[Westheim]

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

Weeks had put in a scoreless inning in the Game 2 loss, and had beaten the Bayhawks in his only regular-season matchup with them on July 26 – his most recent W to date. Winning this one would be hard against the righty-laden lineup; but could he really do MUCH worse than the right-handed bunch we had sent up so far?

Game 6 – Josh Weeks (10-6, 3.58 ERA) vs. Josh Long (18-11, 3.89 ERA)

The anthem was performed by Miss… Siena Brown. – Maud, who is that? – Never heard of her. – Where did you find her? – Ugh, Gobble!

First pitch honors befell Mark Roberts, who had won four rings in his career, half of them with the Raccoons. He was technically still under contract to the Aces and thus could not wear a Raccoons uniform, some weird league rule, was three weeks short of his own 43rd birthday, on the DL with a back ailment, and thus delivered a ball underhand to Fernando Garcia.

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

The Bayhawks sure sat on Weeks’ face fast, with Balderrama opening the game with a second-pitch jack, causing me to groan and seek safety in liquor. When Jesus Maldonado cashed Justin Fowler with a homer to right in the bottom 2nd, giving us a 2-1 lead, I was already somewhat doozy. – No, Nick, I don’t endorse drinking. But I also don’t endorse that sort of pitching.

Weeks nailed Balderrama his next time around in the third inning, which was admittedly one way to deal with a bat coming closer and closer to .500…

For a while Weeks did a really nice job of feeding grounders to the middle infielders, and they even made the plays. The Raccoons had a solid scoring opportunity in the bottom of the fourth inning, with Fowler and Maldonado hitting 1-out singles off Long. Vickers grounded out, moving the runners to scoring position, but that also took the bat out of Stedham’s paws and he got the four-fingered salute to first base. The Bayhawks would look for salvation with Weeks, who poked a 1-1 pitch up the middle, through a diving Long, past a lunging Hurtado, and into centerfield for one, no, two runs, sending the ballpark into an instant booming frenzy!! Berto was hit by a pitch, but Garcia popped out, stranding three in a 4-1 game. Man, what a wasted opportunity, I must drink faster …!

Weeks got around an Umanzor single to begin the fifth, while the Raccoons crowded Long again with a leadoff double by Manny Fernandez in the bottom 5th. Greenway, batting all of .182, was walked intentionally, but of course Fowler was an easier K. Long lost him in a full count, though, and the bags were loaded with nobody out. Maldonado struck out. Vickers struck out. I tried to shove the entire bottle down my snout, which didn’t really work to my satisfaction. On came Jesus Rodarte against Stedham, who hit the second pitch over Hurtado’s head, a terrible ****ing dinker, and it was IN for two runs!! Stedham!! Ru-(hcks!!)-uns!! (turns to Cristiano) Do you know, Crisssiano, that you have… the most beautiful hazel eyes?

Weeks took the K, then went back to work for the sixth inning, now up 6-1 on three pairs of runs. Of course the game immediately turned against the Portlanders. Greer single, McGrath single, runners on the corners with nobody outs. When Coca hit into a run-scoring double play, things actually trended upwards again, but then Hurtado hit another single, and Da flew to left, but Manny lost the ball mid-flight and was almost fatally struck in the noggin’ by it. The 2-base error put a pair in scoring position against Umanzor, and the Raccoons made a move for a right-hander. Citriniti got the ball and on his third pitch gave up a LOUD fly to right. The entire ballpark gasped in horror, but Greenway raced all the way back to the fence and made the catch …!!

The seventh was uneventful for Portland with three straight retirements collected by Citriniti and Fernandez. Fowler reached on an error in the bottom 7th, but nothing much came of that.

Top 8th, Prieto in to pitch. Greer singled. McGrath walked. Oh for ****’s sake. More booze …! Coca struck out, which was always a surprise, Hurtado flew out right to Fowler, and the inning ended with another strikeout. I was blowing and squishing Honeypaws a little tighter, while Valdes used Fairydust to fan air at himself.

The Raccoons went for the throat in the bottom 8th. Brito batted for Prieto and walked, while Berto singled to right, sending Brito to third base with nobody out against Eric Fox. Garcia flew out to Sanchez, but Brito dilly-dallied home for a sac fly, extending the lead to five. Manny flew out, Pinkerton hit for Greenway and whiffed. Soung got the ninth, with the Raccoons unwilling to mess around. Umanzor struck out, Sonny Deming doubled to left. Balderrama struck out. That made Pablo Sanchez, still 43, but looking like 57, the potential final out in the series. He got ahead 2-0, then hit a grounder to Maldonado. Throw to first, bounced, past Stedham, and Deming scored on the error. Valdes and me were each grapping an arm of Slappy for comfort, and screamed anyway. Marshall Greer was next. A ball. A strike. Then a pop in foul ground, Stedham racing for it … and – the catch! Portland to the World Series! Portland to the World Series!!

Raccoons 7, Bayhawks 3 – Raccoons win series 4-2

Ramos 2-4; Fowler 2-3, BB; Maldonado 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Stedham 2-3, BB, 2 RBI;

And one more bit of good news while we open the fizzly stuff in here and take turns in taking joyrides in Cristiano’s wheelchair – we will be able to make a roster change for the Big Show.