[Westheim]

2026 CONTINENTAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Portland Raccoons (94-68) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (93-69)

The playoffs! We are there! For the first time since 2019, with four losing seasons in between and one where we gave the ball to a total scum in a second tie-breaker game that led to the Loggers standing triumphant.

But before the Game 1 fun could even begin, the baseball gods demanded that a playoff roster be constructed, and the Raccoons could select from more than just 25 players for this purpose. The Coons would have had 28 players to pick from, their 25-man on August 31 plus the players on the DL or in rehab then (Ramos, Surginer, Gomez), but injuries to Abel Mora and Steve Costilow in between had scrubbed that number down to 26 again; the 26th man was always going to be Jake Burrows.

So the Raccoons had the following personnel going heading into the series; nominal starters were Rico Gutierrez, Mark Roberts, Dan Delgadillo, Rin Nomura, Kyle Anderson, and Alvin Smith, but the latter two would be placed in the bullpen. The relievers were Jonathan Snyder, Ricky Ohl, and Kevin Surginer from the right side; as well as Billy Brotman, Jeff Kearney, and Josh Boles from the left side.

We had Brett O'Dell and Elias Tovias behind the plate. The starting infield was well marked out with Kevin Harenberg, Jarod Spencer, Alberto Ramos, and Matt Nunley around the horn, and with Tim Stalker and Daniel Bullock as reserves. In the outfield, Matt Jamieson, Rafael Gomez, Terry Kopp, Cookie Carmona, and Justin Gerace vied for attention. (Note that Omar Alfaro is not eligible for the playoff roster since he was only a September 1 recall)

How are we stacking up against the Thunder, the most productive lineup in the CL (745 runs scored)? Well, you had to outscore them by hitting their very average pitching. Their rotation had been seventh in ERA, their pen fifth. Their run differential was +92 (Coons: +127). Notably, both teams were likely to cart up three left-handed starting pitcher to keep the opposition out of their comfort zone. Nominally, that would have favored the Thunder because for some time the Coons had always had lineups leaning to the left-handed side, but then the Mora injury gave Rafael Gomez and Matt Jamieson enough room to both play in the outfield. We'd start with a cold Terry Kopp in right, but he had not a lot of breathing room before we'd roll the dice on Gerace and/or Cookie.

With O'Dell and Spencer added in, that gave us four right-handed bats. I struggled to see how we could conventionally fit Tim Stalker into the mix. Of course, Jarod Spencer had played A LOT of leftfield in recent years, so there was another option to tilt the lineup to the right side. But Matt Nunley had been hot down the stretch and was not going to sit right now…

For whatever it mattered, the Thunder would get started with their lone suspected right-handed offering, Andy Palomares, who had gone 14-12 with a team-leading 3.33 ERA. Yup, there was a lot of *good* pitching on that team, but no *great* pitching could easily be found…

The Coons would place Rico Gutierrez in Game 1. This was no punishment for Mark Roberts; but he was even more likely than Rico to be taken deep and the Thunder's den played even more for power than the Coons' arena. By putting Roberts second, he would get both of his starts in Raccoons Ballpark rather in that launchpad in Oklahoma.

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It has always been this way, but because we haven't been to the playoffs in a while and new fans are always born, a word of advice that the actual game posts will appear in a 2-3-1-1 format as is necessary to not spoil the length of a Game 6 post with the scroll bar on the right. All in the name of customer service!