[Westheim]

2051 WORLD SERIES
Portland Raccoons (94-68) @ Denver Gold Sox (99-63)

Whether the Gold Sox still remembered that they had already been cheated out of a title by the Raccoons once before? Maybe! In any case, when we arrived in Denver for the series opener, we were met with grim news – the Gold Sox had activated Tylor Cecil from the DL after all. That was another .307, 14 HR, 57 RBI bat (in 89 games) to be concerned about.

Suddenly that lineup didn’t look so thin at the bottom anymore.

Game 1 – Jason Wheatley (19-7, 2.51 ERA) vs. Gary Perrone (20-6, 2.15 ERA)

The Coons did, though. Perrone was a right-hander, and we’d pick up the shovel and shovel the same pile of **** all over again with the Game 6 lineup that had beaten J.J. Hendrix for a second time in Oklahoma City.

The two teams had not faced each other in the regular season, so there was no recent history to go back to. Well, except for the LCS, where Perrone had gone 1-1 with a 5.25 ERA. Wheats had lost both his starts, but had allowed only one earned run in 12.1 innings … let’s just not get into the unearned runs.

POR: SS Lavorano – 3B Crispin – LF Puckeridge – 1B Crum – 2B DeMarco – CF Tortora – RF Glodowski – C Gonzalez – P Wheatley
DEN: 3B R. Thompson – SS R. Price – 2B I. Villa – 1B Sevilla – RF Cecil – C Mickle – LF Ayres – CF B. Ramires – P Perrone

Ivan Villa had batted a modest .542 in the FLCS and upped that with a solo homer to left right in the first inning. This came after Rick Price doubled up Ronnie Thompson and his leadoff single, and also after Pucks had doubled in the top 1st, only to be stranded. That was the only inning in which Wheats looked halfway decent, and that was not an understatement. Vic Ayres and Bill Ramires both reached in 3-1 counts with two outs in the bottom 2nd before Perrone grounded out. In the third inning, the Gold Sox went through the order. Thompson walked in a full count and scored on a Price triple over the head of Tortora. Villa singled him in, and Raul Sevilla also singled. Tylor Cecil singled home a run, and Blake Mickle loaded the bags with another single. Vic Ayres’ sac fly was followed by yet another single for Ramires, and then Wheats walked in a run against Perrone and was shanked. Waldo walked in another run before getting a double play grounder from Price, which ended the dismal inning.

The Gold Sox had put up six in the inning and led 7-0, so the game was mostly over, and that was before Willie Maldonado was whacked for another four runs on four more hits, crowned by a Ramires homer, in the bottom 4th.

Which didn’t mean the drubbing was over. Far from that. While Ruben Gonzalez hit a second hit, all of a single, for the Coons in the sixth inning, Mike Snyder walked five Sox in the bottom 6th, and when Brett Lillis jr. replaced him, he had nothing better to do than to give up a 2-out bases-clearing double to Villa.

Nobody was counting runs at this point. In fact, I was already on the way back to the hotel. I had crying to do. The sort of crying you do in private.

The Coons still had innings to pitch and turned the ball over for the last two to Polibio O’Higgins, who was also told that the pen closed behind him and he was on his ******* own. Ayres singled, Ramires doubled, Thompson walked, and Price reached on a Crispin error in a 2-run seventh. The eighth was better. Sevilla and Cecil singled on his first two pitches before Mickle and Ayres both flew out to Pucks in rightfield. Then Ramires singled.

Then Sean Lassley singled. Sevilla scored. Cecil scored.

Thompson singled. Ramires scored.

Price singled. Lassley scored.

Villa walked, and Sevilla somehow grounded out to a miffed Ken Crum to end the game’s fourth inning of four or more runs for the Gold Sox.

The Coons didn’t even get four batters to the plate against Tony Negrete in the ninth inning.

Gold Sox 23, Raccoons 0 – Gold Sox lead series 1-0

…

(cusses heavy-tongued, lying on the hotel bed with loosened tie and pants) Gold Sox, Gold Sox! Goldilocks! … Gold … Gold … Gold Sox! -higgs!- F… F…. F…….. (throws empty bottle of plus-rated hotel-priced booze against the nearest wall where it shatters into a million shards)

**** the Gold *****!!!

Game 2 – Bubba Wolinsky (13-10, 3.65 ERA) vs. Jim Cushing (10-5, 3.55 ERA)

Would the Raccoons even show up for Game 2 after the mother of all playoff drubbings?

Well, yes. I had Maud check our obligations with League HQ while I was stirring an ounce of honey into some cup of tea the hotel bartender claimed would get rid of the power hammers going off in my head at 10 on the next morning. I would have preferred Capt’n Coma.

Or an actual coma.

POR: SS Lavorano – 3B Crispin – LF Puckeridge – 1B Crum – 2B DeMarco – RF Tortora – CF Suzuki – C Gonzalez – P Wolinsky
DEN: 3B R. Thompson – SS R. Price – 2B I. Villa – 1B Sevilla – C Mickle – LF Cecil – CF B. Ramires – RF Ayres – P Cushing

Pucks hit a single in the first and was left on base again, which gave me a bit of a flashback to the day before. But Bubba pitched a scoreless bottom 1st, so maybe it was a new day after all. DeMarco singled to left and reached second base when Cecil, likely rusty after three months on the shelf, overran the ball, but was nevertheless stranded at third base in that inning.

Things looked halfway decent until Wolinsky gave up a leadoff single to Cushing in the bottom 3rd, then walked Ronnie Thompson right away, both of them in full counts. Price popped out, but Ivan Villa hit an RBI single on a 3-1 pitch and a misplay on the infield allowed the runners to reach scoring position behind Cushing, who scored to give Denver a 1-0 lead. Wolinsky then got to an 0-2 count on Sevilla… and then it all collapsed again.

Sevilla singled, and two runs scored. Mickle singled. Cecil singled in a run. Ramires singled in a run. Ayres singled in a run. Only the pitcher batting eventually and Ramires being caught stealing ended this particular 6-run inning for the Gold Sox.

By the fourth inning, Paul Miles was pitching mop-up for the Coons, turning in three scoreless innings, somehow. Not that it helped any. The offense was completely nixed for the second time in a row, with three hits scattered through seven innings against the well-cushioned Cushing.

Willie Cruz and Eloy Sencion added pointless innings in every sense imaginable, while the Coons finally had their first at-bat of the series with TWO batters on base. In the ninth inning. With two outs. DeMarco and Tortora hit back-to-back singles off Brian Shan when Kaufman batted for Suzuki. He struck out. And that was that.

Gold Sox 6, Raccoons 0 – Gold Sox lead series 2-0

Puckeridge 2-4; DeMarco 2-3; Miles 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K;