken away by Maud)

For the ceremonial first pitch and the national anthem in one swoop, the Raccoons intended to invite beloved country artist Teddy Hucklebottom, a true Pacific Northwest original. Due to an agent’s mix-up, however, we got stuck with Patty Bucklerotten, the menfolk-hating androcide activist, who refused to sing, and then instead of throwing a baseball to a player of her choice, tried to wrestle the baton from a policeman to cause atrocity with it, before being dragged off the field by security.

Portland, huh!? What are you gonna – … (shrugs)

DAL: SS J. Rivas – 2B Sedillo – CF del Toro – LF O. Gonzalez – RF Cecil – 3B Higareda – C Rollin – 1B Jam. King – P Pickett
POR: RF Mercado – SS Adame – 1B Maldonado – 2B Waters – CF Herrera – LF Baskins – C R. Gonzalez – 3B Martell – P Merino

…and then there was no mostly left-handed lineup. The Stars moved up Mario Sedillo and added Adrian Higareda to the lineup, and only three lefty position players remained – Juan del Toro, Cecil, and Jamie King.

The Raccoons had two hits and two walks in the first two innings, but Alex Adame was caught stealing, and Merino came up with two aboard and two out in the second, and was out on strikes. Then we committed two errors in the top 3rd, which began with a Dan Rollin double and got worse from there. Jamie King reached on Waters’ error, and Pickett flew to left. Baskins’ throw to home plate as Rollin tried to score was so far off it was good for a second error, conceding the run and moving King to second, from where he scored on a 2-out hit by Sedillo. Del Toro flew out to Herrera, ending the inning with the Raccoons behind 2-0 on a pair of unearned runs.

While the Raccoons were mostly harmless with the bats the second time through, the Stars began the fifth like the third inning. Rollin doubled into right-center, while King now reached first base on balls. Here, Pickett knocked a bunt back hard to Merino, who managed to turn a double play with it, while Jose Rivas flew out to Herrera to strand the remaining runner. The Coons went on to get nothing out of Al Martell’s leadoff walk in the bottom of the inning, still trailing 2-0.

That doubled to 4-0 in the sixth inning. Sedillo singled, and del Toro also singled. Omar Gonzalez popped out, but Tylor Cecil hit a ball into the left-center gap so deep, it might have lined its way to Saskatchewan if not for the pretty sturdy fence out there. He had to settle for a 2-run double, but that still put the Stars well in command in this game. Pickett gave up 1-out singles to Waters and Herrera in the bottom 6th, but got a double play from Derek Baskins to bail out.

Merino went seven solid innings, but continued to trail with no offensive backup. Bob Ibold and Jake Bonnie would offer solid relief, but with Pickett still hurling a shutout. The Englishman (a draft target for the Coons back in the day!) went into the ninth, but allowed a double to Waters, threw a wild pitch, and then walked Herrera, which was enough for the Stars to become concerned and send in righty Dale Mrazek. When he lost Baskins in a full count, the tying run appeared at the plate, but also with no outs… The CLCS MVP grounded to short for a 6-4-3 soul-stabber, which technically scored a run, but actually **** off… Martell flew out to del Toro.

Stars 4, Raccoons 1 – Dallas leads series 1-0

Waters 2-4, 2B; Herrera 2-3, BB; Merino 7.0 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, L (0-1);

Game 2 – Jason Wheatley (13-8, 2.82 ERA) vs. Orlando Leos (14-7, 4.03 ERA)

A semblance of offense would be required in Game 2 to even the series, even if Wheats remained relatively sturdy. The Raccoons would bring in some veteran savvy ™ with Manny Fernandez starting over Derek Baskins in leftfield.

The ceremonial first pitch was delivered by Yoshi Nomura, who had two stints in Portland and at some point would have half his number retired now that Alberto Ramos was also done with it and baseball in general. They had more things in common than #7 – both f.e. had spent most of the 2030s and 2040s gaining weight.

DAL: RF O. Gonzalez – 3B J. Rivas – CF Cecil – 1B Jam. King – LF del Toro – SS Villacorta – 2B Sedillo – C Castaneda – P O. Leos
POR: RF Mercado – SS Adame – 1B Maldonado – 2B Waters – C R. Gonzalez – CF Herrera – 3B Martell – LF Fernandez – P Wheatley

Hah, there were those left-handed batters… Cecil and King both struck out after a Rivas double in the first, making me briefly think that we’d be alright, especially when Mercado and Adame opened the bottom 1st with singles to right. Maldonado cracked a bouncer into a double play, Waters struck out, and nobody scored…

The third inning was weird in that Wheats both committed an error and reached base on an error himself, and that the other player involved was both times Jose Rivas. Great move to put on bodies in front of Cecil, by the way, although the serial slugger popped out to Waters to end the top 3rd. Adame hit a 2-out single in the bottom of the inning, moving Wheats to second, and a full-count walk to Maldonado filled the bases for Matt Waters – who grounded out to King.

The Stars got three singles from King, del Toro, and Sedillo in the fourth inning, which loaded the bags for Rafael Castaneda with one out, but he spanked the ball back into Wheatley’s mitten for a 1-4-3 double play to keep the game scoreless. The Raccoons then got a gapper for a 1-out triple from Armando Herrera in the bottom of the fourth! But now, boys! Now we’ll take the lead! Yes indeed – Al Martell’s sac fly made it 1-0 Critters.

Wheats responded with a pair of clean innings before Waters and Gonzalez logged base hits to occupy the corners with one out in the bottom 6th. Even with Wheats looking good, tack-on runs would be much appreciated by a certain old man rocking back and forth on a sat-through brown couch in an office above the baseball field, as he nervously fingered a visibly stressed-out toy raccoon in search of comfort. A 3-run homer would do, though. The best Herrera could offer, however, was to stay out of the double play on his slow grounder up the middle. Waters scored on the fielder’s choice, so there was that. The inning ended with Herrera caught stealing…

The next began with a single to center by Leo Villacorta, but then another comebacker from Sedillo allowed Wheatley to start another double play. Castaneda grounded out to complete the pre-stretch part of the game. Joreao Porfirio, Omar Gonzalez, and Jose Rivas went down in order in the eighth. And if the lead was bigger, Wheats would go back to war in the ninth inning even against the army of left-handed brutes that was going to wait for him, but not in a 2-0 or 3-0 game. Mike Lynn was tossing in the pen, and after the Coons’ middle of the order left no visible marks on reliever Adam Middleton, Lynn took over the mound. Cecil grounded out to Waters, which was as good as it got for Dallas, with King and del Toro vanishing on strikes.

Raccoons 2, Stars 0 – series tied 1-1

Adame 2-4; Wheatley 8.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (1-0) and 1-3;

Next: trip to Dallas.