REGIONAL #83: No pennant winners in the draw for this regional, although the 2013 Giants were in between NL pennants in 2012 and 2014 and it seemed like they should be contenders.  I vaguely remember the early 70s Twins as being pretty good, and on the basis of that memory I had picked the '73 Twins to do well in Regional #69, but when I actually assembled their lineup it was unimpressive--yet they went on to win that regional, so maybe the '72 version of the team in this bracket might also do well.  The White Sox, Indians, and Mets teams in this regional were all climbing towards pennants in a few years, while the Astros were declining from one, and the A's of the 60s were mainly operating as a Yankees farm team.  My sentimental favorite was clearly the White Sox, although they drew a tough 1st round draw against the Giants, who I thought would win the regional.  The ELO rankings appraise this as a motley collection of teams and favored my White Sox by a comfortable margin, with only the Sox and the 2007 Twins (whom I have absolutely no memory of) rated among the top 1000 teams of all time.

First round action

The 1957 White Sox won 90 games and were the runner-up in the AL, while the 2013 Giants only won 76 games despite featuring many of the same players as their 2012 and 2014 pennant-winners, as well as the 2015 team that reached the finals of regional #81.  The matchup of Madison Bumgarner (9th in the Cy Young voting) and Billy Pierce (11th in the MVP voting) suggested a tight pitching duel, but both teams immediately scored a run in the 1st:  a Hunter Pence solo HR off Pierce's HR 1-8/DO split (located at a 5-5 roll), and a Minoso single after Pablo Sandoval booted an Aparicio grounder--Pablo's first of three errors in the game.   In the 4th, Bubba Phillips hit a HR off Bumgarner's own HR 1-8 split, and the Sox led 3-1, but Brandon Belt tied it up in the 6th with a 2-run shot, again off Pierce's 1-8 split.  Then, in the 8th, Pierce issued 3 walks to load the bases against Buster Posey, and....yep, a grand slam off Pierce's 1-8 split.  After retrieving my split die following an epic toss into the next room, I brought in Gerry Staley but he was not much of an improvement, populating the bases and allowing a 2-run single to Blanco.  In the 9th, Pence hit his second HR of the game, finally off his own card, and Bumgarner retires the side in the 9th, striking out Nellie Fox (13 SO in 619 AB, no less) to add injury to the insulting 11-3 Giants win.

The 77-win 1972 Twins and the 79-win 2007 Twins, in addition to team name and mediocrity, had something else in common:  each team only had one .300 hitter, who played 2nd base and led off.  Other than that, the teams were fairly different, with the 1972 team having an excellent, deep starting rotation but limited punch (a down year for Killebrew), while the 2007 team had more offensive weapons but only one good starting pitcher:  Johan Santana.  Santana and his opponent, Jim Kaat, were both in fine form in the early game and there was no scoring until the 5th, when Jason Bartlett got on with a fielder's choice, stolen second on weak-armed Glenn Borgmann, and was singled home by Torii Hunter, although the Twins squandered the opportunity to score more when Joe Mauer popped out to end the inning with the bases loaded.   Mauer atoned in the 8th with a timely triple (not bad for a catcher), and the 2007 team entered the 9th with a more comfortable 3-0 lead.  That pad allowed them to leave Santana in despite his frightening HRs allowed at 5-9 solid and 5-8 split (a split that was missed by Rod Carew) and preserve Joe Nathan for later rounds.  Santana retired the 1972s in order in the 9th, preserving the 3-0 shutout on a 3-hitter.  The 2007s did suffer a tournament-ending injury to Jason Tyner, a part-time LF, but that does not figure to be a significant loss.

The 74-win 2009 Astros still had a few pieces left from their 2005 pennant winners, but not many; the 71-win 1996 Mets had some steroid-era juice in their lineup, good up the middle defense, but a lackluster starting rotation that involved praying that they would last long enough to put in closer John Franco.  The Astros tapped veteran Roy Oswalt to start, but Todd Hundley smacked a 2-run HR in the 1st inning and another 2-run shot in the 3rd and Houston quickly had a problem.   The Astros finally mounted a threat against NY's Mark Clark in the 8th, when a Michael Bourn double made it 4-2 with nobody out, but the Mets summoned Franco and he retired the side without further damage.  The Mets then responded with three runs from back-to-back doubles by Ochoa and defensive replacement Brogna, and with that padding brought in Mlicki from the pen to preserve Franco for later rounds.  Mlicki walked the first batter he faced, but then retired three in a row and the Mets move on with a 7-2 victory.

The 76-win 1992 Indians and the 73-win '63 A's were the 6th and 7th 70-win mediocrities to play in this 8 team regional, and the pitching matchup of staff aces Charles Nagy and Moe Drabowsky wasn't exactly one for the ages.   Nonetheless, it turned into a pitching duel, although a Carlos Baerga double gave the Indians a 1-0 lead in the first.   In the 3rd, Albert Belle contributed an RBI single, and Nagy was dominating the A's through eight.  In the bottom of the 9th, Nagy got two quick outs then allowed a single to KC catcher Doc Edwards, Doc's 3rd hit of the game, then a walk and an error by ss defensive replacement Felix Fermin loaded the bases.  With no stellar bullpen options, the Indians stuck with Nagy to face PH Manny Jimenez, who flied out to CF and the Indians move on with the 2-0 shutout, Nagy tossing a 5-hit gem.

The survivors

The semifinal matchup between the 2013 Giants and the 2007 Twins featured two mediocre teams that won in the first round by virtue of a strong #1 starter; another feature they had in common was that the quality dropoff to their #2 starters was massive.  The Twins' starter, Carlos Silva, lived up to his dubious reputation, spotting the Giants to a 6-0 lead before the Twins got their first hit in the 3rd--Hunter Pence providing a 2-run homer.  The Twins turned it over to their bullpen in the 4th, but it was far too late, as SF's Matt Cain had a shutout going until 2 out in the 9th, when Lew Ford found Cain's solid 5-9 HR.   But that was it for the Twins, and the Giants move easily into the finals with an 8-1 win.  However, their leadoff hitter, Angel Pagan, will miss the finals after incurring an injury in the 6th inning.

The 1996 Mets and 1992 Indians comprised another semifinal matchup of mediocrities with many parallels; both lineups had a cf-2 leading off who was a AA stealer, both teams had few good options in their rotation for a #2 starter, but both featured some strong relievers if the starters could survive their requisite five innings.  The Mets quickly took advantage of Indians starter Jose Mesa, jumping to a 6-0 lead with homers from Vizcaino and Gilkey off Mesa's card, but the Indians narrowed the gap in the bottom of the 4th with 3 runs, two from a HR by DH Glenallen Hill whose 2001 card I had maligned in Regional #81.  Mesa took heart and retired the Mets in order in the 5th, but when he allowed a single to start the 6th he was quickly yanked for Derek Lilliquist and his 1.75 ERA.   Lilliquist slowed but could not stop the bleeding, and the Indians would get no more runs against Pete Harnisch, who ended up with a 7-hitter and the CG win in the 8-3 Mets victory.

Blasting backstop

Although the regional final between the 2013 Giants and the 1996 Mets featured two sub-.500 teams, both had run through the first two rounds of the tournament easily, outscoring their opponents 19-4 and 15-5, respectively.  Down to their #3 starters, the Giants' Tim Lincecum might have had the edge against the Mets' Jason Isringhausen, but the Giants were without their starting DH due to injury.  The Mets got to Lincecum quickly when Jeff Kent hit a 3-run HR in the bottom of the 1st; the Giants scored in the 3rd on a Pence double but a solo shot by Todd Hundley in the bottom of the inning made it 4-1.  In the 5th, the Giants lost Andres Torres to injury, but they mounted 2-out rallies in the 5th and 6th to narrow the gap to 4-3, and the Mets turned early to their closer John Franco as Isringhausen had allowed 10 hits in only 5.3 innings.  The Mets blasted back with 3 runs of their own in the bottom of the 6th, rocking Lincecum and reliever Casilla for 5 hits, one a homer by the unlikely Jose Vizcaino.  The Giants struck back against Franco with another 2-out rally in the 7th, scoring three with a Marco Scutaro double being the key blow, and once again its a 1-run game at 7-6.  However, in the bottom of the 7th Hundley hits his second solo shot of the game, again responding to a Giants rally, and Franco holds on as the Mets capture the regional with a hard-fought 8-6 win.  Hundley's four homers in 3 games captures regional MVP honors, leading the Mets to their 5th regional win (along with 1975, 1993, 2010, and 2019).

Interesting card of Regional #83:   When the 2013 Giants blew out the 1957 White Sox--my personal favorite--in the first round by mauling Billy Pierce's card, I had the nearly irresistible temptation to replay the game and put this guy on the mound as the Giants' starter.  The Giants actually had quite a deep bullpen with several capable relief arms, but the appropriately named Kickham was not one of them.  Remarkably, his 2014 season for the Giants was even worse, as his ERA more than doubled from 10.16 to 22.50 (WHIP of 4.50), but Strat mercifully did not give him a card based upon his two dreadful innings that year.  Afterwards he bounced around the minors, but he resurfaced to pitch for the Red Sox in 2020, having a career year with a 7.71 ERA and recording his first (and only) MLB win.