REGIONAL #74: No pennant winners in Regional #74, but there were versions of the Orioles, Braves, and Cubs that all won a pennant in the following season, all in the top half of the bracket; the bottom half of the bracket featured another version of the Cubs that was two years after a pennant, and a solid representative of the Angels that might be able to capture the first regional win after 19 previous tries for that franchise. No idea who will survive the top half of the bracket, but I'm guessing whoever it is beats the Angels for the regional final. 

First Round Action: 

 The 86-win 1934 Cubs and the 65-win 1990 Braves may both have been a year away from a pennant, but their respective records accurately reflected that the Cubs seemed a lot closer to greatness than the Braves. With four Hall of Famers in the starting lineup and 22-game winner Lon Warneke on the mound, the Cubs were certainly not expecting the ambush they received: a 12-0 smackdown with multi-run homers from Ron Gant and Oddibe McDowell, a 4 for 4, 3 RBI showing from Lonnie Smith, and a three-hit shutout from John Smoltz. I was thinking that these Cubs might take the three games of this regional, but they were basically out of the tournament after three innings. 

 The matchup of the 94-win 1982 Orioles and the 69-win 1958 Phillies featured two Hall of Fame starting pitchers, Jim Palmer and Robin Roberts. The Orioles struck quickly in the top of the 1st when with two out Lowenstein doubled in Eddie Murray from first, and then Lowenstein added a solo HR in the 4th to make it 2-0. The Phillies got on the board in the 6th with a solo blast from catcher Stan Lopata, but in the 9th Cal Ripken's solo shot added an insurance run to make it 3-1. Palmer got two quick outs in the 9th, but a double by Harry Anderson and a single by Bob Bowman sent Earl Weaver out to the mound to pull an irate Palmer and bring in Tippy Martinez. Martinez promptly struck out Wally Post to preserve the 3-1 Orioles win, Palmer ending with a 4-hitter with Roberts only allowing 5. 

The 1989 Angels won 91 games while the 1965 A's finished with 103 losses, although the DH rule allows KC to trot out their secret weapon, Jim Gentile with his .542 slugging percentage. The two teams traded punches in the first, with Landis driving home Campaneris after he stole second, while Brian Downing drove in Johnny Ray to knot the score at 1-1. Angels CF Devon White is lost to injury in the 3rd, but Jack Howell launches a solo HR to give them a 2-1 lead in the 5th. The A's retaliate with two in the 6th, with Ed Charles rapping a 2-out single with men on 2nd and 3rd, which sends Bert Blyleven to the showers as the Angels bring in their best reliever, Bob McClure, to try to keep their hopes alive. The Angels retake the lead 4-3 in the 7th on timely hits from Ray and Joyner, but in the 9th the Angels put men on 2nd and 3rd with Campaneris the go-ahead run on 2nd and secret weapon Gentile at the plate. McClure, at the end of his endurance, gets Gentile to pop out and the Angels move on with a 4-3 win, although McClure won't be eligible for action for the remainder of the regional. 

The 75-win 1920 Cubs were celebrating their 100th anniversary with a first round matchup against the 74-win 2000 Orioles. These were two teams that were both significantly flawed, but in very different ways--one a deadball-era team with little offense and a fairly shallow rotation, the other a steroid-era team with steroid-era pitching and consistently bad fielding. I thought that the difference would be that the Cubs were sending HOF 27-game winner Pete Alexander to the mound, a decided advantage against the Orioles Mike Mussina. And Alexander showed his stuff, scattering 5 hits in a complete game shutout. Mussina pitched capably but lost control in the 7th, with the Cubs batting around to score five, and the Cubs head to the semis with a 7-0 win--but without any remaining HOF pitchers up their sleeves. 

The survivors:

In the first semifinal, the 1982 Orioles sent Mike Flanagan against Tom Glavine and the 1990 Braves, but it didn't look like it would be a pitchers duel when Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken both homered in the 1st to give Baltimore a 3-0 lead. Lonnie Smith retaliated with a 2-run HR in the top of the 3rd, which he celebrated afterwards by tackling the Orioles mascot. This apparently infuriated the O's, who scored 5 over the next three innings to send Glavine to the showers. Oddibe McDowell managed to single in a run in the 9th, but it was too little too late as the Orioles cruise to a berth in the regional final with an 8-3 win. 

 Chuck Finley had lost pitching duels for the Angels in both Regionals #62 and #69, but surely he figured that the third time would be charmed as he took the mound for the 1989 Angels against Hippo Vaughn and the 1920 Cubs. It started off promising, with the Angels jumping to a 2-0 in the 1st on a Wally Joyner HR, and then Chili Davis added a 2-run double in the 3rd to make it 4-0. However, in the bottom of the 3rd the Cubs solved Finley with 2 out, rapping four consecutive hits to bring the score to 4-3. The Cubs then tied it in the 6th when a 2-base error by RF Tony Armas (only playing because of an injury to Devon White) was followed by a Bob O'Farrell single, and the Angels and Finley were beginning to panic. But in the 8th Jack Howell picked up a clutch two-out SI* 1-15 with Davis on third, and Finley struck out the side in the 9th to finally give Finley a tournament win, and the Angels one game away from hanging their first regional banner. 

 A classic regional final between two teams who had proven they knew how to win. The 1982 Orioles jump out to a lead when Cal Ripken hits a solo shot with one out in the top of the 2nd; on the next pitch 1989 Angels starter Kirk McCaskill gets hurt and is out of the game. Greg Minton comes in and holds off the Orioles while the Angels take the lead on RBI singles in the 2nd and the 5th from Devon White, who had been out with injury since the first round but was back with a vengeance. Lowenstein then drives in two in the top of the 6th to regain the lead for the Orioles, but a Brian Downing double ties it at 3-3 in the bottom of the inning and sends Sammy Stewart to the showers in favor of Tippy Martinez. Martinez and his counterpart Willie Fraser lock things down and after nine innings, things are still tied 3-3. In the 11th, both teams have to reach even deeper into their bullpens; Rich Monteleone retires the Orioles in the top of the inning, but the O's Tim Stoddard watches Jack Howell convert a Double 1-4 to put the winning run in scoring position with one out. Stoddard retires pinch hitter Max Venable and his .358 average, but with two out Johnny Ray raps one into the gap and the Angels capture their first regional win with a 4-3, 11 inning victory. 

Poor old Johnny Ray

The 1989 Angels are a good study in the type of team that can survive this single elimination format--they're unspectacular in anything, but pretty good in everything. Decent fielding (no 4s anywhere, more than half the starting lineup are 1s or 2s), four pretty good starting pitchers, and a batch of decent relief pitchers. Probably their weak spot is hitting, at least relative to many post-1989 teams; this was a typical Gene Autry Angels team, with an offense consisting of a bunch of aging free agents who had better seasons elsewhere (Lance Parrish, Chili Davis, Claudell Washington). They still had enough offense to pull out games while their bullpen kept things close.