REGIONAL #91:  This group features three pennant winners, a scenario that hasn't occurred since #65, and all three of those teams are ANGRY and ready to rumble. Why angry? Well, the 2012 Giants are seeking to avenge the 2010 team's loss in the finals of the previous regional; the 1985 Cardinals are still boiling about Don Denkinger's call in the World Series; and the 2001 Diamondbacks' Curt Schilling is pissed off about pretty much everything, but especially the Baseball Writers Association. I am fairly confident that the regional will go to one of those three squads, and I'll predict the Dbacks over the Giants in the finals with Arizona's two big starters getting them there and their peak steroid-era offense putting them over the top. The ELO rankings pick the Cards to win the regional, but their first round showdown with the Dbacks clearly looks to be the game of the bracket.  

First round action:

The 1977 Angels lost 88 games and were hardly a contender that year, but they had some talent that included Bobby Bonds, Don Baylor, and Nolan Ryan and they were the official Daniel Brown dark horse regional pick. They certainly compared favorably to the 1927 Phillies, a 51-103 last place team that the ELO rankings had among the 75 worst teams of all time. The Angels begin the scoring in the top of the 3rd when Bonds rips an RBI single through the infield, but a bases-loaded single by Dick Spalding in the bottom of the inning ties the game, with the go-ahead run being cut down at the plate for the third out. In the 5th, a two-out error (the Phils third error of the game) opens the door for a Don Baylor homer, and it's 3-1 Angels. A Terry Humphrey sac fly and a Joe Rudi double put the Angels on top 5-1, and Nolan Ryan is cruising, displaying remarkable control (for him). Ryan ends up with the complete game 5-1 win, allowing 7 hits and just 2 walks, and the Angels move easily to the semifinals.

The 2012 Giants won 94 games and the World Series, and like the 2010 team that lost in the final of the prior regional they had a solid combination of pitching, defense, and hitting, with their main weakness being the lack of a capable DH.  The most noteworthy thing about their opponents, the 62-win 1941 Braves, WAS their DH:  HOFer Paul Waner, who hit only .267 at age 38; the Braves had one decent starting pitcher in Jack Tobin and only one hitter in the lineup with a SLG% over .400, Max West.  Nonetheless, the Braves took an early 1-0 lead in the 1st on a Waner fielders choice, but on the next roll lost West to injury for the remainder of the tournament.  With little now behind him, it's up to Tobin to lock down this game, and he does so until the 5th, when Brandon Belt misses a HR split on Tobin's card but the resulting double drives in the tying run.  Buster Posey also misses the same split in the 6th, but also drives in a run with the double, and Hunter Pence adds an RBI single in the 8th to make it 3-1.  However, when Buddy Hassett leads off the bottom of the 9th with a HR off Cain's card, Cain is pulled for Mijares, who retires three in a row to preserve the 3-2 Giants win.

In the most highly anticipated matchup of the regional, the 101-win NL champ 1985 Cardinals with their speed, defense, and pitching depth faced off against the 92-win World Series champ 2001 Diamondbacks, with their offensive might and Big Two starting pitchers.  Not since Regional #65, where the '71 Orioles slaughtered the '76 Yanks 11-1, had two pennant winners played in the first round, and the pitching matchup was epic:  Cy Young winner Randy Johnson (21-6, 2.49 ERA) vs. Cy Young runner-up John Tudor (21-8, 1.93).  In the top of the 1st, doubles by Vince Coleman and Jack Clark put the Cards up 1-0, but in the bottom of the 1st, after Finley is cut down going home on a Luis Gonzalez double, Reggie Sanders blasts a HR to put the Dbacks up 2-1 and it's game on.  In the 3rd, AAA stealer Coleman singles, steals second, and scores on a Cedeno single to tie the game, but Arizona answers in the bottom of the inning when the Cards uncharacteristically make two errors, leading to Finley scoring on a Sanders fielders' choice, making it 3-2 Dbacks.  Tommy Herr ties it in the 6th singling in Van Slyke, who had doubled, and then both starters bear down and the game goes to extra innings deadlocked 3-3.  Both Johnson and Tudor hold down things in the 10th, and then by tournament rules things get turned over to the respective bullpens.  Byung-Hyun Kim retires the Cards in order in the top of the 11th.  In the bottom of the frame, Jeff Lahti comes in for the Cards and his first pitch is crushed by David Dellucci for the walk-off homer and the 4-3 Dback win; Tudor was last seen in the Cardinal dugout punching various inanimate objects.  The unlikely hero, Dellucci was only in the game because DH Durazo had been pulled for a pinch runner in the 9th.

The 86-win 1989 Cardinals had something to prove after their 1985 champs were eliminated in the prior game, but the '89 version had few of the same parts aside from Ozzie Smith and Vince Coleman.  However, they appeared to have way more useful parts than the 2013 White Sox, a last place team that lost 99 games, had an all-"4" outfield and only had one fielder with a "2" or better rating.  However, the Sox did have Chris Sale on the mound, and he held the Cards in check while the Sox went up 1-0 in the 4th on a De Aza grounder.  After the top of the 9th, the Sox put in all their available defensive replacements to try to hold on to the 1-0 lead, but back-to-back doubles by PH Denny Walling and Willie McGee to lead off the bottom of the 9th tied things up. Sale then struck out the side and the game heads to extra innings.  Both Joe Magrane and Sale make it through the 10th, and then the Cards have a horrifying flashback of the previous game where both teams have to turn the ball over to their respective bullpens in the 11th.  Both Ken Dayley for the Cards and Jesse Crain for the Sox do their jobs for their maximum allotment of innings, and in the 15th inning it becomes Dan Quisenberry against Addison Reed. Finally, in the 16th, Willie McGee mishandles a Keppinger single, and Quiz falls to pieces, allowing three more hits to give the Sox a 3-1 lead.  Reed retires the Cards in order, and the Sox win the 16 inning marathon, with snakebit St. Louis losing their second straight extra-inning game of the regional.

The survivors:

The semifinal pairing the 2012 Giants and the 1977 Angels featured two good #2 starters, Ryan Vogelsong and Frank Tanana, and both were in good form for this game.  A leadoff HR by Bobby Bonds put the Angels up in the top of the 4th, but it was matched by a solo shot from Buster Posey in the bottom of the inning.  Neither team could then muster any offense until the top of the 9th, when the Angels loaded the bases with one out against Vogelsong on a squib single and two walks, but Sergio Romo came in and kept any runs from scoring.  Tanana retires three straight in the bottom of the 9th, and for the third consecutive game in this regional we head to extra innings.  Romo is in fine form, while Tanana is finally pulled after 10 innings having allowed only three hits, handing the ball to Mike Barlow.  Romo hits his inning limit in the 13th, and Mijares (who earned the save in the first round game) comes in and walks the first batter, allows a single to Bonds, and then Pablo Sandoval drops a Don Baylor grounder to put the Angels up 2-1.  So in the bottom of the 13th, the game is up to Barlow and his 4.58 ERA to try to hold off the NL pennant winners, and he retires the side in order to send the Angels to the regional final.  Barlow and Tanana combine for a 4-hitter in the 13-inning marathon, but the Angels face a big challenge as they have little left on the pitching staff for the finals.

No HOF for you!

After a tough 1st round battle against a fellow pennant winner, the 2001 Diamondbacks could be forgiven for taking their semifinal opponent, the punchless 2013 White Sox, lightly; in fact, the Dbacks considered saving big #2 starter Schilling for the finals, but decided that such a move could haunt them if they survived until round 6.  Arizona scored two in the top of the 3rd on RBI singles from Grace and Gonzalez; the Sox responded with a solo HR off Schilling's card from C Tyler Flowers.  In the 4th, Tony Womack pushed a run across with a double, but Sox starter Jose Quintana struck out Grace with the bases loaded to prevent further damage.  In the 5th, the Sox tied the game with a 2-run HR from De Aza, again off Schilling's card, and when Schilling put runners on 1st and 3rd with 1 out, the Dbacks had 1st round winner Kim up in the pen but stuck with Schilling, holding the runner on first in hopes of the DP.  However, Gordon Beckham rolls a gbB and the go-ahead run scores on the fielder's choice.  Kim is then summoned, but in the 8th he allows a solo blast to Conor Gillaspie, and Quintana by this time has Arizona in handcuffs.  Final score:  White Sox 5, Dbacks 3, Quintana with the 6-hit CG, and Schilling with the loss, allowing 11 hits in 6.2 innings, with most of the damage coming off Schilling's own card.

In a regional with three pennant winners, the final pairing of two decidedly mediocre teams, the 1977 Angels and the 2013 White Sox, was rather uninspiring and the matchup of the two #3 starters, California's Paul Hartzell and Chicago's Hector Santiago, didn't exactly promise an epic duel.   Nonetheless, as has been the case for both of these teams in the regional, the pitching was surprisingly solid.  The Angels rattled off three straight hits in the 3rd to score two runs, and a Bonds sac fly in the 5th put the Angels lead at 3-0, while Hartzell was dominating the Sox lineup.  Finally, in the bottom of the 9th, the Sox bats come alive, as they lead off the inning with three straight singles to load the bases.  The Angels survey their pen but decide to stick with Hartzell a little longer; Gillaspie drives in one with a sac fly, Alexei Ramirez pops out, and 37-year old longtime Sox hero Paul Konerko comes off the bench to pinch hit representing the winning run.  But no storybook endings here; Hartzell retires Paulie on a lazy fly ball, and the Angels secure the 3-1 win and only the second regional title (joining 1989) for the Halos.  The regional MVP has to be shared by the Angels pitching staff, who only allowed three runs--one in each game--in the regional.

Interesting card of Regional #91: In the last installment of this feature, I presented a Randy Johnson card where he led the league in both strikeouts and walks, and I pointed out that Nolan Ryan had done this a remarkable SIX times.  Lo and behold, the next regional is won by Ryan's 1977 Angels, and he led the league in both categories by a huge amount--341 K's and 204 walks!  I had to check to see if that walk total was a record in the modern era (since 1901), but it was only the second highest total:  Bob Feller allowed 208 walks in 1938, but he had more than 100 fewer strikeouts than Ryan, meaning that Ryan's combined 545 BB+K in 1977 has to be the highest since 1901.  I can't even imagine trying to bat against him; I wouldn't have left the dugout, but I guess I might not be safe even there!