Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[pjh5165]

Damn, tough news on Green. Looks like the two scrap heap pickups Rivera and Strong are going to end up playing key roles down the stretch and into the postseason.

Also how old is Richard Cunningham now? Guy seems like he's been around forever...

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

That just sucks....

That is true. I am running low on Kleenex and it's the weekend...

Originally Posted by pjh5165

Damn, tough news on Green. Looks like the two scrap heap pickups Rivera and Strong are going to end up playing key roles down the stretch and into the postseason.

Also how old is Richard Cunningham now? Guy seems like he's been around forever...

Yeah, Strong, who is 33, was a lucky grab, and he played for the minimum this season. Normally, he would have gotten the boot after the season, but with Green out until next summer ... we will have to see. I tried to trade for him years and years ago, when he was a powerhouse.

Jose Rivera ain't a scrap heap pickup, though. That guy is 23 years old. He was an international discovery from the Dominican by the Condors, and we traded for him six years ago for Stephen Hall, the infielder.

Will Rivera be in the playoff rotation? I don't know.

Richard Cunningham was the second overall pick in the 1978 draft, taken by us, and made his debut in '81, so he basically HAS been around forever. He has just turned 37 in August. He will be a free agent after this season, and he's 1-5 with a 1.57 ERA this year. Strange stats. But he still has kill stuff, and 1,205 career strikeouts as a reliever.

[Westheim]

The Monday morning after the 6-5 loss in New York sucked. It was not about the loss. We were 12 1/2 games ahead in the division at this point. One win or more would hardly matter at season’s end, because safe for getting swept in our last seven games against the Loggers, there was but an outside chance for us to lose this.

Royce Green was out for the foreseeable future with a badly forked up shoulder. The estimate put him out for September, the playoffs, all of winter, and the first half of next season. That could really put a headshot not only on plans for October, but for the franchise as a whole. Regardless of whether he would ever come back and we that kill machine he was, we were going to commit a sizeable chunk of money on him in arbitration this year, and at best he would play 50, maybe 60 games for it, and then we would have to evaluate him on that when time would come for talks about the big money after next season, although (and here comes my unknowledgableness of roster rules into play) if he is out long enough, he may stick on the 60-day DL for long enough to not become free agency eligible until after 1998.

Again, I know nothing. But the Portland Agitator knew that and even in the Royce Green injury calamity found a way to bash me, because somehow, somewhere, I had to be at fault: “Royce – horrible injury! Management at fault for overuse!”

See?

We put Royce Green on the 60-day DL then. We issued two callups as well, adding Stephen Buell and Joe Lacombe, two outfielders. Lacombe had been one of the two outfield scrap heap signings earlier this year, the other being Scott Strong. Lacombe’s major league experience was limited to 81 AB’s with the Stars in 1993, then going .259/.354/.407 with 1 HR and 8 RBI.

Raccoons (91-44) vs. Loggers (79-57) – September 2-5, 1996

The Loggers’ offense was second to ours in terms of runs scored in the Continental League, with 646 runs to our 704. Their pitching was not keeping pace, though, although starter Martin Garcia was perhaps one of the best hurlers in the game right now. The Loggers however were also befallen by a swath of injuries, including pitchers Davis Sims, Rafael Garcia, Jorge Casas (all starters, perhaps facilitating their recent topple), catcher Leon Ramirez, and outfielder (and leadoff batter) Jerry Fletcher. Fletcher was playing through elbow soreness, so he was available.

Projected matchups:
Jose Rivera (12-1, 2.14 ERA) vs. Cole Johnston (4-6, 5.48 ERA)
Kisho Saito (16-6, 3.73 ERA) vs. Simon Walton (2-3, 5.69 ERA)
Jason Turner (10-8, 3.22 ERA) vs. Martin Garcia (16-7, 2.01 ERA)
Scott Wade (14-6, 3.22 ERA) vs. Tim Butler (14-9, 4.35 ERA)

Game 1
MIL: CF Fletcher – 1B D. Evans – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – SS Grant – 3B Rush – 2B B. Hernandez – C M. Vela – P Johnston
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – SS Salazar – RF Lacombe – C Vinson – P J. Rivera

Lacombe hit a 2-out double in the bottom 2nd in his first AB as a Coon, and scored when Vinson singled through Drake Evans to get us 1-0 ahead. Call-up Bartolo Hernandez’ first hit of the year would be a 2-out RBI single in the fourth, which would tie the game. Rivera had not had much trouble with the Loggers until that point. The Raccoons had a chance for a big inning in the bottom 5th, where Brewer drew a leadoff walk and Kinnear doubled to right to put both of them into scoring position. Neil Reece lined the ball into left, just fair, for a 2-run double, but was not scored himself in the inning, 3-1. Reece was also on second base in the seventh, and this time O-Mo brought him home with a 2-out double. Up 4-1, Rivera went out for the eighth, where pinch-hitter Jessie McGuire reached on a throwing error by Salazar. While Rivera struck out Fletcher, the two big left-handers were next, and that brought in Burnett, who got the two outs. Well, Reece got the final out on a fly into the gap by Ramirez. The Loggers in the ninth appeared to get going with an infield single by Hiwalani leading off against Tzu-jao Ban, but that was all they got, as Ban retired the next three. 4-1 Raccoons. Lacombe 2-3, BB, 2B; Rivera 7.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (13-1) and 1-3, 2B;

Game 2
MIL: C M. Vela – 2B J. Perez – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – SS Grant – 1B Rush – CF Golunski – 3B I. Sasaki – P Walton
POR: 2B Ingall – 3B O’Morrissey – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – LF Buell – RF Strong – C Vinson – SS Salazar – P Saito

This game started off against us very violently, and very quickly. Before Saito registered an out, Jose Perez hit a huge home run to put the Loggers up 2-0. In the second inning, Vinson threw away Walton’s sac bunt to put a pair in scoring position with one out, but Saito managed to whiff both Vela and Perez. Hiwalani reached base on another infield single in the third, and when he stole second, nobody bothered to cover the base. Saito soldiered on, striking out Bob Grant and getting out of that inning, too. While we were looking for a RISP hit in vain early on, Buell and Vinson would figure in not one, but two sac flies by the catcher to tie the game, in the second and fourth innings. We also had two on with one out in the bottom 5th, but Reece grounded out, leaving it to Wedemeyer, who yet had to make contact with a Walton pitch in this game. He did now, and hit a go-ahead 2-run double. But this was a Saito start, so somewhere somebody had to butcher it. Up 5-2, Golunski doubled to start the top 7th. Izumo Sasaki bounced one to O-Mo, who throw it over the head of Weeds, and now we were in trouble. 5-3, no outs and a runner on second, McGuire hit for Walton, grounded to Saito and was out at first, but moved up Sasaki. Miguel Vela brought the run home, and now the lead was down to a hair. Saito finished the seventh and was to be replaced by Otero. In the bottom 7th, Reece and Weeds picked up Saito with back-to-back home runs, restoring a 3-run lead for him. While Otero had little problems in the eighth, Ban managed to load the bags with two out in the ninth, including two walks. Hiwalani was the money batter here, and popped out on the first pitch he saw. Ingall made the catch for Saito’s 17th. 7-4 Raccoons! Ingall 2-5, RBI; Wedemeyer 2-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Strong 2-4; Vinson 0-1, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Salazar 2-3, BB, 2B; Saito 7.0 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (17-6);

I am planning to go to a 6-man rotation in the last few weeks to save energy for my starters, but regardless Saito should have another four starts. Could work out. Could!

With the latest home run, Weeds tied Royce Green for the team lead with 26. He is one off NYC Avery Johnson’s mark of 27, which paces the Continental League, and is matched by DAL 1B Mac Woods in the FL. However, there, Richmond’s Raúl Vázquez leads with 28.

I had held Brewer out of this game for his weekly rest so he could be available for tough-as-nuts southpaw Martin Garcia in the next game.

Game 3
MIL: CF Fletcher – 1B D. Evans – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – SS Grant – 2B J. Perez – 3B Rush – C R. Rivera – P M. Garcia
POR: 2B Brewer – 3B O’Morrissey – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – SS Ingall – LF Kinnear – RF Newton – C Kondo – P Turner

Martin Garcia killed the Furballs. He was an awesome pitcher, true, and reached 200 K’s on the year by eliminating Luke Newton in the second inning. He struck out five in the first two frames, although the score was 1-1 after Nori Kondo hit an RBI triple in the second. Turner had surrendered the Loggers’ run in a bases-loaded jam in the top 2nd. Occasionally, however, one would get away from Garcia. Wedemeyer singled, a liner into center, to start the bottom 4th, and when Bob Grant made an error on Ingall’s grounder, we had two on and nobody out. Kinnear grounded out, but Newton singled up the middle and we took the lead, and Kondo also singled up the middle. 3-1 Coons after four. Turner got into trouble in the sixth again. Fletcher led off with a bunt base hit, and Evans doubled to put two in scoring position and slugger Cristo Ramirez came to the plate. Ramirez lined to the left side, where O-Mo made a fantastic catch AND converted the line drive to nip Evans off second before he could scramble back. Turner struck out Hiwalani to get out of this one. Turner would pitch into the eighth, but when Fletcher singled with one out, he was removed for Burnett to face those left-handers again. He got them, but again, the outfielders did most of the work for him. Still 3-1 through eight, and with Ban having pitched a few days in a row, De La Rosa got the job in the ninth. He surrendered a pair of 2-out singles to Perez and Rush, but then struck out PH Dane Thompson to end the game. 3-1 Coons! Wedemeyer 2-4; Ingall 2-4; Kondo 2-3, 3B, 2 RBI; Turner 7.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (11-8);

Game 4
MIL: CF Fletcher – 1B D. Evans – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – SS Grant – 2B J. Perez – 3B Rush – C M. Vela – P Butler
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – 3B O’Morrissey – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Lacombe – SS Salazar – C Vinson – CF Newton – P Wade

Like Saito in the second game, Wade would fall behind 2-0 on a home run, but this time it was Hiwalani in the fourth inning. Both sides had had three singles through the first three innings. The Coons then came straight back at Butler, who walked Weeds in the bottom 4th. Lacombe blooped a single to left, and Salazar singled into right, scoring Weeds. 2-1, no outs, runners on first and second. Vinson hit a single in a full count that loaded the bags, and then Butler tied the game himself as he uncorked a wild pitch. Newton was then put on intentionally to load the bases again for Wade, who was weak batter even for a pitcher (.170/.225/.218 career). But even Scott Wade occasionally would make contact, and here he singled into left, 3-2, and ironically this was the last run we scored in the inning, as Brewer, Kinnear, and O-Mo all flew into shallow outs. That one came back to hurt sooner rather than later, with a game-tying home run by Miguel Vela in the fifth. Bob Grant sent Wade to bed with a 2-run shot in the sixth. It had not been Scotty’s game at all. He would not lose the game, though. He was removed in a double switch that brought in Padilla and McDonald. Newton doubled to lead off the bottom 6th, and then McDonald hit his first major league home run to tie the contest! Brewer got on, and O-Mo got on, too. The Loggers removed Butler and put in Andrew Schaefer, who had killing stuff, but he faced Weeds, who had a killer bat. Liam Wedemeyer made that inning one to forget for the Loggers as he drilled a go-ahead, 3-run home run just inside the foul pole on the right side, 8-5! The Loggers were defeated. Santana pitched a perfect seventh, and Daniel Miller faced no opposition worth mentioning in the final two innings, pitching a 2-inning save, perfectly. 8-5 Raccoons! Brewer 2-5, 2B; O’Morrissey 2-5, 2B; Wedemeyer 2-4, BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Salazar 3-4, 2B, RBI; McDonald 1-2, HR, 2 RBI; Miller 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (12);

Sweep!! Season over, we can play out the string now. While being first, that is. With three and a half weeks to play, the Loggers now trail by 16 1/2 and our magic number is seven.

COONS! COONS! COONS!

Raccoons (95-44) vs. Canadiens (53-86) – September 6-8, 1996

The ineptness of the Canadiens’ pitching staff had become legendary by now. They were going hard on 100 losses, mainly due to allowing almost 5.5 runs per game. The offense failed to compensate for that, as they ranked 6th in runs scored in the league.

Projected matchups:
Antonio Donis (12-4, 3.51 ERA) vs. John Collins (11-6, 4.01 ERA)
Jose Rivera (13-1, 2.09 ERA) vs. Lucio Munoz (7-12, 4.29 ERA)
Kisho Saito (17-6, 3.69 ERA) vs. Glenn Ryan (8-14, 5.51 ERA)

Game 1
VAN: SS Shaw – 2B McFarland – LF Hartley – 1B Mosley – 3B S. Mendez – CF Porter – RF Ledesma – C J. Lopez – P Collins
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – RF Strong – SS Higgins – C Vinson – P Donis

Wedemeyer got the Coons into the lead early with a 2-run homer in the bottom 1st, also collecting Neil Reece. That was unfortunately not enough for Donis, who was shredded before completing five. Jorge Lopez tied the game with a homer in the fourth, and in the fifth nothing worked out anymore for Donis, who put people on, committed a throwing error himself, and was replaced with Padilla in the hope for a K, but he escalated the inning even further, allowing the pair left on by Donis to score, 6-2 Canadiens, and loaded the bags again. Martinez collected the final out from Shaw to escape this train wreck, but was then tagged for two runs himself in the sixth. For the Raccoons, the balls didn’t fall in and the offense wouldn’t restart, and when we did load the bags in the bottom 6th, Brewer left them full with a strikeout. Collins had Lady Luck on his side in this game, which I gave up on after that sixth and brought in the reserves to spare Reece and Weeds the remaining innings (we were in a 20-game stretch, remember). 9-3 Canadiens. Reece 2-3; O’Morrissey 2-4; De La Rosa 3.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K;

At least we managed to kill the hitting streak of Luis Arroyo, who was inserted as a pinch-hitter in the sixth, but made an out, and De La Rosa didn’t yield anything to him, either. His streak reached 27 games.

Game 2
VAN: CF Ledesma – 3B S. Mendez – LF Arroyo – 1B Mosley – 2B McFarland – SS Shaw – RF Moore – C J. Lopez – P Munoz
POR: 2B Brewer – SS Salazar – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – LF Buell – RF Strong – C McDonald – P J. Rivera

Neither pitcher was making a case for awards in this game. Rivera failed to throw strikes and conceded two runs in the first, after which Munoz loaded them up with no outs in the bottom 1st and allowed three runs. We added a run in the third. In the top 5th, up 4-2, Rivera surrendered singles to the 1-2-3 batters to start the inning. Mosley hit into a run-scoring double play, and with McFarland batting, Rivera still had a chance to come out on top, but allowed a single in a full count and the game was tied. Rivera was yanked as Santana ended the inning. Munoz however got better as the game progressed, and went through seven without any more hiccups. To start the bottom 8th of the tied game, Jackie Lagarde came in and faced O-Mo. O-Mo doubled and that was about the furthest a Raccoon had gotten since the third inning. But we left O-Mo on third base in the inning, and Neil Reece barely held on to the game with a most awesome catch on a fly ball to deep left by McFarland in the top 9th. That was the final out in the inning, coming with two on against Martinez. Holden Gorman entered for the bottom 9th. Brewer led off by working a full count and eventually drew a walk. We needed only one run, so Salazar was told to bunt. He laid down a nice one, which Jorge Lopez then threw into the stands, which put Brewer at third with no outs. Reece was not pitched to, loading the bags for Wedemeyer, who struck out, but O-Mo would come through with a single to left. Walkoff!! 5-4 Raccoons!! O’Morrissey 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Strong 0-1, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Miller 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Game 3
VAN: CF Arroyo – 2B McFarland – LF Hartley – 1B Mosley – 3B S. Mendez – RF Saldana – SS Weston – C J. Lopez – P Ryan
POR: 2B Brewer – SS Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – LF Buell – RF Lacombe – C Kondo – P Saito

Kisho Saito’s quest for 20 would have to lead over the corpse of Glenn Ryan. An error by Stephen Buell in the third set the train in motion, but into the wrong direction. Saito gave up 2-out hits to Arroyo and McFarland and fell 2-0 behind on unearned runs in that inning. Saito blew it out for good when he lost control in the fifth, hitting Arroyo and walking McFarland to load the bags. Forest Hartley unpacked a grand slam that put the game all but away, since Ryan was striking out the Raccoons in droves and was still pitching a shutout at this point. He had 10 K’s after five, but wouldn’t add any more until the he left after seven. The Coons also failed to get to Lagarde and we were shut out for the third time this season. 6-0 Canadiens.

Meh. That about kills Saito’s bid for 20. He has only three more starts left (presumably) and would have to go 3-0 in those. Seems unlikely.

In other news

September 2 – The Canadiens beat the Titans, 6-5, with VAN OF Luis Arroyo (.306, 11 HR, 54 RBI) providing three singles and an RBI to extend his hitting streak to 25 games.
September 4 – NYC SP Anibal Sandoval (17-11, 3.67 ERA) sparkles in a 1-hit shutout as the Crusaders beat the Indians, 1-0. Alejandro Roldán has the lone hit for the Indians, a single in the second inning.
September 4 – A shutout is also turned in by RIC Chris O’Keefe (10-10, 4.36 ERA) as the Rebels trump the Buffaloes, 5-0. O’Keefe pitches a 3-hitter.
September 5 – ATL SP Carlos Asquabal (12-14, 2.85 ERA) remains terrific at age 36, and tosses a 3-hit shutout against the Thunder. The Knights win, 6-0.

Complaints and stuff

With the exception of SFW CF John Hensley, Royce Green led all batters in WAR this year, with 6.9. Hensley had 9.0 WAR. What do they both have in common? They won’t add to it due to injuries. Hensley is a competent batter with magnetic gloves in center field, where he makes Neil Reece (no shabby defender for sure) look like he’s going after balls from a wheelchair. With squeaking wheels, too. Hensley’s got 4.2 WAR from defense alone (Reece: 1.2, plus 2.2 from batting).

The fourth game against the Loggers saw the Raccoons welcome their 30,000,000th visitor to the park, although nobody knew exactly who it was. But, we had the game live on local TV and between innings the camera caught a boy with an arm cast in the sellout crowd, who was wearing a Vern Kinnear jersey. After the conclusion of the game, ushers herded that 12-year old boy, whose name was Daniel (wonder whom he was named after?) and who had broken his arm in a Little League game, his dad and brother together with Kinnear, and I proclaimed him our 30,000,000th visitor, and with much celebration Kinnear signed his cast, and we also got the kids a few game-used baseballs and a bat used by Kinnear in the game (to make one of four outs), and I personally made sure there was a TV camera and the Agitator reporter there to witness it for some good news.

The Agitator made no mention of this event in Friday’s issue.

Back to the drawing board?

Anybody remember Dennis Fried, that fringe starter we had a couple years back and ultimately traded to Nashville? He’s still there and is going insanely this season, 17-8 with a 2.96 ERA. He won Pitcher of the Month honors in the Federal League in August. We traded him (and Ennio Sabre) for Raúl Castillo at the deadline in 1991. Raúl who?

The trades I do.

[Questdog]

What is the record for wins in a season and does Portland have a shot at breaking it? What is the Raccoon high-water mark for victories?

[Westheim]

The best record was set by the Capitals in 1991, when they went 113-49 and smashed their way through the postseason, which included the first of ultimately three Portland-Washington matchups in consecutive years. So it is unlikely that the Raccoons are going to break this record.

We will however in all likelihood break our own high water mark, which was a 99-63 campaign in 1992.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (96-46) vs. Crusaders (59-83) – September 9-12, 1996

The Crusaders were playing out the string here, just like the Raccoons. The difference was, we were planning for games in October.

Projected matchups:
Jason Turner (11-8, 3.16 ERA) vs. Anibal Sandoval (17-11, 3.67 ERA)
Scott Wade (14-6, 3.38 ERA) vs. David Ramirez (9-14, 4.50 ERA)
Antonio Donis (12-5, 3.64 ERA) vs. Francisco Garza (5-10, 4.90 ERA)
Jose Rivera (13-1, 2.28 ERA) vs. Dan Barnes (6-11, 4.68 ERA)

Game 1
NYC: 2B Wilson – CF Latham – RF A. Johnson – LF P. Jenkins – 3B Rigg – SS R. Rodriguez – C F. Gonzalez – 1B Delgado – P Sandoval
POR: 2B Brewer – SS Salazar – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – RF Strong – LF Kinnear – C Vinson – P Turner

Brewer hit a double in the first and was scored on productive outs for a 1-0 lead for Turner, who surrendered a few singles here and there. But the Raccoons did not get another hit off Sandoval at all, while Pat Jenkins would eventually park a Turner pitch behind the wall in right center for a 2-run home run. Avery Johnson drove in a run in the eighth off Turner, too, and the 3-1 deficit looked insurmountable. The Raccoons were still looking for a base runner, and Kinnear finally hit a leadoff single in the bottom 8th, but Joe Lacombe double played the Crusaders to the ninth. Jared Chaney tried to close this one. Brewer started the inning with a single, and Salazar – double play. 3-1 Crusaders. Brewer 2-3, BB, 2B;

Miserable. Outright miserable. What a stinker of a game. The only highlight was David Vinson throwing out three Crusaders who tried to steal second base.

Game 2
NYC: 2B Wilson – CF Latham – RF A. Johnson – LF P. Jenkins – C Melendez – 3B Rigg – SS Lammond – 1B J. Vega – P D. Ramirez
POR: 2B Brewer – SS Ingall – CF Reece – 3B O’Morrissey – LF Buell – 1B Higgins – RF Newton – C Vinson – P Wade

Time to shake things up here. Not that it helped any. Scott Wade was singled to death in the first inning, five singles for three runs. The best news were that David Ramirez was wrapped up alike in the bottom 1st, with O-Mo’s 2-run triple a key factor in our own 3-run inning. Ed Rigg’s 2-run home run in the third got the Crusaders ahead once more, and Wade surrendered another 2-piece to Jenkins before heading for the showers in the fourth. The game was not over, though. Higgins drove in a pair with two out in the fifth, and the Coons got another run in the sixth, then trailing 7-6. Miller conceded a run in the seventh, which we got back after a Newton double in the eighth. Still, we trailed 8-7 in the ninth, and here came Jared Chaney. Kinnear hit for Ingall, but made the first out, and Reece made the second. O-Mo singled his way on, bringing up Buell. Buell shot a liner to the right side, past a stunned Jorge Vega, and into deep right. Johnson couldn’t dig it out, and Buell had tied the game with a 2-out RBI double! We went to extra innings once Higgins grounded out. Chaney was still in the game for the 10th. Vinson walked with one out, but Wedemeyer, hitting for Tzu-jao Ban, got him first out. Wedemeyer made up by stealing second base, but we still needed a knock from Brewer, but we didn’t get it. A Newton error then cost a run with a ball popping out of his glove in right field in the 11th. John Hatt was all the Crusaders could field in the bottom 11th. Salazar walked. Reece singled. Come on, boys, turn it around. O-Mo ripped away at Hatt’s first pitch, and shot a liner into deep center! Armando Diéguez scrambled after it, and Salazar turned third and wet home, and Reece turned third, pumping, made for home, the throw back home – is – late! WALKOFF TRIPLE BEN O’MORRISSEY!!!! 10-9 Raccoons!!! O’Morrissey 4-5, BB, 2 3B, 4 RBI; Buell 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Higgins 2-5, 2 RBI; Martinez 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Ban 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

We had not added more arms and legs so far, but now I sent for two more pitchers from AAA, plus shortstop Conceicao Guerin. The pitchers were reliever Cesar Salcido (I know, we have nobody else), and starter Ivan Costa. Costa was 12-9 with a 3.22 ERA in AAA this year. We had acquired the 23-year old last winter from the Crusaders for Ben Nash. He would not pitch in this series, though, as he had been out two days ago. Costa had been the third overall pick in the 1991 draft. He had three starts under his belt in the Bigs, all in 1995, for a 1-1 record and 6.91 ERA.

Our magic number dropped to 2, so any day it could be over formally as well.

Game 3
NYC: CF Diéguez – 2B Wilson – LF A. Johnson – C Melendez – 3B Delgado – RF Orosco – SS J. Vega – 1B M. Williams – P F. Garza
POR: 2B Brewer – RF Strong – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – LF Kinnear – C Vinson – SS Guerin – P Donis

The Crusaders again put up a bunch of singles in the first inning, scoring two runs on Antonio Donis. The Crusaders were in swinging mood against Donis, and crowded him again and again, leaving runners in scoring position every inning from the third through the fifth. The Raccoons weren’t even close to scoring anything until Strong hit a leadoff triple in the sixth inning. Reece doubled him in with a double, and O-Mo would drive him in before some baboon (Vinson) managed to hit into an inning-ending double play. A Larry Wilson triple with one out in the seventh spelled new trouble. Johnson grounded out shyly, keeping Wilson pinned, which put Melendez to the plate. Would Donis be able to get him? No. Melendez singled, the Crusaders were ahead again. This time they had Chaney unavailable in the ninth and sent Jose Hernandez who was merely striking out more than nine per nine innings. He sat down Kinnear, Salazar, and Buell in order. 3-2 Crusaders. Strong 2-3, BB, 3B; Reece 2-4, 2B, RBI;

Oh come on! These are the CRUSADERS!!

Game 4
NYC: 2B Wilson – CF Latham – RF A. Johnson – C Melendez – 3B Rigg – SS R. Rodriguez – LF C. Clark – 1B Berry – P Barnes
POR: 2B Brewer – SS Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – LF Buell – RF Newton – C Kondo – P J. Rivera

For the third game in a row, the Raccoons’ starter was roughed up in the first inning, with home runs from weak batter Brian Latham and Ruben Melendez, 2-0. A Neil Reece solo shot provided only brief relief, since Rivera gave up two more runs in the second. Luke Newton homered in the bottom 2nd, but we trailed 4-2. And everything continued to go wrong. The Raccoons didn’t get hits, the Crusaders got plenty, and Reece made an error, and a wild pitch, and we were down 5-2 after four. The Crusaders got two bloop hits in one inning in the sixth, and while they that didn’t score them a run, all that the Raccoons hold against that were double plays. In the bottom 6th we finally got a hit that was not a home run, an O-Mo RBI double. Down 5-3, Buell and Kondo were on with one out in the seventh, Kinnear hit for Alonso Santana and whiffed. Up came Brewer, got two strikes on himself, and then doubled past Avery Johnson to score one run. Ingall came up, single to right, Kondo came home, Brewer rounded third, Brewer came home – safe! We had the lead! But it looked like it would get away in a hurry. Otero came out for the eighth, hit Ed Rigg, and then collected a sac bunt, before yielding for Burnett, who walked Clement Clark. Octavio Orosco pinch-hit for Mark Berry and lined one – BREWER GOT IT!! Rigg scrambled back to second but too late, he was forced out. Double play turned by Brewer, and we moved on, as Weeds added an insurance run with a solo homer in the bottom 8th. Ban came in, and Ingall put the leadoff man on with an error. Wilson singled. Latham flew to deep left and Buell stole a home run from him. Runners on the corners, one out. Avery Johnson was up, second in the CL home run race, and he lined to left on a 2-2 pitch. Oh this one was trouble. Buell after it, CAUGHT IT!! It was a sac fly, and Ban now only had to get Melendez out. He whiffed him. 7-6 Raccoons. Wedemeyer 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Newton 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Santana 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (5-3);

That series … nerve-wrecking.

Nevertheless, we clinched the division with this one, as the Loggers were clubbed to death by the Canadiens in a 7-run eighth and lost 8-2.

COONS! COONS! COONS!

Raccoons (98-48) @ Bayhawks (66-80) – September 13-15, 1996

The Bayhawks were playing out a lost season, in which they ranked below the league average in about everything. They were 1-5 against the Coons so far this year, but had won their last three games.

Projected matchups:
Kisho Saito (17-7, 3.80 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (8-9, 4.61 ERA)
Iván Costa (0-0) vs. Min-tae Kim (12-16, 4.11 ERA)
Jason Turner (11-9, 3.19 ERA) vs. Miguel Diaz (1-9, 8.18 ERA)

C’mon boys, win this series. It will give us 100 wins for the first time in franchise history!

Game 1
POR: LF Buell – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – RF Lacombe – SS Guerin – C Vinson – P Saito
SFB: 2B Berrios – SS Powys – 3B P. Hernandez – LF P. Perez – CF Marquez – RF Cobb – C Amaya – 1B Jan – P Chapa

Jorge Chapa threw only three pitches, surrendering a single to Stephen Buell, before he left with an injury. Call-up Juan Gil replaced him. O-Mo drove Buell in, 1-0, and in the third Marvin Ingall hit a home run, 2-0. In the fourth, young Kenny Frye came in to make his major league debut facing David Vinson. He would have to start off with an infinite ERA, since Vinson homered to right. The Bayhawks would get on the board against Saito in the fifth with a leadoff triple by Steve Cobb, who was then scored on a sac fly by Mike Powys. Frye had runners on the corners with two out in the top 6th and faced Saito – and hit him! Saito fell to the ground, and the couple of hundred of Raccoons fans in the park cried out collectively (and so did I). But Saito stood up again right away after being hit in the upper leg, dusted himself off and went to first unmoved while the trainer was chirping into his ear. Frye came to regret this plate appearance. Next he walked Buell to force a run in, and then was lucky enough that Ingall popped out. Ex-Coon Tim Mallandain came into the game in the eighth. He struck out Vinson, but then Saito singled up the middle against him. That one made me grin. We loaded the bags, and Mallandain, that piece of rat poo, hit Wedemeyer to force in a run. Okay, now war was on. But for the moment, Mallandain failed to get the third out (no surprise there) and the Raccoons went on to score six in the inning. Saito’s 18th was IN, but he was also going for a complete game, pitched around a Juan Gomez double and a passed ball on Vinson in the ninth, and struck out Pedro Perez to get this one IN! 12-1 Raccoons!! Buell 2-5, BB, 2B, RBI; Ingall 2-5, BB, HR, RBI; Reece 2-5, BB, HR, 2 RBI; O’Morrissey 2-5, 2B, RBI; Lacombe 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Vinson 2-3, 2 BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Saito 9.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (18-7) and 2-3;

KISHOOOOO!!! SAITOOOO!!! He now tied TIJ Harry Griggs and NYC Anibal Sandoval for most W’s in the Continental League this season.

Game 2
POR: 2B Brewer – RF Strong – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – LF Kinnear – SS Salazar – 3B Higgins – C Kondo – P Costa
SFB: SS Powys – 3B P. Hernandez – RF P. Perez – LF J. Thompson – 1B Dean – 2B Chandler – CF Cobb – C J. Ortíz – P Kim

Yesterday, the Bayhawks’ starter had not surrendered anybody. And neither did Min-tae Kim, although he was not injured. He just did not retire anybody. Brewer got on, Strong homered. Reece got on, Weeds got on, Kinnear homered. Salazar got on, Higgins got on, Kondo drove them in, and then Kim was dragged out and beaten to death by the coaches in the tunnel to the clubhouse. In his first start for the Raccoons, Iván Costa batted before he ever pitched despite it being a road start. Kondo was brought in, and we were up 8-0 after the top 1st. The Bayhawks were plenty frustrated, and hit Wedemeyer and Strong with pitches. You want war? Costa was wild anyway, no one would notice if he plunked someone, and so Bill Dean was nicked in the third with first base open. The third was also where Costa’s start went to hill as the Bayhawks burned him for four runs. Santana got us through five, preserving a 9-4 lead, but then surrendered one run in the sixth. The Raccoons had not threatened offensively since the second inning at that point, but the Bayhawks were bound to run out of bullpen material. Then I made a mistake and put Salcido in with a 4-run lead. He loaded the bags in an instant, and the bullpen blew up spectacularly as the Bayhawks tied the game in the seventh, and took a lead against Ken Burnett in the eighth. Top 9th. Reece and Wedemeyer made quick outs against William Henderson. Kinnear walked. Buell pinch-hit for Daniel Miller and hurled a double to right, and Kinnear was waved home and scored. Tied game again. The Bayhawks still walked off. Otero issued a walk, a single, an INFIELD single, and with two out he would issue a bases-loaded walk. 11-10 Bayhawks. Kinnear 2-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Buell (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Higgins 2-5; Santana 2.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K;

Boy, are we gonna get raped by the Aces. Disgusting! YOU ARE DISGUSTING!!

Game 3
POR: 2B Brewer – RF Strong – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – SS Salazar – LF Buell – C Vinson – P Turner
SFB: CF Marquez – 3B P. Hernandez – RF P. Perez – LF J. Thompson – 1B Dean – 2B Chandler – SS Powys – C J. Ortíz – P Diaz

Diaz was roughed up early with a 3-run homer by Wedemeyer (his 30th of the year) in the first, and a Vinson solo job in the second inning. The Bayhawks were hitting quite well against Turner, but also hit into double plays in the first two innings, and with two on and two out in the third, Jim Thompson hit at a 3-0 pitch from Turner and grounded out. Double plays were the theme of the day. The Coons turned three, the Bayhawks two, and the double plays helped Turner to shut out the Bayhawks into the eighth. Up 7-0, Jose Ortiz with a double and Leon Berrios with a single put runners on the corners with no outs. Turner struck out Marquez, then got Hernandez to ground to Weeds, who put him out. That brought up lefty Pedro Perez with two in scoring position and two outs. No pain, no gain, this was Turner’s man. Perez grounded to Salazar, Salazar lost it, the run scored, and I was throwing stuff around the visitors’ clubhouse. 7-1 Coons. Wedemeyer 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Vinson 3-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Turner 9.0 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (12-9) and 1-3;

Once I had wiped the white foam from my mouth and let the iron grip on Salazar’s neck go, we all celebrated our 100th win of the season. Hooray!

I was still mad for that error.

In other news

September 11 – CIN OF/1B Gonzalo Aguilar (.233, 2 HR, 36 RBI) is out for seven to eight months with a ruptured ulnar collateral ligament.
September 11 – TIJ SP Harry Griggs (18-9, 2.90 ERA) fans 11 as the Condors shut out the Thunder, 1-0, while he allows only three hits.
September 15 – The Gold Sox mop up the Buffaloes in their own ballpark, 10-4. The story of the day is the effort put out by DEN LF/RF Chih-tui Jin (.298, 8 HR, 69 RBI), who has four base hits, a single in the first, a homer in the fifth, and in the rout-like seventh, a triple and a double. THAT’S A CYCLE!! It is the 19th cycle in ABL history, the first for the Gold Sox, and the second time a cycle has been hit for on September 15 (MIL Emilio Román, 1989). It was also the first cycle in almost three years, as the feat was last achieved by the Knights’ Jai Utting on September 29, 1993.

Complaints and stuff

So Kisho won his 18th, and continues to have a chance for winning 20 this season. Where does he rank in career wins? (*HOF, #active)

1st Juan Correa* - 272
2nd Craig Hansen# - 246
3rd Leland Lewis# - 238
4th Carlos Asquabal# - 230
5th Billy Robinson - 222
6th Woody Roberts# - 220
7th Robbie Campbell# - 219
8th Kiyohira Sasaki# - 216
9th Bill Smith# - 214
10th Kisho Saito# - 213

Note how Juan Correa is the only other player that once was with us on this list, and he only pitched one season for us before retiring. Other Raccoons (current or former) on the list:

25th Jack Pennington - 168
27th Kinji Kan - 167
39th Raimundo Beato# - 151
43rd Carlos Reyes# - 149
43rd Scott Wade# - 149
45th Logan Evans - 147
48th Robert Vázquez# - 146
49th Alex Miranda - 145
67th Antonio “Woody” Lopez - 127
89th Christopher Powell - 111
96th Jason Turner# - 106

Jack Pennington was here only half a season, in 1980. What would have happened if we had actually tried to extend him without any money instead of trading him away to the Buffaloes. What did we get for him then? Oh, merely Mark Dawson, the power king of the 80s. The whole history of the franchise would have looked very very different.

Ben O’Morrissey and Jason Turner are the two biggest free agents we have on the team. The budget for 1997 is tight, to say the least. Whom did I want to extend in any case? It was a close race. In the end, I went with O-Mo first. He had that millions look in his eyes. I have not heard back from him in ten days now regarding my proposal.

Chih-tui Jin hitting for the cycle also stung this week.

Vern Kinnear is batting close to zero for more than a month now. See his average dropping to … zero. Reece also drops further and further. And with Green out, and Weeds whiffing uncontrollably, by now I am not confident for the CLCS against the Aces. We were 7-2 against them this season, but then Kinnear was hitting, and Reece was hitting, and Green was in, and Weeds did not whiff uncontrollably.

Newton making that error, where he had a ball pop out of his glove in right field in the second game against the Crusaders, I had an instant flashback to 1989. Oregon Brawl, Game 6. Extra innings. Glenn Johnston drops a fly ball. The Wolves score, we lose the game in the 14th or so, and lose the World Series.

The hurts.

[Questdog]

100!!...congrats on that!

[Westheim]

Miguel Lopez was expected to come back some time this week. The 28-year old Cuban had torn his rotator cuff in early May and had rehabbed since. As we were playing out the string, he could well make two rehab starts, but I had my doubts about whether he would be on the playoff roster. At the moment I was not even sure which of our five starters would drop out of the rotation.

Raccoons (100-49) @ Condors (83-66) – September 16-18, 1996

The Condors (who ranked 6th in runs scored and 3rd in runs against) were still trying to catch the Aces in the CL South, but at seven games out they had no other option but to sweep the Raccoons. We would try and have a word in that regard.

Projected matchups:
Scott Wade (14-6, 3.63 ERA) vs. Harry Griggs (18-9, 2.90 ERA)
Antonio Donis (12-6, 3.65 ERA) vs. Jose Maldonado (5-4, 4.52 ERA)
Jose Rivera (13-1, 2.45 ERA) vs. Juan Lara (13-9, 3.00 ERA)

Game 1
POR: 2B Brewer – RF Strong – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – LF Kinnear – C Vinson – SS Salazar – P Wade
TIJ: RF Cleveland – 1B E. Garza – 2B Boyle – LF O’Day – SS J. Garcia – 3B J. Morales – CF Theobald – C F. Jackson – P Griggs

Wade was again rocked hard in the first inning. After Scott Strong had taken care of a 2-0 lead in the top 1st with a 2-run homer, Wade was hit with four singles in the bottom 1st and surrendered three runs. The Coons loaded the bags in the third, but Wedemeyer and O’Morrissey both struck out to end the inning. Wade was torn apart in the bottom 4th, again, when with two out Dale Cleveland hit a 2-run double, and Edgardo Garza homered to make it a 7-2 game. Griggs’ 19th was not in danger past this point, as the Raccoons offense was harmless against him. Even worse was that the suckers Salcido and Padilla, who were not good for anything but long relief anyway, couldn’t even do that. 9-3 Condors. Strong 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Martinez 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Just in time for the playoffs, the Raccoons start to suck, horribly, while the Scorpions on the same day drummed the Cyclones, 20-0. That is so not good…

Well, in this condition, we would not even get to the Scorpions.

Game 2
POR: 2B Brewer – RF Strong – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – LF Kinnear – SS Guerin – C Kondo – P Donis
TIJ: 3B J. Morales – C F. Jackson – LF Cleveland – 1B Munoz – CF Hooper – RF G. Flores – 2B Waller – SS G. Rodriguez – P D. Perez

The Condors switched out their starter for the middle game, putting in Daniel Perez (3-6, 5.55 ERA). The Raccoons could not do anything against the guy with the 1.50 WHIP, grounding into double plays twice in the early innings, and when they got a chance on the silver plate in the sixth, when Gabriel Rodriguez threw away Neil Reece’s grounder to put two in scoring position with two out, Wedemeyer struck out. We had two on with two out in the seventh, too, and for once Donis was removed for a pinch-hitter not for his work on the mound for despite some wildness he had not allowed any runs to score. Buell hit for him – and struck out. Perez was pitching into the eighth. Brewer hit a leadoff triple in a game that was still scoreless. SCORE HIM, SUCKERS!! Strong singled up the middle, and Perez walked Weeds. With two out, Kinnear set Perez’ ledger straight with a massive 3-run homer to dead center. Miller, who had pitched the seventh, walked the first two batters in the eighth and Otero replaced him. He struck out Cleveland and Munoz hit into a double play. 4-0 Raccoons. Brewer 2-5, 3B; Strong 2-5, RBI; Kinnear 1-3, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Kondo 2-4, 2B; Donis 6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K; Otero 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (5);

Vern Kinnear’s latter half of the season was horrible. Maybe at least he can wake up for the playoffs as Scott Wade seems to be a dead man standing.

Game 3
POR: 2B Brewer – 3B O’Morrissey – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – LF Kinnear – RF Newton – C Vinson – SS Salazar – P J. Rivera
TIJ: RF Cleveland – 1B E. Garza – 2B Boyle – LF O’Day – SS J. Garcia – 3B J. Morales – CF Theobald – C Lee – P Lara

Dale Cleveland got hurt in the first inning colliding with David Brewer at second base. He was out regardless. The game was scoreless (and the Coons hitless) through three innings, but O-Mo led off the top 4th with a single. Reece also singled, and then both surprisingly pulled off a double steal against the call-up Dave Lee and Juan Lara, which proved essential, since now both scored on Weeds’ single and a Kinnear sac fly. Reece would have been left on without the steal. The game, now at 2-0, remained close however, and the Condors threatened twice in the next innings, but didn’t score against Rivera. And Rivera had a strange game, drawing two walks from Lara, and the latter came in the seventh inning with Newton (double) and Vinson (intentional walk) on base and one out. Brewer now found the bags full and managed to open the score a bit with a 2-run double to right. O-Mo scored Rivera with a groundout and we were up 5-0. The Condors got Rivera out of the game with two hits and a run in the eighth, yet we got that run back and put in Martinez for the ninth. Up 6-1, Jesus Garcia singled to center where Reece overran it and Garcia ended up at second base. Morales walked. Theobald reached on an error by Brewer, and Dave Lee singled home the first run. No outs, tying run at the plate, Tzu-jao Ban coming in. Erwin Hooper shot a 1-2 pitch to Salazar, who turned the double play with Brewer, second and first, which scored a run. But the tying run moved back to the on-deck circle, and Gilberto Flores then flew out to Buell in left. 6-3 Raccoons. Higgins (PH) 1-1; Rivera 7.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, W (14-1) and 0-1, 2 BB;

We had Thursday off, and on that day our medical staff cleared Miguel Lopez to resume pitching in a game environment. The minor league seasons had just finished a few days ago, so he would get one, perhaps two rehab starts under live fire in the majors. We would not push him too hard and he was not in a position to make the playoff roster. He was slotted in behind Saito and Turner for the next series in Boston.

Raccoons (102-50) @ Titans (71-82) – September 20-22, 1996

The Titans were perhaps still grieving over their missed chance in 1995, when they had to win just one of the last three games against the Raccoons to make the playoffs for the first time, and lost all three. Their team was so average, it was hard to make out any strengths or weaknesses.

Projected matchups:
Kisho Saito (18-7, 3.67 ERA) vs. Vicente Navarro (10-11, 3.18 ERA)
Jason Turner (12-9, 3.04 ERA) vs. Doug Morrow (14-12, 2.90 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (3-1, 4.50 ERA) vs. Jason O’Halloran (10-14, 4.41 ERA)

Game 1
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Buell – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – RF Strong – SS Ingall – C Vinson – P Saito
BOS: SS Silva – CF Alonso – C L. Lopez – LF J. Martinez – 3B Haider – RF Thiebaut – 2B M. Chavez – 1B L. Martin – P V. Navarro

Navarro made an error in the fourth inning of a 1-1 game that put Wedemeyer on to lead off the frame. It had the potential for a big inning as more Coons flocked on. One run was in, the bases loaded, one out, and Saito batting. He grounded to right and the ball got past Laurent Martin into rightfield for an RBI single! Brewer added a run with a sac fly, and Saito was up 4-1 in this must-win game if he wanted to reach 20 this season. Saito issued leadoff walks in the fourth and fifth innings, but each time struck out two on his way out of a scoreless frame. Navarro was pulled in the sixth after putting leadoff man Scott Strong on, and although Saito bunted into a force at third base in the inning, the Titans pulled enough boners to put another 3-spot on the board, including hitting Brewer, and run-scoring wild pitch that brought in Saito to make it 7-1. Saito would run into trouble in the seventh, though, giving up Jean-Louis Thiebaut’s first major league home run, and then put a pair on with two out. Right-hander Luis Alonso came up. Saito was sure he could get him and was allowed to face him. Alonso lobbed his first pitch to right where Strong barely had to move. De La Rosa and Martinez finished the game without any major incidents. 7-2 Saito’s Minions! Ingall 4-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Saito 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, W (19-7) and 1-3, RBI;

We won a convincing victory here despite the first four slots in our lineup going a grand total of 0-15 with a walk (Buell; also Reece was replaced in a double switch after 0-3 and Kinnear made one out in his slot).

Game 2
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – 3B O’Morrissey – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Strong – SS Ingall – CF Lacombe – C McDonald – P Turner
BOS: SS Silva – 1B Mullins – C L. Lopez – 2B Burbidge – RF Thomas – 3B J. Ramirez – LF Espinosa – CF C. Garcia – P Morrow

We threw six left-handed batters at Doug Morrow, and the Titans had only one right-hander (Ramirez) in their lineup. It didn’t really help us to take out Reece here. While we scored runs in the first and third, they were on the Titans, an error by Lopez in the first, and a run-scoring wild pitch in the third. Turner each time gave the lead right back. In a 2-2 game we left runners on the corners in the top 6th when McDonald fouled out. Bottom 7th, Manny Espinosa hit a leadoff triple against Turner. Oh-oh. Claudio Garcia lined to left – O-Mo caught it!! Morrow lined up the middle – Brewer caught it!! Silva popped out. Whoah!! Morrow then unraveled in the eighth. O-Mo and Weeds led off with singles, and Strong worked a walk. Bases loaded, no outs. We only got one run on Ingall’s sac fly. Lacombe flew out to short left, and Salazar, who hit for McDonald, lined out to third. Turner came out for Burnett with all those left-handers, and while he hit Lopez with a pitch, Burbidge grounded into an inning-ending double play. Bottom 9th, 3-2 game. Ban allowed a single to Josh Thomas, and walked Jose Ramirez. Then came Espinosa and hit into a double play, but the tying run was at third base, and 34-year old former Ace Claudio Garcia was the money batter. He flew out to Lacombe. 3-2 Coons! Turner 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, W (13-9) and 1-3, 2B;

Note how we are basically lacking either offense or pitching in any game, but still win most of them. That’s called luck. Luck tends to evaporate at some point. Like mustard gas, it thins out …

Game 3
POR: LF Buell – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – C Vinson – SS Guerin – RF Newton – P M. Lopez
BOS: SS Silva – 3B J. Ramirez – C L. Lopez – LF J. Martinez – CF Alonso – 2B A. Martinez – RF Spinelli – 1B Haider – P O’Halloran

The Coons rushed out and tagged O’Halloran for three runs in the first, while most people were eager to see the returning Miguel Lopez. You could state that he did quite well: the Titans failed to get a hit until the fifth inning against him. I took him out after Ramirez reached on a bloop single in the sixth, after he crossed 70 pitches. That was enough for the first start after a torn rotator cuff. Luis Lopez hit a Santana pitch to deep left, but Buell made the play. We scored single runs in the fifth, sixth, and seventh, and I felt daring enough to put in Padilla, who didn’t put anybody on until encountering a left-hander, and then Salcido. The latter faced the left-hander Daniel Silva and gave up a hard single. Useless dumbbag. De La Rosa cleaned up, but the Titans still blew the shutout when Antonio Martinez homered off Juan Martinez in the ninth. 7-2 Raccoons! Salazar (PH) 1-1, 2B; Reece 2-4, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Wedemeyer 3-6, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Vinson 3-4, BB; Lopez 5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K, W (4-1);

In other news

September 16 – The Scorpions destroy the Cyclones, 20-0. Steve Rogers (11-13, 3.25 ERA) pitches a 4-hit shutout, while not one, but TWO Scorpions sparkle with 6-hit games. 1B/3B/CF Jared O’Molony (.314, 8 HR, 94 RBI) misses the cycle by the double and drives in a pair, while LF/RF Martin Horn (.237, 4 HR, 22 RBI) lacks the home run for the cycle and has one RBI. It is the first time that 6-hit performances are delivered on the same day, much less even by team mates. These are the 28th and 29th 6-hit games in ABL history, and the first this year. The last time a player had six hits in a game, it was Pittsburgh’s Alfonso Rojas on September 30, 1995, then also against the Cyclones.
September 18 – The Scorpions will have a chance to defend their title, as they claim the FL West with a 3-2 win in Cincinnati. It will be their fifth playoff appearance, and second consecutive.
September 19 – The Milwaukee Loggers axe their manager for ten years, Daniel White, after a deflating second half of the season, which saw the team drop 20 games behind the Raccoons. White, the 1981 and 1982 Manager of the Year when he made the playoffs with the Pacifics, went a total of 740-880 with the Loggers.
September 20 – BOS INF Pat Elliott (.209, 6 HR, 54 RBI) is confirmed to have broken his hand when he punched a locker in anger. The 23-year old will finish the year on the DL.
September 21 – Hits galore! LVA C Andres Manuel (.291, 3 HR, 35 RBI) becomes the third batter this week to have a 6-hit game, knocking four singles and two doubles in a 13-3 drubbing of the Falcons. It is the 30th 6-hit game in ABL history and the first for the Aces, who had not had anybody put up an individual achievement since Mark “Icon” Allen hit for the cycle in 1984.
September 22 – The Aces romp over the Falcons, 9-3, while the Condors lose a close game in Atlanta, 4-2. This decides the CL South, as the Aces go to the playoffs for the very first time in their existence.
September 22 – DAL SP Judd Montgomery (12-12, 4.30 ERA) 3-hits the Wolves. The Stars win 6-0.

Complaints and stuff

Best news this week was probably the fact that we announced on Wednesday that Ben O’Morrissey had signed his contract extension. For reference, David Brewer was paid $9M over six years. O-Mo also signed on for six years (his age 31-36 seasons) and would receive $6.2M, starting with a palatable $900k next season.

With that out of the way, we can look at Jason Turner now.

In the ninth inning of the final game in Boston, Jorge Salazar played second base after some pinch-hitting bonanza in the top 9th, which yielded a run (and as the manager of a team that has blown its share of 9-run leads over the years, I can assure you, a run is a run is a run…).

Question: When was the last time we used Salazar at any position other than shortstop?
Answer: 1991, when he played one inning of first base.

Jorge Salazar leaves after this season. An era ends, seven years patrolling short. Funny thing is, when we brought him in in ’90, I originally planned him to platoon with some dirk there. =) He had 602 AB in that first year right away. =) I hope he gets another job, because he is not *bad*, he is just expensive.

And he’s a type A free agent. He-he.

[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.

[Questdog]

I want to know more about Scott Strong. Those are some impressive numbers he has there....

[Westheim]

He was the Thunder's first round pick in the 1986 draft and quickly made his big league debut. He had a few good seasons, when I also tried to trade for him, but nothing came from that.

However... something about this stat sheet tells me to NOT give him $5M for the next six years.

[Questdog]

Maybe he has a wheat allergy.......

Did not realize he was an old fart....but still a nice season.

[Westheim]

1996 CONTINENTAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Portland Raccoons (108-54) vs. Las Vegas Aces (95-67)

On paper, there was clear advantage for the Raccoons. They came in with the second-best regular season record the ABL had ever seen in their 20-year history, after the 1991 Capitals who went 113-49 to win the title. The Aces made their first ever playoff appearance in contrast to the seventh for the Raccoons.

The Aces’ 770-687 runs scored/against became pale when compared to the Raccoons’ 840-608. The Raccoons were easily outscoring them and were allowing fewer runs. The Aces had also lost seven of the nine regular season games between the two teams.

Yet, the Raccoons had stumbled during the final days of the regular season, losing four of their last seven games, and had struggled to score runs. Much was attributed to the fact that they had lost Royce Green to a torn labrum, and a .900+ OPS outfielder with good defense was not readily replaced by any team. The Aces were without infielders Steve Moore and Francisco Marino (not that they were regulars) as well as SP Raimundo Beato (elbow inflammation). It looked like the Raccoons had been hit harder with the injuries. “Pooky” Beato’s ERA this year had been north of six.

The main factor in the outcome of this series would be whether the Aces’ pitching would hold up against the Raccoons’ offense which had scored more than five runs a game this year. That had been with Green, however, and Neil Reece, Vern Kinnear, and David Vinson had endured long slumps at the end of the year.

Offensively the Aces were built around high on-base percentage and speed on the base paths as opposed to most of the Raccoons lineup, which consisted of home run hitters.

Would the Raccoons break out of their slump? Then the series was theirs. But if they failed to hit the ball, the Aces would have a huge chance here after waiting for 20 years.

---

I made a tough decision and left SP Miguel Lopez off the playoff roster. When Royce Green went down, we had had only 12 batters on the roster, and only Lopez came off the DL after September 1. Joe Lacombe was the only outfielder eligible in excess of the four that had been on the roster on August 31 and was added in place of Lopez.

The reason is the following: Lopez is an infinitely better player than Lacombe, but we have only two right fielders without him. As things are, Scott Strong will start in right, but his defense is not great, and Lacombe could be a defensive substitution late in games.

Apart from that there are no surprises on the roster. Oh yeah, the rotation. The next tough decision was who would pitch game 3 after Saito and Turner, who would start the first two games at home. Scott Wade was normally a sure #3 with Lopez not around, but he had been blown up excessively in September. Donis was unable to go six. Rivera had befuddled hitters all year. The next tough decision was to put Donis into the bullpen. If Wade was torn up, he could still start a game 6 or game 7. Unless we would go the Oklahoma way again. Then this would not matter.

Next, Kisho Saito and the Furballs welcome the Aces in the Northwest.

[Westheim]

1996 CONTINENTAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Portland Raccoons (108-54) vs. Las Vegas Aces (95-67)

Game 1 – Kisho Saito (19-8, 3.59 ERA) vs. Jou Hara (15-14, 3.35 ERA)

LVA: 2B M. Gomez – 3B Petipas – CF J. Vargas – RF Quintela – 1B Zamora – C Manuel – LF Li – SS R. Gutierrez – P Hara
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – RF Strong – C Vinson – SS Salazar – P Saito

KI-SHO! (clap-your-hands) KI-SHO! (clap-your-hands) KI-SH-… Manuel Gomez’ leadoff double did not raise hopes early on. Bob Petipas’ infield single and Javier Vargas’ bloop into shallow center scored them Aces a run before most people in attendance had gotten a beer. But Brewer also doubled to lead off our first inning, and with two out, Wedemeyer sunk a ball into the bleachers behind rightfield, and we had the lead. O-Mo and Strong got on, and Vinson doubled in O-Mo, too, 3-1.

That lead didn’t hold, and it also didn’t hold very long. Xiao-wei Li reached on an error by Salazar to lead off the second. He was still at first base when Hara laid down a bunt with one out, and Kisho’s throw went way past first. Two errors, two runners in scoring position, and after Manuel Gomez’ double, two runs. Who would be knocked out first?

Saito allowed another run in the third, helped by a balk with a runner on first base. Wedemeyer led off the bottom 3rd with a single. After O-Mo had whiffed, Strong doubled up the line into right, but came up lame at second base with pain in the knee. Newton replaced him. Two in scoring position, one out, Vinson flew into an out to Quintela and we only tied the game in the inning, 4-4.

In the bottom 4th, Brewer singled and Kinnear doubled. No outs, go-ahead runs in scoring position, Reece grounded out to short, scoring at least Brewer.

After a perfect fourth, Saito put two on in the fifth, but the Aces failed to score, and O-Mo made a great play to end the inning.

It turned out that Jou Hara was knocked out first, being pinch-hit for in the top 6th with Michael Sanders, who popped out, as Saito had another perfect inning. Saito would be knocked out in the top 7th, still in a 5-4 game, when Vargas hit a 1-out single. De La Rosa came in and the Aces immediately pulled back Carlos Quintela for left-handed batter Taisuke Mashiba, who worked a walk off Gabby. Zamora would ground out to O-Mo, and that brought up Andres Manuel, and the Aces did not hit for their right-handed catcher here. Gabby struck him out.

Bottom 7th. Miguel Quintero issued a leadoff walk to O-Mo, who then went to steal second. Manuel’s throw was into the outfield, and O-Mo went to third with no outs. Newton doubled him in, and we got runners onto the corners with one out, but Higgins and Brewer made outs. 6-4.

The Aces also put two on in the eighth against Otero, but didn’t score. The ninth, Ban came in. Vargas doubled, and he struck out Mashiba, but then issued a 4-pitch walk to Zamora. PH Edward Carter hit an RBI single and it was crumbling away. Ban went 0-2 on Li, before the Ace made contact and shot a high fly ball to deep center. Reece after it, that’s gonna be cloooose – GOT IT!!! The park burst into cheers!!

Robison Gutierrez, the weak-hitting shortstop was Tzu-jao Ban’s batter for the money. A strike, another one, pitch number three, swung on AND MISSED!!

Raccoons 6, Aces 5 (Raccoons lead 1-0) – Brewer 2-5, 2B; Wedemeyer 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; O’Morrissey 1-2, 2 BB; Strong 2-2, 2B; Newton 1-2, 2B, RBI;

That. Was a nailbiter. Whooo. This one could have gone wrong in so many places, and thankfully the Aces had thrown around their pinch-hitters early on and had none left when it mattered most. Whoah.

Scott Strong was diagnosed with knee tendinitis, which was not a good thing for us. He was DTD, but that was nothing that would get very much better very soon and he would be hampered for a week.

The Scorpions’ phenom Steve Rogers was blown up by the Rebels in game 1 of the FLCS for six runs in two innings, and the Rebels hung on to win 6-3.

Game 2 – Jason Turner (14-9, 3.11 ERA) vs. Rafael Espinoza (20-7, 3.07 ERA)

LVA: 2B M. Gomez – 3B Petipas – CF J. Vargas – RF Mashiba – LF Sanders – C Manuel – 1B A. Maldonado – SS R. Gutierrez – P Espinoza
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – C Vinson – SS Salazar – RF Newton – P Turner

Bad control cost Jason Turner early on. After Petipas hit a 1-out single in the first, Turner walked the next two, and the inning escalated from there. The Aces stomped him for three runs in the first, and that was not a great outlook against the winningest pitcher in the Continental League.

Yet, by the time Weeds’ at-bat in the bottom 1st was over, the Raccoons were in the lead. Brewer had doubled, Kinnear singled, Reece doubled, and Wedemeyer emptied the bags with a homer to right, about to the same spot as the day before.

It was not a series for starting pitchers so far. And Turner didn’t look like he would go very deep into this game. In the third, Vargas, Mashiba, and Sanders all hit HUGE fly balls to deep left. Kinnear sucked up all of them, but with a little wind that’s three runs. Salazar made another error in the fourth, and Turner gave up another hard, deep out, this time to Newton, and the Aces left two on once more. Our 4-3 lead held up.

But to Turner’s defense: he actually got better as the game went along. The fifth, sixth, and seventh innings? No Ace on base. Unfortunately, the Raccoons also didn’t up their lead. Ingall hit for Turner in the bottom 7th, drawing a walk with one out, and Brewer would add an infield single. A chance? Kinnear and Reece failed to get the ball out of the infield and we didn’t score. No score since the first.

De La Rosa collected the first two outs from Petipas and Vargas in the eighth, then left for Santana to face Mashiba, and the Japanese grounded out.

We finally got more than one hit in an inning in the bottom 8th. Wedemeyer led off with a single through Gomez’ legs and went to second when O-Mo grounded out to short on a hit-and-run. Vinson then singled to left and slow enough for Wedemeyer to score. Kondo hit for Santana and got Vinson forced at second, but then scored on a triple by Luke Newton. Ingall grounded out and that gave the ball and a 6-3 lead back to Ban.

Higgins at first and Kondo behind the dish were meant to improve the defense, but that didn’t help when Brewer bumbled Sanders’ grounder to start the inning. After Manuel struck out, Antenor Maldonado grounded to the right side. I’d like to think, Weeds wouldn’t have gotten that, but Higgins did, zipped to Ingall at second, and was back at first in time – double play.

Raccoons 6, Aces 3 (Raccoons lead 2-0) – Brewer 2-4, 2B; Wedemeyer 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Turner 7.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (1-0) and 1-2;

WEEEEEEDS!!!

The Scorpions’ Cory Maupin blew the save in game 2 of the FLCS and was raped with bats as the Rebels scored four in the ninth to win 6-5. They now lead the FLCS 2-0 and that surprises them as much as anybody.

[Westheim]

1996 CONTINENTAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Portland Raccoons (108-54) @ Las Vegas Aces (95-67)

Game 3 – Scott Wade (14-7, 3.88 ERA) vs. Carlos Guillén (14-7, 3.47 ERA)

POR: 2B Brewer – RF Newton – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – SS Ingall – C Vinson – LF Kinnear – P Wade
LVA: 2B M. Gomez – 3B Petipas – CF J. Vargas – RF Mashiba – LF Sanders – C Manuel – 1B A. Maldonado – SS R. Gutierrez – P Guillén

Both teams left a pair on base in the first inning, before Marvin Ingall’s leadoff jack in the top 2nd got something on the board.

In the top 3rd, the Raccoons again got going thanks to Manuel Gomez’ fielding (although he was not normally a bad fielder!). Brewer lined to second to start that inning, and Gomez jumped and caught it, then dropped it. After Newton was brushed on the arm by Guillén and Reece singled, we had the bags full with no outs, and we scored two on Wedemeyer’s groundout and a sac fly by O-Mo.

And the errors continued. Petipas reached on an error by Wedemeyer in the bottom 3rd, and Vargas went yard right after him, cutting a 3-0 lead to 3-2 for the Coons, and the Aces left the tying run on third base when Wade struck out Gomez to end the inning.

In a sloppy game, Guillén hit his second batter of the day, Reece, in the fifth. This mistake was also punished, as O-Mo homered with two out, extending the lead back to three runs.

Petipas reached with a leadoff single in the bottom 5th. Wade had a so-so start, with mostly soft contact, but a few got away from him, and those usually were hit hard. Against Vargas, with Petipas on first and no outs, he ran the count full, then spotted Vargas a strike on the corner as Petipas raced for second. Vinson was up like a shot and death-rayed Petipas out at second base. Mashiba grounded out and the Aces didn’t score in the inning.

We got another run in the sixth, 6-2, and Wade was not showing signs of getting into trouble again when he suddenly did find said trouble. Runner on first in the bottom 7th, one out, he ran into a Manuel Gomez triple, 6-3, and Petipas’ sac fly got the Aces back to within breathing range. Wade finished the inning, but that was it for him.

The Coons were struck out in order by Jose Sotelo in the top 8th, and Burnett pitched a perfect eighth, although Reece and Kinnear had to stretch a bit to make two of the plays. We didn’t score in the ninth, and the 6-4 lead was entrusted to Otero with Ban being a bit sore after tumultuous outings in the first two games of the series.

Otero faced Antenor Maldonado, Robinson Gutierrez, and the pitcher’s spot. Maldonado whiffed, Gutierrez hopped out to Ingall, and Edward Carter fouled out.

Raccoons 6, Aces 4 (Raccoons lead 3-0) – Reece 2-4, 2B; O’Morrissey 1-3, HR, 3 RBI; Ingall 3-4, 3B, RBI;

COONS!!

In Richmond, they played ten innings. In the bottom 10th, Cory Maupin, who had lost game 2, was pitching and gave up a leadoff double to Alejandro Olvera, before he got to two outs with Olvera then at third. That brought up Pedro Villa, who was 4-5 on the day. He wouldn’t? Would he? He did: his fifth hit on the day walked off the Rebels, 5-4, and they now lead the FLCS 3-0!

Game 4 – Jose Rivera (14-1, 2.35 ERA) vs. Rafael Barbosa (7-5, 4.52 ERA)

POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – RF Newton – C Vinson – SS Salazar – P J. Rivera
LVA: 2B M. Gomez – 3B Petipas – CF J. Vargas – RF Mashiba – LF Sanders – C Manuel – 1B A. Maldonado – SS R. Gutierrez – P Barbosa

We had never seen Barbosa before, a slim 25-year old right-hander from California with four pitches he was mixing with mixed success. He didn’t have much heat.

Rivera brought in the first run of the game, an RBI groundout in the top 2nd with the bags full. Unfortunately Brewer popped out and that was all we got. Rivera and Vinson got crossed up in the bottom 2nd then on a 2-2 pitch to Andres Manuel. Rivera threw it in the dirt, Manuel swung over it, but Vinson had given a different sign and could not catch the ball. It was a K, but an uncaught one and Manuel made it to first. Still, Rivera retired the next two and the Aces didn’t score.

Newton drove in a run in the third, but we left the bags full when Salazar grounded out, and the score remained at 2-0. In the fourth, with the bags empty, Kinnear was thrown out by Mashiba as he tried to stretch a 2-out double into a 2-out triple, but redeemed himself in the bottom half of the inning catching a nasty liner by Sanders for the final out, also with the bags empty.

Bottom 5th. Manuel singled, Maldonado was hit, and then Rivera walked Gutierrez. Nobody out. Barbosa was not hit for, but grounded to O-Mo, who first looked home, but Manuel had started early. O-Mo got the out at first instead. Gomez lobbed out to shallow left (Kinnear), and then Petipas went to deep center, where Reece caught it, and our lead survived, but was down to a run, 2-1.

The Coons got a big chance of their own in the top 6th. Vinson walked to start that inning, and Salazar rocketed a double into the corner in right. Both were in scoring position, but Rivera was batting. Nah, he was 2-hitting the Aces, he was not coming out.

One could not know it at this point, but this AB looked like it was the one where the Aces lost the series for good. At 2-2, Barbosa threw right down broadway and even RIVERA wouldn’t miss that one. He hurled a fly ball into deep left, where it eluded Sanders, and fell in for a 2-run double. Rivera would come in to score on Kinnear’s double play, and we were up 5-1, with 12 outs to collect.

Rivera harvested half of that, while expending one run in the bottom 6th, but Vinson put the run back on the board in the top 7th, 6-2. Rivera exited when he hit Vargas to start the bottom 8th. Santana came in to face the left-handers Mashiba and Sanders. He struck out Mashiba, but Sanders hit an RBI triple, his first hit in the series in 13 AB. De La Rosa came out, ended the inning, but conceded the run. Back to 6-4.

Vinson walked with two out in the ninth, and Salazar singled to right. Vinson went to third, and that got De La Rosa lifted for a pinch-hitter in Marvin Ingall, while the Aces brought ex-Coon Qi-zhen Geng, whose first duty in the series had him strike out Ingall and quell the threat.

Bottom 9th, Ban against Gutierrez, backup catcher Mario Guerrero, and Gomez. Gutierrez flew into the gap in left center, but Reece made the play. Guerrero struck out. Manuel Gomez for a ticket to the Big Stage, and lifted a 2-0 pitch to center, where Reece was very happy to receive it. Ballgame!!

Raccoons 6, Aces 4 (Raccoons win 4-0) – Kinnear 2-5, 2 2B; Wedemeyer 2-4, BB; Vinson 1-1, 3 BB, 2B, RBI; Salazar 2-3, 2 BB, 2B; Rivera 7.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (1-0) and 1-4, 2B, 3 RBI;

COOOOOOOOONS!!!!

In the Federal League, the Rebels again walked off in the 10th on a Javier Encarnación single off Jose Lopez, 3-2.

They swept the Scorpions!

---

The Raccoons played well, scoring six runs in every game (and exactly six runs in every game). The only regulars on our roster that did not hit .250 or better were Kinnear (.222) and O-Mo (.154). Weeds went .389 with 2 HR, and 6 RBI, and after the injury to Scott Strong, Luke Newton came out big to bat .308 with 4 RBI.

In contrast, the Aces had ONE player batting in excess of .250! Javier Vargas tore up everybody, hitting .400, but he was alone in the lineup. Mashiba, Maldonado, Gutierrez batted below .200, and Sanders went 1-13. Also, their catcher, Andres Manuel, while a decent batter, has a weak arm. After barely stealing with 60% success all season, we went 5/5 off him, and that contributed to a few runs.

So, yeah. I though we had an edge, but WOW! It is the first time we have swept any playoff series, and you could argue that at 24-16 total runs the Aces were much closer to us than a sweep looks like.

But the even bigger surprise (or shock) is that the Rebels swept the Scorpions, too! I did NOT see that coming. I thought the Scorpions were a lock to the World Series! Well, we will adjust to the Rebels, I hope.

See you in my personal suite for the first two games. Saito's gonna be pitching.

By the way, for Saito, the game 1 victory was his 10th playoff win in 21 starts against six losses and a 2.37 ERA. For completeness: Jason Turner is 6-3 with a 2.77 ERA in the playoffs, Wade 5-4 with a 3.93 ERA (he also has a save), and Rivera, well, 1-0 with a 3.86 ERA in his first start.

COOOOOOOOONS!!!

[Questdog]

Awesome! But I don't know if it is advisable to have Saito pitch the first two games.....

[Westheim]

Any great warrior can pitch shutouts on back-to-back days!

Well, Turner was lost in translation. (No, we have not talked contract yet)

[Westheim]

1996 WORLD SERIES
Portland Raccoons (108-54) vs. Richmond Rebels (96-66)

For the first time in ABL history, both League Championship Series ended in clean sweeps, as the Raccoons and Rebels brushed the Aces and Scorpions aside rather quickly. The Raccoons only out-scored the Aces by eight runs, but made that enough with gritty pitching in late innings, while the Rebels perhaps were even more impressive against the triple-digit-wins Scorpions, blowing up their starter in game 1 early, and then their closer in game 2, and winning the next two in 10th inning walkoffs. They could have lost four games to none just as well.

The Raccoons did not necessarily feast on their strong rotation in the CLCS, which gave up 12 runs (10 earned) of the 16 the team conceded, but rather rode an offense that kept hitting and homering for six runs in every one of the games. The Rebels will do well to be cautions around Liam Wedemeyer, who batted almost .400 and went deep twice against the Aces. The loss of outfielder Royce Green was well compensated by the rest of the lineup.

OF Scott Strong was also fighting a knee injury, but the Rebels also had significant injuries to 3B Antonio Gutierrez, SP Robert Vázquez, and LF/RF Jose Madrid, none of which would be available.

The player the Rebels would key on more than any other was LF/RF Raúl Vázquez, who hit 34 dingers this season to lead the majors (to Wedemeyer’s 33, which led the CL), and who had 255 career home runs and chasing after the all time record, and he also had batted .444 with one dinger in the FLCS. Fellow outfielder Javier Encarnacio and catcher Arturo “The Sheriff” Aguilar would also be very significant threats in the lineup for the Rebels. Aguilar was well known to the Raccoons, as he was part of the Capitals’ roster for the first two times of three consecutive that those two teams met in the World Series, 1991 and 1992. The rest of the Rebels’ lineup was a bit less dangerous. Infielder Pedro Villa, a much-celebrated infielder who had always bet on the wrong horse so far and had never appeared in the World Series before, had had a bad season and was still struggling.

And yet, offense was the better part of the Rebels’ team. Their rotation had somewhat struggled during the season, with only 15-14 Edgar Rey coming in with an ERA better than 3.98 (3.51). They had however a first class back end of the bullpen with Vicente Rubio, Hipolito Sendím, and closer Lawson Steward.

Steward was the Rebels’ Grant West: he had never played anywhere else and had been on the outside looking in for 12 years, saving 399 games along the way. This was the first chance he had ever gotten to put on a ring. And he had saved 44 (and won four) games this season with a 1.88 ERA.

The Raccoons would better not dare to trail after seven in this series…

---

While allowed to make roster changes, I didn’t make any. Scott Strong was still ailing some, but no other outfielder was eligible. Miguel Lopez was also not put on the roster. Sorry, Miguel. Maybe next year.

Pitching was particular for us here, since of our dozen pitchers, three(!) had not been used at all in the CLCS: Antonio Donis, Daniel Miller, and Juan Martinez hadn’t even as much as warmed up in any of the games. All the games had been tight, and I had gone to the “clutchier” relievers right away, and no starter had been blown up for Donis to pick up the pieces, either.

Odd note: the Rebels are the team the Raccoons are the all-time worst against, with a 7-14 record in seven interleague encounters. Well, chiefly to blame is the fact that it took us nine years to win any games against them …

Looking at the rosters, ours was better. Key was perhaps really to keep Vázquez silent, and go from there. It would be enough of a task for our right-handers especially. I could see Turner to struggle against him, before my very eyes.

Next the hospitality girls will serve you refreshments if you just look at them. Oh yeah, and the first pitch served by Kisho. (dramatic music) Dun-Dun-Duuuuuh.

[Westheim]

1996 WORLD SERIES
Portland Raccoons (108-54) vs. Richmond Rebels (96-66)

Game 1 – Kisho Saito (19-8, 3.59 ERA) vs. Edgar Rey (15-14, 3.51 ERA)

RIC: LF Encarnación – 2B Villa – RF R. Vázquez – 3B A. Diaz – CF Gorden – C Aguilar – 1B Rice – SS Duke – P Rey
POR: 2B Brewer – RF Newton – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – SS Ingall – C Vinson – LF Kinnear – P Saito

Encarnación hit an infield single to start the series, and Vázquez also singled against Saito, but he got through the first without damage. The Raccoons would also leave a pair on base in the bottom 2nd without scoring.

Signs that Saito would soon find trouble first occurred in the third. He hit Edgar Rey, the leadoff batter, in a 2-0 count. But the Rebels would not cash in on this chance, with Encarnación and Vázquez striking out, and Villa popped out.

Brewer was plunked with one out in the bottom 3rd, but was left on first base. Saito allowed a double to Antonio Diaz to lead off the top 4th, but the Rebels failed to move him along on the bases and we left Weeds on third base in the bottom 4th. Still scoreless.

Top 6th. Villa drew a walk from Saito to start the inning, and while the next two batters made outs, Rory Gorden hit a double over Kinnear. Villa held at third, and that brought up a particular situation with two in scoring position, two down, the righty Aguilar at the plate and the weaker left-hander Phil Rice behind him. Aguilar was put on, but by now Saito was messed up somehow, and walked not only Rice, but also Tommy Duke. 2-0 Rebels.

So far, the Raccoons had enjoyed all of three base runners against Rey. Newton made it four with a leadoff walk in the bottom 6th, but Wedemeyer grounded into a double play.

Santana came out for the seventh to face those left-handed beasts, but put both on, and Vázquez singled home Encarnación. Miller replaced him but failed to keep Vázquez on base, as the Rebels moved out to a 4-0 lead and had this game in the bag.

Rey put Ingall on in the bottom 7th. With two out, Higgins hit for Kinnear and hurled a double over Gorden in centerfield, scoring Ingall from first. Strong, hitting for Miller, singled Higgins home, but Brewer grounded out before we could get the tying run (him) on base. That De La Rosa allowed a home run to Phil Rice in the eighth only deepened the hole.

Bottom 9th, Steward came in. Ingall led off with a double into the gap in right center, yet Vinson and Salazar both grounded out. While that scored Ingall, it also killed any potential rally, and Steward struck out Strong to put this one away.

Rebels 5, Raccoons 3 (Rebels lead 1-0) – Ingall 3-4, 2B; Higgins (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Strong (PH) 1-2, RBI;

Well, this one got away for a multitude of reasons, the primary two of which were the starting pitchers. Saito melted down in the sixth (after plunking Rey in the third, but not walking anybody until “The Sheriff” got the finger to first), and the Rebels’ starter Edgar Rey, who shut down the Raccoons through six before crumbling a little bit. The Rebels mixed and matched in the eighth, and Steward put it away.

Gotta hurt their starters, boys!

Game 2 – Jason Turner (14-9, 3.11 ERA) vs. Chris O’Keefe (11-12, 4.37 ERA)

RIC: CF Olvera – 2B Villa – RF R. Vázquez – LF Encarnación – 1B A. Diaz – C Aguilar – SS Gorden – 3B Duke – P O’Keefe
POR: 2B Brewer – SS Salazar – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – LF Kinnear – C Vinson – RF Lacombe – P Turner

Turner struggled with control from the start, walking Vázquez in the first, and then Aguilar in the second. Rory Gorden swung at 3-0 and grounded into an inning-ending double play to Salazar. A Kinnear double in the bottom 2nd led to nothing.

And then Turner issued a leadoff walk to Tommy Duke in the third. After O’Keefe bunted him to second, Alejandro Olvera doubled him in. Villa walked. Vázquez was eager to make it 4-0 and whiffed, and Encarnación lifted to Kinnear for – not the final out, since Kinnear dropped it, and that got the Rebels an extra run, 2-0.

Then Turner led off the bottom 3rd with a triple which Olvera did not look good on. Brewer grounded out, but scored Turner. With two out, Reece singled to left, Weeds singled to right, and Reece went aggressively to third and was safe. That brought up O-Mo, who was batting a fear-striking 2-18 in the playoffs, but that included a home run. He flew out to Vázquez.

And Turner issued another leadoff walk in the fourth, Brewer made an error on Gorden’s grounder, and the ship was sinking. Duke singled, and Turner walked O’Keefe, 3-1, and still nobody out.

For Turner, that was it, and a wild Antonio Donis appeared, walking in another run before he got out of the inning. Down 4-1, and not hitting in the clutch, the Raccoons were in trouble.

In the bottom 4th, they left Kinnear on second after his second double of the day. In the bottom 5th, Reece and Weeds were on the corners again with two down, and O-Mo again flew out, this time to Olvera in center.

Donis was broken up for good in the sixth. He collected only seven outs, but walked five, including forcing in one of Turner’s runs, and was himself charged with three as De La Rosa failed to clean up, and Lacombe made an error in right. Down 7-1.

We left on a pair in the seventh, and one runner in the eighth, while Martinez was put in to soak up the innings. There was no way we would come back from this. We had two on with one out in the bottom 9th against Norio Hayashi. Reece grounded out. Wedemeyer flew out to center.

Rebels 7, Raccoons 1 (Rebels lead 2-0) – Salazar 2-5; Reece 3-5, 3B; Kinnear 3-4, 2 2B; Martinez 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

Well, this is going horribly wrong. We out-hit the Rebels 10-6, but issued THIRTEEN walks in this game, and also made three errors.

Unless I can beat sense into this lot during the off day, the Rebels have another sweep on their plate.

[Westheim]

1996 WORLD SERIES
Portland Raccoons (108-54) @ Richmond Rebels (96-66)

Game 3 – Scott Wade (14-7, 3.88 ERA) vs. Henry Selph (18-8, 4.06 ERA)

We gotta win this one, Scotty. You know that. Right. Yes. No more fudging. Go out and kill them.

POR: 2B Brewer – SS Salazar – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – LF Kinnear – RF Strong – 3B O’Morrissey – C Vinson – P Wade
RIC: CF Olvera – 2B Villa – RF R. Vázquez – LF Encarnación – 1B A. Diaz – C Aguilar – SS Gorden – 3B Duke – P Selph

Wade walked Olvera to start the bottom 1st, but the speedy centerfielder was left on second base and the game remained scoreless after one inning.

As we got more desperate, this translated to the base paths. Wedemeyer hit a leadoff single in the second, then was sent to steal second base, and was gunned down by Aguilar. For the Raccoons, all the little things were going just WRONG in this series, as best illustrated in the bottom 3rd:

Wade was not hit safely against in the bottom 3rd when he pitched to Selph, who swung through the first pitch, then was awarded first – Vinson had touched the bat during the swing. Olvera and Villa came up with singles and Selph scored the first run of the game. Behind again. The Raccoons had yet to lead any game in this series.

Salazar got on with a single in the fourth. Reece fouled out on a 3-0 pitch, and we didn’t score once Wedemeyer and Kinnear struck out.

Well, one little thing went the Coons’ way in the bottom 5th, when Olvera hit a 1-out double that he tried to stretch and Kinnear erased him at third base. That cost the Rebels a run when Villa singled to right and there was nobody left on to drive home. Still 1-0 Enemies.

Top 6th. Wade got four junk pitches from Selph, didn’t swing at any of them, and walked. Brewer grounded out, but Salazar singled and we had runners on the corners with one out. Come on, Neil! Get somebody in! He grounded into a force at second, and Wade was initially looked back by Tommy Duke. While that cost the Rebels the double play, the Coons were still not on the board, but Weeds came up. Oh, he grounded out. Oh well.

Kinnear got on to lead off the seventh, and Strong found a way to hit into a double play. O-Mo struck out.

Wade was removed in the seventh. He got two out, before Olvera hit an infield single to third. Villa singled to left, and that brought up the left-handed artillery. Having as much trouble to score one run as we had, you could not get into a situation where you had to score four. So Burnett came in to face Raúl Vázquez. For us, this was the whole series, right in this one at-bat. Vázquez singled up the middle, but Encarnación grounded out with the bases loaded. Still 1-0 after seven.

Vinson and PH Newton made quick outs in the eighth, before Brewer, by now batting .179 in the playoffs, singled to center. Salazar did the same. Reece came up, runners on the corners, two outs, 1-0 behind in game 3 of the World Series, and his team winless. NEEEEIIIILL!!! He grounded out to Duke.

Top 9th. Lawson Steward to face Weeds, Kinnear, and the pitcher’s spot, for which Higgins was grabbing a nice bat. We gotta turn this around!

Steward K’ed Weeds, Steward K’ed Kinnear, and Higgins rolled out to Gorden.

Rebels 1, Raccoons 0 (Rebels lead 3-0) – Salazar 3-4; Wade 6.2 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, L (0-1);

“Whatever works” they say. But what do you do when nothing works at all? Defeated by a runner reaching on catcher’s interference. The Rebels were cooling the champagne for tomorrow and in a phone call with a friend in Portland that night I learned that the Agitator was running rampant over there. Three time zones away, and without any friends, and without any clutch hits, and without any help from the defense, I was very lonely.

Game 4 – Jose Rivera (14-1, 2.35 ERA) vs. Jorge Reyes (4-4, 3.98 ERA)

Two call-ups started the game that could well decide the series for good. Notice the desperation expressed in our lineup.

POR: SS Salazar – 2B Brewer – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Newton – 3B Ingall – LF Kinnear – C Kondo – P J. Rivera
RIC: CF Olvera – 2B Villa – RF R. Vázquez – LF Encarnación – 1B A. Diaz – C Aguilar – SS Gorden – 3B Duke – P J. Reyes

A hard ruling in the bottom 1st charged Salazar with an error on a ball he had to jump to even touch, but couldn’t hold onto. That put runners on the corners with two outs, but Diaz grounded out and the game was scoreless through one inning.

Ingall’s error allowed leadoff man Aguilar to reach in the bottom 2nd. Singles by Gorden and Duke loaded the bags with no outs, but Reyes popped out to short. Olvera put the 1-1 pitch into play, a zipper up the middle. Brewer got it, to Salazar, to Weeds, DOUBLE PLAY!!

The Coons threatened for the first time in the third inning. Salazar and Brewer reached with two out already, and that got Reece another - … groundout to third. The game remained scoreless even when the Rebels loaded the bases in the bottom 4th with two outs. Villa grounded back to Rivera, who got the out at first.

Kondo got himself thrown out at second after a bloop single Olvera got to way quicker than a) Kondo thought, and b) Kondo could run, in the fifth inning. Again no score for Coon City. Bottom 5th, Vázquez led off with a double, and stole third after Encarnación went down. Rivera struck out Diaz, and Aguilar popped out to Weeds. Still no score.

Top 6th. Salazar led off with a double of his own, and moved to third when Brewer flew out to right. Reece was not pitched to, as the Rebels preferred the southpaw Jorge Reyes to pitch to Wedemeyer. Weeds looked at a low 1-2 – and was fisted down by the umpire. I couldn’t believe it and yelled obscenities, and neither could Weeds, and yelled along – and that got him tossed. It took a few minutes to calm down everybody, and O-Mo replaced him, playing third, as Ingall shifted to first.

But wait, we’re still batting! Newton was up with two out and runners on the corners. He grounded out.

(slams head against the wall repeatedly)

Kondo drew a 2-out walk from Reyes in the top 7th. In the scoreless game, this got both pitchers removed. Mark Jones replaced Reyes, and Rivera was hit for by Scott Strong. Jones walked him, and Salazar also walked.

Bases loaded, two outs, top 7th, Brewer up. DO SOMETHING FOR YOUR FUDGING MILLIONS, BREWER!! The count ran full on him, and he finally put a pitch into play, a grounder that Pedro Villa just barely missed. Kondo scored! Strong scored!

Reece struck out, but we were now up 2-0. Burnett came in to face the three left-handers among the first four in the Rebels lineup. With mixed success. Olvera singled, but was forced at second when Villa grounded to O-Mo. Villa however scored when Vázquez hit a double, and Kinnear made a bear play on Encarnación’s liner to keep the lead in place. But Vázquez was at third, and Burnett no longer welcome on the mound. Otero came in to face Diaz, and also surrendered a hard shot to deep left. Kinnear after it – MAKES THE PLAY!!

Still up 2-1. O-Mo reached on an error (which was what it took for him to get on, batting a strong .080), and then Newton stunned the Rebels with a 2-run homer to left. GO COONS!! GO COONS; GODDAMNIT!!!

Miller and Ban were lined up to get the 4-1 lead over to game 5. But Miller put Duke on with a 2-out single, and then Rice hit for the pitcher Norio Hayashi and walked. That changed the plan, as Santana came in to face Olvera. Or should Ban? No, we would match, and Santana matched Olvera. Olvera lifted an 0-1 pitch to left, where Kinnear snagged it. Three outs to go.

Ban faced Villa to start the bottom 9th, and walked him. Vázquez grounded out, moving Villa to second. Then Ban walked Encarnación. Oh come on. Diaz grounded out, moving up the runners. Aguilar walked. That was three. That was enough.

De La Rosa came in to face Rory Gorden. He threw only one pitch, which Gorden grounded to O-Mo, who zinged it to first in time.

Raccoons 4, Rebels 1 (Rebels lead 3-1) – Brewer 3-5, 2 RBI; Newton 1-4, HR, 2 RBI; Rivera 6.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K, W (1-0); De La Rosa 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, 3-0 IR/S;

That spoiled the party for once, now we need Kisho to spoil it twice.

Game 5 – Kisho Saito vs. Edgar Rey

For whatever reason, I put O-Mo and Vinson back into the lineup and Brewer back to the leadoff spot. Somehow I was under the impression they would click now, although nothing had happened in game 4 to inspire such an illusion. Also note that this is the second consecutive game against a southpaw that two left-handed batters will lead off for the Coons, something I usually never do.

POR: 2B Brewer – SS Salazar – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Newton – 3B O’Morrissey – LF Kinnear – C Vinson – P Saito
RIC: LF Encarnación – 2B Villa – RF R. Vázquez – 3B A. Diaz – CF Gorden – C Aguilar – 1B Rice – SS Duke – P Rey

Rey walked a pair in the top 1st and Luke Newton, who was suddenly glazing hot, made him pay with a 2-out, 2-run triple that got the Coons ahead. We had a pair on with two out again in the third for Newton, but this time he popped out.

Saito struggled with control early on, ending up in a couple of 3-ball counts, but he didn’t issue a walk until with two out in the third, to Encarnación, and nothing came of that.

O-Mo had his first hit in ages in the top 4th, a leadoff single, and Kinnear also got on. Two on, no outs, Vinson grounded into a double play. Saito fell 1-2 behind Rey, before knocking the next pitch into play, a hopper to the right side – and it got through! O-Mo hustled home on a 2-out RBI single by Saito! 3-0 Coons!

Rey was adrift now. The first two Coons got on again in the fifth. Wedemeyer grounded into a force on Reece at second base, and Newton also grounded out, but scored Salazar. O-Mo blooped a single into right, on which Newton went to third and drew the throw from Vázquez, was safe, and O-Mo moved to second. Kinnear had a prime chance to break this game open. He grounded a 2-0 pitch up the middle, it eluded the middle infielders, and Newton scored easily. O-Mo was waved around third, but was nailed down by Gorden’s throw. Still, 5-0 Coons. Should be runs aplenty for Saito, right?

Well. His pitch count was already far advanced due to some wildness (although he walked only one through six innings in the game), but in the sixth, Antonio Diaz hurt him with a 2-out, 2-run homer, cutting our advantage back to 5-2. Saito got Aguilar out in the seventh, but then walked Rice, and that got him out. Martinez retired Duke and PH Olvera to get us within six outs of returning to Portland with a chance (we would return anyway at some point…).

In the top 8th, O-Mo and Kinnear reached with singles. No outs, Vinson grounded to first, but Rice botched the pickup and O-Mo scored on the error. We blew the game open in the inning then. Ingall hit for Martinez but was put on intentionally. Brewer hit an RBI single, Salazar hit a sac fly, and Newton would drive in a pair with two out. Santana and Miller finished out the game on the mound.

Raccoons 10, Rebels 2 (Rebels lead 3-2) – Brewer 2-5, RBI; Reece 2-3, 2 BB; Newton 2-5, 3B, 5 RBI; O’Morrissey 3-5; Kinnear 3-4, BB, RBI; Saito 6.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (1-1) and 1-2, RBI; Miller 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

BACK TO PORTLAND!!