REGIONAL # 70:    This regional included one WS champ--the 1959 Dodgers--and three examples of franchises still attempting to notch their first regional win:  the Expos, Blue Jays, and Angels.  I try to make predictions based entirely on my memory of these teams--before looking at any cards or even their team record--and it seemed to me like many of these squads were in competitive runs at the time.  Even so, I'd probably have bet on the Dodgers, who were in a transitional period between two great versions of that franchise--the Brooklyn teams of the mid-50s and the LA teams of the mid-60s.  However, I am mainly familiar with those Dodgers (and dislike them) for beating one of my favorite teams, the Go-Go Sox, in the Series.

First round action

Assembling the lineup for the 71-win 1949 Pirates, I was thinking that this team was pretty terrible, although I reconsidered somewhat when I came to the last player in their deck--Ralph Kiner, with a card of Ruthian proportions.   Even so, things didn't start out well for the Pirates when the leadoff hitter for the 86-win 1963 Reds, Tommy Harper, homered off Pirates starter Murray Dickson's card.  However, the Pirates rebounded with 5 runs against Jim Maloney in the 2nd, led by a Dino Restelli homer.  A 3-run HR by Gordy Coleman in the 3rd narrowed the gap to 5-4, but Restelli tripled in 2 in the 5th and Dickson held on for a 7-5 victory.  Restelli lacked only a single to hit for the cycle; the Pirates won in spite of, rather than because of, Kiner who was hitless and parlayed all three of his chances out in LF into hits.

The 1959 Dodgers, might have won the World Series, but they only put together an unimpressive 88-68 record in winning the NL.  Their 1st round opponent, the 1985 Blue Jays, won the AL East with 99 wins, losing a 7-game series in the ALCS, and after putting together the lineups it seemed to me that the Jays were better than the Dodgers in every respect-better offense top to bottom, better defense, and even (I think) better pitching, although playing in the Coliseum probably didn't help the Dodger pitching any.  At any rate, the Jays certainly played like the better team this day, with a 2-run homer by Barfield in the 1st setting the tone early against Don Drysdale, whose efforts to intimidate the Jays lineup cleared didn't work as they rapped 11 hits.  Meanwhile, Dave Stieb held the Dodgers to four hits-two of which were triples by Neal--and the Jays eliminate yet another pennant winner with a 6-2 triumph.

A matchup between two mediocrities, the 81-81 1988 Expos and the 79-83 1973 Angels, had Nolan Ryan and Pascual Perez facing off.  The Angels were an interesting team, with two 20-game winners (Ryan and Singer) on a sub-.500 team, mainly because aside from Frank Robinson, the Angels didn't have much to offer on offense.  However, they hid that well this day, clouting Perez and a succession of Montreal relievers for 15 hits en route to an easy 12-5 win.  Jeff Torborg drove in four runs and Robinson went 4-4 with two doubles; Ryan wasn't particularly sharp but went the distance, striking out the side in the 9th to punctuate his appearance nicely.

It was old home week as the 79-win 1983 Giants took the field against the 81-win 1984 Twins; I had played that Giants team in a full-season replay, face to face, back in 1984.  In fact, Greg Minton was still bearing the marks of being crumpled and stuffed in a water glass following a long-ago gopher ball, a bit of ill-considered card defacing that nonetheless brought some nostalgia with it.  So I was curious how these aged pieces of cardstock would respond to me after all these years, and the answer was--it all seemed very familiar.  The Giants could only muster three hits and committed two errors, but I had tapped Atlee Hammaker to face the Twins--the guy who had always been the ace of this staff for me.  And, lo and behold, Atlee stymied the Twins, tossing a four-hit shutout, and one of the Giants hits being a 2-run homer by Darrell Evans paced the 3-0 win and a chance to continue my sentimental journey.

The survivors

Having disposed of the regional's only pennant winner, the 1985 Jays thought the 1949 Pirates would be a walk in the park, especially when Ralph Kiner went down to injury in the 1st inning while grounding into a double play.  However, Pirates starter Cliff Chambers was keeping the Jays in check, and his counterpart, Toronto's Jimmy Key, himself went down to injury in the 3rd inning.  Pirate pinch hitter Les Fleming drove in a run on a sac fly in the 5th, but it was matched in the bottom of the frame by a Rance Mulliniks homer.  The Jays moved to a 3-1 lead on unearned runs stemming from two consecutive errors by Chambers, but an Upshaw error and a double by Kiner's replacement, Dixie Walker, tied it up in the 8th, as Toronto had to bring in Henke to fix a mess started by Gary Lavelle.  Henke retired the Pirates in order in the top of the 9th, and in the bottom of the inning a depleted Chambers, with nobody decent in the bullpen, allowed consecutive hits to Whitt, Fernandez, and a walk-off single to Damaso Garcia to give the Jays a hard-fought 4-3 win, and the first berth in the regional finals for this franchise.

The 1973 Angels sent their second 20-game winner to the mound, Bill Singer, against an 1983 Giants team that had some trouble scraping out hits in the first round.   Singer did his job, holding the Giants to 5 hits and 2 runs through nine innings, but the anemic offense of the Angels showed through and they also could only muster two runs, pushing the game into extra innings.  Gary Lavelle (who had pitched into a near-disaster in the other semifinal) retired the Angels in the top of the 10th and Singer did the same in the bottom, forcing both teams to turn to the bullpen in the 11th.  The Giants brought in crumpled Greg Minton with trepidation, but he set the Angels down in order.  The Angels turned to Steve Barber, who failed to record an out--one error and two hits later, the Giants had earned a spot in the regional final with a 3-2 win.

For the regional final, it was Doyle Alexander for the 1985 Jays facing off against the 1983 Giants

RIP 4/15/2020

' Fred Breining.  A two-run shot by Dave Bergman moved the Giants out to a quick lead in the 2nd, but a sac fly from Barfield and back to back doubles from Bell and Moseby had the game tied 2-2 after 4.  The game remained knotted until the 7th, when Damaso Garcia homered off Breining's card, and crumpled Greg Minton couldn't fend off the Jays, allow an insurance homer to Garth Iorg in the 9th.  Meanwhile, Alexander settled down and ended with a 5-hit CG to give the Jays the 7-2 come from behind win, and the first regional title for Toronto.  Sadly, I only just realized in making this post that we lost the great DP combination for the Jays this year: Tony Fernandez in February and Garcia in April; their regional win was a fitting tribute. 
  

REGIONAL #69:   The draw for Regional #69 didn't include any pennant winners, although we could look forward to appearances by Clemente, Killebrew, Carew, Beltran, and the Wizard of Oz, and Jim Edmonds, Bill Virdon, and Willie McGee can argue over who was the better CF.  The Twins and the Rangers both had two entries in the regional; the Mets have another chance to get lucky; the Angels will make a try for their first regional title; and the 1957 Pirates attempt to follow-up on the regional win by their '56 version.  Although I saw no clear favorite here, my bold prediction was an all-Twins final...a prediction which was only made before looking closely at those two teams.

First round action
 
The 99-win 2007 Mets had erratic luck in their 1st round matchup against the 62-win 1957 Pirates.  Mets starter Tom Glavine had a rough 3rd inning, but was lucky to escape with only 2 runs allowed as the Pirates left the bases loaded.  RBIs by Beltran and Alou tied things up 2-2 in the 4th, but the Pirates moved out to a 4-2 lead in the 6th, courtesy of a 3-base error by Moises Alou on a Clemente fly ball.  Alou atoned somewhat in the bottom of the 6th, driving in David Wright, who has been gold this entire tournament.  The Mets had another big chance in the 7th with runners on 2nd and 3rd with only one out, but Castillo hit the dreaded LOmax to end that rally.  Finally, in the bottom of the 9th, with Bob Friend needing just one out for the complete game win, Lo Duca doubles, Gomez pinch runs, and Easley pinch hits a single to send it to extra innings.  The Mets turn to Billy Wagner in the 10th, and when Mazeroski nails a 2-out single with Frank Thomas on 2nd it looks bleak but the luck of the Mets persists with a 13 roll on Thomas's 1-12 chances of going home.  However, Roy Face comes in and shackles the Mets, and in the 13th Thomas leaves no room for doubt with his 2-8 solid HR, and the Pirates claim the 5-4 upset.

I had picked the 1968 Twins to reach the finals based upon a vague memory of the Twins of that era (obviously thinking of 69-70) and a thought that 1968 pitching might be formidable in a single elimination format.  However, I didn't realize that they had an injured Killebrew, terrible fielding, and typical 1968 hitting--i.e., none, which is probably why they were an under .500 team.  The 85-win 1998 Angels had much more offense, and Chuck Finley was on the mound seeking redress for a 2-0 loss to Hideo Nomo in Regional #62.  And, Finley was sharp, tossing a complete game 4-hitter with the only run coming off a Uhlaender sac fly.  Unfortunately for Finley, once again, Dean Chance was sharper, throwing a 6-hit shutout and giving the Twins a classic 1968-style 1-0 victory.

Upon further review, the 81-81 1973 Twins unfortunately looked a lot like their 1968 counterparts--bad defense, little offense besides Carew, Killebrew of little help--but without the 1968 pitching to make up for these weaknesses.  However, they were fortunate to draw the 95-loss 2018 Rangers, a team primarily notable for their remarkable ability to strike out.  And that's how the game went; the Twins mounted a few threats but couldn't score off Mike Minor, while Bert Blyleven struck out 14 while allowing only 3 hits--in 10 innings.  Yes, the game was a scoreless tie after 9, and Texas summoned Leclerc out of the bullpen (with no hits on his card at all) to try to pull things out in extra innings.  Blyleven was relieved by Campbell in the 11th, and things remained scoreless until the 13th, when with one out Carew doubled with 1-11 Joe Lis on 1st.  Thinking long and hard about the decision to send him, I did, and Lis scored the go-ahead (and only) run with Campbell closing out the 13th to give the Twins their second 1-0 win in a row.

Although only five years separated the teams and some of the names remained the same, the 91-win 2013 Rangers bore little resemblance to the 2018 version that just got shut out by the Twins in the previous first round game.  The 2013 team had a nice combination of speed, power, and defense, but it was Yu Darvish that sunk their opponents, the 76-win 1988 Cardinals.  Holding the Cardinals to two hits (one of them a Brunansky solo HR), Darvish turned in an impressive complete game performance to secure a 3-1 win for the Rangers.  The '88 Cards thus suffer the same fate as their pennant-winning '87 team did in Regional #64--first round elimination.  Of note:  Lefty Joe Magrane started both of those losses for the Cards and pitched well in both, to no avail.

The survivors

The 1968 Twins are the type of team that can get more competitive in later rounds, as the depth of their 1968-fueled starting rotation (Chance, Perry, Kaat, Boswell) is difficult for other teams to match.  However, it didn't look that way in this semifinal as Jim Perry got knocked around by the 1957 Pirates for 4 runs in the top of the 4th on triples by Baker and Clemente.  Nonetheless, the Twins quickly retaliated in the bottom of the inning with 3 runs on homers by Killebrew and Reese, and Minnesota tied things up in the 5th when Cesar Tovar added a solo HR off Vern Law's card.  Things remained that way through the 9th, sending the game into extra innings--the third such game in this regional so far.   Both Perry and Law wanted to continue in the 10th; Perry did his job, but Law was rattled when, with one out, Clemente dropped a fly for a two-base error.  Law then grooved one to the next hitter, and Killebrew put it into the far reaches of Metropolitan Stadium to give the Twins the 6-4 walkoff win and a trip to the finals.

The underdog 1973 Twins proved they had plenty of bite against 2013 Rangers starter Derek Holland, chasing him in the 2nd after racing out to a 5-0 lead.  Two Rangers relievers with sub 2.00 ERAs, Nathan and Cotts, weren't able to lock down the Twins either, but it mattered little as Twins starter Ray Corbin held the Rangers to 5 hits (two of them solo HRs by Pierzynski and Nelson Cruz) and Minnesota coasts to an 8-2 win, setting up an all-Twins regional final that I foolishly (but apparently accurately) predicted only because I hadn't actually looked at the mediocrity of the two teams.

1973 Rod was even better than his younger self

The Twins were thus a lock to take their 3rd regional title, although it was uncertain whether 1968 or 1973 would be the standard-bearer.  The two teams shared leadoff (Carew) and #3 (Oliva) hitters, and both versions of both players ended up driving in runs, causing some confusion for the official scorer.  The game started off nip and tuck, with the 1973 Twins putting up a run in both the 1st and 2nd innings, but Allison and Killebrew responding with timely hits for the 1968 Twins to tie it in the 3rd.  A '68 Carew single put that squad up in the 4th, matched by a Lis homer in the bottom of the inning to tie it again.  In the 5th, '68 again reclaimed the lead with an Oliva HR, but in the bottom of the 5th the '73s rocked '68 starter Jim Kaat for five hits and five runs, and Kaat didn't make it 5 innings, yielding to Al Worthington who came in to an 8-4 deficit.  '73 starter Dick Woodson then stabilized, helped by four replacements to shore up a leaky defense, and a 2-run homer by Jim Holt added some insurance for the 10-4 win for the '73s, and the regional title.

REGIONAL #68

This regional featured one pennant winner, an early version of the Gashouse Gang in the 1930 Cardinals.  However, a number of other squads in this regional were contenders just a year or two away from a pennant. There were various possibilities for a themed regional final:  perhaps an all-Cardinals final (1930 and 1980 versions), or an all-Reds final (1941 and 1978), or even an all-1930 final (NL champ Cards vs. AL runner-up Senators).  Although the lone pennant winner had to be considered the favorite, it was a challenging bracket and I thought at least 6 of the 8 teams had a decent shot.  However, as has been typical in this tournament, it turns out that the winner wasn't one of them.

First round action:

The 1941 Reds won 88 games after winning the NL pennant the prior year, and appeared to be favorites over the 90-loss 2017 Braves.  However, Johnny "double no-hit" Vandermeer quickly lost his no-hitter, as the Braves began the game with three straight hits (including a leadoff triple by Inciarte) to open with a 1-0 lead.  Reds CF Harry Craft tied it up in the 2nd with a homer, but in the 3rd Inciarte doubled and Freeman singled him home to put the Braves back on top 2-1.  Meanwhile, the knuckler was working for Braves starter RA Dickey, who allowed only 4 hits through 7 innings.  However, in the 8th Mike McCormick crushed a non-knuckling pitch into the seats to put the Reds up 3-2, and Vandermeer had found his stuff, allowing only two hits after the 1st inning to lead the Reds to a 3-2 comeback win.

The 94-win 1930 Senators faced off against the 1980 Cardinals, and found themselves in a quick hole when George Hendrick hit a bases-loaded double in the bottom of the 3rd to score 3.  In the 6th, the Senators finally got on the board when Joe Judge hit a solo HR off Pete Vuckovich's card, and then the Senators showed some 1930-style hitting, putting across 4 runs on 4 hits in the 7th to move out to a 5-3 lead, Urrea coming in to relieve Vuckovich.  The Senator lead did not last long when Dane Iorg converted a HR 1-2 roll in the bottom of the 7th for a 3-run shot, and Urrea held on to earn the Cards a 6-5 upset victory.

With 544 teams having played in this tournament, something happened when the 82-win 1975 Mets and the 92-win 1978 Reds faced off that I don't believe I've seen before:  the same pitcher, Tom Seaver, started for both teams.  Unfortunately for the Reds, their Tom was somewhat less terrific, allowing three runs on four hits in the top of the 1st.  The Reds recorded an unearned run in the 3rd on the first of four Mets errors (their left side of the infield is particularly terrible), although the Mets answered in the 5th with a 2-run homer from Ed Kranepool.  The Reds added unearned runs in the 6th and 7th, and when the Mets' Seaver walked two in the 8th they turned to Skip Lockwood, who retired the side without damage.  The Reds mounted a threat in the 9th but Bench grounded into a double-play to defensive replacement Bud Harrelson, and the Mets escaped with a 5-3 win.

The NL pennant winning 1930 Cardinals, who won 92 games, drew a tough first round matchup against the 89-win 1998 Giants.  Two offensive juggernauts, with the Cards having a team batting average of .314 while the Giants boasted serious power from Bonds and Kent in that homer-happy season.  The Cards made it look like it would be easy, riding two triples and 3 Giants errors in the 1st inning to a quick 4-0 lead.  By the 6th it was 6-0, and the Giants yanked starter Kurt Rueter for Steve Reed, who has no complete hits on his card, in a desperation move.  In the bottom of the 6th, with two out Cards HOFer Frankie Frisch (2b-1) drops a Barry Bonds grounder, and Jeff Kent follows with a 3 (unearned) run homer to bring the score to 6-3.  In the meantime, Reed is holding the remarkable Cards lineup hitless, and in the bottom of the 8th Cards starter Jesse Haines gets wild, allowing two walks and a single to load the bases for Ellis Burks.  With nothing but disaster in the bullpen for the Cards, they stick with Haines, and Burks responds with a grand slam--hit off Haines' card.  The Cards are shut down by Reed in the 9th, giving the Giants an impressive 7-6 comeback win.

The survivors:

The 1941 Reds got on the board quickly against the 1980 Cards with a run in the top of the 1st, but the inning ended with Reds HOF catcher Ernie Lombardi lost indefinitely to injury.  That loss seemed to galvanize the Reds, who smacked hit after hit against a helpless Bob Forsch and a motley crew of relievers, end up with 19 hits in a 14-3 blowout win.  Reds starter Bucky Walters allowed 6 hits, with all runs coming on homers from Hendrick and Hernandez, but the Reds scored eight in the last 3 innings to send the Cardinals south for the winter.

It was Hershiser against Koosman in the regional semifinal pitting the 1975 Mets against the 1998 Giants, and Dave Kingman greeted Hershiser with a two-run shot in the 2nd to give the Mets an early lead.  By the 4th, that lead had expanded to 4-1, and although both teams threatened nearly every inning, the two veteran starters kept any more runs from scoring until the 8th.  At that point, Koosman was pulled for Apodaca with two out and runners on 2nd and 3rd.  Pinch hitter Marvin Benard did his job, singling and scoring one, but Aurilia (1-15) was nailed at the plate trying to add a second.  The Mets made it academic in the 9th, scoring 3 off Giants relief ace Robb Nen and in the bottom of the inning Apodaca got Bonds to hit into a game-ending double play to seal the 7-2 win.

Critical injury sinks the Reds

The regional final thus pits the 88-win 1941 Reds against the 82-win 1975 Mets, with each team having their challenges to overcome.   The Reds will be without their Hall of Fame catcher Ernie Lombardi, lost to injury, while the Mets have to curtail the fielding woes that have led to six errors in their first two games.  It seems that mediocre Mets teams tend to be lucky in this tournament, and when it comes to single elimination, it may be better to be lucky than to be good.  And that's how it went for the Regional #68 finals, with the 1975 Mets taking a 4-1 victory on a deciding 2-run HR from Jerry Grote that was a HR 1-3/fly B roll on 1941 Reds starter Elmer Riddle.  Jon Matlack was in control for the Mets, limiting the Lombardi-less Reds to 6 hits, and the porous Mets defense didn't allow any hits/errors all game.  Although the Mets will have plenty of time to celebrate their regional win, in the fourth round they will ultimately face the 1951 Giants, who disposed of a much better Mets team in their regional final.