REGIONAL #82:  The bracket for this regional featured a rather undistinguished collection of squads, none of which were pennant winners or even within five years of being one.  The regional did include Rogers Hornsby and Mike Piazza in their prime, and the 1982 Rangers would try to duplicate the amazing run of the 1980 Rangers team, who won Regional #6 and defeated three all-time great teams in a row (1921 Yanks, 1934 Cards, 1909 Tigers) before finally losing in the finals of Sectional A, a grouping that covered 64 teams.  The 2016 Rays represented a chance for the first regional title for that franchise, but I guessed that Piazza would carry the Dodgers for the win.  The ELO rankings (shown parenthetically) agreed, with the Dodgers being the best ranked team here by a considerable margin, although the Rays were an x-factor as those composite rankings only included teams through 2015 and so theirs had to be estimated from their season-ending ELO score.   

First round action

The 2016 Rays lost 94 games to finish last in the AL East, 21 games behind the 4th place team; the 1991 Tigers won 84 games and finished 2nd in a larger version of that division, boasting a lineup with free swingers like Cecil Fielder, Pete Incaviglia, and Rob Deer, and led the AL in batter strikeouts by more than 100 K's over the runner-up.  With bruisers like that in the lineup, each swing was going to be feast or famine, and famine prevailed as the Tigers could only muster 3 hits against Rays starter Jake Odorizzi--one a Rob Deer solo shot.  In the meantime, Detroit starter Frank Tanana allowed 2 unearned runs in the 1st and 2 more unearned runs in the 3rd--in both cases resulting from error HE made--and although Mike Henneman came out of the pen to do a better job of fielding, the Rays kept rolling with a HR from Longoria and 3 RBI from Cory Dickerson to secure an easy 7-2 upset win.

Setting the lineup for the 86-win 1974 Cardinals, I very much wanted to start Bob Gibson to watch him pitch to the 1920 Cards' Rogers Hornsby, but the 38-year old Gibby was no longer the best starter on the team, and I had to start swingman Bob Forsch to give them the best chance of winning against the 75-win 1920 team and 20-game winner Bill Doak.  The two teams matched a pair of runs in the 3rd, with hits from Reggie Smith and Torre balanced by those from Fournier and 1920's own Smith, Jack.  From there, both Forsch and Doak were masterful; the 20's threatened in the 7th when a 2-base error by Bake McBride (cf-2) put men on 2nd and 3rd and Hornsby up, but Forsch set the Rajah down quietly.  In the bottom of the 8th, the '20s managed to take the lead on a Clemons sac fly, but a hit by the following batter resulted in Doc Lavan (1-15) cut down at the plate to end the inning.  Down 3-2 in the top of the 9th, the '74s were down to their last out when Sizemore walked; Jim Dwyer pinch hit for punchless SS Mike Tyson and singled, bringing Lou Brock (AAA stealer that year) to the plate.  Brock rolls a 4-5 on Doak:  HR 1-4/flyB, and the split roll is a 5.  The 1920s win 3-2; Hornsby is quiet with one single, but Doak's 6-hitter was the key.

The 88-win 1997 Dodgers were runnerup in the NL West, but with a monster year from Piazza and a strong rotation they looked like the class of this division.  I was surprised to see that the ELO rankings had their opponent, the 1953 Senators, as the 3rd best team in this regional; the Nats finished at exactly .500 but had a Pythagorean record of 84-68, and they had 22-game winner Bob Porterfield going as their #1 starter.  The Dodgers moved out to a lead in the 4th on a 2-run HR by Raul Mondesi, while LA starter Chan Ho Park was cruising with a no-hitter after 6 innings.  In the 7th, with two out Clyde Vollmer woke up the fans in Griffith Stadium with a solo HR to make it 2-1, and the Dodgers moved immediately to their sturdy bullpen as Park's longball propensity was worrisome in a tight game.  In the top of the 9th defensive replacement Darren Lewis hit a 2-run HR for the Dodgers to provide some padding, and in the bottom of the 9th LA brought in reliever Darren Dreifort with one out to close things out.  Dreifort immediately committed an error and then walked the next batter to face Vollmer, representing the tying run.  However, Vollmer hits into the double play and the Dodgers move on with a 4-1 victory; the Senators end the game with only three hits.

According to the ELO ranks, the matchup between the 54-100 1954 Orioles and the 98-loss '82 Rangers involved the two worst teams of the regional.  The O's, who had just moved to Baltimore after years of ineptitude in St. Louis, were tagged in the ELO ranks as one of the 100 worst teams of all time.   It wasn't hard to see how they might qualify for that distinction, as nobody on the team managed to hit double-digits in home runs, and one of their better starters, Bob Turley, managed to walk more batters (181) than he allowed hits (176).  An RBI single by Jim Sundberg put the Rangers up 1-0 in the 1st, but timely hits from Gil Coan and Chuck Diering off Texas knuckleballer Charlie Hough put the Orioles up 2-1, and going in to the bottom of the 8th inning O's manager Jimmy Dykes turned to his bench coach and asked "who do we have for defensive replacements" and got the response:  "I don't know, we've never been ahead before."  They did find one for RF, but that didn't stop the Rangers from hitting 2 triples that inning, one by Sundberg and the other by Johnny Grubb (hero of Regional #65), and the Rangers take the 3-2 lead.   Worried about a knuckler that doesn't, the Rangers summon Dave Schmidt to close out the game and he sets the O's down in the 9th to secure the win for the Rangers.

The survivors

The main offensive weapons of the semifinal between the 1920 Cardinals and 2016 Rays were Rogers Hornsby and Evan Longoria, respectively, and when those guys are held in check it promises to be a low-scoring game.  And so, after 9 innings, the teams were tied 2-2 as starters Jesse Haines and Matt Moore had both pitched well.  As might be expected, the Rays had the far deeper bullpen and they felt good about heading into extra innings, but Jakie May came out of the Cards pen to relieve Haines for the 11th and he was also effective, while Rays Colome and Cedeno kept the Cards off the basepaths.  Finally, in the top of the 14th Tampa DH Cory Dickerson nailed his solid 2-6 HR, the Cards had no answer against Cedeno, and the Rays move to the finals with a 3-2 win.  This is the first trip to a regional final for the Tampa franchise, but being a 94-loss team and with their best relievers burned in the 14 inning marathon, capturing the regional is a tall order.

The underdog 1982 Rangers tapped Frank Tanana to face Ismael Valdez and the 1997 Dodgers, and the Rangers hoped that Tanana would do better than he did for the 1991 Tigers in the first round of this regional when he was at the other end of his career.  Unfortunately, he didn't; the Dodgers rocked him for 11 hits in 4.3 innings, including a Mondesi 3-run HR and a solo shot from Piazza, and the Dodgers would then coast to an easy 6-2 win over the Rangers.  Valdez tossed a CG 4-hitter, with rookie Dave Hostetler's HR being his only real mistake, and the Dodgers head to the regional final as favorites with a fully rested bullpen and a healthy lineup.

The difference maker

Although the 2016 Rays were clear underdogs against the '97 Dodgers in the regional finals, both teams had already demonstrated their ability to win, and so it was not surprising that the game was tightly contested.  Somewhat more of a surprise was that it turned out to be an outstanding pitching duel, given that both teams had to send out their #3 starter.  The Rays managed to get a few hits from batters leading off innings against Ramon Martinez, but double plays and an unexpectedly good throw from Piazza on a SB attempt kept the Rays from capitalizing.  For his part, the Rays' Chris Archer threw four perfect innings, but in the 5th Greg Gagne managed to find Archer's solid HR at 6-5 to put LA up 1-0, but that was all the offense the Dodgers could muster.  The game then hinged upon two manager moves; first, I pinch hit Tim Beckham for .237 hitting Rays catcher Bobby Wilson in the top of the 8th with 2 out and a runner on first.  Roll:  2-9, a whiff on Beckham, a HR 1-15/flyB on Wilson.  Then, fearing Martinez's possibility of allowing the longball, I brought in Darren Dreifort for the Dodgers, with no HR chances on his card.  First batter of the inning roll:  5-9, whiff on Dreifort, HR 1-11/DO on Martinez.  Dreifort then retires the Rays without incident, and the Dodgers win the game and the regional despite managing only 3 hits against Archer.

Interesting card of Regional #82:  Although I'd go with Josh Gibson if we include special sets, in terms of plain old stock MLB Strat teams this Mike Piazza card merits consideration among the best purely offensive cards ever for a full-time catcher.  Remarkably, Piazza's season wasn't good enough to win the MVP award as Larry Walker had an even more monstrous year, and perhaps Piazza's limited defensive skills as a backstop counted against him.  Also worthy of note is that the Dodgers won this regional without much help from Piazza, making you wonder just how far this team might get if he gets hot.