[Westheim]

2010 CONTINENTAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Portland Raccoons (96-66) @ Oklahoma City Thunder (95-67)

Game 3 – Javier Cruz (15-10, 3.38 ERA) vs. Antonio Donis (21-6, 2.38 ERA)

Javier Cruz had a pathetic postseason track record, pitching with four Blue Sox teams while he was employed in Nashville. He started 11 games, appeared in one more, and went 4-5 with a 5.11 ERA, getting particularly romped in 2000, where he lost both his starts and was hung a 10.38 ERA.

Angel Casas still looked pale to me.

POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Canning – RF Alston – CF Ayers – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – P Cruz
OCT: LF Britton – 1B T. Cardenas – C Ledesma – RF Tom Reese – 2B M. Garza – CF Covington – 3B Arreola – SS Vieitas – P Donis

The first three Coons hit the ball hard three times, resulting in a flyout to Reese, a Canning single, and a double play. While the Thunder stranded a pair in the bottom 1st, the top 2nd followed the same pattern with Ayers making a deep out with Britton, Pruitt reaching on a single, and the Bowen hit one hard to short, except that it went past Vieitas. While Yoshi made an out, Howell blooped a ball up the rightfield line, unreachable for Reese, and the first run was in as Pruitt scored. Cruz batted and chunked a ball into the ground just a bit away from home plate, but Donis fell away from the ball and Ledesma wasn’t exactly fleet on the feet, Nomura dashing down the line, Cruz up the line, Ledesma – no play! RBI single, 2-0 Coons!

In a perfect world Quebell’s following drive to center would have gone 15 feet further for a 3-shot, but Covington ended the inning with a jumping grab, then got plunked by Cruz as the bottom of the inning started, but didn’t make it past second base.

Ayers and Pruitt hit the ball hard to the deep outfield and had nothing to show for it in the third inning. But the Thunder got their two leadoff batters on with a Britton single and a Cardenas walk, then got back-to-back doubled from Garza and Covington to plate three runs and take the lead.

Top 4th, Donis put Bowen, Nomura, and Howell on base. No outs and a shoddy pitcher on the mound, do you make the switch? No. Because we still have to pitch six innings, and have only one competent left-handed pitcher. And the long man, McDonald, is a right-hander as well. There was that tiny hope that Javier Cruz would at least not turn 3 on, 0 out into a 1-2-3 double play. Nope, much the opposite, he had a productive at-bat, flew out to center, and Bowen tagged and scored to tie the contest. Quebell grounded out to lower his batting average to .091, but Walt Canning hit a liner to right that fell in and scored both Raccoons on the base and Tom Reese didn’t get anything on the throw home where he hoped to nip Howell. No, he even hurt himself and had to leave the game, replaced by Eddie Fernandez.

But Cruz’ days were numbered here. The bottom 4th started with Vieitas, who singled, and Britton then hit an RBI triple. After a walk to Cardenas, SOME move was necessary. Beltran was asked to somehow get out of the inning without falling behind, struck out Ledesma and got a pop from Fernandez to end the inning with still a 5-4 lead to cling on. Takizawa had also hit for Donis, so both starters were out of the game.

And for the moment, Beltran was retiring batters, so when Howell singled with one out in the sixth and his turn came up, we used him to bunt and hope that Quebell could do something against righty Shaun Yoder, but he popped out. Neither team did anything against the other’s reliever. Canning hit a leadoff double in the seventh and was stranded after some outrageous failing by all three outfielder in succession.

Bottom 7th, Ray Kelley struck out the side (and Ledesma in the ribs, somewhere in between), the score remaining 5-4. Yoder made it through four innings without a problem, also holding the Coons to squid in the eighth, and when we moved to Thrasher for the bottom of the inning, he was completely junk and walked Covington and Arreola on eight pitches total. Some frantic relieving was necessary… from Rockburn. And he had nothing else to do apart from walking Vieitas. Three on, nobody out, it was dramatic to say the least. Marciano Romano hit for Yoder and struck out. Britton had a favorable 2-1 count and popped out to short. Cardenas came up, AND HE STRUCK OUT!!! I NEED OXYGEN OVER HERE!!!

After Arturo Lopez cut down Trevino, Quebell, and Canning in the top 9th, Angel “Rudolph” Casas had to contend with the 3-4-5 batters in his reduced state. No cushion. And he walked Ledesma on four pitches. Thankfully the injury to Tom Reese and then pinch-hitting for Eddie Fernandez the last time through had left the Thunder without an option to run for the snail-paced Ledesma, plus Jose Lugo was batting in the cleanup spot and struck out. And Angel clearly had nothing at all. Garza walked in a full count before Covington poked at the first pitch and lofted one out to Alston in leftfield (Pruitt gone for defense). Ignacio Arreola batted with two out and two on in this mad contest, drummed a low line back to the pitcher, and the ball bounced off the grass and struck Casas in the wrist! Casas used the glove to hurl the ball over to Quebell and that was going to be close – OUT!!! HE’S OUT!!!

5-4 Raccoons (POR leads 2-1); Canning 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Howell 2-3, BB, RBI; Beltran 2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Good news, we somehow survive. Bad news, Angel Casas had a sore wrist, partly from wiping his nose for three days and partly for that evil bouncer, and was doubtful for the rest of the CLCS.

Game 4 – Colin Baldwin (8-7, 3.83 ERA) vs. Edgar Amador (11-14, 4.25 ERA)

Here comes the Fat Cat, who hasn’t had much luck against the Raccoons. The weather in Oklahoma City was dubious, and it was good that our surplus starter hadn’t been used yet, giving us extra insurance against ill-willed climate.

POR: 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 3B Canning – CF White – SS Howell – P Baldwin
OCT: RF J. Lugo – LF Britton – C Ledesma – 1B T. Cardenas – SS M. Garza – CF Vieitas – 2B Romano – 3B Arreola – P Amador

Rain started early in the third inning, and quickly demanded that play be stopped for an hour. At that point, the Raccoons led 1-0, the run scoring on a groundout by Baldwin, who hadn’t been without problems and had given the Thunder two on and no outs in the first inning.

Amador hit a leadoff single in the bottom of the third, which was awful regardless of the outcome, with Jose Lugo hitting into a double play and Ape Britton striking out. On to the top 4th, the Fat Cat began to lose it quite obviously. Canning walked to start the inning and stole second base, which was not quite a key event once Pat White also walked, and Howell eventually also drew four wide ones. Baldwin batted with the sacks stacked and no one turned down, hit a sac fly to Herberto Vieitas, and then Quebell hit into a double play, and Craig Bowen achieved the same result in the next inning.

The middle innings were considerably easier for Colin Baldwin compared to the first few. From the fourth through the sixth, the Thunder had only one batter reach base. The Raccoons didn’t build on their 2-0 lead, though, even when Baldwin hit a leadoff single in the seventh inning. He never got moved past first base…

Marcos Garza hit a single in the seventh, but again the support cast for the Thunder bowed out. Vieitas popped out to Rob Howell, and Marciano Romano struck out once again. And even the embattled Fat Cat managed to recollect himself against a tame Raccoons order. Baldwin aside, nobody reached from the sixth through the eighth, which he completed, while Baldwin didn’t. Baldwin walked Lugo on four pitches with two outs in the bottom 8th, and despite left-handers coming up, Baldwin was over 100 pitches now, and I wanted Thrasher, who retired his only batter, Ape Britton, on a fly out to Alston.

Sergio Alvarez, a right-hander, pitched for the Thunder in the ninth. White and Howell went down without much fuss, but when Keith Ayers batted for Thrasher, he lined a ball into left for a double. Quebell was rather eager to finally do something productive, singled up the middle, Ayers scored, and we had our third run of the game. The Thunder still had none, and once Yoshi flew out to right, Angel’s sore paw made us default to Law Rockburn, who would start the bottom of the ninth with Pablo Ledesma, who drove a 1-2 pitch to deep left, but not deep enough to beat Pat White. Both Alston and Pruitt were removed for defense here, and it was nice to see that it paid off.

Cardenas struck out, before Marcos Garza looped a pitch into shallow center, and that couldn’t be caught by anyone. No drama yet, the tying run was still not at the plate. And Vieitas had looked bad at the plate the entire day, too. Three strikes erased him and gave the Coons a commanding series lead.

3-0 Raccoons (POR leads 3-1); Pruitt 3-4; Ayers (PH) 1-1, 2B; Baldwin 7.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, W (1-0) and 1-2, 2 RBI;

A 3-1 lead and Nick Brown on tap! That made us feel good, didn’t it?

Game 5 – Nick Brown (20-6, 2.70 ERA) vs. Takeru Sato (12-11, 4.11 ERA)

Adrian Quebell had been quite poor, not just for a leadoff batter, so far. I made the potentially controversial move to not start him, and instead Pat White would start in center. Pruitt was defensively a downgrade at first base, but the outfield defense was increased considerably with the move, and Quebell was still available to pinch-hit, of course.

Nick Brown would try to improve on his 13 K outing in game 1, with game 5 featuring the identical matchup. Come on Brownie, you don’t want to be no lame old cookie who leaves all the wins to the other guys, do you? – See, I knew that!

POR: 2B Nomura – CF White – LF Alston – RF Ayers – 1B Pruitt – 3B Canning – C Bowen – SS Howell – P Brown
OCT: RF J. Lugo – LF Britton – C Ledesma – 1B T. Cardenas – SS M. Garza – CF Vieitas – 2B Romano – 3B Arreola – P Sato

Ledesma doubled in the first inning, but didn’t score. The Coons had very little through three innings, and in the bottom of the inning, Brown whiffed Arreola and Sato for four in total before he walked Lugo for one in total. Britton promptly singled, Lugo went to third, Pat White unleashed a high throw that went well past Canning and into the stands. The Thunder were awarded the run and Britton on second base, and White was awarded an error.

It would only get worse from here. Rain doused the attendance again in the fourth inning, bringing another 1-hour rain delay, and when it finally subsided, Brown served up a 2-run homer to Herberto Vieitas. While the Coons had stranded two on a Pruitt groundout in the fourth and had Howell hit into an inning-killing double play in the fifth, the Thunder had no problems to whack Brown, with Jose Lugo cracking a solo homer in the fifth. That was all for Brown, who was charged with all the runs in the 4-0 game and vanished to the locker room to smash things into bits.

Gil McDonald made his playoff appearance then in the sixth inning. He would deliver two scoreless innings, while the Raccoons were erased one by one by the silently efficient Sato, who arrived in the eighth inning with a 2-hit shutout. When Howell and Nomura reached base with singles, Sergio Alvarez replaced Sato with two outs to face White, who was not only throwing erratically, but was also batting .182 by now, but rolled a grounder up the middle and past the reach of Garza for an RBI single. With Ron Alston appearing as the tying run (nominally), Steven Anderson, their left-hander, made another appearance. Alston popped out, all those millions he was going to get this winter, all those millions for pops like that.

Ray Kelley pitched a scoreless eighth, keeping the Thunder three runs ahead, but we had to face a very healthy and very rested Arturo Lopez in the ninth inning with our very shoddy and very dozey lineup. Ayers struck out. Pruitt struck out. Canning struck out.

4-1 Thunder (POR leads 3-2); McDonald 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

And thus the series is sent back to Portland and Jong-hoo Umberger will get the ball. The Raccoons have scored 13 runs in five games. Yeah, they only allowed 16, but they still only scored 13!