[Westheim]

2010 WORLD SERIES
Portland Raccoons (96-66) @ Cincinnati Cyclones (96-66)

The big stage! We’re there! It is exciting!

The Raccoons were entering the series in a good spot in terms of their roster. Jon Merritt came off the DL to join the team in time for the series, greatly improving the lineup – hopefully. Neither Santiago Trevino nor Walt Canning were removed from the playoff roster. Instead Conceicao Guerin was. He had batted .228 since coming over from the Scorpions and hadn’t really gotten past Rob Howell on our shortstop rankings. But truth be told, Walt Canning was probably going to start all games at short.

Since the CLCS had started a day earlier than the FLCS, the Raccoons as a whole had three days off before the World Series started, compared to one day for the Cyclones. It also enabled us to go the top of our rotation, Nick Brown starting Game 1 on five days’ rest, with Jong-hoo Umberger up to pitch on regular rest in Game 2.

Gil McDonald meanwhile was going to pitch Game 4 despite a strong performance in the CLCS by Colin Baldwin. While the Thunder had fielded a lineup consisting almost exclusively containing left-handed batters, much the opposite was true for the Cyclones, who had the terrible misfortune to have two of their best batters on the disabled list, with Will Bailey (.383, 20 HR, 94 RBI) and Sonny Reece (.338, 10 HR, 89 RBI) locked away on the DL as well as Marc Williams (.255, 3 HR, 35 RBI), the latter two being ex-Crusaders.

They did have their best pitching with a fulminant 1-2 pairing containing 2010 Triple Crown winner Tony Hamlyn (23-5, 2.00 ERA) and Nathan O’Herlihy (17-8, 2.83 ERA). While Hamlyn was the only left-handed starter, they had a generous complement of left-handed relievers including veterans Iemitsu Rin (all those Crusaders…), Ian Johnson and Ray Hoskins, as well as washed up Jason O’Halloran in long relief.

The Cyclones had scored 806 runs in the regular season and hadn’t been shy about scoring in the FLCS either, with the home run being a beloved tool for them, having hit 124 of those in the regular season. They were poor at base stealing, though, having gobbled up even less bags than the Raccoons in the regular season with only 35. The running game – with Tomas Castro on the DL especially – was probably not going to be a factor.

However, the series pitted a top 2 pitching staff from either league against another, but the second-best FL offense against the fifth-best (so, mostly average) offense from the CL, and that fifth-best offense from the lesser scoring league was still cold as ice. The Raccoons had logged only 45 hits, including 39 singles and six doubles, and nothing more sizeable, in the CLCS. “Paltry” would be too kind a word to describe their production.

With that in mind, despite the Cyclones having lost a few teeth, they still retained lots of them like ex-Coon César Gonzalez (.293, 25 HR, 95 RBI), Bob Hall (.276, 18 HR, 106 RBI) and Jose Silva (.275, 16 HR, 94 RBI), while the Coons had been limited to soup for a month, and the Cyclones entered the series as odds-on favorites, likely to win in five or six games.

2010 WORLD SERIES
Portland Raccoons (96-66) @ Cincinnati Cyclones (96-66)

Game 1 – Nick Brown (20-6, 2.70 ERA) vs. Nathan O’Herlihy (17-8, 2.83 ERA)

The 30-year old O’Herlihy had at least as good stuff as Nick Brown, striking out 234 batters or more for five straight years, despite only making 29 starts in one of those years. He was however home run prone. But… we’re talking about the Raccoons…

POR: 3B Merritt – 2B Nomura – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – SS Canning – C Bowen – CF White – P Brown
CIN: 3B Banda – 1B C. Gonzalez – 2B Spinu – RF J. Silva – SS Hall – LF P. Estrada – CF Blackburn – C F. Hernandez – P O’Herlihy

Matt Pruitt drove a ball to deep left in the first inning, already displaying that if you got a straight fastball from O’Herlihy, you could indeed to damage – but not this time. Pruitt fell well short ultimately, with Pedro Estrada catching the ball in front of the warning track. Nick Brown whiffed two in a perfect first before Adrian Quebell opened the second inning with a jack to right – hey, the Raccoons can still hit homers! Awesome!

Despite a Jose Silva single, Nick Brown faced the minimum through three innings, and also had a single to start the top 3rd, but didn’t progress further than second base. Bowen had a single in the fourth, and nothing came of that, either. Brownie then started the bottom of the inning with a 3-0 count on Alfredo Banda, which was probably nothing that was required for the Coons to win. Or desired. Or allowed. But Banda poked at 3-0 and grounded out to Yoshi, which spared the Coons a run in the inning – but Brown still allowed two. With two outs, Georg Spinu singled, Jose Silva doubled to plate Spinu, and then scored on Bob Hall’s single. None of the three hits were particularly soft.

A chance to come back from the 2-1 deficit developed soon when Brown led off the top 5th and reached on a Spinu error. After Merritt struck out (his third in three attempts to see O’Herlihy’s stuff), Yoshi walked and Ron Alston singled softly to center. The bases were loaded with one out for Matt Pruitt, who rolled the perfect grounder to Spinu, who would have turned the double play if Ron Alston hadn’t taken out Bob Hall with a slide. The run scored, the game was tied, but Quebell popped out to strand a pair.

Brownie had struck out eight through five innings, but ran into trouble with the middle of the lineup again in the bottom of the sixth. Cesar Gonzalez made a hard out to start the inning. Spinu bounced back to Brown for the second out, but Silva hit a 2-2 pitch to deep left for a double. Bob Hall also ran the count to 2-2 when Brown threw him a screw that completely screwed Hall as he knotted himself up trying to jab it away. Strikeout swinging, game tied 2-2 through six.

The top 7th opened with Merritt, who was handed the golden sombrero by O’Herlihy, who was reaching 120 pitches by now, having whiffed eight. Nomura grounded out, but Alston singled to left, which was the sign for the Cyclones to make a move to the pen. But with all the left-handers available, they brought in right-hander Ron Funderburk to face Matt Pruitt, who walked, and then Quebell hit with two on, lined a ball up the rightfield line, it bounced just fair and all the way to the corner, with Silva scurrying after it. Alston scored, Pruitt scored, Quebell slid in with a 2-run triple! A triple! Quebell!!

Brown also didn’t finish the seventh. After striking out ten, including Shawn Blackburn for the second out in the seventh, he walked Felix Hernandez and looked a bit out of shape. When the Cyclones sent a right-hander to bat for the successless Funderburk, Raúl Hernandez, Ray Kelley was tasked with his removal, gave up a first-pitch double, then had to face Banda, who tried to hold his swing on a low 1-2 pitch. Bowen shot up to get an opinion from the third base umpire, who empathically fisted out Banda and the inning ended with the tying runners in scoring position!

Pat White’s infield single in the eighth didn’t amount to much, but Ron Alston would make a strong catch on a Spinu liner in the bottom of the inning to prevent Law Rockburn to have a man on with one out. Angel Casas was set up to protect a 4-2 lead against Bob Hall, Pedro Estrada, and Shawn Blackburn. He struck out Hall, but Estrada doubled over Quebell into right, and the tying run came to bat, but the Cyclones didn’t have much in terms of power in the bottom of their order. But Angel walking Blackburn in a full count was not really advancing our cause. Yet, Felix Hernandez went down flailing, but now Dan Morris batted for reliever Iemitsu Rin, and Morris was known to pack a punch. Oh, merely 407 career home runs. He was, however, also 39 years old, and you slow down when you get older. Slowing down was a bad idea when facing Angel Casas, because Angel Casas was not going to adjust for you. Morris couldn’t adjust however, and struck out to hand the opener to the Coons!

4-2 Raccoons (POR lead 1-0); Alston 2-3, 2 BB; Quebell 2-5, HR, 3B, 3 RBI; Bowen 2-4, 2B; Brown 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, W (1-2) and 1-3;

The Cyclones struck out 15 times in this game, while Merritt had almost half of the Coons’ nine whiffs.

Game 2 – Jong-hoo Umberger (18-8, 3.28 ERA) vs. Juan Garcia (11-12, 4.66 ERA)

Tony Hamlyn had pitched in Game 7 and just wasn’t available yet, so the Cyclones had to resort to the at-best-middling Juan Garcia. Just a few years earlier, Garcia had achieved a unique performance in the ABL however: in 2008 he pitched the so far only perfect game, against the Buffaloes.

POR: 3B Merritt – 2B Nomura – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – SS Canning – C Bowen – CF White – P Umberger
CIN: 1B C. Gonzalez – LF D. Morris – 2B Spinu – RF J. Silva – SS Hall – CF P. Estrada – 3B Banda – C F. Hernandez – P J. Garcia

The Coons wasted a good chance in the top of the first, when they put three men on, but didn’t score. Merritt hit a leadoff single to try to get over his 0-5, 4 K performance in Game 1, but Yoshi hit into a double play. Alston and Pruitt reached in succession, but Quebell popped out foul.

Umberger sat down the first eight batters before inexplicably walking the pitcher Garcia. César Gonzalez grounded out in a full count, thankfully, to not let something ugly develop. Umberger wouldn’t allow a hit until with two outs in the fourth, when Silva and Hall hit singles in succession to go to the corners, but the situation was diffused when Quebell made a headlong catch on a foul pop off Pedro Estrada’s bat.

The Raccoons struggled to get sound contact off Garcia, mostly hitting groundballs. Merritt hit a 2-out single, a roller between Banda and Hall, in the fifth inning, but Nomura grounded out after that.

Issues arose in the bottom of the sixth, when César Gonzalez reached second base leading off in the scoreless contest after Yoshi Nomura threw away his groundball. Umberger struck out Morris before he just lost it and walked three batters in a row. Law Rockburn replaced Umberger, but did nothing to relief the situation. Estrada hit a fly to center that White caught, but couldn’t get Spinu at home, with the Cyclones going up 2-0. But things were already well out of control. Rockburn allowed singles to Banda and Hernandez and the Cyclones put up a 5-spot in the inning, all but defeating the Raccoons and equalizing the series.

But, TECHNICALLY there were still three innings in which the Cyclones had to log outs, and Craig Bowen opened the seventh with a double to right. Howell batted for Rockburn and singled and Merritt wrestled a walk from Garcia, loading the sacks with one out. If we could get a big hit or two, that would be fantastic. Nomura struck out before Alston worked a walk, pushing in the Coons’ first run and bringing up Pruitt as the tying run.

The Cyclones didn’t look willing to replace Garcia in this situation, trusting his perfect game stuff that had issued six strikeouts and four walks so far in the game. Pruitt didn’t let it get that for and cracked a 1-1 pitch to deep center. It wasn’t going to leave, but Estrada wasn’t going to catch it either. It was in there, and went to the wall, as Pruitt emptied the bases with a 3-run double!

Quebell grounded out, sending the game to the bottom 7th, where Thrasher started with a 3-2 single hit by César Gonzalez, and when Raúl Hernandez hit for Dan Morris we moved on to Ray Kelley, who also struggled to throw strikes, but somehow made it through the inning. The Coons were still down 5-4.

But they had the tying run on base with a Canning single to start the eighth inning, now facing Iemitsu Rin. Unfortunately Bowen found it necessary to hit into a double play, killing the chance.

It would have to be against left-handed closer Ian Johnson in the ninth inning. Keith Ayers led off, batting for Kelley, who had pitched two innings. Ayers struck out, and when Johnson also blasted his way through Merritt with another strikeout, the odds for the Coons trended against zero. And there Yoshi was already done striking out.

5-4 Cyclones (series tied 1-1); Merritt 2-4, BB; Pruitt 3-3, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Howell (PH) 1-1; Kelley 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

The offense just isn’t working. But if it hadn’t been for that complete blowup between Umberger and Rockburn, we even might have squeezed through with a 2-0 lead on the way to Portland.

But it ain’t so. Series tied, see you in two days in Portland.