REGIONAL #99:  After a serious family medical emergency, things have settled down sufficiently to allow me to play Regional #99 in an attempt to try to distract me from my nursing duties.  Hopefully I can get in a few more regionals before the summer is over.

Regional #99 featured no pennant winners, but a bunch of teams on the verge of one:  the Rockies and the Giants would do so in the following year, while the Jays, Pirates, and Dodgers were all just a few years away.  However, I was picking the 1999 Mariners over the Jays to capture the regional, as I remembered some great Seattle teams from that vintage that simply couldn't get past the Yankees to reach the Series.  The ELO rankings suggested that, as usual, my memory was faulty; those rankings tapped the 2014 A's to win it all--a team I had absolutely no memories of.

First round action:

The 2006 Rockies did win the NL the following year, but they only went 76-86 and were hampered by poor pitching and porous defense.  Thus, it was a pretty even matchup against the 74-79 1958 Orioles who had solid pitching and defense, but not quite the offensive altitude of the Rockies lineup.  However, it was the starting pitchers, Colorado's Jason Jennings and O's Arnie Portocarrero, who controlled matters, as the game was a scoreless tie after 9 innings, with the two teams only combining for 5 hits in regulation.  In the top of the 10th, Jennings walks Woodling with two out and Brooks Robinson singles him to 3rd, so Colorado turns to closer Brian Fuentes and he fans Billy Gardner to end the threat.  In the 12th, Woodling again walks with 2 out and Robinson doubles, but Woodling is cut down at the plate trying to score a go-ahead run.  In the 14th, Fuentes has to give way to Ramirez on the mound, but the O's still can't score; in the bottom of the 14th, Hoyt Wilhelm has been cruising but a Helton single and a walk to Garrett Atkins leads to runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 out.  Wilhelm delivers a knuckler to Brad Hawpe--single 1-13, the split roll is a 9 and the Rockies take the 1-0 14 inning marathon win to move on.

This 1st round matchup featured two teams that I didn't think looked as good as their records:  The 1989 Blue Jays won 89 games and the AL East, and had many good players but most of them had rather off years.  The 2014 A's won 88 games to finish 2nd in the AL West, although for all the hype about Billy Beane and "moneyball" I was surprised to see lousy OBP numbers on most of their lineup, and their all-"4" DP combo didn't impress me.  However, with two good #1 starters going in Dave Stieb and Jon Lester, the scoring drought that began in the previous game continued with no score through 6 innings, but when the Jays put two on in the 7th the A's turned to their deep pen and Fernando Abad, who keeps the Jays off the scoreboard.  But Stieb isn't showing any weakness, and for the second game in a row, after nine innings it's a scoreless tie, with only three hits between the two teams.  In the top of the 12th, Mookie Wilson gets a hit against the 3rd A's reliever, Luke Gregerson, and Moseby singles him home to give the Jays a 1-0 lead, and it's up to Tom Henke to preserve the game.  Henke records two quick outs, but then PH Adam Dunn singles, Craig Gentry pinch runs and steals second....and then Johnny Gomes hits Henke's killer 6 column and fans.  Game over, Jays win 1-0; Stieb goes 10 scoreless innings and allows only 1 hit, but Henke records the win with two scoreless relief innings.

Neither the 88-win 2009 Giants nor the 79-win 1999 Mariners looked quite like what I expected; the Giants surprised me with a pretty good pitching staff but a rather lackluster offense, while the Mariners had the fearsome heart of the lineup in Griffey Jr., ARod, and E. Martinez that I anticipated--and not much else, hitting or pitching-wise.  RBI singles in the bottom of the 1st by Martinez and Russ Davis give the Mariners a 2-0 lead, marking the first runs scored in regulation innings in this regional.  An Andres Torres solo shot in the 2nd makes it 2-1, but ARod doubles in Brian Hunter to push the Seattle lead to 3-1.  When Giants starter Tim Lincecum walks the first two batters of the 4th and then is tagged for the 3-run homer by Griffey Jr., the Giants try Jeremy Affeldt and his 1.73 ERA out of the pen, and he and his successor Brian Wilson hold Seattle scoreless for the remainder of the game.  However, the Giants just can't solve M's starter Freddy Garcia, who stays strong until the Giants mount a 2-out rally in the 9th, but they can only score one when Freddy Sanchez singles home Aaron Rowand.  The game thus ends with a 6-2 win for the Mariners on a strong showing from Garcia, who scatters nine hits, and the big three in the Seattle lineup.

Both the 92-win NL East champ 1975 Pirates and the 95-win NL West champ 1985 Dodgers impressed me as nicely balanced teams that seemed quite capable of taking this regional, and the pitching matchup of 19-3 Orel Hershiser against a sneaky good John Candelaria had the makings of a tight one.  The Pirates score a run in the top of the 2nd when they manage to nail two hits off Hershiser's ungenerous card, and a Stargell sac fly in the 3rd makes it 2-0.  That lead is short-lived, as Pedro Guerrero blasts a solo shot in the bottom of the inning to narrow it to 2-1, and then Enos Cabell finds Candelaria's HR result in the 4th for a 2-run shot that gives the Dodgers a 3-2 lead.  In the 5th, Al Oliver is hurt and has to leave the game, and the next batter, Dave Parker, launches a prodigious homer into the right field pavilion of Dodger Stadium to put the Pirates back on top 4-3, and it's clear that neither of these teams is going down easily.  When the Dodgers put men on 1st and 3rd with nobody out in the 6th, the Pirates eye the bullpen but leave Candelaria in and bring in the infield--and Mike Scioscia rips it through the infield with the gbA++ to tie the game.  The Pirates reverse that strategy, bringing in Tekulve and pushing the infield back--and Greg Brock's fielders choice gives the Dodgers a 5-4 lead.  Hershiser takes command until the top of the 9th, when he walks Sanguillen and has to face Parker with two out--Parker rolls a HR 1-2/DO, gets a 3 split, but Sanguillen races home on the double with the tying run, and the Dodger must now try to score with a lineup of defensive replacements.  However, Tekulve allows two hits to lead off the bottom of the 9th, and now faces defensive rep Bob Bailor with runners on 1st and 3rd and the infield in.  The roll: 4-6 on Tekulve, DO 1-2/SI**, and Bailor is mobbed by his teammates to celebrate the epic 6-5 Dodger win.

The survivors

The semifinal between the 2006 Rockies and the 1989 Blue Jays featured two teams that took a combined 26 innings to score two runs between them, which is a first for this tournament.  For the superstitious, the pitching matchup featured two 13-game winners in Jimmy Key (TOA) and Jeff Francis (CON), neither to be confused with Cy Young.  The Rockies score two in the 3rd led by Matt Holliday's triple; the Jays don't get a hit against Francis until the 6th, but they then load the bases and a Kelly Gruber single drives in two to tie the game at 2-2.  Rockies low AB wonder Jeff Baker, coming in for late innings, does his job and belts a solo HR in the 7th to put Colorado up 3-2, with Henke relieving Key to end the inning without further damage.  Francis allows 2 hits in the bottom of the 7th, but with their closer burnt in the previous marathon game, the Rockies stick with him and he gets out of the jam unscathed--but when the first two batters of the 8th get on, Ramon Ramirez is summoned from the pen, and although he allows no hits an Ernie Whitt sac fly ties the game at 3-3.  With Henke burnt, Duane Ward comes in for the top of the 9th and retires the heart of the Rockies lineup in order, so it's up to Ramirez to hold the Jays, and he doesn't--he fails to record an out, allows three straight hits, and the last one, a Mookie Wilson single, gives the Jays the 4-3 come from behind win and a berth in the finals.

The 1999 Mariners were hoping that their big 3 of ARod, Griffey, and EMartinez could lead them to the first regional title in franchise history, but they faced a big obstacle in Fernando Valenzuela and the 1985 Dodgers.  Things got off to a rough start for M's starter John Halama when Bill Madlock found his HR result for a solo shot in the 1st, which rattled Halama and he loaded up the bases but managed to pitch out of the jam with no further damage.  However, Halama allows 4 straight hits to open the 2nd, including a 2-run Madlock double, and it's now 4-0.  In the 3rd, Seattle loads the bases against Valenzuela, and he then walks Russ Davis to make it 4-1, but Fernando recovers his control and ends the threat.  Another Dodger 2-run double, this one from Mike Marshall in the 4th, chases Halama (3+ IP, 10 HA) for Gil Meche, and it's LA 6-1.  Doubles from Landreux and Sax in the 5th make it 8-1 Dodgers, and the Mariners try Paul Abbott on the mound to try to stop the bleeding while the Dodgers are putting in defensive replacements, mainly to reduce injury risks that might hamper later rounds.  Abbott handles the Dodger bench, but the Mariners can't get to Valenzuela until the top of the 9th, when they load the bases with 1 out and ARod at the plate.  It's a GBX to scrub 2b Dave Anderson, who converts the DP and the Dodgers win 8-1, Valenzuela with a 6-hit complete game to push the Dodgers into the finals.

Mariners get mania'd

The regional finals paired two division winners from the 80's, the 1985 Dodgers and the 1989 Blue Jays, with the ELO rankings indicating that the two teams were quite evenly matched.  However, the Dodgers bullpen was fully rested and the Jays pen taxed after two tight games, and LA's Bob Welch seemed to have the advantage over Jays John Cerutti as starting pitcher, so the Dodgers looked to be well positioned for a 7th regional win for the franchise.  LA strikes first in the bottom of the first, when Bill Madlock hits a solo shot that would have been a 2-run HR except Steve Sax had been caught stealing.  The Dodgers get that second run in the 2nd on a Landreaux sac fly, but Mookie Wilson gets the Jays first hit in the 4th and scores on a Moseby double to make it 2-1.  An Enos Cabell sac fly in the bottom of the 4th pushes the Dodger lead to 3-1, but Junior Felix hits a solo blast to lead off the top of the 5th to get the run back. Mike Marshall takes Cerutti deep to lead off the bottom of the 6th, and Cerutti is injured on the very next batter, replaced by a young David Wells.  When George Bell hits a 2-out solo shot in the 8th, the Dodgers replace Welch with Tom Niedenfuer.  In the top of the 9th, Pedro Guerrero misplays a Junior Felix hit to send Felix to 2nd, but Niedenfuer needs just one out to clinch the regional--and he doesn't get it.  Tony Fernandez doubles to tie the game, and then Mookie Wilson singles home Fernandez and the Jays lead for the first time in the game, 5-4.  Wells holds the Dodgers in the bottom of the 9th, and the Blue Jays take the come-from-behind 5-4 win and the regional title--only the second (with 1985) regional win for the Jays.

Interesting card of Regional #99:  This selection wasn't determined until the late innings of the regional final, as I was digging through the Jays' depleted bullpen for help and was somewhat surprised to run across this guy.  If you're like me, you remember David Wells as a portly but effective workhorse starter, mainly with the Jays and the Yankees, but I did not remember that he began his career as a relief pitcher.  This 1989 card was his final season as a full-time reliever, and it's quite good, although somewhat lost in an excellent bullpen that also featured Tom Henke, Duane Ward, and Jim Acker.  But Wells was the one who stepped in for the injured John Cerutti and held the Dodgers scoreless while the Jays clawed back, earning the win in the regional final.  He also had a colorful career that was lubricated by an abiding affection for beer, pitching a perfect game at age 34 in which he claimed he was 'half-drunk, with bloodshot eyes, monster breath, and a raging, skull-rattling hangover,' having gone to bed at 5 a.m. and gotten just an hour of sleep.