REGIONAL #96:  This regional marks an important waypoint in this tournament, wrapping up a third grouping of 256 teams that have played after this regional (768 teams in total thus far).   And it looks like a good one, with two pennant winners in the Royals and the Rockies, other contenders including another good Royals team from a different era as well as Pirates and Yankees squads that likely bring some weapons to the table.  My hunch was that the pitching of the 2015 Royals would carry them past the Rockies and that they'd handle the Yankees in the finals; the ELO rankings predicted the same teams in the finals, but the prorated score for the Yanks put them among the top 50 teams of all time and thus New York was the ELO favorite.  It was interesting to note that although the Rockies won the NL pennant in 2007, the ELO rankings ranked five AL teams as better than them.  

First round action:  

According to the ELO ranks, the 90-win pennant-winning 2007 Rockies team was the best squad in franchise history, with a power-packed lineup and good defense but limited by pitchers struggling to deal with the HR-friendly conditions that exist a mile above sea level.  In contrast, the 99-loss 1934 Reds finished last in the NL and were ranked as one of the 100 worst teams of all time, although they had a young nucleus of players like Ernie Lombardi, Paul Derringer, and Frank McCormick who would go on to win a pennant some years later.  Derringer, one of two 20-game losers on the Reds staff, got the task of attempting to keep the Rockies in check, and check he did, allowing only two hits and no runs through 7 innings.  In the meantime, the Reds climbed out to a 6-0 lead on two Chick Hafey homers and RBI singles from Pool and Piet, chasing 17-game winner Jeff Francis after only 4.1 innings in which he allowed 10 hits.   The Rockies finally knock three hits in the 8th, but coupled with a Derringer error it only amounts to one run with a rally-killing DP ending the threat.  Derringer retires the side in order in the 9th, and the Reds easily pull off the upset 6-1 win over a stunned Colorado team, with Derringer tossing a 5-hit complete game.

The 2015 Royals won 95 games, the AL, and the World Series with a solid if not spectacular lineup and some strong arms in the bullpen, although their starting pitching was not as good as I remembered it being.  However, it was still miles better than that of the 2000 Rays, who lost 92 games and had dreadful steroid-era pitching without the benefit of huge steroid-fueled power in their lineup.  The Royals started off auspiciously, with leadoff hitter Lorenzo Cain rolling Tampa starter Albie Lopez' HR result, but missing the 1-15 split and then getting stranded at second.  Cain hits another double in the 3rd with no out, but again gets stranded at second and it's beginning to look like the Royals are struggling to find a clutch hitter.  Finally, in the 5th inning the Royals score three, courtesy of two Tampa errors and a key Ben Zobrist single, and KC looks to their starter Chris Young to hold off the Rays long enough to get it to their bullpen.  However, a Felix Martinez triple and a Miguel Cairo double make it 3-1, and two Young walks load the bases with one out and the Royals are forced to turn to their killer closer, Wade Davis, to try to staunch the bleeding.  Davis comes through, recording a whiff and a popout, and it's still 3-1 KC after six, with the Royals hoping for some insurance runs so that they can pull Davis and preserve him for later rounds.  They add one in the 7th after the 4th Tampa error of the game, and promptly replace Davis with Kelvin Herrera and crossed fingers.  Herrera is torched for a solo HR by Jose Guillen in the bottom of the 9th, and the Rays turn to their PH extraordinaire Ozzie Timmons and his .707 SLG% to try to pull the game out, but Timmons whiffs and the Royals survive with a 4-2 win and move on.

Both the 1975 Royals and the 1967 Pirates struck me as good teams--the Royals won 91 games and were every bit as strong as the pennant-winners who played in the prior game, and although the Pirates only went 81-81, they had four .300 hitters in the lineup along with mashers like Stargell and Clendenon.  On paper the Royals looked to have the better starting pitching, but that wasn't evident early as the Pirates mauled Marty Pattin for 4 runs in the 1st (including a Stargell 3-run homer) and another 4 runs in the 2nd (courtesy of a Clemente grand slam), with Pattin leaving the game with a 1.1 IP, 7HA, 8RA pitching line.  The Royals get on the board against Tommie Sisk in the 5th when a George Brett fielders choice scores a run, but the Pirates match it in the 7th when Maury Wills walks, steals second, and Mazeroski doubles him home.  The Royals can't solve Sisk, who ends with a 6-hit CG and the Pirates coast into the semifinals with an impressive 9-1 win.

The 2019 Yankees won 103 games, but I was surprised to find that their ELO ranking would put them among the 50 best teams of all time--until I set their lineup.  With 9 players having a SLG% over .500 and a killer group in the bullpen, it seemed to me that their only weaknesses were rather mediocre starting pitching and a host of frightening injury results on their cards.  In contrast, the 82-80 1993 Mariners had exactly two weapons:  Ken Griffey Jr., and Randy Johnson.  Despite a great card, Johnson looked mortal when Gary Sanchez hits a solo blast in the 2nd and Gleybar Torres adds an RBI single in the 3rd.  However, the Mariners then find the weaknesses on Yankee starter James Paxton's card, with Rich Amaral finding Paxton's HR result for a 2-run shot in the bottom of the 3rd and Omar Vizquel finding it again for a solo shot in the 5th, and the Mariners lead 3-2.  When Paxton allows a single in the 6th the Yanks have seen enough and turn it over to their bullpen--and they do their job, but Johnson is shackling the Yanks.  The game enters the 9th with the M's still up 3-2; Johnson quickly retires two batters to begin the top of the 9th, and with the Mariners one out away from the upset, Brett Gardner hits a game-tying blast that leaves the Seattle crowd stunned.  Zack Britton retires the Mariners in order in the bottom of the frame and the game heads to extra innings.  Johnson stays in the game and sets down the Yanks in the 10th, and in the bottom of the 10th, another Tino Martinez error, a hit and a Britton walk loads the bases with one out for Griffey Jr.; and the Yanks summon their closer Aroldis Chapman to try to hang onto the game.  With the infield in, Griffey hits the gbA for the force play at the plate, and then Chapman strikes out Jay Buhner to send the game to the 11th.  Norm Charlton has to come in to relieve the exhausted Johnson, and Charlton grooves one to late-inning DH replacement Giancarlo Stanton; it's gone, and the Yanks lead 4-3.  Chapman shuts down the M's in order in the bottom of the 11th, and the Yanks survive a serious scare to move on to the semifinals.

The survivors:

The 1934 Reds had defeated a pennant winner in round one and had their sights on another in the semifinal in the form of the 2015 Royals, but that dream proved to be short-lived when the second Royal batter, Eric Hosmer, converted a HR 1-2 split off Reds' starter Bennie Frey's card, and Frey absolutely lost it.  Frey was mercifully pulled with one out in the second inning, after allowing 10 runs on 11 hits, and although some bad Reds bullpen pitchers did an admirable job for the remainder of the game, things were already far out of reach.  Gordon Slade was able to contribute a couple of RBI singles to narrow the gap slightly, but with the big lead KC starter Edinson Volquez was able to run on cruise control and the Royals coast to the 10-3 win.  The good news for the Royals was that the blowout enabled them to rest a bullpen that was taxed in the first round; the bad news was that DH Kendrys Morales was injured for 5 games, and the squad really doesn't have a bat on the bench that can provide a capable replacement.

The historical documents after 96 regionals

Despite being ELO favorites, the 2019 Yankees barely survived the 1st round and were now facing a more formidable opponent in the 1967 Pirates, with Masahiro Tanaka on the mound against Steve Blass (before he would go on to develop the disease that bears his name).  The Pirates had started fast in their 1st round game, and when Yank SS Gleyber Torres fielded a grounder from leadoff hitter Matty Alou and threw it into the Pirates dugout for a 2-base error, the groans from the fans could be heard in Staten Island.  However, Tanaka managed to strand Alou at 2nd, and then in the bottom of the 1st the Pirates return the favor when Manny Mota misplays a Brett Gardner fly to open a door that Blass can't close, with the Yanks scoring three runs--two on an Edwin Encarnacion HR.  The Pirates threaten in the 2nd but Mazeroski is cut down at the plate to end the inning.  Encarnacion's second 2-run HR in the 3rd makes it 5-0, and a Torres solo shot in the 7th pushes the lead to 6-0.  The Pirates can't figure out Tanaka, with at least four rolls on either side of his solid 4-9 HR reading, and Tanaka finishes with an 8-hit CG shutout, resting the depleted Yankee bullpen for a finals showdown against the Royals.

A milestone regional gets to wrap up with two very good squads, a World Champion 2015 Royals team against the AL runner-up 2019 Yanks.  Having played both teams for a couple of games, the Yankees were flat out impressive, an offensive juggernaut with a bullpen capable of bailing out suspect starting pitching.  The Royals were also coming into the game minus their DH Kendrys Morales; worthy of note, the Yankees had their own version of Kendrys that they would have been glad to loan the Royals, as the 2019 Morales seemed like he was about the 8th best DH on the powerful Yankees team.  The Yanks power is hinted at in the 1st when Urshela misses a HR split on Royals' starter Yordano Ventura's card, but he drives in Tauchman with the resulting double.  A solo shot from Gleyber Torres in the 2nd, another from Gary Sanchez in the 4th, and a third from Urshela in the 8th seems to provide Yanks starter Domingo German with all the support he needs.  However, when slap hitter Omar Infante finds German's solid HR result at 6-9 in the 6th inning, the Yanks turn it over to their bullpen, and Ottavino and Britton do the job to preserve the 4-1 victory and the regional win.  Despite their great history, this is only the 3rd Yankee team to win a regional, joining the 1960 and 1979 squads.

Interesting card of Regional #96:  I sort of hate to select a 2019 card for this feature because most people will be familiar with such recent seasons, but the 2019 Yanks did win the regional and it is only fitting to highlight one of their players.  However, rather than selecting one of the numerous imposing sluggers in the Yankee lineup, I picked a low IP starting pitcher who only made one appearance in the regional--in relief, as according to tournament rules he has too few IP to use as a starter but can be used in relief, and he tossed two important shutout innings in NY's 1st round extra-inning win.  Severino had won 19 games for the Yanks in 2018 at the age of 24, but like so many players on the Yankees, he battled various injuries in 2019 and didn't pitch at all until September--and afterwards missed all of 2020 following Tommy John surgery.  I highlight Severino because the primary weakness of this squad (aside from some frightening injury results) was their starting pitching, and I just wonder how many games the Yankees--with 103 wins as it was--would have won if everyone, including Severino, was healthy all year.  I was initially surprised to discover that the ELO ranks placed the 2019 Yanks among the 50 greatest teams of all time; after watching them charge through this regional, I think that if this Severino card had 212 IP rather than 12, the team might belong in the top 25.