[Westheim]

2051 CONTINENTAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Portland Raccoons (94-68) @ Oklahoma City Thunder (99-63)

******* hell, a Game 7! This was already miles deeper into the playoffs than I had ever imagined us going, and I would have expected us to have a rematch of Game 3. Salcido and Marquez had fought each other to a draw, with the Coons losing in the 12th inning when they ill-advisedly went to Polibio O’Higgins.

Reminder: Don’t go to Polibio O’Higgins!

Game 7 – Victor Salcido (10-9, 3.38 ERA) vs. Mike Zeigler (10-12, 4.18 ERA)

But no! The Thunder went with Mike Zeigler for the third time, the same Zeigler that had managed to lose Game 4 all in the first inning…! I’d assume they had a developed severe PTSD by now for all the previous CLCS failures against the Raccoons and couldn’t help themselves but to lose again in the most severe way possible.

…which was a dangerous thought. Were we somehow suddenly confident that this was our game to lose??

The Thunder flipped Benavides and Harmon in their lineup against right-handers for this series-deciding game.

POR: SS Lavorano – 3B Kaufman – LF Puckeridge – 1B Crum – 2B DeMarco – RF Glodowski – CF Tortora – C Gonzalez – P Salcido
OCT: LF R. Cox – 2B Ban – SS Soberanes – 1B Worthington – C Adames – CF M. Allen – RF Benavides – 3B Harmon – P Zeigler

Soberanes got himself caught stealing in the first inning, which made Worthington’s leadoff double in the second momentarily hurt less, although a wild pitch soon moved him to third base with nobody out. Adames popped out, but Salcido walked Allen. Benavides popped out, too! Harmon grounded out to Lonzo to kill the inning after the promising start, which sounded like the Coons had suddenly donned the home whites here…

Salcido bunting into a double play to follow up Gonzalez’ leadoff walk in the top 3rd set things mostly straight again, though. Offense remained low until Salcido walked Soberanes in the bottom 4th, and then made a terrible pitch down Broadway to Worthington, who mashed his fourth homer in the series, a no-doubter to left, putting the Thunder up 2-0. It looked like Salcido’s pitch had not been planned entirely. He kept shaking his arm, and Dr. Padilla, curious as ever, went out there to finger his elbow and shoulder joints. When Dr. Padilla retreated back to the dugout, he took Salcido with him, the latter screaming obscenities into his cap.

And there we were. Paul Miles was inserted at this point, cleared the array of lefty hitters at the bottom of the order, and the Coons put DeMarco and Tortora on base in the top 5th as rain began to fall and intensified rapidly. Ruben Gonzalez got in an RBI double to left-center before the snap, and before the tarp came onto the field. 2-1 Thunder, runners in scoring position, one out, and a 90-minute rain delay to think about the meaning of life.

When play resumed, righty Angel Velasquez replaced Zeigler, who could not get back into the game after that long a delay. The Coons were going to restart with a pinch-hitter anyway and sent Crispin, who grounded to third base. Harmon’s throw to first glanced off Worthington’s glove for an error, the game was tied, and there were still two aboard. Lonzo slashed a clean RBI single to left on the next pitch by Velasquez, and then the runners went for a double steal! Adames was taken by surprise and couldn’t beat Crispin at third, and the Coons had a pair in scoring position again! Kaufman sloshed the very next pitch to center, and it was obviously gonna dink in, and Crispin and Lonzo both scored!! 5-2! And as the Thunder pen collapsed, the Coons added three more singles by Pucks, Crum, and Glodowski, for one more run before Tortora flew out to Cox in leftfield to strand three.

Now we just had to find 15 outs without blowing a 6-2 lead! Two innings from Waldo would be *really* nice, or at least getting all the way from #9 to #5 in the Thunder order. Crispin stayed in the game at third, Kaufman went to second, DeMarco went to center, and Tortora was out of the game, with the pitcher going in the #7 spot.

And then Maldo retired none of the first three batters. Walk to Aguilera, and to Cox, and Ban hit an infield single. Oh bother. Soberanes brought in a run with a groundout. Worthington knocked home two with a screaming single. Adames flew out, and instead of six outs, Waldo had gotten exactly two. Lillis replaced him, getting a groundout from Allen to escape the nightmare inning. A Lonzo single and an error by Soberanes put two Coons aboard in the top 6th, but Pucks grounded out too easily to end the inning. Lillis allowed a single with two outs to Hélder Something in the bottom of that inning, but the runner got himself caught stealing to end the inning.

Lillis hung around to put the tying run on second base in the bottom 7th when Cox doubled to left off him. Willie Cruz came into the game. Burnham pinch-hit for the pitcher in the #2 hole and grounded out, but then Cruz fell afoul of Soberanes, who was hitting .087 in the series, and gave up a score-flipping blast to left-center… I tumbled, and almost crashed into the nearest hot dog stand. Worthington singled, was doubled up on an Adames grounder, and that ended the seventh inning, but, oh, the carnage!

The tying run was on base to begin the eighth inning against Dale Mrazek, via a pinch-hit single by Mitch Sivertson, who was then caught stealing by the annoying Adames. Gonzalez struck out before Crispin doubled to left off lefty Tom Spencer. Righty Brian Grohoski, who had not been seen in this series yet, replaced Spencer immediately. Lonzo put an 0-2 into play, but grounded out to Harmon at third base.

After Eloy Sencion faced the minimum in the bottom 8th, the Coons came back with the 2-3-4 hitters against Lynn. One to avoid elimination. Two to take a lead. Suzuki batted for Kaufman and singles to right-center on the very first pitch…! Lynn fell to 2-1 against Pucks, who got hold of a breaking pitch and barfed it down the rightfield line. Benavides cut off the ball against the sidewall, but Suzuki went to third base anyway; with Benavides’ throw going into no man’s land, Pucks scampered to second base behind him! The noise in the ballpark was deafening as the capacity crowd tried to egg on Lynn to strike out Ken Crum, who had been a foe of theirs with the Bayhawks before being traded to the Coons. The 1-0 pitch went up the middle, and past Soberanes! We were tied!

Two full counts followed. DeMarco struck out, but Glodowski walked, bringing up the pitcher’s spot. The options were Philipps and Medina, and we went with the proper righty as everybody else had already been used up, and it looked like he’d been used up before long. One strike, two strikes, but then, a fly to center! Oh, that was good! Herrera had to go back a bit, and had no chance on Pucks at home, who scored to give the Coons an 8-7 lead! Crum to third base, but a K to Gonzalez ended the inning.

Suzuki stayed in center, and DeMarco went back to second base for the bottom 9th, and there was Hitchcock, who had thrown *40* pitches the night before. Hélder Almadanim led off the inning in the #9 spot. He dinked a blooper into shallow right for a leadoff single. I could see my heart beating through my ******* shirt. A Cox groundout advanced the tying run. Herrera’s fly to Suzuki did not. Soberanes was next, and we REALLY didn’t want to get to Worthington, .440 with 4 HR and 10 RBI in the series. No, we’d rather not.

We’d reeeeeally, reeeeeeally rather not!

And we didn’t. Ball outside. Then a called strike on the corner. Soberanes missed a high fastball with a rake then, falling to 1-2. Hitchcock went right back there, only managed 94 after the grueling outing in Game 6 – but Soberanes swung and missed again…!!! Pandemonium!!

Raccoons 8, Thunder 7 – Raccoons win series 4-3

Lavorano 2-5, RBI; Suzuki (PH) 1-1; Puckeridge 2-5; Crum 2-5, RBI; DeMarco 2-5; Sivertson (PH) 1-1;

4:45 of madness.

I need a shower.

WITH ******* CHAMPAGNE!!