[Westheim]

1992 CONTINENTAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Portland Raccoons (99-63) @ San Francisco Bayhawks (98-64)

Game 3 – Robert Vázquez (15-8, 3.51 ERA) vs. Ricardo Sanchez (19-5, 3.23 ERA)

Sanchez was among the very top of the crop of hot young pitchers in the ABL. At 22, he had already put up a 19-win season. What more do you want? He had allowed six home runs all season. That was a tough guy to chew through.

The first three innings were quite the snoozer. Vázquez faced the minimum, Sanchez one more than that. No hard outs, no athletic plays, just poor contact, and lots of *that*.

Then came the fourth. Higgins grounded out, and Sanchez then followed that with a K to O’Morrissey. Then he looked into the dugout, shaking his head. The trainer and manager hustled out and as it became clear that Sanchez was hurting and couldn’t go no more, silence paralyzed the park.

Unfortunately for Portland, the Bayhawks instantly rallied around their fallen comrade. Vázquez was blitzed quicker for five hits and three runs in the bottom 4th than we could get anybody up in the pen.

No such rally was forthcoming from the Raccoons. They kept being 1-hit through six, before a 2-out triple by Bobby Quinn in the seventh at least opened a chance to take away from the 3-0 deficit. Tetsu Osanai flew out to Burton in left center to throw that chance away.

Carrillo then threw the game away for good in the bottom 7th. He walked the leadoff batter, Jorge Gonzalez, then hit Padilla, then threw a wild one. One run scored when Burton grounded out against Carrillo, and Lagarde was unjustly victimized by a freak one-in-a-hundredthousand bloop single into shallow center and let the other run score as well.

The Raccoons scored after a leadoff triple by Vinson in the eighth, and Vinson plated Kinnear after the Australian’s leadoff double in the ninth, but that remained their sole output on the day. Morales whiffed for the final out against Henderson, representing the tying run in the ninth.

Bayhawks 5, Raccoons 2 (Bayhawks lead 2-1) – Vinson 2-3, BB, 3B, RBI; Johnston 3-4, RBI;

Joshua Bernard is eaten up by the Capitals in the ninth in Salem, blowing a 6-5 lead for the Wolves. Domingo Rivera then holds on to the Capitals’ 7-6 lead in the bottom of the inning, and the Capitals extend their lead to 3-0 in the series.

Game 4 – Scott Wade (11-5, 2.76 ERA) vs. Wilson Moreno (17-12, 3.98 ERA)

Wade didn’t get any run support all year. That’s not a good sign. We revamped the lineup. Quinn was out, and Martin played center with Johnston in right. Johnston was bumped up to fifth in the lineup, followed by Vinson, Osanai, and Martin. Screw left-handed bats next to each other. O’Morrissey was the last right-hander remaining in the lineup.

Higgins was thrown out stealing in the first inning, a sign of bad things to come. He had gone 24/29 in the regular season. In contrast to that, Dave Burton stole second base in the bottom 1st, ruining Vinson’s perfect 2/2 score in the playoffs. Nothing came of that, either, and the next two innings were uneventful except for a beautiful line drive catch by Matt Higgins.

With no outs and two on, Kinnear struck out in the top 4th, which was the key AB here for Moreno, who then surrendered Johnston and Vinson in turn, and nobody scored. In the bottom of the inning, a Jeff Martin pickup error almost led to a run for SanFran, eventually putting a runner on third with two down. Powys was retired on a great play by Kinnear to end the inning.

While Scott Wade was not exactly dominating and was helped a bit by double plays turned around him in both the fifth and the sixth, he held the Bayhawks at bay. Bad pun. That was nothing compared to Moreno’s effort, who 1-hit the Raccoons through six.

The second hit Moreno surrendered was a 1-out single to Vinson in the top 7th. Kinnear had walked before and went first-to-third. Osanai was up, batting 1-12 in the series. Nope. Not gonna happen. I called on Matt Duncan. That’s right, a replacement player batting for a millionaire in the CLCS, in a tied game.

3-1 count, resulting in a double play. I probably deserved that.

Two out in the bottom 7th, the Bayhawks loaded the bases against Wade, who had walked Mauro Granados, then punched out two, then surrendered two singles. Roberto Rodriguez was up, a right-hander. The manager went out there, but left the ball to Wade.

This AB could be the whole series. If Wade crumbled here, we were doomed. Rodriguez lifted the ball to shallow left center, Kinnear came on, and caught it. The game remained tied.

After a leadoff double by Martin (and with four left-handers due up next), Wade was pinch hit for with Matt Brown, who struck out. With two down, Martin and Higgins were on the corners. O’Morrissey had to come through here. He had come through in game 2. And he came through here!! He grounded over third base into left and the ball rolled all the way to the fence, not only scoring Martin, but also Higgins!! 2-0 Raccoons!!

Burnett pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, leaving it to Grant West to deal with Granados, Powys, and Antonio Gonzalez in the ninth. Granados got on with a single. West struck out Powys, and Gonzalez grounded out, bringing up Bourges. He shot a liner into deep right, but Johnston was man enough to hurl himself at it. Unlike the 1989 World Series, where Johnston played right and committed an error that plated the eventual winning run for the Wolves, he held on to the hissing shot this time – the series was tied again! (And this despite the Coons behind held to *four* hits)

Raccoons 2, Bayhawks 0 (series tied) – O’Morrissey 1-3, 2B, 2 RBI; Wade 7.0 IP, 8 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W (1-0); Burnett 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K; West 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (1);

Salem’s Terry Murphy gets only two runs of support as well in a shutout bid against the Capitals. He runs out of steam in the ninth, but Bernard this time is there to end the game, and the Wolves win 2-0 behind Murphy’s gutsy 8.2 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 4 K, W performance. The Wolves will have to win three more.

Game 5 – Kisho Saito vs. Chris O’Keefe

We needed a gutsy outing here from Master Kisho. Plus, we needed O’Keefe to be properly shredded this time around. Boys, I want to see his intestines smeared all over the mound. And their clubhouse.

After a peaceful first inning, David Vinson drew a leadoff walk in the second. To much astonishment, Osanai and Martin, the two guys from the to-be-shot pile at the bottom of the order, followed that up with RBI hits, Osanai even with a triple(!!) for a quick 2-0 lead.

A bit of insurance would be nice while we watched Saito puzzling the Bayhawks in the early game. He looked much better than in his last few starts for sure and held the Bayhawks to one hit through four innings.

The top 5th had Salazar reach with two outs. Higgins grounded to second, but Roberto Rodriguez misfielded the ball and everybody was safe. O’Morrissey came up and hit a giggling flare over the infielders on the left side that fell into shallow left. Salazar dashed through third base and scored. O’Keefe then plunked Kinnear (Vern’s second HBP in the Bay Area games), loading them up. Johnston could put the game away, and when he eventually settled for a full count walk, that at least pushed another run in. Vinson then grounded out, 4-0.

The Bayhawks would take a run off that lead with a solo home run by Powys in the bottom 5th, though, to make it 4-1.

Higgins was thrown out stealing again in the seventh, and it may have cost a run there, with a 2-out double by Kinnear then going to waste. Then the bottom 7th, where the Bayhawks started to get those lucky base hits again. They loaded the bases with one out against Saito, with Jorge Gonzalez up, who had homered already in the series. But I was confident that Saito had enough to escape here. Plus, they had O’Keefe up next and probably wouldn’t let him bat anyway, so better take on Gonzalez and then react with the proper reliever (Burnett or Martinez) to the pinch-hitter.

Gonzalez flew deep to center, but Martin caught that one (he had missed the leadoff base hit by Pedro Perez), and held Gonzalez to a sac fly. Now the Bayhawks came up with Mauro Granados, a left-hander against Saito. They were clearly teasing me into letting Kisho in the game. He was at 99 pitches, far from done, but had struck out only one all day. Go to Burnett? Or let Kisho do it like ACES do it?

Go ACE.

The ACE fell behind 3-1 on Granados before the Costa Rican thought he would get one to dish deep. He did get one to make contact to, but it was high, messing up Granados as he jabbed at it, and he ended up with a very high, but rather short fly out to Martin in shallow center. PHEW!!!

Saito was pinch-hit for with Duncan in the eighth (to no effect) and got his cuddles from everybody in the dugout. Now, turn it to the pen. Burnett got the first out (Burton), then was replaced with Lagarde for Antonio Gonzalez and Roberto Rodriguez. He got both of them out.

A string of 2-out base hits plated two insurance runs for the Raccoons in the top ninth, so that they led 6-2. Lagarde had been pinch-hit for, but there were left-handers (Perez…) up to start the bottom 9th. This was not the time to either go to Nelson or fool around. Bring on the Demon!

Sat down Perez, sat down Espinosa, sat down Powys.

Raccoons 6, Bayhawks 2 (Raccoons lead 3-2) – Higgins 3-5; Kinnear 2-3, 2B, RBI; Osanai 2-4, 3B, 2B, RBI; Martin 2-4, RBI; Saito 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, W (1-1);

The Wolves stay alive end send the FLCS back to the Potomac with a 10-0 blowout against the Capitals.