[Westheim]

1983 WORLD SERIES
Portland Raccoons (95-67) vs. Dallas Stars (96-66)

Game 3 – Logan Evans (18-5, 2.92 ERA) vs. Jake Wallace (12-15, 3.29 ERA)

Wallace was a 23-yr old youngster, who was similar to Chris Powell in many ways. He had good control (but not as great as Powell had) and had low BB and K numbers. He was also prone to the long ball.

Matt Workman drove in two in the bottom 1st, with Daniel Hall arriving a hair earlier at the plate than Angel Potter’s tag on him.

Logan Evans was too wild for his own good again. The Stars’ Nick MacCrimmon tripled in the top 4th with one down. While Evans removed the next batter, he then threw a wild pitch past Enrique Sanchez and MacCrimmon scored.

Neither team threatened a lot until the bottom 6th. Daniel Hall walked against Wallace with one out. Dawson grounded out, but the Stars removed Hall at second only. Dawson was safe. Matt Workman got the Big Bertha from the bat rack and belted a ball into Wyoming to make it 4-1 Raccoons.

Evans was removed in the seventh, having worked himself up with 3-ball counts. Jason White ended the inning with two runners on base. Danger in the eighth: Wally Gaston put runners on the corners with two out – THEN walked the bags full. He faced Angel Potter, and he was gonna stay in there – he struck out Potter on a full count. The Stars catcher was not getting it done.

Neither was Wally. With a 3-run lead I tried to save Grant West for another day – but Wally walked two in the top 9th and suddenly the grass was burning. West still had to come out and get those last two outs.

Which he did. 4-1 Raccoons, and a 2-1 lead in the series!! Matt Workman provided half the hits today with a 2-3, HR, 4 RBI day.

Game 4 – Charles Young (7-5, 2.64 ERA) vs. Sergio Esparraguera (13-8, 4.33 ERA)

That guy needs a nickname. Anyway, Esparraguera was a mixed bag. He had only made one start the whole season without giving up a run (and the team had lost that, to Salem), but he often managed to somehow limit the damage fairly well. Still, his WHIP was 1.64 and he was by far the weakest of the bunch the Stars had to put up here.

Dicks caught Young again, but that didn’t help against Gabriel Cruz, who belted a 2-piece in the first inning. Dawson drove in a run in the bottom 1st to make it 2-1 Stars.

The Raccoons threatened in the second, but Bowling grounded into a double play and the chance was wasted. Instead Felix Montalvo upped to 3-1 with a solo jack off Young in the fourth, and later Young gave up another home run to Sean Barringer that made it 4-1.

The Raccoons meanwhile had their runners, but didn’t drive them in.

Jason White was taken deep in relief, when Cruz belted his second homer of the day in the eighth. It put the game away for good. The Raccoons never found out how to hit Esparraguera, and lost 5-1. The series was tied.

Game 5 – Kinji Kan vs. Kiyohira Sasaki

But they seemingly had found out how to hit Sasaki, who walked two in the bottom 1st and timely hits by Hall and Workman brought the runners in. 2-0 Raccoons. This was an important game, already much of a game 7. I would hate to go to Dallas trailing.

Kan and Sasaki engaged in a pitchers’ fuel for the next few innings. The Stars squeezed in a run after a leadoff double by Pancho Pacheco in the fifth. Smith also doubled to lead off the bottom 5th, but they didn’t get him in. The tying run then scored on an error by Steve Walker, who could have ended the top 6th with a really ordinary play – but went bust.

That seemed to be the point where it all went downhill. The Raccoons dropped another chance to score after that, and Kan left after a 1-out walk to Andres Gutierrez in the eighth. Burton Walker came in to face the lefties, but the Stars sent out Alberto Soto to pinch hit. The righty blasted one to the right field stands, 4-2 Stars.

Soto was the batter that had only made the roster because of the injury to Ramsay…

Bottom 8th. Matt Workman had a leadoff double and was driven in by Bowling with two out. Cam Green came out to pinch hit and FINALLY was productive with a long double to left that scored Bowling and tied the game up again 4-4.

Wally Gaston held the Stars at bay in the ninth, and the 3-4-5 punch came to bat for the Raccoons in the bottom 9th. The Stars broke out their closer, Juan Miranda. He retired our 3-4-5 punch, 1-2-3.

Gaston walked the first two batters in the 10th and the Stars scored one of them, 5-4. The Raccoons had nothing going against Miranda and lost, and now have to win games 6 and 7 in Texas for a happy end.