REGIONAL #231:  As I’m getting deeper in the tournament, the remaining teams get more and more recent, and as such this might be the last regional that is balanced between squads from the 20th and 21st centuries.  Both Dodgers entries represented milestones; the 1927 team would be the last team to enter from before the Kennedy administration, and the ‘98 version was the finale for the NL that season.  One of the two Cardinals draws was the main attention-grabber as it was the 2011 pennant winners; other noteworthy squads were the White Sox from two seasons after their “winning ugly” AL West win, and a Tigers team from two seasons after recording one of the worst records of all time.  My guess was that the pennant winning Cards would be the best of the group, and with the bottom part of the bracket looking like a crapshoot I went with the pandemic-year Brewers, as all teams from that season are pretty much a crapshoot.  The ELO rankings predicted the same outcome as I did, and noted that the top two teams in the bracket would be meeting in the first round.  

First round action

The 1985 White Sox went 85-77 and were the #3 seed in this bracket; Harold Baines and Carlton Fisk anchored the lineup and both received MVP votes, while 40 year old Tom Seaver (16-11, 3.17) proved he still had plenty of gas in the tank.  They faced the 2005 Tigers, who lost 91 games which was still better than they had been in the previous few years; they had a pretty potent lineup but their defense and pitching was putrid, with Jeremy Bonderman (14-12, 4.57) the best option on the mound.  In the top of the 1st, an error by Sox 2B-3 Scott Fletcher sets up an RBI single from Dmitri Young, fresh from contributing to a regional title in the previous bracket.  In the 6th, Tigers CF Nook Logan hits an RBI triple into one of the nooks of Old Comiskey and Detroit leads 2-0, and they go wholesale on the defensive replacements in the 6th to try to hang on to that edge.  One of those replacements, Curtis Granderson, knocks an RBI single in the 7th, and while the Sox mount a threat in the bottom of the inning loading the bases with one out, Tim Hulett hits into a DP to kill that rally.  From there, the anemic Sox offense makes Bonderman look like Superman as he finishes out a 6-hit shutout, and the Tigers move along to the semifinals with a 3-0 win and another Chisox team heads straight for the storage drawers without even pausing to muster up a run.

The luck of draw put the top two seeds against each other in the first round, the world champion 2011 Cardinals and the #2 seeded 1998 Dodgers.  The Cards won 90 games and eventually won the NL and the Series, but looking at the team in detail I wasn’t sure how they pulled that off.  Yes, the offense looked pretty good with Albert Pujols finishing 5th in the MVP votes, but the rotation was only okay with Kyle Lohse (14-8, 3.39) at the top and I didn’t remember running across a Series winner that had an all-”4” DP combo.  The Dodgers only went 83-79, but they had some offense of their own, led by Gary Sheffield, and Ramon Martinez (7-3, 2.83) had a dominating card, just sneaking into eligibility with 102 IP.  Back to back to back doubles in the top of the 1st by Trent Hubbard, Gary Sheffield and Raul Mondesi quickly put the Dodgers up 2-0, and Eric Young leads off the 2nd with a single, steals second on C-1 Yadier Molina, and scores on a Hubbard single to extend the lead.  When Charles Johnson adds a solo shot in the 6th to make it 4-0 Dodgers, the Cards realize they’re going to lose with Lohse and try Jason Motte from the pen, and he’s in control until the top of the 9th when an error by 3B-3 David Freese causes Motte to lose his composure, and he ends up walking in an insurance run that proves unnecessary as Martinez closes out a 5-hit shutout to send the pennant-winners packing and propel the Dodger to the semifinals with a 5-0 win.  

This matchup was between two bad teams from different eras.   The 1976 Cardinals lost 90 games, and their leading home run hitter was Hector Cruz with 13 having nobody else in double digits, but they had a deep rotation with John Denny (11-9, 2.52) at the top.  The 93-loss 2011 Orioles had most of their lineup hitting more homers than Cruz, but the starting pitching was frightening with Jeremy Guthrie (9-17, 4.33) being good enough to lose a bunch of games.   The O’s get on the board in the top of the 1st when JJ Hardy slides under the tag to score (1-12+2) on a two-out double from Mark Reynolds, but that lead is very short-lived as leadoff hitter Lou Brock converts a HR split on Guthrie’s card to tie the game immediately.  Ted Simmons then also knocks a solo shot off Guthrie’s card in the 3rd to give St. Louis the lead briefly, but the O’s begin the top of the 4th with four straight singles, the fourth being a 2-run knock by Derrek Lee, and Baltimore is back on top, 3-2.  As the game enters the 6th, Baltimore considers removing Guthrie but given their rotation they hope to preserve their pen somewhat; that doesn’t work out well as Guthrie allows back to back doubles by Willie Crawford and Jerry Mumphrey and the game is tied, with Troy Patton then summoned from the pen and he comes in to punch out PH Mike Tyson to end the inning.  Denny and new O’s reliever Jim Johnson stay the course through the 9th and the game heads to extra innings.  But Denny appears to be spent in the 10th, loading the bases on two singles and a walk and then 3B-4 Cruz boots a grounder to put the Orioles on top.  With the bases still loaded, Cards SS-3 Don Kessinger makes a two-base error for another two runs, and Denny is madder than the Mad Hungarian who relieves him, Al Hrabosky, but Al yields RBI singles to Matt Angle and Nick Markakis.  Johnson then sets the Cards down in the bottom of the 10th as they miss the split on his HR 1/flyB twice and the Orioles move on with the 8-3 win, but with more wear and tear on their bullpen than they would like.

The 1927 Dodgers (actually the Robins at the time) would be the last team from before 1965 to enter the tournament, with all teams from 1911 to 1964 that Strat has printed now having had their chance.  However, they were not a particularly good entry, as they went 65-88, with no power (Babe Herman the only double-digit HR hitter with 14) and some terrible defense, but they did have two Hall of Famers with Max Carey leading off and Dazzy Vance (16-15, 2.70) on the hill.  The 2020 Brewers were relieved to get away from the pandemic and do some time travel back to Ebbets Field; although they finished under .500 at 29-31, they were the #2 seed in the bracket and had some low AB wonders as well as one of their best starters, Brandon Woodruff (3-5, 3.05), mandated to start as their top guy in innings pitched.  Keston Hiura swats a solo homer in the top of the 2nd, and Christian Yelich adds a two-run shot in the 5th to extend the Brewer lead.  A two-base error by Brooklyn 2B-4 Jay Partridge adds to the lead in the 7th, and then in the 8th Yelich pokes his second two-run homer of the game and they head for the streetcars in Flatbush.   From there, Woodruff goes out in style, striking out the side in the 9th to lock down the three-hit shutout as the Brewers cruise to the semis with the 6-0 win.

The survivors

The 1998 Dodgers and the 2005 Tigers were both upset winners in round one, although the Dodgers were the #2 seed in the regional so their presence in the semifinals was not surprising.  The Dodgers had several decent starters to select from, and decided on swingman Brian Bohanon (7-11, 3.67) although really any of them would have been a better option than the Tigers’ Jason Johnson (8-13, 4.54).  However, both pitchers start out strong, with Bohanon carrying a no-hitter into the 5th and the Dodgers unable to find the sweet spots on Johnson’s card.  The Tigers suffer a big loss when SS Carlos Guillen is lost for the tournament to injury in the top of the 6th; when Eric Young leads off the bottom of the inning with a single off Johnson’s card and then steals second, the Tigers try to change the momentum by bringing in Kyle Farnsworth from the pen.  However, he promptly issues a walk and then yields a three-run homer to Gary Sheffield; after getting two outs, Farnsworth injures himself issuing a walk to Bobby Bonilla and it’s Fernando Rodney’s turn to pitch.  He gets the final out, and then in the 8th the Tigers narrow the gap when Brandon Inge triples and scores on a squib single from Curtis Granderson; Placido Polanco then converts a TR 1-2/flyB to score Granderson.  The Dodgers stick with Bohanon for the time being, and it pays off as he whiffs two straight Tigers to strand Polanco and the Dodgers cling to a one-run lead.  Rodney holds off the Dodgers in the 8th, so it’s up to Bohanon to hang on in the 9th, and although he walks the first batter, he then retires three straight to finish out a 4-hitter as the Dodgers head to the finals winning the 3-2 duel, only recording four hits themselves.

The semifinal between the #4 seed 2020 Brewers and the #8 seeded 2011 Orioles particularly seemed to favor the Brewers because their best starting pitcher, Corbin Burnes (4-1, 2.11) was mandated to get the start by virtue of his IP.   Meanwhile, Baltimore had a choice of several not-so-great options and went with Zach Britton (11-11, 4.61) in front of a bullpen depleted in their extra-inning first round win.  But it’s Burnes who starts of rough in the top of the 1st as the leadoff hitter doubles past the 5-rated pitcher and then scores on a missed HR split double from Mark Reynolds for a quick Baltimore lead.  Reynolds takes no chances on a split in the 5th, nailing his solid HR for a solo shot to put the O’s up 2-0, but Britton starts off the bottom of the inning with three straight walks off his card, and then Jedd Gyorko rolls a HR 1-16/flyB split and it comes up 18, scoring one on the sac fly and it’s 2-1 after five.  The Brewers then go to wholesale replacements and one of them, Tyrone Taylor, doubles with 1-14 Orlando Arcia on first, but Arcia is nailed trying to score with a 17.  However, another sub, Luis Urias, singles Taylor home and the score is tied, but in the top of the 8th Matt Wieters singles home 1-12+2 JJ Hardy with two out and Baltimore moves ahead once again, and for the bottom of the inning game 1 winner Jim Johnson is summoned from the pen to try to close things out.  However, the Brewers respond as Gyorko delivers a two-out RBI single to tie things up again heading into the 9th.  Chris Davis leads off the top of the 9th and makes contact for a double, and although Burnes strikes out two in a row and it looks like the runner will be stranded, Nick Markakis finds a TR 1-14/flyB at 4-11 on the pitcher and converts it for the go-ahead run.  So once again it’s up to Johnson, and this time he’s perfect and closes out a 4-3 win that vaults the bottom seed into the regional final.

The regional final looks a bit lopsided as the #2 seeded 1998 Dodgers take on the bottom-ranked 2011 Orioles for the bracket crown.  The Orioles had pulled off two upsets with final-inning heroics, but Jake Arrieta (10-8, 5.05) had a bad combination of issues with walks and gopher balls that promised to make things nerve-wracking for the Baltimore crowd.  Meanwhile, the Dodgers had some decent options, with Chan Ho Park (15-9, 3.71) supported by a fully rested bullpen.  However, Park’s defense lets him down in the 2nd as 3B-5 Bobby Bonilla waves at a single slapped past him, and that runner eventually scores on an error by SS-4 Mark Grudzielanek to put Baltimore up 1-0.  In the top of the 5th, the Dodgers load the bases against Arrieta for Raul Mondesi; he hits a sharp grounder to 3B-4 Chris Davis who can’t quite turn the DP and the game is tied.  However, Derrek Lee crushes a two-out, two-run homer in the 6th to put the pesky O’s back on top, and they decide not to press their luck with Arrieta and bring in their lone decent rested reliever, Troy Patton, to try to preserve the lead.  When Park yields a single to JJ Hardy to begin the bottom of the 8th, the Dodgers bring in closer Jeff Shaw and Adam Jones promptly takes him deep for a 2-run homer and the Camden Yards are rocking.  Armed with a four run lead, the O’s try to preserve Patton and bring in their unreliable closer Kevin Gregg, and although he puts a couple of runners on he escapes the inning to seal the 5-1 win for the underdog Orioles, capping a rare regional win for a bottom seed and the 6th for a Baltimore team.

Interesting card of Regional #231:  The 2020 pandemic-year Strat set had a variety of interesting cards as a result of the low usage that many players had, but this one can’t really be blamed on a miniscule sample as Orlando Arcia was the starting shortstop for the Brewers, and by 2020 standards he had quite a few plate appearances.  Unfortunately, it seemed like an awful lot of them resulted in a double play.  Having played Strat for a long time now, there have been a number of good players who had an uncanny knack of hitting into twin-killings for me; Dave Winfield and Eddie Murray are two who come to mind, to the point where I’d steal second with just about anybody if there were less than two out and one of those guys was at the plate.  However, I think Orlando here takes the cake; his Brewers only played two games in my tournament, but it seemed like there was somebody on first whenever he came up, and I rolled a three column every time.  Arcia did lead the NL in GIDP in 2020, and after getting off to an .091 start in 2021 the Brewers unloaded him to Atlanta, where he has thrived, making the All Star team last season.   I’m sure he was also pleased that he dropped to 25th place in GIDP to stay out of contention for the lead in that dubious category, but in the unlikely event I ever play the 2020 Brewers again…..he’s bunting.     

REGIONAL #230:  This draw proved to be an eclectic one, with one of the last teams from the 1920s included, as well as representatives from the 80s, 90s, 00s, and the pandemic.   There was a pennant winner here in the 2003 Marlins, and there was also a Marlins team from the year following their prior pennant–a team that I remembered being almost immediately disassembled.  There was also another pair in the poker hand, this one from the Orioles, although I didn’t expect big things from either.  In trying to remember what other teams might be competitive, I knew that the White Sox entry was from a ebb between good teams in the early 80s and early 90s, and I doubted that they would survive the Sox jinx; there was a Cardinals team from the year before McGwire’s record setting that was probably pretty good, and a Padres team that had won a pennant a few years earlier.  I suspected that the 1927 Braves would get demolished by this competition, so as far as predictions go I went with the pennant winning Marlins over the Cards in the final.  The ELO ratings portrayed the ‘03 Marlins as the only really good team in the group, picking them over the 1999 version of the Orioles.

First round action

One season after winning the World Series, the 1998 Marlins managed to pull off a collapse not seen since Connie Mack’s A’s, losing 108 games; the squad jettisoned about three quarters of it’s lineup and rotation, and what was left of the latter was gruesome, with Kurt Ojala (2-7, 4.25) the least terrible options.  The 1997 Cardinals were the #3 seed in the bracket even though they only went 73-89, but they looked better on cardstock with a late season acquisition of Mark McGwire, who hit 24 homers in 174 ABs for the Cards, and a strong rotation fronted by a pair of Benes’s, with Andy (10-7, 3.10) getting the nod over his younger brother.  The game is scoreless until the top of the 4th, when Ray Lankford crushes a solo shot to put the Cards ahead, but the Marlins tie it with smallball as Edgar Renteria squibs a single past 1B-2 McGwire, advances on a bunt, and races home on a single from Dave Berg.  The pitchers remain in control until the top of the 9th, when the Cards get two aboard and Royce Clayton doubles to score one, but the stop sign goes up for slow-footed Gary Gaetti with just one out.  The Marlins counter with reliever Matt Mantei and bring the infield in, which works as Gaetti is out at the plate trying to score on a Willie McGee grounder.  Nonetheless, the Cards hold the one run lead entering the bottom of the 9th and it’s up to Benes to close things out, but the first batter Mark Kotsay doubles off the pitcher’s card to put the tying run in scoring position.  Tony Larussa eyes Dennis Eckersley in the pen but all he can see is that solid 5-9 homer, so he sticks with his starter and he strands Kotsay at second for the 2-1 as the Cards squeak into the semifinal with no help whatsoever from Big Mac.

One of the last pre-war teams left in the tournament, the 60-94 1927 Braves had the look of a deadball era squad, with five .300 hitters in the lineup but with their leading home run hitter, the legendary Jack Fournier, barely clearing double digits with 10.  Their pitching was not great either, with Joe Genewich (11-8, 3.83) their top option.  They had to go against the #2 seed in the bracket, the 1999 Orioles, a steroid era team where only one players in the lineup hit fewer homers than Fournier.  Although they only went 78-84, that was six games under their projection, and BJ Surhoff got MVP votes while Mike Mussina (18-7, 3.50) was the Cy Young runner-up.  The O’s get a run in the bottom of the 1st when Will Clark doubles and Albert Belle singles him home; in the 3rd they pile on, starting with a 2-run homer by Brady Anderson and then a sac fly from Belle and a 2-out RBI single from Jeff Conine makes it 5-0.  Genewich then gets injured in the bottom of the 5th, and George Mogridge comes in and retaliates by injuring Belle for 6 games, basically knocking him out of the tournament.  Fournier gets the Braves on the board in the 6th by doubling and eventually scoring on an Eddie Moore sac fly; in the 8th they start going to town on Mussina, and RBI doubles from Jimmie Welsh and Shanty Hogan make it a one run game with Hogan in scoring position on only one out.  The O’s check the pen and see a lot of steroid-era relievers that allow longballs, so they stick with their ace and he gets the final outs so Mussina enters the 9th trying to protect the narrow lead.  The top of the 9th begins with C-1 Charles Johnson dropping a popup to put the tying run aboard, and with two away Dick Burrus singles that runner to 3rd; Doc Farrell then rips a grounder to second, and I had forgotten to bring in a defensive replacement for 2B-4 Delino Deshields, but amazingly Delino scoops it up and tosses to Conine for the final out as the Orioles sneak into the semifinals with the 5-4 win, but without their top HR threat for the remainder of the regional.

The top-seeded 2003 Marlins won 91 games and managed to win the World Series from a wild-card berth, with a lineup boasting four guys getting MVP votes and a deep rotation fronted by Mark Redman (14-9, 3.59).  They faced the 2001 Padres, who were a mediocre 79-83 and unfortunately the two Hall of Famers they could put in the lineup, Tony Gwynn and Rickey Henderson, were both over 40, and their steroid-era rotation meant that swingman Brian Lawrence (5-5, 3.45) was the least likely to need assistance from closer Trevor Hoffman.  The Marins waste no time asserting themselves in the top of the 1st with a three-run homer by Derrek Lee and a solo shot from rookie Miguel Cabrera providing a large lead before most Padres fans were in their seats.  Things don’t go much better in the 2nd, as a two-out two-base error by Padres 3B-4 Phil Nevin gives him two errors for the game and scores two runs.  At this point the Pads see no point to save Hoffman for anything and he ends the inning with his team losing 6-0.  That seems to inspire San Diego somewhat, as Mark Kotsay leads off the bottom of the inning with a homer to get them on the board.  However, the beating continues in the 3rd, with Juan Encarnacion recording a 2-run triple; the Juan-two punch continues as he scores on a Juan Pierre single, and the AA Pierre swipes second and scores on a Mike Lowell single that makes it 10-1.  In the 5th, Luis Castillo drives a triple past Padres RF-4 Bubba Trammell to score two more; he scores on a Lee single and the Marlins then load the bases for Encarnacion, who clears them with a double and it’s now 16-1.  The Padres get a couple of runs in the bottom of the 5th on RBI hits from Ryan Klesko and Ray Lankford, but with the score 16-3 after five the Marlins decide to avoid injuries with some wholesale substitutions, and one of them, Ramon Castro, adds a two-run homer to give Hoffman 12 runs allow in his four innings pitched.  Klesko posts a sac fly in the bottom of the 6th in response, but Castilo cranks out a 2-run single in the 7th to make things even more lopsided.  In the 8th Alex Gonzalez somehow locates a split HR on reliever Jay Witasick’s 3-2 roll, and he converts it with two out for a three-run shot that caps off a remarkable 23-4 win for the Marlins, crushing the previous record (17) for runs scored by a team in the first round of this tournament.

The last game of the first round in the bracket was between two bad teams, the pandemic-year 2020 Orioles and the 1988 White Sox, who were more plagued by my Sox jinx than by viruses.  The Orioles went 25-35 and had a few pandemic-fueled oddities, like the .373 batting average of SS Jose Iglesias and a bevy of dominating relievers, and fortunately for them their best starter was also their most used, so Alex Cobb (2-5, 4.30) would get the start.  Meanwhile, the Sox lost 90 games with few threats in the lineup other than Carlton Fisk, although the rotation was okay with veteran Jerry Reuss (13-9, 3.44) getting the first round start.  In the top of the 1st, Anthony Santander goes deep with a 2-run shot that knocks a few bricks off decaying old Comiskey Park, and after a walk Reuss is injured and knocked out of the game, with Shawn Hillegas coming in to end a bad inning.  The Sox do respond in the bottom of the 1st when Harold Baines doubles and scores on a Fisk single that cuts the deficit to 2-1, but in the 4th the O’s begin the inning with a double and a triple off Hillegas’s card, and then Rio Ruiz hits a 2-run moonshot to make it 5-1 Baltimore.  The Sox respond again in the bottom of the inning with a leadoff homer from Daryl Boston and another run scores on a grounder by Ozzie Guillen, and it’s back to a two run game.  When Baines doubles to lead off the 8th, the Orioles decide to make use of their strong bullpen and Dillon Tate comes in to retire three straight, with all rolls on his card.   By the top of the 9th, Sox closer Bobby Thigpen is burnt for the regional so Jeff Bittiger comes in to yield an RBI single to Ryan Mountcastle to give the O’s additional insurance, but Tate doesn’t need any as he closes out the 6-3 win that sends a second Baltimore team to the semifinals and another Sox team back to the storage drawers.

The survivors

This resembled a traditional elimination tournament semifinal with the #2 seeded 1999 Orioles and the #3 seeded 1997 Cardinals matched up.  Although the O’s were the higher rated team, they had lost their top HR hitter Albert Belle to injury, and the remainder of their rotation looked like victims of the steroid era, with Juan Guzman (5-9, 4.18) hoping to keep the ball in the park.  Meanwhile, the Cards were at full strength and would be pitching their second Benes brother in a row, Alan (9-9, 2.89) as part of a strong rotation.  In the 3rd, the bat of big Mark McGwire comes alive for a long two-run homer and a Cardinals lead, but from there the starters look strong.  However, in the top of the 8th two walks and a squib single load the bases for Cards #9 hitter C Mike Difelice, but Guzman walks him also to drive in a run, and then Delino Deshields, who is in the starting lineup for both teams, triples to break the game open.  Meanwhile, Benes outshines the fine first round performance of his older brother, and completes the 4-hit shutout to send the Cards to the finals with the 6-0 win.  

The world champion 2003 Marlins scored a tournament-record 23 runs in their first round win, and they didn’t think they would need that many to handle the #7 seeded 2020 Orioles, who because of pandemic-year constraints would have to start John Means (2-4, 4.53) who was blessed with two solid and one split HR result on his card.  Meanwhile, the Marlins would have Rookie of the Year Dontrelle Willis (14-6, 3.30) going for them to add to the imbalance.  However, the underdog Orioles threaten in the bottom of the 1st when Rio Ruiz smacks a two-out double and 1-12+2 Jose Iglesias heads for home, but the split die comes up 20 and the inning is over.  Turnabout is fair play, so in the 2nd the Marlins get hit when 1-15 Juan Encarnacion heads for home on a Pudge Rodriguez double but is nailed with the 16 split; Pudge himself does make it home when Marlins 1B-4 Pat Valaika boots a Miguel Cabrera grounder.  When Jeff Conine doubles on a missed HR split, the Marlins are afraid to tempt the split die with the 1-13 Cabrera with only one out, but Means strands the two runners in scoring position to limit the damage to the one unearned run.  In the 3rd, Derrek Lee converts a HR 1-14 split for a 2-run shot, and then Encarnacion goes back to back by finding one of Means’ solid HR results to make it 4-0 Florida.  In the 6th, the O’s immediate go to their killer pen as soon as they are able, with Tanner Scott’s 1.31 ERA taking over, and he holds the Marlins offense at bay, while in the 6th Hanser Alberto converts a HR split on Willis for a solo shot to get the O’s on the board.  And although the Baltimore bullpen allows just one hit and no runs over the last four innings, the Marlins’ starter is what you talkin’ bout Willis as he finishes out the 4-1 win while holding the O’s to seven hits.  

The regional final was also the Zoom game of the week as I led the top seeded 2003 Marlins, who had scored 27 runs in their first two rounds, again TT and the #3 seed 1997 Cardinals, who had allowed only one run in their two games.  These two good clubs both had decent number three starters ready to go, Matt Morris (12-9, 3.19) for the Cards and Josh Beckett (9-8, 3.04) for the Marlins, but it quickly doesn’t look like a pitching duel; the second batter of the game homers in the form of the Cards’ Ray Lankford, and then Juan Encarnacion singles in a run in the bottom of the 1st to make it 1-1.  The Cards unleash a barrage of hits in the top of the 2nd and load the bases for Lankford with two out, and he rips his first of three doubles to clear the bases and when the dust settles it’s 5-1 St. Louis.  But this Marlins team has proven itself capable of scoring, and Miguel Cabrera drives in a run in the 3rd to narrow the gap to 5-2; Royce Clayton knocks one in for the 5th but Encarnacion matches that in the bottom of the inning and after five it’s 6-3.  By now the Marlins have tired of Beckett and closer Ugueth Urbina is summoned, and he yields a 2-run homer to Mark McGwire in the 6th, but Mike Lowell answers again with a three-run shot of his own in the bottom of the inning and the Cards’ lead is cut to 8-6.  But St. Louis continues to rough up Urbina, getting some RBI from John Mabry and Mike Difelice in addition to another 2-run shot from Big Mac, and although Marlins PH Ramon Castro knocks a solo homer in the bottom of the 9th, it’s not enough as Morris scatters 14 hits to record the complete game 12-8 victory and the Cards record their 14th regional win, making them one of the most successful franchises in this tournament.

Interesting card of Regional #230:  Those of you paying close attention may have noticed that creating homebrew Strat cards (basic only, old-school style, thank you) is a long-standing hobby of mine, and one of the challenges faced in creating cards is getting all results to fit into the three columns.  You see, split results and the LOMAX outcome take up four lines each, groundballs, X-chart results each take up two, and injury results add another line; you put enough of those into one column and they just won’t fit.   So, for some players it resembles a game of Tetris trying to get things to come out cleanly, but I have to say that 1997 Mark McGwire does not suffer from that problem.  I think he has more white space on the bottom of his three columns than any Basic card I’ve seen, and by this point in the tournament I’m pretty close to having seen them all.   Big Mac pretty much has the minimum; there is the obligatory LOMAX and injury, and he has to have two grounders to fit his ++ results in somewhere, but other than that, it’s pretty straightforward.  It’s either going to be a walk, a strikeout, or a solid homer, no need to burn up your ink supply on this guy.  Mac was picked up later in this season by the Cards, and as you can see he brought his nutritional supplements with him from Oakland, hitting homers at a torrid pace that he obviously continued into the next season to break Maris’s record.  But this pickup worked nicely for the Cards in this regional, as Mac hit three two-run homers in the three games to help St. Louis capture their 14th regional win in this tournament.

REGIONAL #229:  There were two teams that stood out to me in the draw for this group:  the pennant-winning Astros from the year before last, and a Nationals team that was a few years from their first pennant.  Another that stood out was one of the last entries from the 1970s, a Braves team that was one of two representatives, and there were also two version of the Reds, and I didn’t think that any of the four would be all-time greats.  I thought the Bay Area might produce a dark horse, as there was an A’s team in the declining years of the Moneyball experiment and a Giants team that might have been decent, but my money was on the Astros to best the Nats in the finals.  For a change, the ELO rankings sized up the regional very similarly to my blind guesses, and predicted the same outcome.

First round action

The bracket kicks off with a matchup between two competitive entries, the #2 seeded 2006 A’s and the #4 seed 2011 Braves.   The A’s won the AL West with 93 wins but were denied a pennant in the ALCS; it was a bit jarring to see their primary offensive weapon, Frank Thomas, with “Oakland” printed on his card, but he was good for 39 homers which got him 4th place in the MVP vote, and Barry Zito (16-10, 3.83) was by far the best starter on the staff.  The Braves won 89 games to finish 2nd in the NL East; they had 7 guys in the lineup with double-digit homers and a killer bullpen to support a rotation fronted by Tim Hudson (16-10, 3.22).  In contrast to what he usually does when playing for my White Sox, Thomas makes his presence felt in the bottom of the 1st with a long solo homer for a 1-0 Oakland lead, but the Braves immediately tie it in the 3rd when a Martin Prado double sets up a sac fly from Alex Gonzalez.  Dan Uggla leads off the 6th with a homer to put the Braves ahead, and after two outs Jason Heyward connects off Zito’s card for another, sending the A’s to the pen for closer Huston Street as they feel the game slipping away from them.  Uggla leads off the 8th and again he homers, and in the 9th Chipper Jones connects for Atlanta’s fourth solo homer of the game, while Hudson locks down his former teammates to finish out a 6-hitter as the Braves move on with the 5-1 win.  

It’s a top seed vs bottom seed matchup with two teams from the same season, the world champion 2022 Astros and the cellar-dwelling 2022 Reds.  The Astros were no fluke, winning 106 games and sweeping the ALDS and ALCS, and they had three players in the top 10 in MVP voting in Yordan Alvarez (#3), Jose Altuve (#5), and Justin Verlander (#10), and another three–Alex Bregman, Kyle Tucker, and Framber Valdez–also receiving votes.  Verlander (18-4, 1.75) was the runaway winner of the Cy Young award, and in the unlikely even that he got into trouble there was a killer bullpen ready to help out.  Meanwhile, over in the NL the Reds were losing 100 games and seemed to value quantity over quality as it looked like they gave playing time to half of the city of Cincinnati in an effort to find someone that could hit over .210, and although Hunter Greene (5-13, 4.44) had one heck of a strikeout card it didn’t seem to help him win many games.  The Astros don’t waste any time, as in the top of the 1st Altuve doubles and Alvarez then cracks a 2-run homer for a quick lead.  However, the Reds get it back in the 2nd when a Joey Votto double is followed by a 2-base error from Houston SS-2 Jeremy Pena that scores two, but in the 4th Pena atones with a long solo homer to put the Astros back on top.  In the 5th Yuli Gurriel doubles and Michael Brantley singles him home to stretch the lead, but Jake Fraley makes it a one-run game in the bottom of the 8th with a solo homer and the nervous Astros have activity in the pen but for the time being decide to stick with their ace.   He yields a single to Mike Moustakas in the bottom of the 9th but the Reds can’t take advantage so the Astros barely survive the 4-3 win; Greene wins the strikeout battle over Verlander 13 to 8, but Verlander wins the war.

The 1976 Braves were one of the last remaining teams from the 70s to take their shot in this tournament, and they weren’t a particularly good example as they lost 92 games with limited offense, although they had a couple of good starting pitchers including Andy Messersmith (11-11, 3.04), who had just signed with the Braves after successfully challenging baseball’s reserve clause over the previous winter.   They faced an equally bad 88-loss 2008 Reds team, who had Rookie of the Year runner-up Joey Votto contributing power but only had one good starter in the rotation, Edinson Volquez (17-6, 3.21), who finished 4th in the Rookie of the Year ballots. Things go smoothly for the pitchers until the top of the 4th, when the Braves open with a pair of hits and then Ken Henderson singles in a run; Rowland Office then misses a HR split and the 1-15 Henderson is nailed at the plate for the first out of the inning.  Office scores on a Rod Gilbreath fielder’s choice and the Braves stake Messersmith to a 3-0 lead.  In the 6th, Office continues working with an RBI single that gets under the glove of SS-3 Jeff Keppinger, but in the bottom of the inning Votto finally gets the Reds on the board with a 2-run homer that makes it 4-2 Atlanta.  The Braves respond in the 7th as Jim Wynn cannons an RBI single past 1B-3 Votto, and when Willie Montanez adds a double the Reds finally see no option but to go to Jeremy Affeldt as the best of a bad bullpen; he strands runners on 2nd and 3rd to keep the Reds in the game.  Bad Braves fielding helps the Reds load the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the 8th; PH Jerry Hairston Jr. drives in one on a sac fly, but Messersmith escapes without further damage.  In the top of the 9th, Wynn proves he’s no toy cannon with a long solo homer with two outs to provide insurance, but it’s not needed as Messersmith goes through the Reds 1-2-3 to seal the 6-3 win and the Braves move on.   

For the Zoom game of the week, it was only natural that Natsfan manage a good 2017 Nationals team that won 97 games and the NL East, with half of their lineup getting MVP votes in Anthony Rendon, Bryce Harper, Daniel Murphy and Ryan Zimmerman, and Max Scherzer (16-6, 2.51) winning the Cy Young award with two other Nats starters also receiving votes.  With no other takers I manned the helm of the 2011 Giants, who went 86-76 with a less imposing offense, although Pablo Sandoval got some MVP support and their rotation was excellent with Tim Lincecum (13-14, 2.74) 6th in the Cy Young votes despite posting a losing record.  The matchup had the feel of a pitching duel, but the Nats scored a pair in the bottom of the second with Howie Kendrick and Adam Lind driving in runs, and Michael Taylor added a long solo homer in the 3rd to make it 3-0 Washington.  However, after that Lincecum was dominant, allowing only one hit, and in the 4th the Giant rallied to try to catch up, getting runners on 1st and 3rd with key offensive cog Sandoval at the plate.   However, Sandoval rolls a gbA + injury, and although a run scores it kills the rally and knocks the Giants’ main weapon out of the game.  Scherzer continues to pitch strong, but in the top of the 9th a walk and a double puts the tying run in scoring position with nobody out, and Natfan nervously makes a call to the pen for Sean Dolittle–and he does a lot, squelching the rally to strand both runners and the Nats head to the semifinals with a 3-1 win despite only recording four hits against the Giants’ pitching.

The survivors

For this semifinal the bracket favorite 2022 Astros had the 5th place finisher for the Cy Young, Framber Valdez (17-6, 2.82) available to go, while the 2011 Braves countered with Tommy Hanson, whose few hits on his card tended to go a long way.  Thing start out a little rough for Houston as RF-1 Kyle Tucker makes a two-base error on the first roll of the game, and then a rattled Valdez yields two walks off his card to load the bases for Brian McCann; McCann rolls a HR 1-14 but misses the split for the slam, although all three runners score on the resulting double and McCann scores on a Martin Prado single to stake the Braves to a big lead.  Dan Uggla adds to the lead with a 2-out RBI double in the 4th, although Yordan Alvarez gets that run back with a solo shot in the bottom of the inning to try to get Houston launched.  In the top of the 5th, a single by Alex Gonzalez and a double from Jack Wilson and the Astros have seen enough of Valdez, who did whiff nine in 4+ innings of work, and try Ryne Stanek’s 1.15 ERA to quell the threat.  It makes no difference as Michael Bourn drives in both runners with a sharp single and Atlanta’s lead expands to 7-1.  McCann drives in another run in the 6th with an RBI single, and although the Astros try to make some noise in the 9th and score on a passed ball by C-2 Brian McCann, it is to no avail as the Braves send the top seed back to the drawers with an 8-2 win as Hanson mmmbops the Astros to the tune of six hits allowed with nine strikeouts.

The 1976 Braves were trying to be the second Atlanta squad to pull off a semifinal upset and make it an all-Braves final, but they had their work cut out for them going against a strong 2017 Nationals team and an imposing Stephen Strasburg (15-4, 2.52), third in the Cy Young voting but only second in the rotation.  The Braves would counter with knuckleballer Phil Niekro (17-11, 3.29), who did manage to lead the league in wild pitches although fortunately for him that would not be a factor under Basic rules.  The Nats don’t get a hit until the #9 batter comes up in the bottom of the 3rd, when C Matt Wieters converts a HR 1-6 split for a solo shot, but in the 5th Vic Correll, also the #9 hitter and also the catcher, also hits a solo shot and the game is tied.  But Strasburg gets stronger as the game progresses, and it enters the 9th with the teams still knotted at one apiece.  Strasburg blows through the Braves in the top of the inning, and Niekro quickly dispatches two batter, but with two out Anthony Rendon misses his HR 1-2 split but still ends up as the winning run in scoring position with a double.  Daniel Murphy steps to the plate and singles, and the 1-15+2 Rendon heads home for the win.  The split roll:  17, Rendon slides under the tag of backup catcher Dale Murphy and the Nats head to the finals with a 2-1 win, with Strasburg fanning 10 and the Braves still arguing about the call at the plate.  

The regional final was also the Zoom game of the week as Natsfan reprised his management of the #3 seeded 2017 Nationals while I took the #4 seeded 2011 Braves, since they had cruised through the first two rounds under my solitaire guidance.  Being good teams, they both had deep rotations with the Nats sending out Gio Gonzalez (15-9, 2.96) while the Braves had Jair Jurrgens (13-6, 2.96) on the mound.  Things start out rough for the Braves, as in the bottom of the 1st their SS-2 Alex Gonzales commits a two-base error to lead things off, putting Trea Turner in position to score on a Michael Taylor single and the Nats lead before the Braves can record an out.  Jurgens gets out of the jam and settles down, at least until the next time Taylor is up in the 3rd, as the Nats CF pokes a solo shot to extend their lead to 2-0.  Bryce Harper adds another solo homer in the 6th, and the Braves try Eric O’Flarety in relief but it matters not as Gonzalez is in control; at least until the 8th, when the Braves get runners on 1st and 3rd and Natsfan signals for Matt Albers to quell the threat; he whiffs two in a row and it’s all over but the credits as the Nationals limit the Braves to three hits to win 3-0, capturing their 4th bracket as Washingtonians to join another four regional wins as the Expos. For this Nats team, it was clearly their pitching that carried them, as they only managed 8 runs and 13 hits total across the three games of the regional.

Interesting card of Regional #229:  For this group I followed the nomination offered by a Facebook Strat group member, and will feature the first Strat card of the rookie backup catcher for the 1976 Atlanta Braves:  Dale Murphy.  Brought up at the end of the season for a cup of coffee, Murphy outhit the alternatives at catcher for a bad Braves team but had trouble with baserunners, with 70% of attempted steals against him being successful; this earned him a +1 catchers arm from Strat in one of the first seasons to include such ratings. The following season he began in the minors and his throwing woes continued; ultimately the Braves brought him up at the end of the season to try again, and things behind the plate went even worse.  Shifting him to 1B for the 1979 season worked a bit better, but it was the move to CF in 1980 where everything, both offensively and defensively, began to come together.  He received MVP votes that season, won back-to-back MVPs in ‘82 and ‘83, won back-to-back NL HR titles in ‘84 and ‘85, but it’s a good thing that WTBS provided a chance to showcase his talents, because the Braves were a perennially bad team with Murphy as the main bright spot.  Murphy made only one appearance in the postseason, with the Braves eliminated in the NLCS in 1982.  Perhaps his lack of postseason credentials has played into his lack of success in consideration for the Hall of Fame, where he is one of only four multiple MVP-winners eligible but not enshrined; also hurting his candidacy were the batting statistics of the steroid era which made Murphy’s stats look pedestrian by comparison.   At any rate, he never received more than 23% of the necessary 75% of ballots, and he fell off the ballot in 2013, but he had a career of which any backup catcher should be proud. 

REGIONAL #228:  For the first time in a couple of regionals the draw included some 20th century teams, both of whom turned out to be Orioles.  There was also the second of the recent 2023 season squads to be drawn, this one the Padres who should be appreciably better than the Nationals that did surprisingly well in the previous bracket.  The closest thing to a pennant winner here were the Rays, three years after a pennant, and the ‘87 version of the Orioles who had won the AL four years previously; those teams might have been decent, but I was pretty uncertain about the rest of the entries.  I guessed that those ‘87 Orioles still had enough pitching left to make it to the finals, where I banked on a good performance by last season’s Padres to get them past two Baltimore teams on the way to the regional win.  The ELO rankings thought my pick of the Padres wasn’t bad, but had them going down to an apparently quite good Rays team in the finals.

First round action

The 2011 Rays were the bracket favorite, as the team won 91 games and made a brief postseason appearance as a wild card; they were led by MVP vote getters Evan Longoria and Ben Zobrist, with James Shields (16-12, 2.82) finishing 3rd for the Cy Young.  The 2001 Expos were the bottom seed with 94 losses and were busy looking for real estate in Washington DC, with Vlad Guerrero getting MVP votes as the lone offensive threat and a decent Javier Vazquez (16-11, 3.42) the sole bright spot in the rotation.  In the bottom of the 1st, Expos DH Mark Smith hits a 2-run homer en route to a three run inning that would have been worse if Vlad hadn’t hit into a double play.  They extend their lead to 4-0 in the 3rd when Orlando Cabrera triples and then scores on a single by Jose Vidro, and when the Expos lead off the 6th with two walks the Rays can smell the storage drawers awaiting them, so they call upon closer Kyle Farnsworth and on his first pitch Expos C Michael Barrett is injured for the rest of the tournament and the next two hitters go down meekly.  Meanwhile Vazguez is dominating, but Casey Kotchman leads off the top of the 9th for the Rays by missing Vazguez’s HR split and doubling; two batters later Sean Rodriguez doesn’t miss his own HR split and puts it in the stands to make it a 2-run game.  When PH Justin Ruggiano pokes a single past 1B-3 Lee Stevens to bring up the top of the order with the tying run at the plate, Montreal has to accept that Vazquez has nothing left and Scott Strickland is brought in.  A 6-5 roll follows, homer on Vazquez, but a whiff on Strickland and that’s two away.  Desmond Jennings singles to put the go-ahead run in the batters box in the form of Longoria, but he grounds out harmlessly and the Expos pull off the 1 vs 8 seed upset with the 4-2 win and move on.  

The 2006 Rangers were the third seed in this bracket, and despite an 80-82 record they had a formidable lineup in which everyone had a SLG% greater than .400, with Mark Teixeira and Carlos Lee hitting over 30 homers yet it was Gary Matthews Jr. and Michael Young that received MVP votes.  However, their rotation was a sore spot, with Vincente Padilla (15-10, 4.50) hoping for a lot of run support.  I had thought that the 1987 Orioles might be better than they turned out to be, as they lost 95 games despite having some big names like Cal Ripken, Eddie Murray, and Fred Lynn, plus Mike Boddicker (10-12, 4.18) on the hill.  The Rangers quickly flex their muscle, as in the top of the 1st Lee misses Boddicker’s HR split for a double, but then Teixeira leaves no doubt with a solid blast on his own card for a 2-0 lead.  The O’s look like they’re ready to respond in the bottom of the inning, but 1-12+2 Jim Dwyer is nailed at the plate on a Murray double to kill the rally and end the inning.  Baltimore does make it a one run game on a solo shot from Larry Sheets in the 4th, and meanwhile Boddicker is at his craftiest and shuts down the Rangers.  When Ken Gerhart knocks a one-out single in the 9th, the nervous Rangers bring in closer Akinori Otsuka to preserve the lead, and he retires Sheets and Murray to send the game to the 9th with Texas clinging to the one-run advantage.  In the top of the inning, Lee crushes a Boddicker mistake for a solo shot to provide a little padding for Otsuka, who watches the pad evaporate when Ripken leads off the bottom of the 9th with a homer.  Lynn then singles to put the tying run aboard, followed by an error from SS-3 Michael Young and now the winning run is at 1st with still nobody out.  Ray Knight then rips an RBI single off Otsuki’s card, and the game is tied with the winning run at third–still nobody out.  The infield comes in for Gerhart; SI 1-10, he misses the split for a lineout, one away.  Infield still in for Billy Ripken, it’s a roll on his card for gbA, followed by those little ++s and the ball goes through the infield for the game-winning RBI as the Orioles pull off the come-from-behind, walk-off 4-3 win and Boddicker gets the win with a 6-hitter.  

The second of the most current season teams to participate in the tournament, the 2023 Padres were also the second seed in this regional, as although their record was a mediocre 82-80 that was 10 games under their Pythagorean projection.  They boasted a defense with four 1s and two 2s, a lineup with MVP vote-getters Juan Soto, Ha-Seong Kim and Fernando Tatis Jr., and the NL Cy Young in Blake Snell (14-9, 2.25).  They were matched against the #4 seed in the 1992 Orioles, who had a much better record at 89-73 but that was three wins over their projection; on paper they weren’t quite the match for the Padres in any category, although Brady Anderson got some MVP votes and Mike Mussina (18-5, 2.54) finished 4th in for the Cy Young, setting up a quality pitching matchup.  Soto finds the stands in the bottom of the 1st for a 1-0 Padres lead, which holds up until the top of the 6th when Mike Devereaux singles with two out and pinch runner Mark McLemore (1-16+2) slides under the tag with a 17 split to tie the game.   Briefly, it turns out, as in the bottom of the inning Kim leads off with a walk, steals second, and scores on a Xander Bogaerts base hit.  In the 8th Kim walks again and steals his third base of the game, and scores on a Soto single to provide Snell with an insurance run; Snell gets two quick outs but then walks two to put the go ahead run at the plate, but 2B-1 Kim makes a highlight reel defensive play (a 1 split) for the third out and the Padres move on with the 3-1 win with Snell fanning 10 in a 5-hitter.

For the Zoom game of the week, it would be Eaglesfly directing his hometown 2002 Blue Jays, while ColavitoFan gamely agreed to manage the 2022 Cubs so that I wouldn’t have to watch them do well just to spite me.  The Jays were ELO favorites despite an unimpressive 78-84 record, as the lineup had some pop led by Carlos Delgado, while Roy Halladay (19-7, 2.93) was entering his prime.  On the other hand, the main reaction from the group to the lineup for the 74-88 Cubs was “who are these guys?”, although they had decent defense and a pretty good rotation fronted by former Blue Jay Marcus Strohman (6-7, 3.50).  Both pitchers handle the first pass through the lineups, with Halladay dominating and Strohman repeatedly getting pegged for doubles off his card, but then stranding the runner.  However, in the bottom of the 4th Halladay issues a couple of walks, and then CF-2 Vernon Wells misplays a Christopher Morel single to allow a run to score, and Patrick Wisdom manages to find a flyball B in a column of strikeouts for a sac fly and a two-run Cubs lead.  The Jays continue to mount threats against Strohman but time after time he escapes unscathed, until the game reaches the top of the 9th and after yielding a single ColavitoFan gets nervous about Strohman’s HR result that the Jays had been dancing around all game.  So, with one out and the tying run at the plate one Scott Effross is summoned from the pen, and he immediate induces the double play ball to wrap up the 2-0 shutout as Cubs win, Cubs win, despite a four-hitter from Halladay who is reportedly unhappy about the level of run support he’s been getting from Eaglesfly in this tournament.

The survivors

This semifinal featured two upset winners from round one, with both the 2001 Expos and the 1987 Orioles defeating teams that were far more highly rated.   Now the teams had to come up with something past their #1 starter; for the Orioles that was a pretty good swingman in Dave Schmidt (10-5, 3.77) while the Expos would try Tony Armas Jr. (9-14, 4.03) in the hopes that his dad might bolster their outfield.  The Orioles strike first in the bottom of the 2nd when Terry Kennedy launches a solo shot, and they add a couple more runs in the 3rd on RBI singles from Larry Sheets and Eddie Murray.  The Expos get on the board in the 4th when O’s C-4 Kennedy is charged with a passed ball with a runner on third, but from there both pitchers are in control.  But Expos PH Tim Raines leads off the top of the 9th with a single, and with one out RF-3 Jim Dwyer makes a two-base error to put the tying run in scoring position.  The O’s stick with Schmidt, and he strikes out PH Curtis Pride for the second out to bring up Orlando Cabrera, who already has two hits for the game.  The O’s leaf through their pen but their best reliever is probably already on the mound, so Schmidt delivers to Cabrera, who rips a 2-run single off the pitcher’s card to tie the game.  Schmidt finally gets the third out, Armas sets Baltimore down in order, and we head to extra innings.  Both pitchers get through their last inning of eligibility in the 10th, and so the game now becomes a test of bad bullpens.  For the O’s, it’s another swingman in Mark Williamson, and he gets into trouble quickly with a Geoff Blum single followed by consecutive errors on C-4 Kennedy and 1B-2 Murray that load the bases with one out.  Williamson gets Cabrera to fly out and the runner on third holds, but then Jose Vidro grounds one back to Williamson who drops it for the 3rd Oriole error of the inning and the Expos take a one-run edge into the bottom of the 11th.  In comes reliever Scott Strickland vying for his second straight save of the regional against the heart of the Baltimore order; down goes Sheets and Murray, but with two out Cal Ripken singles to bring up Fred Lynn.  Lynn rolls his 1-7:  HR 1-11/DO, and he misses the split but Ripken (1-14+2) is charging for home with the tying run, and he’s safe. Strickland retires Kennedy, and the game heads to the 12th inning.  Williamson holds serve in the top of the 12th; Strickland whiffs Ray Knight to begin the bottom of the inning to face defensive replacement Ken Gerhart.  And the roll is a 1-9, HR 1-19 and Gerhart doesn’t miss this split for a walk off homer as the Orioles post a wild 5-4 win and head to the finals despite committing 5 errors.

The #2 seeded 2023 Padres were the top remaining team in the semifinal round, and after sending out a Cy Young winner in round one they were able to follow up with a solid Michael Wacha (14-4, 3.22).  The 2022 Cubs may have been the #6 seed but their rotation was better than their record would suggest and Justin Steele (4-7, 3.18) was a decent option as well.  The Padres power to a quick 2-0 lead on a 2-run homer from Gary Sanchez in the top of the 1st, and they eke out another run on a Ha-Seong Kim fielder’s choice in the 5th.  When Kim walks and steals second in the 8th, the Cubs move to Scott Effross out of the pen and he prevents any damage, and when Wacha walks two to begin the bottom of the inning it’s the Padres turn to test their pen in the form of closer Josh Hader and his 1.28 ERA.  He induces a quick DP and a whiff to end that threat as well, and both relievers blow through the 9th meaning that the Padres staff records a three-hit shutout in the 3-0 win to send them to the finals

I accurately predicted this regional final matchup between the 2023 Padres and the 1987 Orioles, which is a whole lot better than I’ve been doing at predicting the NCAA bracket this or any other year.   My picks for this regional were driven by ignorance, as I was not anticipating the O’s being a bad team who managed two walk-off wins to get here, nor did I necessarily think that the Padres would only average three runs a game but get to the finals by only allowing one run in the first two rounds combined.  Next up for the Padres rotation was a decent Seth Lugo (8-7, 3.57) while Baltimore’s John Habyan (6-7, 4.80) was not great but looked like Walter Johnson compared to their other remaining alternatives.  But the Orioles jump to a lead in top of the 3rd as Larry Sheets smacks a three-run homer and Fred Lynn adds an RBI double before the inning ends for a 4-0 lead  However, we play that again Sam as Xander Bogaerts raps a three-run shot in the bottom of the inning and Luis Campusano adds a sac fly and the game is tied heading into the 4th.  In the 5th the Padres take the lead on a squib RBI single by Manny Machado, and another run scores on an error by O’s C-4 Terry Kennedy that makes it 6-4.  Fred Lynn answers by leading off the 6th with a homer that makes it a one run game, and when Ray Knight singles the nervous Padres summon closer Josh Hader early to try to fend off the pesky birds and he strikes out the opposition.  However, in the top of the 7th an error by 3B-1 Machado sets up a Cal Ripken sac fly that ties the game, and the O’s bring in Mark Williamson for good luck to begin the 8th as he’d earned the relief win in the semifinal.  He proves to be lucky as Trent Grisham misses Williamson’s HR 1-10 split and gets stranded at second, and he also holds serve in the 9th to send the game to extra innings–but without Williamson, who has now burnt his eligibility for the regional.  Padres reliever Tom Cosgrove sets the O’s down in order in the top of the 10th, while Baltimore’s Jack O’Connor comes out of the pen and handles SD in the bottom of the inning.  In the top of the 11th Eddie Murray contributes a clutch two-out RBI single that puts the Orioles ahead, so it’s up to O’Connor in the bottom of the frame against the meat of the Padres order.  He starts out badly, waling Juan Soto and Gary Sanchez, and then Machado pokes a single and 1-13 Soto beats the throw home to tie the game, with the regional winning run now in scoring position with one out.  But O’Conner bears down and retires the side and the game heads to the 12th.  New Padres pitcher Joe Musgrove has to watch as a double bounces past LF-3 Soto and then 3B-1 Machado makes his second error of the game, setting up a 2-out Billy Ripken RBI single and the persistent Orioles lead once again.  And once again it’s up to O’Connor to try to close out the win, and once again he walks two but then gets two out and faces Gary Sanchez; he rolls a SI 1-4, the split is a 4 and the bases are loaded for Luis Campusano with two away.  The roll….5-4, HR 1-15, the split is a 6 and it’s game, set, and regional for the Padres on a walk off grand slam, and the dogs at Petco Park are howling about the 11-8 win and the bracket title.

Interesting card of Regional #228:  This card reflects the penultimate season for Tim Raines, who I think tended to be overshadowed during his career by Rickey Henderson so I was pleased to see Raines elected to the Hall of Fame in 2017.  This was an interesting season for Raines as he had not played at all the prior year after having been diagnosed with lupus during the 2019 season, and most felt that the 41 year old Raines was retired.  Although his efforts to sign with a team during 2000 were unsuccessful, he at least was inducted into the Expos Hall of Fame toward the end of the year, and during the ceremony he told the team owner he wanted a chance to play for the Expos once again.  Invited to spring training out of courtesy, he hit over .400 for the spring and made the team, and despite his declining speed and fielding skills, his card reveals that he was still an expert at getting on base.  With the Expos going nowhere, they sold him to the Orioles at the beginning of October which allowed him to join his son, becoming only the second father/son combination in MLB history to play together on the same team, playing four games together before the elder Raines was released at the end of the season.

REGIONAL #227:  For the second bracket in a row, all eight teams are post-2000 entries, and the more recent the team, it seems the less I remember about them.  I knew that the Rockies and the Cardinals were both three years away from a pennant, and having gone to a number of Astros games in 2011 I remembered them as terrible.  There was the first selection from my recently acquired 2023 set, the Nationals, and although I wasn’t certain my recollection was that they weren’t very good either.  Of the remainder, I thought maybe the Mets might have been decent (editorial note:  I totally forgot they won the NL pennant that season), so I blindly guessed that they would make it to the finals where they would be eliminated by the Cardinals, assuming the latter could get by the probably insane offense (albeit terrible pitching) of the Rockies.  The ELO rankings thought my picks weren’t bad, but suggested that I overlooked an Indians team that had the best ranking in the group, which surprised me given that their team from a few years afterward played in the prior regional and was pretty unimpressive (despite winning the bracket); still, the ELO ratings predicted that those Indians would top the Mets in the final.

First round action

This bracket had teams that were either pretty good or pretty bad, and this first round matchup featured two of the bad ones.  The 2023 Nationals were the first team selected from the recently arrived 2023 set, but not exactly a good example as they lost 91 games, and after consultation with obvious expert NatsFan during Friday Night Strat, it was agreed that Josiah Gray (8-13, 3.91) was the only starting pitcher worthy of a uniform, although there were some good-sounding names on the roster, such as Stone Garrett and Carter Kieboom, and Jake Alu was there trying to sneak in as a 4th brother but his spell-checker wasn’t working.  The Nats had nowhere near the offense of the 2004 Rockies, as might be expected when you combine the thin air and the steroid era, but that team lost 94 games despite getting MVP votes for Todd Helton, Jeromy Burnitz and Vinny Castilla, mainly because after Joe Kennedy (9-7, 3.66) the pitching staff was gruesome.   The leadoff hitter in the bottom of the 1st for the Nats, Lane Thomas, swats a triple, but Kennedy bears down and whiffs the next two batters to get to Keibert Ruiz; Ruiz swats a lazy grounder toward 1B-1 Helton, and he unexpectedly muffs it and Thomas crosses the plate for an unearned Washington lead.  Thomas continues his hot hand in the 2nd with a 2-out RBI single, and in the 3rd another 2-out run-scoring single from Dominic Smith makes it 3-0 Nats.  The Rockies get on the board in the 4th with a solo shot from Mark Sweeney, but once again in the bottom of the inning Kennedy can’t get the third out as a two-out RBI single by Joey Meneses extends the Nats lead to 4-1.  Two singles and the second error of the game by Nats SS-3 CJ Abrams (he later claims lens flares blinded him) loads the bases for Burnitz, who rips a grounder that Abrams can’t reach and two runs score.  Up steps Castilla, and he rips a double, Burnitz (1-13) beats the throw home, and the Rockies take the lead–briefly, as in the bottom of the inning Smith leads off with a double and he eventually scores on a squib single from Thomas to tie the game.  Both pitchers recover a bit, but a leadoff single in the 8th chases Gray for Hunter Harvey, who ends the inning uneventfully.  Thomas singles to lead off the bottom of the 8th, his 4th hit of the game, and the Rockies eye their pen and turn away in horror, figuring Kennedy would be better with a dead arm than the disasters waiting in the bullpen.  Garrett singles Thomas to 3rd and with nobody out, Abrams steps to the plate–and it’s the pitcher’s best friend, the dread LOMAX and the Rockies escape disaster with a triple play!  Neither team can score in the 9th, so the game heads to extra frames, and although Kennedy allows a leadoff double to Smith in the bottom of the 10th, he strands the runner and finishes his eligibility with a no decision.  Meanwhile, Harvey is burning his eligibility for the regional in the 11th, and he is dominating as he finishes out four hitless innings; Jamey Wright then comes in for the Rockies and he holds serve so the game moves to the 12th with the Nats handing the ball to Robert Garcia.  The Rockies are pleased to see a new pitch and greet him with a single and then a double that gets past LF-3 Garrett, so the go-ahead run is on third with one out and the infield comes in.  But Garcia whiffs Sweeney and Charles Johnson flies out, and when Nats 2B Luis Garcia is caught stealing for the second time in the game in the bottom of the inning, we move to an uneventful 13th.  However, in the bottom of the 14th, Garcia walks and finally succeeds in stealing second; with two out a squib single from Smith moves him to third and Ildemaro Vargas is at the plate.    It’s a 3-6 roll, a TR/DO split and Garcia trots home without getting caught as Vargas walks it off to seal the 14 inning, 5-4 win for the Nationals.  

The marquee game of the regional was the first round matchup between the two top seeds, the #1 2007 Indians and the #2 2001 Cardinals, and what better to serve as a Zoom game of the week with Cleveland’s own ColativoFan managing an Indians squad for the second week in a row, and Tall Tactician steering the Cards although as a Philadelphian expressing skepticism about having to include JD Drew in his lineup.  These Indians won 96 game and the AL Central, and led 3-1 in the ALCS before dropping three straight to lose out on the pennant; Victor Martinez and Grady Sizemore received MVP votes, as did Cy Young winner CC Sabathia (19-7, 3.21).   The Cardinals won 93 games themselves, making the postseason as a wildcard, and 21 year old Rookie of the Year Albert Pujols finished 4th for MVP, while Matt Morris (22-8, 3.16) came in 3rd in the Cy Young to two high-profile Diamondback starters.  So it seemed like a pitching duel would be in the cards, but the second batter of the game, Jason Michaels, converts his HR split to quickly put the Indians up, 1-0.  The vaunted defense of the Cards looks shaky in the early innings but Morris successfully gets out of some jams until the Indians seem to figure him out in the 5th, with an RBI double from Casey Blake, but Morris escapes a bases-loaded situation without further damage.  Still, a 2-0 lead is looking like plenty as CC stands for cruise control, and he racks up the strikeouts against names like Pujols, McGwire, and Edmonds.  Meanwhile, JD Drew, producing little and tiring of TT’s goading, suddenly develops a 5-game “injury” and he heads back to the card catalogs on his own.  In the top of the 8th Casey is at the bat again, and he lofts a solo shot to provide a little additional padding, but Sabathia seems confident that it won’t be necessary.  CC gets a little overconfident in the bottom of the 9th, when with one out and the bases empty McGwire launches a moon shot that may have cleared the Arch, but it is too little too late and Cleveland continues the winning ways they demonstrated in the previous bracket with a 3-1 win over their biggest obstacle in the regional.  

I distinctly remember going to several games of the 2011 Astros, actually holding allegedly “work meetings” at the Wednesday day games as tickets were quite easy to come by ; the team did remarkably well when we attended despite racking up 106 losses that season.  I remember watching a 21 year old rookie named Jose Altuve, who from the stands look like he was about the size of Eddie Gaedel and I did wonder whether this was some sort of Bill Veeck stunt designed to draw a bunch of walks; but Jose didn’t have a particularly spectacular start and there wasn’t a single walk on his Strat card that season.  The Astros did have Bud Norris (6-11, 3.77) as a competent starter who would face another bad team, the 2016 Reds, who lost 94 games but looked like a much better team.  The Reds had Joey Votto finishing 7th in MVP votes and although they only had three starting pitchers with at least 100 IP, all three had ERAs under four with Anthony DeSclafani (9-5, 3.28) getting the round one assignment.  The Reds lead off the bottom of the 1st with doubles from Sliding Billy Hamilton and Jose Peraza, and Peraza eventually scores on a Scott Schebler sac fly and it’s 2-0 Reds after one.  The Reds lose C Tucker Barnhardt in the 2nd to injury without much to replace him, and in the top of the 3rd the first pitch called by his replacement is deposited in the outfield stands by Jordan Schafer to make it a one run game.  Votto answers with a solo shot of his own in the bottom of the inning, , but the Astros load the bases up in the 4th for the youngster Altuve, who rips a 2-run double to tie the game with nobody out.  Humberto Quintero then strokes a 2-run single and the Astros charge in to the lead.  Not looking done yet, they reload the bases and the Reds decide to de-DeSclafani and hope Raisel Iglesias can get out of the jam, but one more run scores on a fielders choice and it’s now 6-3 Houston.  Things don’t look any better for the Reds when Hamilton slides his way into a seven game injury in the 5th, but they get a walk and a double in the 7th to chase Norris for closer Mark Melancon, who walks Votto to load the bases but whiffs Adam Duvall to end the threat.  Melancon holds off the Reds, and the Astros seek to preserve him for later rounds and let Wilton Lopez close out the 9th to seal the 6-3 win that sends the bracket’s bottom seed to the semifinals.  

The 2015 Mets were the #3 seed in this group according to the ELO ranks, even though they won 90 games and were the NL pennant winner, which totally slipped my mind.  They accomplished that with strong pitching, with Jacob deGrom (14-8, 2.54) finishing 7th in the Cy Young voting in his second season, although both the offense and defense from the starting lineup would improve significantly after the 5th inning once substitutions were allowed, while  Yoenis Cespedes was their top MVP vote getter as a mid-season acquisition with only 230 ABs.  They lost the Series that season to the Royals, but not the 2022 Royals that they would be facing here, as this team lost 97 games, with Brady Singer (10-5, 3.23) perhaps the lone bright spot on the team.  However, the first batter of the game, Juan Uribe, finds and converts Singer’s HR 1-18 split for an immediate lead, although C Travis d-Arnaud ends the inning hitting into a DP while getting injured for six games, leaving the Mets with the terrible Kevin Plawecki for the rest of the tournament.  In the bottom of the 3rd the Royals get three hits against deGrom but fail to score as 1-15 Kyle Isbel is cut down at the plate, and as the game goes on it looks like that may be the deciding roll as both pitcher just get stronger and stronger.  Singer strikes out 5 of the last 6 Mets batters of the game, but deGrom is untouchable, striking out the side in the bottom of the ninth to wrap up a 5-hit shutout, with three of the hits coming from bad Mets fielding.  So the Mets survive with the 1-0 win in which their total offense came on the first roll of the game.  

The survivors

For this semifinal, there was a huge gap in rankings between the bracket favorite 2007 Indians and the 91-loss 2023 Nationals, and that gap was well reflected in the difference between Cleveland’s identity-shifting Fausto Carmona (19-8, 3.06) who finished 4th for the Cy Young, and the Nats’ Jake Irvin (3-7, 4.61), whose bullpen was depleted in a 14-inning first round marathon.  But Carmona/Hernandez doesn’t look sharp as the Nats rap four straight singles, the 4th past RF-4 Trot Nixon to score two runs; Lane Thomas adds a 2-out RBI single but Stone Garrett ends the inning with a whiff and an injury that takes him out of the regional.  Meanwhile, Irvin is in fine form until the bottom of the 6th, when a 2-out rally culminates in a Ryan Garko RBI single; PH Ben Francisco then comes up with the bases loaded, rolls Irvin’s HR 1-3/flyB, but misses the split and the slam, and the Indians still trail by two entering the 7th.  In the 8th, Francisco comes up again with runners on, but this time he comes through with the RBI single and by crikey, no more Irvin as the Nats try Carl Edwards Jr., and he drives thru Grady Sizemore for the final out with Washington clinging to a one run lead entering inning nine.  The Indians also prove to be a nothingburger in the 9th, and the Nationals pull off the 3-2 upset while recording only 6 hits–5 of them in the second inning.  

The 2015 Mets were the top remaining seed in the bracket, although they had now made 27 straight outs without scoring a run; they were hoping that Matt Harvey (13-8, 2.71) could give them another shutout that would mean little offense would be necessary.  Fortunately for him, he would be facing the bottom seed of the bracket, the 2011 Astros, with Wandy Rodriguez (11-11, 3.49) a pretty decent second starter for a 106 loss team.  And it’s the Astros that take the early lead as Carlos Lee finds and converts Harvey’s HR split to lead off the top of the 2nd, and Clint Barmes adds a 2-out RBI squib single in the 3rd and it’s 2-0 Houston.  However, in the bottom of the inning a single and two walks loads the bases with one out for Yoenis Cespedes, and he rips a triple that gives the Mets the lead and he eventually scores on a 2-out Daniel Murphy single.  In the 5th, a double by Lee scores one run but the Astros hold 1-11 Matt Downs at third, and both he and Lee are stranded by Harvey so the Mets cling to the one run lead, at least until Curtis Granderson finds Rodriguez’s solid HR result to lead off the bottom of the inning.  In the 6th the Astros load the bases on three singles, two of them courtesy of bad fielding, but only score one run on a Brian Bogusevic sac fly and once again it’s a one run game.  When Carlos Lee leads off the 7th with his third hit of the game, the Mets begin to realize that these Astros aren’t going quietly and so closer Jeurys Familia is summoned to slam the door and he sets down the Astros in order.  In the bottom of the inning, Cespedes doubles in Granderson to go one homer shy of a cycle, and then David Wright singles him home, defensive replacement Ruben Tejada doubles to score Wright, and Mark Melancon comes in to pitch, only to be greeted by a Michael Conforto double past RF-3 Bogusevic that scores yet another.   That makes it 9-4 Mets after seven, and Familia is removed to save his arm and Tyler Clippard is brought in from a deep bullpen.  Clippard tosses two perfect innings and the Mets subdue the pesky Astros to move on to the finals.

It looked like a lopsided regional final, with the pennant-winning 2015 Mets against the 91-loss 2023 Nationals; the good news for the Nats was that Stone Garrett would be back from the DL for the game, while the Mets were still without the services of the injured C Travis D’Arnaud.  The bad news was that the Mets had Noah Syndergaard (9-7, 3.24) available to start against a much less impressive MacKenzie Gore (7-10, 4.42), and Yoenis Cespedes floats a lead for Noah with a long solo shot in the bottom of the 1st.  That lead quickly sinks as the Nats punch four hard singles in the 3rd that give them a 3-1 lead, and the Mets respond with a run on a Michael Cuddyer fielder’s choice in the 4th but they leave runners in scoring position and still trail by a run.  When backup catcher Kevin Plawicki singles to lead off the bottom of the 7th, the Nats move to Robert Garcia out of the bullpen, but he yields a single and a walk to load the bases for Cespedes with nobody out.  The infield comes in to try to preserve the lead, and Garcia whiffs Cespedes and Luke Duda and then Nats CF-2 Alex Call hauls in a long fly and the Mets again squander a huge opportunity.  In desperation, the Mets bring in closer Jeurys Familia to begin the 8th, and he holds serve until backup Mets 2B Kelly Johnson leads off the bottom of the 9th with a long homer that ties the game and sends Citi Field into pandemonium.  Curtis Granderson follows with a single, and Cespedes hits a very deep fly that sends Granderson to second while a Duda grounder outs him on 3rd as the winning run with two away and backup LF Michael Conforto at the plate.  Garcia delivers, and Conforto wraps it around the foul pole for a walk off homer and a 5-3 win, and the Mets become the first pennant winner in 20 brackets to successfully win their regional.  

Interesting card of Regional #227:  This card represents the performance of the leading MVP vote-getter for the pennant winning Mets, but one who only played in 35% of their games; I’m not certain if there has ever been a lower percentage among position players who were the top MVP candidates on a pennant winner.   Yoenis Cespedes became a bit of a sensation after defecting from Cuba in 2011, where he was an established star; he signed with the A’s and was runner-up for Rookie of the Year in 2012 after a strong season.  He became known for long homers, winning the Home Run Derby twice, and also for a cannon of an arm in the outfield (for you fans of the dark side of the Strat card, he had a -5 arm).  Even so, he ended up getting traded midseason in both 2014 and 2015, arriving with the Mets at the beginning of August, and shortly thereafter the Mets moved into first place and never relinquished it.  Although he had  another MVP-type season for the Mets in 2016, Cespedes’ career was then plagued by injuries and in 2018 he suffered a hip strain in May that put him on the DL; he was reactivated for one game in July, going 2-for-4 with a homer against Yankees on July 20th, but then went back on the DL for the the rest of the year.  Starting the 2019 season on the DL following off-season surgery, he then came out on the short end of an encounter with a wild boar on his property, breaking an ankle and knocking him out for the entire season.   Receiving extended recovery time because of the late start to the 2020 COVID season, he hit a homer in his first game back, giving him a peculiar streak of hitting homers in three consecutive games that stretched over more than two years: May, 2018; on July, 2018; and July, 2020.  However, afterwards he struggled in limited appearances, and he failed to show up for his team's game on August 2nd without giving anyone notice; when the Mets finally tracked down, he said that he had decided to opt out of the season, apparently without telling anyone, and that was the end of his MLB career.

REGIONAL #226:  For the first time in tournament history (I think), it’s 21st Century Strato Man as all eight entries hail from this millennium–a sign that perhaps I might actually have played all of the 2,041 unique Strat teams that I own before the game company releases another season.  I’m afraid the more modern teams tend to be somewhat faceless to me as my seasons of peak Strat activity tended to be in the 1970s and 1980s, so it was going to be a challenge to make predictions about this group–not that I’m correct very often, regardless.  I didn’t recognize any pennant winners (having failed to recognize one in the last bracket), but I did know that the 2001 Mets had won the pennant in the preceding season for that Subway Series, and there were two Cleveland entries that I thought bracketed another pennant winner somewhere in between them.  I wasn’t too sure about the remaining teams, although there was a Giants squad that should include one of the final seasons of the Nameless One, who I imagined would be pretty formidable.  My blind guess was that the Mets would survive a battle of the PEDs against those Giants and then best the 2010 version of the Indians in the finals.  The ELO rankings indicated that my selections were indeed poorly informed, and predicted that the 2008 Blue Jays (about whom I remembered almost nothing) would top the other version of the Indians to take the bracket.

First round action

The 2001 Mets had won a pennant in the preceding year and although they continued to have a decent rotation with Rick Reed (8-6, 3.48) getting the start, the offense aside from MVP vote-getter Mike Piazza was not really up to steroid-era standards.  Speaking of steroids, I was expecting to see an imposing card with no player name on the 2005 Giants, and sure enough it was there, but there was a catch:  it only had 42 ABs and so was not eligible to play until the 6th inning, and it sported an injury roll at 2-7.  Until then, Moises Alou was going to have to provide the offense in support of Noah Lowry (13-13, 3.78), the lone respectable starting pitcher on the staff.  Piazza makes his presence felt immediately with a 2-run blast in the top of the 1st, but from there Lowry settles in.  However, Reed is also sharp, and so when the Mets get a single and a walk in the 6th the Giants bring in Scott Eyre to try to keep the game close and he does so with no damage.  Bonds gets his first at bat as DH in the 6th but grounds out harmlessly, while Tsuyoshi Shinjo converts a HR 1-8 split for a 2-out 2-run shot in the top of the 8th for additional Met life insurance.  It proves to be a necessary policy, as in the bottom of the 9th JT Snow’s sac fly breaks the shutout and then an RBI single by Jason Ellison puts the tying run at the plate in the form of Omar Vizquel.  The Mets eye their bullpen but closer Armando Benitez looks like a disaster waiting to happen, so they stick with Reed, and he yields a single to Vizquel to put the winning run at the plate.  The Mets decide that four hits in the inning is enough and figure than Benitez can’t be much worse, so he comes in to face Edgardo Alfonzo, who is also playing 2B for the Mets.  The SF version rips a grounder to Mets SS-2 Rey Ordonez, who handles it beautifully and the Mets escape with the 4-2 win as Benitez gets the one-pitch save. 

On paper, the best matchup of the first round here was the #2 seeded 2019 Indians against the #3 seed 2005 Twins.  The Indians won 93 games and although they did not reach the post-season, they had MVP vote-getters in Francisco Lindor and Carlos Santana, by far the best guitarist in this tournament.  They also had a solid rotation and although Shane Bieber was a Cy Young contender, the Indians would go with Mike Clevinger (13-4, 2.71) for the first round start.  The 83-79 Twins didn’t have quite the offensive firepower of the Indians but they had a formidable Santana of their own, Johan Santana (16-7, 2.87) who finished 3rd in the Cy Young ballots.  Both pitchers are dominating to begin, but in the top of the 5th Joe Mauer gets a leadoff single, and unusual for a catcher he is a B stealer and is held, and Nick Punto hits the gbA++ to send Mauer to 3rd, where he scores on a Lew Ford single for a 1-0 Twins lead.  The Twins bring in a couple of their supersubs in the 6th, but in the bottom of the inning a Jordan Luplow double puts runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out.  Santana whiffs Santana, but with now two out Jose Ramirez crushes one into the gecko seats of Progressive field for a 3-1 Indians edge.  And that is all Clevinger needs, as he finishes with 15 strikeouts and the Indians progress to the semifinals with the 3-1 win.

The Zoom game of the week featured two partisans managing their own favorite franchises, with ColavitoFan once again representing Cleveland with the 93-loss 2010 Indians while Toronto denizen Eaglesfly would be guiding the 2008 Blue Jays.   The Jays were the bracket favorite with an impressive ELO ranking (although they only went 86-76) and in this game they looked particularly tough with Cy Young runner-up Roy Halladay (20-11, 2.78) on the mound.  ColavitoFan responded with the alleged Fausto Carmona (13-14, 3.77), who was actually Roberto Hernandez indulging in identity theft to sign a contract with the Indians as a 17-year old, when he was actually 20.  Whoever he was, he ran into trouble with the Jays in the bottom of the 1st inning, and RBI singles from Scott Rolen and Alex Rios staked Halladay to a 2-0 lead that had Eaglesfly putting in the defensive replacements and buying tickets for the semifinal.  Indeed, Halladay allowed only a single hit in the first six innings and Skydome participants began paying more attention to the hotel room windows in centerfield than to the game.  However, that all came to an abrupt end in the top of the 7th, as ColavitoFan startings digging into the formidable pile of cardstock that constituted the Cleveland club and he rolled out pinch hitter after pinch hitter.  One of them, Drew Sutton, raps a run-scoring single to make it a one-run game with runners on 1st and 2nd, and the call goes out for PH Carlos Santana, who has had so much success in this tournament that I’ve run out of guitarist jokes.  The Jays trust in their ace Halladay, but Santana’s smooth swing results in a soul sacrifice on behalf of Fausto, a three-run homer that silences the crowd.  ColavitoFan’s neighbor Travis Hafner then drives in another in the 8th, and Carmona looks like a completely different person after the 1st inning to lock down the Jays and propel the Indians to the semis with the 5-2 upset.

A Beltway series between two lackluster representatives, the 2022 Orioles were not the division winner they would become the following season and the 2009 Nationals, who lost 103 games and were wondering if it was too late to go back to Montreal.  The Orioles did finish above .500 at 83-79, and they had some power with virtually the entire lineup in double digit homers, but unfortunately most of them must have been solo shots because they didn’t seem to be able to get on base.  Dean Kremer (8-7, 3.23) was the best of an otherwise mediocre rotation, although a strong pen was there to help out.  The Nationals had Ryan Zimmerman receiving some MVP votes, but their rotation after John Lannan (9-13, 3.88) was largely non-existent.   But it is the Nats who strike first in the bottom of the 1st with a 2-out double from Josh Willingham that scores one, but 1-11+2 Adam Dunn doesn’t get it dunn in the running department as he’s out at the plate to end the inning with it 1-0 Washington.   However, in the 4th back to back RBI doubles from Adley Rutschman and Ryan Mountcastle give Baltimore the lead, and Mountcastle scores on a single by Austin Hays to make it 3-1 O’s.  Ramon Urias adds one of the aforementioned solo shots in the 6th, and a leadoff single in the 8th chases Lannan for Sean Burnett, who contributes a walk before Urias smashes his second homer of the game and the Orioles now lead by six.  From there, Kremer coasts and wraps up a 6-hit complete game in the 7-1 Baltimore win.  

The survivors

After the first round, the 2019 Indians were the highest surviving seed and for good measure they would have Shane Bieber (15-8, 3.28), who was 4th in the Cy Young voting, ready to try to make it an all-Cleveland final.  However, the 2001 Mets also had a solid rotation and Kevin Appier (11-10, 3.57) was a veteran presence on the hill.   Veteran or not, in the bottom of the 1st Francisco Lindor finds and converts Appier’s HR 1-13 split for a 1-0 lead.  The Mets get to the Biebs in the top of the 5th as Matt Lawton pokes a clutch 2-out 2-run double to put New York ahead, and from there both teams threaten but the starters hold on.  However, a leadoff single in the 7th for Desi Relaford and the Indians have Bieber fatigue, so they go with Tyler Clippard, who yields a single on a ++ with Relaford held but then Clippard bears down and kills the rally to keep it a one run game.  The pitcher then take us to the bottom of the 9th, where with one out Appier walks Roberto Perez, who is replaced by a pinch runner;  Oscar Mercado then grounds one to 2B-2 Edgardo Alphonso for what looks like a sure double play, but Alphonso boots it and the tying run is now in scoring position and the winning run is at first.  The Mets stick with Appier for one more batter, and that proves ill-advised as Jason Kipnis rolls that HR 1-13 split on Appier–but misses it.  The pinch runner scores on the resulting double, and 1-16 Mercado sets sail for home as the winning run.  The roll is a 14, and the Indians head to the finals with the walk-off 3-2 win despite only recording three hits in the game.  

After an upset win over the bracket favorite in round one, it was now the 2010 Indians’ responsibility to pull off another upset in order to secure an all-Cleveland final.  The obstacle would be the 2022 Orioles, whose rotation dropped off abruptly to Tyler Wells (7-7, 4.25) although the Indians were no more enthusiastic about starting Mitch Talbot (10-13, 4.41).  In the bottom of the 2nd Ramon Urias continues his torrid hitting in the regional with a solo homer to provide the O’s with the lead, but in the top of the 3rd Luis Valbuena responses by finding the solid HR result on Wells and it’s 1-1.  The tie is short-lived as in the bottom of the inning SS-2 Asdrubal Cabrera commits a two-base error that sets up an RBI double by Gunnar Henderson and Baltimore regains the lead.  In the 5th, Travis Hafner misses Wells’ split HR result and Shin-Soo Choo chooses a bad time to roll a 20 trying to score from 1st on the resulting double.  The Orioles make it worse with a 2-run homer from Ryan Mountcastle in the bottom of the inning, and in desperation the Indians try Chris Perez and his 1.71 ERA to try to stay in the game.  He holds the line, and a leadoff double by Cabrera in the 8th chases Wells for the O’s own C. Perez, this one Cionel with a 1.40 ERA, but he issues a single and a walk to load the bases with still nobody out.  Perez then whiffs Hafner and LaPorta to bring up Michael Brantley, who converts a split single off Perez’s card and the lead is cut to 4-2, but Jayson Nix flies out to end the rally.  The game heads to the top of the 9th, and Carlos Santana leads off with a pinch hit single, and Drew Sutton follows with a pinch-hit home run that ties the game, as the Indians pinch-hitters continue the magic they displayed in round one.  Cionel then allows two straight singles, and with the infield in Trevor Crowe steals second to put runners on 2nd and 3rd, and still nobody is out.  Choo walks to load the bases, and Hafner converts that split single on Perez and the Indians take the lead.  A sac fly from Brantley adds an insurance run, and Chris Perez will try to hang onto that two run lead in the bottom of the 9th, although it will burn him for the regional.  And he does, mowing the bottom of the O’s lineup down in order and it’s time to set the Cuyahoga on fire as the Indians take the come from behind 6-4 win to face their later selves in the final.  

The finals will keep the regional title in the Tribe as the #2 seeded 2019 Indians and the #7 seeded 2010 Indians face off, with little in common other than a very good guitarist on the roster.  But they also shared persistence, with both teams having come from behind in all their victories to reach this final.  After these close games, both squads had depleted bullpens, meaning the advantage of the 2019’s Trevor Bauer (9-8, 3.79) over 2010’s Justin Masterson (6-13, 4.70) looked particularly large.  Masterson issues four walks in the top of the 2nd, but almost gets out of the inning anyway due to a DP, but Jake Bauers records the first hit of the game for a 2-out 2-run single to put the favorites ahead.  Jose Ramirez adds to the lead with a squib RBI single in the 3rd, but the 2010’s get on the board with a 2-out run scoring double from Michael Brantley in the bottom of the 4th that makes it 3-1.  In the 6th Jayson Nix misses Bauer’s HR 1-17 split with a roll of 19, but the resulting triple makes it a one run game and with the tying run on 3rd with two out the 2010’s roll out their PH extraordinaire, Drew Sutton, but Bauer whiffs him and the 2019’s cling to a one run lead.  Francisco Lindor immediately extends it by leading off the 7th with a long bomb, but in the bottom of the inning PH Carlos Santana and Asrdubal Cabrera start off with back to back doubles and the 2019s opt for Aaron Civale out of the pen; he promptly yields a single and then a 2-run Matt Laporta double and suddenly the underdogs are on top.  Armed with a lead, Masterson is then masterful and the unheralded 2010 Indians pull off their third consecutive comeback win, besting their compatriots 5-4 to take the regional crown. 

Interesting card of Regional #226:  This is the rather singular card of one Glenn Williams–singular in that, well, there are a lot of singles on it, but also in that it was the only Strat card that Mr. Williams’ ever received.  You see, these 40 at-bats were the entirety of his MLB career, meaning that his career batting average of .425 far outdistances the .344 lifetime mark of that other Williams guy.  In fact, this Williams holds the post-1900 major league records for the most at-bats, and most hits, in a career in which the batter hit .400 or better.  One of the few Australian major-leaguers, he made his debut for the Twins on June 7th as a 28 year old rookie and went on a tear.   On June 28th he went 1 for 2 with a walk against the Royals, but two days later he injured his shoulder, and as it didn’t heal the decision was made to have surgery in September.  Unfortunately, he never regained his hitting form in the minors and never played another major league game, although he did have some successful appearances for the Australian national team in international play.  In this endless tournament, Williams was only to enter the game after the 5th as a low-AB wonder, and he did his part going 2 for 2, not surprisingly both singles, but it wasn’t enough as his Twins quickly headed back to the card catalog drawers with a first round loss.