REGIONAL #103:   This grouping was headlined by a high-profile WS champion, the 1953 Yankees, accompanied by two Tigers teams from the early 60’s who tended to be very good, a division-winning Pirates squad, as well as a collection of 21st century teams that were likely to be competitive.   I had to go with the Yankees as the obvious choice, with a guess that the 1960 Tigers would survive a tough matchup with a contemporary team in the semis, only to run into many of the same pinstripers that outpaced them in 1960.   The ELO ranks list the ‘53 Yanks as the 29th greatest team in baseball history making them substantial favorites, although those rankings selected the 2019 A’s, who were a wild-card playoff team, as the best squad in the bottom half of the bracket.

First round action

The 1964 Tigers won 85 games as a decent mixture of their 1961 AL runner-up squad and their 1968 championship team, and they had 18-game winner Mickey Lolich on the mound.  Still, they were ELO underdogs to the 95-win, NL East winner 1990 Pirates, with 22-game winner Doug Drabek starting and Bonds and Bonilla anchoring the lineup.  The Tigers jump to the lead in the 2nd when Dick McAuliffe finds Drabek’s HR result for a 2-run shot, but Bonds launches a 3-run homer in the 3rd to give the Pirates the 3-2 lead.  Both pitchers then pitch like the aces of the staff that they were, and neither offense can generate any action.  The Tigers come within 90 feet of tying the game in the 7th when Don Wert misses a SI* 1-8 split with McAuliffe on 3rd, and Drabek hangs on to clinch the 3-2 win and a berth in the semifinals.  Lolich only allows 5 hits in the loss, but the one hit by Bonds was enough to sink the Tigers.

The ELO ranks put the 1953 Yankees as the 29th best team of all time, although other sources put them even higher, with Rob Neyer and Eddie Epstein listing them as 15th and 9th, respectively, in their book _Baseball Dynasties_.  These Yanks won 99 games and defeated a great Dodger team in the World Series--and those Dodgers won Super-Regional E (a 64-team bracket) in this tournament, meaning that expectations were high for the Bronx Bombers to surpass that feat.   They faced an undistinguished 80-82 2010 Angels team that had enough team power to have a puncher’s chance, but the Yanks were taking no chances and sent HOF Whitey Ford to the mound against the Angels and Jered Weaver.  However, it’s the Angels who get out to the early lead in the bottom of the 3rd when the unlikely Jeff Mathis and his .195 average laces an RBI triple, and Hideki Matsui drives in Mathis with a single off Ford’s card that makes it 2-0, and the Yanks have to learn quickly if they can play from behind.   When Mathis contributes another RBI single in the 4th and Howie Kendrick adds a sac fly, things are beginning to look bleak for the favorites, and it doesn’t get better in the 5th with a Kendrys Morales sac fly that makes it 5-0; Ford is struggling, and Weaver is mowing down the vaunted Yankee lineup with impunity.   In the 7th, the Yanks try to get something going by replacing the ineffective Billy Martin with supersub Andy Carey, and Carey responds with a 2-run double that narrows the gap to 5-2.   Yankee DH Don Bollweg launches a solo shot in the 8th that makes it 5-3, but although New York puts the tying run on base in the 9th, Weaver guts it out, retiring Rizzuto for the final out as the Angels send the storied Yankees back into storage with the 5-3 upset.

The 2019 A’s won 97 games to finish 2nd in the AL West, losing the wild card game but ending up with a strong ELO ranking that was the best in the regional now that the Yankees had been eliminated in the prior first round game.  With 7 players in the lineup hitting more that 20 HRs, the A’s looked capable of scoring runs, although their starting pitching was suspect.  The 2017 Cardinals only won 83 games, but their Pythagorean projection suggested that they underperformed and I felt that the Cards were more evenly matched with the A’s than their records indicated--both teams even had Stephen Piscotty playing right field for them.  The Cards move to a 1-0 lead in the 2nd when A’s 2b-4 Jurickson Profar can’t get to a Matt Carpenter grounder, and then A’s starter Chris Bassitt walks four straight batters to begin the 4th and the St. Louis lead moves to 3-0.   A solo shot by Yadier Molina in the 6th makes it 4-0, and Oakland sends in some low AB wonders to try to generate offense against Cards starter Carlos Martinez, but when Jedd Gyorko contributes a sac fly in the 7th that makes it 5-0, Bassitt is yanked in favor of Sean Manaea.   Manaea does his job, but the A’s simply can’t solve Martinez, who ends up with a CG 2-hitter (both by Mark Canha) and the 5-0 shutout.

More success here as player than manager

Setting up the lineup for the 71-win 1960 Tigers, I was struck by how different (and not in a good way) this team was from the 101-win 1961 AL runner-up squad that was a fixture in the Strat Old-Timer teams I knew so well.  Some of the stalwarts were there-Kaline, Cash, Colavito-but not at the same level as they would show during the next (expansion) year, and most other lineup positions were populated by replacement-level players.   Still, those stalwarts looked to be good enough to handle the 53-100 last place 1924 Braves, a dreadful collection of “talent” that couldn’t hit, pitch, or catch, and whose main claim to fame was that Casey Stengel was playing RF for them.  It was Jim Bunning against 20-game loser Jesse Barnes on the mound, but two hits off Bunning’s card in the top of the 1st coupled with a Frank Bolling error gives the Braves the quick 1-0 lead.  Stengel drives in a run on a fielder’s choice in the 2nd, and the Tigers try to strike back in the bottom of the inning, getting runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out but they fail to plate any runs.  The Braves lose catcher Mickey O’Neil to injury in the 4th, but the Tigers are having trouble getting baserunners and the Braves go wholesale with the defensive replacements in the 6th trying to hold the slender 2-0 lead.  Backup catcher Frank Gibson converts a solo HR off Bunning’s card in the 8th to provide some insurance, and when two straight hits off Bunning’s card begins the 9th with another Braves run, Hank Aguirre makes an appearance, but by that point it’s academic as Barnes completes the CG shutout to earn the 4-0 victory.  There is no joy in Motown in this regional, as the two 60’s Tiger teams both make a quick exit from the tournament.

The survivors

After knocking off the favored Yankees, the 2010 Angels were confident against the NL West-winning 1990 Pirates in a semifinal matching Zane Smith with Ervin Santana as the starters.  However, Sid Bream hit a solo shot in the 2nd off his own card to give the Pirates the lead, and he adds a 3-run blast off Santana’s card in the 4th, and it’s 4-0 Pirates.   When Bonds leads off the 6th with another HR courtesy of Santana’s card, the Angels try Dan Haren in long relief, but Van Slyke rips an RBI triple in the 7th to give Pittsburgh a 6-0 lead.  Bream narrowly misses his third HR in the 8th, getting a “3” split on a HR 1-2, but by that time it doesn’t matter as Zane Smith holds the Angels to 4-hits and no runs, and the Pirates cruise to the regional final with the 6-0 win.

I’ve mentioned that it is very rare that a truly bad team gets very far in this tournament, and the 100-loss 1924 Braves entered this semifinal matchup against the 2017 Cardinals hoping to prove me wrong (it certainly wouldn’t be the first time).   It was the Braves’ Johnny Cooney against Lance Lynn for the Cards, and the Cards get to Cooney first when some sloppy fielding opens the door to a Dexter Fowler 3-run HR to give St. Louis the lead in the 3rd.  The Braves load the bases in the 5th with three singles against Lynn, but they can’t convert any runs, and Fowler pushes the Cards further ahead with an RBI triple in the 7th to make it 4-0.  The Braves finally get on the board in the bottom of the 8th with a Bill Cunningham RBI triple of his own, but the Cards stick with Lynn to conserve the bullpen and he finishes out the 4-1 win.  However, Cards 1B Matt Carpenter gets injured in the top of the 9th and he will miss the regional final against the Pirates.

The regional final between the 1990 Pirates and 2017 Cards matched two 12-9 #3 starters, Neal Heaton and Michael Wacha, but the division winning Pirates were at full strength and felt good about their chances.   That good feeling didn’t last long, as the first Pirate batter, Kolten Wong, found Heaton’s solid 5-10 HR result, and later in the inning replacement 1B Jose Martinez added a 2-run shot off his own card, and it was 3-0 Cards after inning number one.   Two walks from Heaton and two Pirate errors in the 3rd make it 6-0, and Heaton is gone, replaced by Bill Landrum.  A solo blast from Bonds in the 4th gets the Pirates on the scoreboard, and in the 6th Bobby Bonilla pushes a bases-loaded single past the poor fielding Martinez to narrow the lead to 6-3.   A couple of St. Louis hits and the Pirates put Bob Kipper on the mound, and he ends the threat to keep the Pirates within range.  When the Pirates get a couple of runners on in the 7th, Wacha exits in favor of Trevor Rosenthal, who is rescued by a strong defensive play at third by Jedd Gyorko to end the inning.   However, in the top of the 9th Sid Bream and Jeff King begin the inning with back-to-back doubles to make it 6-4; the Cards nervously eye their “closer” Oh, but his gopher ball issues are too frightening and they stick with Rosenthal as the best they’ve got.   Rosenthal retires two, then walks PH Carmelo Martinez to face Van Slyke as the go-ahead run.  But Van Slyke whiffs, Rosenthal earns the save, and the Cardinals earn the 5th  regional win for the franchise--their first for a 21st century St. Louis team.

Interesting card of Regional #103:   The Pirates fell just short of the regional title, but it wasn’t for lack of effort from this guy, who hit a homer in each of the three games.  Although there is perhaps no more controversial player in baseball, this card serves to remind us that Bonds was a pretty fair ballplayer even before the serious juicing probably began--an impressive combination of speed, defense, average, batting eye, and of course power, for which he was awarded the NL MVP award for this 1990 season.   Looking at pictures of the 1990 Bonds shows a slender, athletic guy whom I suspect would have been a lock for the Hall of Fame without any pharmacological assistance.   This year will be Bonds’ 10th and final year of eligibility for the HOF; he was named on 62% of the ballots last year, but his total has been increasing in recent years and I’m guessing it will be very close this year.