We Got Wood - 42.15 - April 5, 2042, Game 329

[7teen]

The game and date may seem irrelevant to most. But to the fans, players, and front office of Portland it'll mean something entirely different. It appeared a simple game and date:

Saturday, April 5, 2042: San Fernando at Portland; Trail at Multnomah Park

39,832 Fans bought tickets to what they assumed was just another home game in Portland. For some reason, we can't quite seem to sell all 40,000 seats to this place. Eduardo Reyes was the starting pitcher for the Lumberjacks on this mild 64 degree day. Despite the seasonably warm temperatures in Portland, the roof was still closed.

The first pitch of the game by Reyes was a ball. Four pitchers later, Angel Garcia grounded out to Jaime Ramirez and the first out was recorded. The game was settling in. Things really got rolling for the good guys in the 2nd inning. A pair of walks were sandwiched around a ground out that brought Steve Dempsey to that plate. Yep, that Steve Dempsey. On a 1-1 pitch he singled a ground ball past the shortstop and the Lumberjacks were ahead 1-0. After another single and a ground out, the good guys were up 2-0.

The Lumberjacks doubled their lead in the 3rd inning Bears starter R.J. Hughes walked the bases loaded to start the inning. Portland would get 2 of those guys in for a 4-0 lead.

Meanwhile Reyes was on cruise control, dealing like he had rarely done in his career. He had only give up a pair of hits through 4 and faced only one threat produced in large part by an error by Ramirez at short. Reyes would last through 6 complete innings. He struck out 7 and allowed just 3 hits and a pair of walks. The club tacked on another run in the home half of the 6th after a Ramirez double was followed by a Mario Guerrer double to give the Lumberjacks a 5-0 lead.

After 6, the front office suite, housing team owner David Wallace, GM Chris Wilson, and a pair of Fiscus began eyeing the scoreboard and counting down the outs. The team had been in this spot before. Just a couple of days prior to be exact but that game didn't go so well. And of course there was opening day and that was disastrous. So the suite was calmly excited as they counted down the outs. Manager Pedro Medina turned the ball over to.... Ernie Kinney!? the suite yelled in unison. "Not Ernie Kinney!" yelled Wilson from the suite again.

If you recall, Medina was fired last season from Long Beach for his poor usage of the bullpen. And here he was, in a huge moment for the franchise, going to Kinney with a 5-0 lead. But the veteran came through in the 7th. Facing the heart of the Bears order, Kinney retired Luis Maldonado on a ground ball to 1B and then, miraculously, struck out both Okorafor and Salazar to retire the side. Portland went down weakly in the home half of the 7th on just 7 pitches and the game was down to 6-outs remaining. Kinney re-took the mound.

After a 3 pitch ground out started the inning, things looked golden for the good-guys. After Kinney walked the next batter, Medina went back to his bullpen and brought in... Marcelo Polar. Another questionable decision that left Wilson muttering "5-0 lead, yeah let's go with a long reliever and not our new set-up man Subadio." The decision was magnified when Bobby Horne took the 2nd pitch offering to deep leftfield. It was no 5-2.

Owner David Wallace stood up and walked to the back of the suite. Grabbed a drink from the refridgerator and opted not to return to his seat. Instead he'd stand from the back of the suite for the remainder of the game. A strikeout for the 2nd out of the inning eased some of his nervousness, but it returned after another 8th inning single. A batter later, with a 1-2 count on Jeremy Webb, Wallace gave a slight fist pump when Webb took a called strike 3 to end the threat. Portland up 5-2, going to the bottom of the 8th.

The tension of the suite was quickly eased in the home half. Despite two quick outs following a Dempsey double, a Jorge Lopez double made it 6-2 and then Mario Guerrer put icing on the cake with a 2-run homerun to make it 8-2. The good guys were going to finally do it!

Marcelo Polar went back out for the 9th frame and induced three fly balls and the game was over.

While fans cheered the final outs from the field, few in the ballpark, aside from those in the suite, new the magnitude of the moment. Wilson quickly grabbed his cell phone and called up into the press box to put the graphic on the jumbo-tron. Within seconds, the ultra high definition big screen panels within The Trail at Multnomah read, in bold orange-red and green font:

For the First Time in Franchise History: Portland has a record over .500!!!

[RonCo]

Lofty ideals lead to lofty... something