[Westheim]

2037 CONTINENTAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Portland Raccoons (93-69) vs. San Francisco Bayhawks (90-72)

And then, Thursday, October 8, arrived. So did the Bayhawks. The teams would fight out the rights to play the FL champs in the World Series, with the FLCS having begun the day prior. The house was packed, and so was the brown couch, with Slappy, Valdes, me, Honeypaws, and Fairydust all crammed together, munching snacks and fighting over them. Thankfully Cristiano Carmona brought his own seating wherever he went! Only Slappy, sitting squat in the middle, maintained his calm, and firm grip of his bottle.

Game 1 – Bernie Chavez (13-10, 3.38 ERA) vs. Gilberto Rendon (14-14, 3.53 ERA)

Rich Hereford threw out the first pitch, having been part of the last Raccoons team to win a World Series. The anthem was performed by Uncle Kevin, a city icon, who had started recycling industrial trash to furnish musical instruments from them in 2001. He played the anthem on an oboe he had built himself from some old pipes.

It’s so pretty I think I must cry …!

The Raccoons faced their former member Gilberto Rendon, although he had not been part of a ringed squad, or even one that was any good. With the exception of Ed Hooge, all the lefty bats were in there.

SFB: LF Balderrama – SS Greer – 2B M. Hurtado – 1B McGrath – RF P. Sanchez – 3B Da – CF Coca – C Umanzor – P G. Rendon
POR: SS Ramos – C Garcia – LF M. Fernandez – RF Greenway – CF Fowler – 1B Stedham – 2B Vickers – 3B Maldonado – P Chavez

While the urge was definitely there, Bernie Chavez didn’t allow a homer in the first inning, but Marshall Greer and Kevin McGrath hit sizable fly balls that ended with outfielders, while Mario Hurtado walked on four pitches. Manny Fernandez had the first actual hit of the series, a 2-out double in the bottom 1st, but was left on when Greenway grounded out to Hurtado. Bernie opened the second with a walk to the ancient Pablo Sanchez, then gave up a single to Zhao-jun Da that went past Vickers, and with that, trouble had arrived – the 43-year-old Sanchez sprinted all the way to third base, and there was nobody out. Bernie put on his grim face, dug in, and struck out the 7-8-9 batters in order to escape the jam.

Not that the Bayhawks stopped poking any time soon – they successfully ran up Bernie Chavez’ pitch count early and by a lot, and hit another two singles through Edgardo Balderrama and Hurtado in the third inning, but again failed to score. The Raccoons then stirred in the bottom 3rd, inspired by Bernie’s 1-out single through Da into leftfield. Berto singled softly, and Garcia singled right in front of Balderrama, keeping Bernie honest and at third base, but they were now stacked up for Manny Fernandez. Nick Valdes remarked that if they scored a run now, they’d take the lead, which was very helpful, and that if they scored multiple runs, they’d take an even bigger lead, which was a completely new insight for me. Manny ran a full count before clipping a soft ball into centerfield, Tony Coca, a Gold Glover a long, long time ago, couldn’t even get near the ball, and the Raccoons took a 1-0 lead on the single. A Greenway sac fly extended the lead to 2-0, but Fowler struck out, stranding two.

And then the Bayhawks chopped three straight singles off Bernie right away in the fourth, with Eduardo Umanzor driving in Da to narrow the gap to 2-1. A bunt and a sac fly tied the game, and then Marshall Greer dropped a single between Vickers and Greenway for a 3-2 Bayhawks lead. Hurtado grounded out, but McGrath tacked on with a jack to begin the fifth inning, 4-2.

That was all anybody saw of Bernie in this game, and I was ready to bite into the jagged edges of a bottle I had just broken on the edge of the table, but the Raccoons put the tying runs on the corners with nobody out in the bottom 5th. Berto singled, advanced on a wild pitch, and reached third when Rendon fumbled Garcia’s roller for an error. Rendon, who had allowed seven hits against one strikeout, not necessarily better than Bernie’s line, couldn’t remove Fernandez with two strikes, and instead gave up a double up the rightfield line. Berto scored, 4-3, but Garcia had to be held up at third base. Greenway brought in the tying run with a groundout, and Fowler scored Fernandez with another groundout, taking a 5-4 lead!

The Vickers double switch happened as early as the sixth inning, with Stedham’s infield single stretching the bottom 5th long enough to clear Vickers’ spot. Citriniti went in there, with Brito batting ninth, following up a Maldonado single with an RBI double to centerfield in the bottom 6th! Berto was walked intentionally, Garcia popped out, and Manny whacked an RBI double off lefty Jesus Rodarte, tying an age-old CL record for doubles in a playoff game with three. Greenway struck out against Rodarte, but Justin Fowler, an easy strikeout recently, we must admit, shot a single up the middle for two more runs, running the lead to 9-4, at which point there was a lot of excitement in the office and I double-high-fived Cristiano with enough vigor to send his wheelchair rolling back into one of the bobblehead cabinets. Oh, it’s alright, Slappy will clean up later!

Citriniti got one out in the seventh, and Mauricio Garavito got two, after which we gave the ball to Travis Sims in the eighth, and he produced a bases-loaded situation on three 1-out singles. Oh well, why not blow a 9-4 lead? That’s what you get from Travises! They’re all the same!! Prieto entered, walked in a run against Greer, then got a double play started by Brito, 4-6-3, on Hurtado’s grounder, bailing out of the inning. Manny Fernandez opposed giving up the lead and smashed a 2-run homer off Eric Fox in the bottom 8th, and THAT should put the game away for good, shouldn’t it!? It did – Yeom Soung pitched a scoreless ninth, not because we needed him for a 6-run lead, but because my main concern was running out of right-handed relievers…!

Raccoons 11, Bayhawks 5 – Raccoons lead series 1-0

Ramos 2-4, BB; Garcia 2-5; M. Fernandez 5-5, HR, 3 2B, 5 RBI; Maldonado 2-4; Brito 1-2, 2B, RBI;

Five hits? Also tying a CL playoff record, and it had been done only five times in a nine-inning game, including by otherwise blasted Raccoon Alex White in 1983. Takahashi Higashi, Mike Herrera, and B.J. Manfull were the other players on that list.

Three doubles in a regulation playoff game had been done by a Raccoon before – Berto in the 2026 World Series.

Game 2 – Bryce Sparkes (14-9, 2.99 ERA) vs. Josh Long (18-11, 3.89 ERA)

Long had faced and beaten the Raccoons twice this year, including a complete-game 9-hitter for a 4-3 W on August 31. Things exist, you wouldn’t believe it…

The national anthem was sung by Timmy, nine years old, from Arbor Lodge, in the north of Portland. He had won a contest to sing the anthem for Game 2. He also sounded like a ****ing siren and we’d know better next time we tried to be original.

First pitch was thrown out by Carl Bean, as close to an ace as the Raccoons had between 2000 and 2003. He was notable in being brought in via trade from Denver, with the Gold Sox receiving, among others, future Hall of Famer Antonio Donis, and being traded to the Loggers eventually for all 300 pounds of Edgar “Fat Cat” Amador.

SFB: LF Balderrama – SS Greer – 2B M. Hurtado – 1B McGrath – RF P. Sanchez – 3B Da – CF Coca – C Umanzor – P J. Long
POR: SS Ramos – C Garcia – LF M. Fernandez – RF Greenway – CF Fowler – 1B Stedham – 2B Vickers – 3B Maldonado – P Sparkes

Both teams carted up the Game 1 lineup, and the Raccoons sure hoped for similar results. Balderrama hit a ball over the fence to begin the game – except that the ball bent around the outside of the foul pole, missing it by inches, and he had to retreat to the box after having gone as far as second base with both arms raised. He then hit a drive to Troy Greenway, who bounced off the fence in making that catch. The worst that really happened in the top 1st was a Greer single into center. Berto singled in the bottom 1st, but never got off first base.

First blood was drawn unexpectedly by Rich Vickers, hitting a 420-footer over the fence in centerfield for some awes in the bottom 2nd, putting the Coons up 1-0. Ah yes, Vickers. Mediocre in most respects, but occasionally he’d have a hot week. If his hot week was in this series, all the better.

The Bayhawks soon took it all back, and the lead, with 2-out singles by Balderrama and Hurtado in the third inning, then a 2-run double down the line hit by Hurtado. Fernando Garcia tied the game the same inning with a 2-out solo homer of his own, but you couldn’t help but be buried to the n-th degree by the Raccoons’ shaky starting pitching at this point…

Baybird Nation took the lead again in the fourth inning, and Sparkes was just getting spanked by now. Tony Coca, the damn ex-Elk, homered to left, and Umanzor and Long (!!) hit doubles to produce another run. I was greatly dismayed, and Nick Valdes opined that he’d prefer not to pay for THAT performance. – Well, he’s gonna be arbitration eligible, Nick, I don’t know, whether – Okay, Nick, dump or kill, whatever is easier.

Sparkes was spanked some more in the fifth, Pablo Sanchez slugging in a 2-out run with a hard single (though the run was unearned for an earlier Maldonado error), and the Raccoons yanked their hapless starter early again. Sims was supposed to just get out of the inning and then be pinch-hit for in the bottom 5th, but gave up a homer to Da, putting the Raccoons in a 7-2 hole and more or less tying the series.

Derek Barker pitched two scoreless for Portland while the Raccoons were not even getting on base against Long, who after the Garcia homer retired them in order, without exceptions, until the Bayhawks lifted him for pitch count concerns after eight innings. He had allowed only three base hits to the Critters. David Fernandez and Josh Weeks pitched scoreless innings for Portland, with right-hander Ryan Kinner coming in for the bottom of the ninth. Berto struck out. Garcia grounded out. Fernandez struck out.

Bayhawks 7, Raccoons 2 – series tied at one

Barker 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

I know, Nick, I know. – I am just upset as you are. – Well, maybe we should wait for them to play the series to conclusion before giving them to charity.