REGIONAL #108:  I was beginning to wonder about my random team selector for this regional, as it seemed to keep picking Giants and Phillies teams, with two of the Giants teams just one year from a pennant and one of the Phillies teams being two seasons away.  I figured that the random number generator was trying to tell me something, so I guessed it would be a Giants (1963 version) vs. the Phillies (2006 version) final, with the Giants prevailing.  Unusually, the ELO ratings predicted the same result that I did, perhaps unduly impressed with my extremely rare accurate picks in the prior regional.

First round action:

The main attraction on the 85-win 2006 Phillies was the monster card of one Ryan Howard, a basher of Ruthian proportions.  However, they also suffered from a dearth of starting pitching and figured that 22-year old spot starter Cole Hamels was probably their best option.   The 1930 White Sox lost 92 games despite having two Hall of Famers on the pitching staff, but neither Ted Lyons or Red Faber got the nod, as the Sox instead went with Pat Caraway.  The Phils move out front in the 2nd when Jeff Conine doubles in Jimmy Rollins, and in the 3rd Howard launches a bases-empty blast into the upper deck of Comiskey to make it 2-0.   Caraway settles down, but Hamels is in control of the Sox until the 9th, when two squib hits (one a converted SI* 1-3 by Bennie Tate) chases Hamels for Fabio Castro.  However, Bobby Abreu can’t get to a Fothergill liner, which scores Reynolds to make it 2-1, making it 1 out with the tying run on 3rd and the winning run on 1st.  The Phils bring the infield in, and the lead runner is nailed at the plate on a Cissell gbB, and then Castro retires the final Sox batter to send the Phillies to the semifinals with the nail-biter win in which they managed only 5 hits.  Regarding the crucial infield in play, this was unusual in that it seems my managerial decisions have been much more likely to lead to a team losing than to one winning.

You have the right to remain hitless

The 1957 Orioles went an even 76-76 by combining a pretty solid starting rotation with an anemic offense that had only two players in double digits for HR, and both of them with less than 20.   One example of the O’s offense was starting SS Willie Miranda, who possessed an impressive .204 SLG%--yes, slugging percentage, not batting average--which might be the worst that I’ve seen for someone in the starting lineup in this tournament.  The 83-win 1988 Giants were a more balanced team, with a decent rotation and a lineup with some weapons such as Will Clark and Kevin Mitchell, and they sent capable swingman Don Robinson to face the Orioles’ Connie Johnson.   The Giants get things going in the 2nd when Robby Thompson singles home Ernest Riles for the early lead, and in the 4th Mitchell misses a HR 1-13 split, but the resulting double is good enough to score Clark to make it 2-0, and that is all the Giants can do against Johnson for the rest of the game.   However, that was enough, as Robinson tosses a CG 6-hit shutout and at least one of the three Giants teams in this regional makes the semifinals.

As is customary, my selection of the 1963 Giants to win the regional was made sight unseen, and after looking at their lineup I was struck by how some of the team was killer (the heart of the order of McCovey, Mays, Cepeda was frightening) and how the rest of the team was very much not (Pagan and Hiller were a terrible DP combo, for example).  The team did win 88 games to finish 3rd in the NL, and with 25-game winner Juan Marichal on the mound, it was hard to bet against them.  They faced a 77-win 1999 Phillies team that shared few starters with the other Phillies squad in this regional, but they had some other weapons and their starter Curt Schilling was not shy about comparing his credentials favorably to Marichal’s.  And he may have been right, as Marichal comes unglued in the 4th inning, allowing 5 hits (one of them a 3-run homer by Scott Rolen) and a 3-0 lead that could have been worse as TWO Philadelphia baserunners were gunned down at the plate in the inning.  SF catcher Ed Bailey launches a solo shot in the 5th to make it 3-1, but the Phils get the run back in the 7th when Ron Gant slaps a 2-out double and Mike Lieberthal singles him home.   The run proves to be unnecessary, though, as Schilling lives up to his own billing, holding the Giants to only 4 hits and striking out 12 as the Phillies send their second team of the regional to the semifinals with the 4-1 win and put the bracket favorite back into storage.

The 78-76 1948 Giants seemed familiar to me, mainly because the 1949 team had survived a round in the previous regional before getting eliminated by the eventual winner in the semifinals.   The two teams were similar in that aside from Johnny Mize, there wasn’t too much impressive about the team, although 18-game winner Larry Jansen was a credible #1 starter.  Unlike the previous regional, however, these Giants were facing a team with some weapons, the 88-win AL West champs 1998 Rangers, who boasted some steroid era punch from Juan Gonzalez, Will Clark, and Pudge Rodriguez, but who also had a 20-game winner in Rick Helling on the mound. After setting their lineup, I felt that the ELO rankings shortchanged the Rangers and in my mind they seemed to be a clear favorite over the Giants even though the latter was ranked as better.  Of course, the Giants find my lack of faith disturbing, as the first batter of the game, Whitey Lockman, parks one in the far reaches of the Ballpark at Arlington, while Jansen strikes out the side in the bottom of the inning and it’s Giants 1, Rangers 0.  In the 4th Bobby Thomson launches a solo shot heard round the metroplex, Walker Cooper adds a 2-run blast in the 6th, and it’s the Giants that are looking like the steroid-era squad.  Finally, in the bottom of the 7th Ranger DH Mike Simms smacks a 2-run homer to narrow the lead to 4-2, and PH Roberto Kelly makes it 4-3 with a solo blast in the 8th.  However, when Jack Lohrke hits a 2-run HR in the top of the 9th, things are looking bleak for the Rangers, but Jansen (a “1” fielder) boots a grounder and Will Clark crushes his next offering to make it 6-5; Rusty Greer follows with a double and the tying run is in scoring position with nobody out.  The Giants don’t like the looks of their bullpen alternatives and after conferring with Jansen, agree to let him try to close out the game.  He gets two quick outs, but then Lohrke can’t get to a McLemore single and Rigney can’t get to a Goodwin single, and the game is tied; Jansen does then retire Juan Gonzalez and we head to extra innings.   Helling retires the Giants in the top of the 10th without incident for his final inning, and then Jansen allows two squib singles to put the winning run on 2nd with 2 out, and Luis Alicea, the third guy to play 3B for the Rangers, at the plate.   With no remaining 3B available, Luis has to bat, and he rips a single into the corner to score Simms and give the Rangers their first and final lead of the game, a 7-6 win that punches their ticket to the semifinals.

The survivors

I predicted a Giant/Phillies final matchup for this regional, and although that has been eliminated as a possibility, we do get such a matchup here for the first semifinal game.   The 1988 Giants, the only one of three Giants squads to survive the first round, sought to carry the torch for the franchise, while the 2006 Phillies were the top-ranked team remaining and were hoping to make the finals an all-Philadelphia story.  It was 19-game winner Rick Reuschel for the Giants against Brett Myers for Philly, but things start off somewhat rocky for Philly in the 2nd as C Mike Lieberthal (with his injury at a roll of 1-7) gets hurt for four games.  The Phils then rise up and score two in the 3rd on RBI singles from David Dellucci and Chase Utley, but Bob Melvin doubles in Ernest Riles in the 5th to narrow the score to 2-1.  Brett Butler then leads off the 6th with a triple, but Myers fans the next two batters and leaves him stranded at third to keep the Phils in the lead, and then the Phils notch three insurance runs in the 7th on a 2-run Rollins single, and Jimmy steals second and scores on a Coste (in for the injured Lieberthal) single.  A Dellucci fielder's choice adds another run in the 8th, and Myers is on cruise control, finishing out an 8-hitter with 9 strikeouts to send the Phillies into the final, with Philadelphia rocking Giants pitching for 17 hits in the 6-1 win.  The three Giants teams in this batch thus only win one of four games, a poor showing for a franchise that has won eight previous regionals in this tournament.

Two near-contemporaries faced off in the second semifinal, with the 1999 Phillies trying to complete an all-Philly final and the 1998 Rangers seeking to represent as the only division winner in this regional.  Befitting a division champ, the Rangers boasted a fairly decent rotation despite it being the peak of the steroid era, and Todd Stottlemyre seemed to have fewer long ball issues than his counterpart for the Phils, Paul Byrd.  However, it’s Philadelphia’s sloppy fielding that gives the Rangers the early lead in the 2nd, with an Alex Arias error and a single that gets past Byrd setting up a 2-run Royce Clayton single, and Tom Goodwin finds Byrd’s HR result for a solo shot in the 5th that makes it 3-0 Rangers.   Three straight hits to start the 6th finally chase Byrd, but two more score, although Rico Brogna finally gets the Phils on the board with a leadoff HR in the 8th that makes it 5-1.   That seems to break the ice for Philly, as Gant leads off the 9th with a triple, scores on a Lieberthal single, and then Abreu brings them home with a 2-run blast and it’s suddenly a one-run game and the Rangers head to the bullpen for John Wetteland and his 42 saves.  He needs to get two outs, and he gets them promptly, fanning Brogna to end the game and send the Rangers to the finals with a 5-4 win.

Only one Rangers team had previously won a regional title, and the 1998 Rangers sought to be the second.   Although the Phillies are a much older franchise, they themselves had only won three regionals, but two of them--2005 and 2008--bracketed the 2006 Phillies team trying to win this one, underscoring that the Phils of that vintage seemed to have what it takes to succeed in this format.  Another interesting aspect of this matchup is that it pits the AL MVP, Juan Gonzalez, against the NL MVP, Ryan Howard, in an epic faceoff of two bashers.   Really, neither of these sluggers had been major factors to this point, and it seemed to me that whichever one could get hot would determine the regional winner.   Starters Aaron Sele for TEX and Cory Lidle for PHI both were strong in the early going and it was a scoreless tie after five.  However, in the 6th Victorino singled and Howard doubled him to 3rd, and with nobody out the Rangers went early to closer John Wetteland to try to get out of the jam.  That did not go well, as the next batter, David Dellucci, send the ball into the streets of Arlington and the Phillies have a 3-0 lead.  When Lidle yields two straight hits to start the 7th, the Phillies summon Fabio Castro to head off any Texas comeback efforts, and although one run scores when Greer hits into a DP the Phillies maintain their lead.  Entering the 9th, the Phils decide to leave Castro in and burn his eligibility rather than turn to longball-prone closer Tom Gordon, and Castro retires the Rangers in order to earn his second save of the regional, and put the Phillies in as regional winners with the 3-1 victory.  With regional winners from 2005, 2006, and 2008, this era of the Phillies is perhaps the most successful dynasty in the tournament thus far.

Interesting card(s) of Regional #108:  I had to have a dual feature here, because the regional final involved a duel between two MVP winners, even though neither one played a huge role in the outcome of the tournament.  Howard had won the Rookie of the Year award in his prior season, and no sophomore slump here, with an MVP season in which he set the all-time HR record for a second year player.  He would never quite duplicate this Ruthian card again, although he finished as MVP runner-up in the Phils 2008 championship season.  For Juan Gone, his 1998 MVP was actually his second such award, as he’d won two seasons earlier.   Like Howard, Gonzalez led his league in RBI, although not in homers like Howard--but Juan did lead in doubles, with his 50 two-baggers being a number he never approached before or since.  Both players had rather abrupt declines in their careers after injuries--Howard perhaps most famously by rupturing his Achilles tendon while making the final out of Game 5 of the 2011 NLDS.  Gonzalez attracted little support for the Hall of Fame when he became eligible, and with Juan’s career numbers slightly better than Howard’s, it’s likely that Howard will meet the same fate this year.  Even so, these Strat cards will always be ones to admire.

 

REGIONAL #107:  This regional featured no pennant winners but had versions of the Rangers, Giants, and Mets who were building towards one, and a Yankees team that was just coming off a string of legendary winners.   Given the way that the 1934 Yanks had blown through Regional #97, it seemed to me that the 1930 version was likely to be even better with Ruth closer to his prime, so I picked them over the 2008 Rangers in the finals.   The ELO ranks agreed that the Yanks were a no-brainer favorite, identifying the Bronx Bombers as really the only good team in the regional--a designation that often turns out to be the kiss of death.

First round action:

The 1990 Expos won 85 games and struck me as a decent team, with many good players but who were not having their best years.  They did have lots of team speed, with four AA stealers, and Dennis Martinez had a good season and represented a formidable #1 starter.  They faced a 79-win 2008 Rangers team that had some eye-opening hitters (5 guys in the starting lineup with over .500 SLG%) and painfully bad starting pitching, so you had the feeling that those 79 wins were probably high-scoring affairs.  But it’s the Expos who start off the fireworks, with Larry Walker and Mike Fitzgerald each hitting solo HRs in the 2nd--off their own cards, not Ranger starter Vincente Padilla’s, who gives up quite a few of his own.  The Rangers respond in the bottom of the 2nd, with a two-out David Murphy single scoring Milton Bradley, and it’s 2-1 Expos.  The Montreal team speed results in a run in the 3rd when Deshields walks, steals second, and scores on a Tim Wallach single, but the wheels come off for Martinez in the bottom of the inning when he loads the bases and then allows the grand slam to Bradley off the pitcher’s card, and the Rangers lead 5-3 after three in what is promising to be a slugfest.  Sure enough, Galarraga blasts a 3-run shot off Padilla’s card in the 6th and the Expos reclaim the lead, and when Otis Nixon walks and steals second in the 7th, the Rangers leaf through their bullpen and select Frank Francisco as the best option.  Francisco is masterful, but the Rangers come down to their last chance in the bottom of the 9th still down by a run.   Martinez records two quick outs, but then Ramon Vasquez finds Martinez’ HR result, gets the split, and ties the game with a solo shot.  Ian Kinsler follows with a double, and the Expos summon Steve Frey to try to keep the winning run from scoring.  What happens next is a strange confluence of events.  Frey has to face Hank Blalock, only in at DH because Milton Bradley (he of the grand slam earlier in the game) had suffered a minor injury in the 8th that knocked him out of the game.  Blalock rolls the 5-10--the same number that Vasquez and Bradley had rolled on Martinez’ card for the HRs, but there is no HR there on Frey.  Instead, it’s a GB(3B)X...however, because Tim Wallach (3B-1) had suffered a minor injury that had knocked HIM out of the game in the 8th, Junior Noboa (3B-4) was in there as the Expos' only option.  Result:  2 base error, Kinsler scores the winning run on the error, and the Rangers move on to the semis with the 7-6 comeback/walkoff win.

Two fairly bad teams faced off in this first round game, with the 78-win 2002 Reds paired against the 1981 Mets who went 41-62 in that strike year.  The Reds strike first in the 3rd inning when Adam Dunn sends a Mike Scott scuffball into the far reaches of Shea Stadium to give Cincinnati a 2-0 lead, and Ken Griffey Jr. adds a solo shot in the 4th to make it 3-0.   Meanwhile, the Mets don’t get their first hit off Reds starter Elmer Dessens until the 6th when Lee Mazzilli singles, steals second, and scores on a Mookie Wilson base hit to narrow things to 3-1.   The Reds get that run back in the top of the 7th on a solo shot by PH Brandon Larson.  When Scott allows an RBI double to Todd Walker in the 9th, Terry Leach comes in, but by then it’s too little too late as Dessens closes out his 5-hit CG in the bottom of the 9th and the Reds head to the semis with a leisurely 6-1 win.

I was looking forward to exploring the 73-81 1949 Giants, being quite familiar with the legendary 1954 old-timers team as well as the ‘51 playoff winners, but also knowing that Willie Mays wouldn’t begin his long tenure in CF until the following season.   Turns out that the Giants weren’t quite yet ready for prime time, with a weak infield and so-so starting pitching, with Dave Koslo getting the nod for the first round.  However, they faced the worst rated team in the regional in the 51-64 1994 Marlins, who were only in their second year of expansion existence and had their season mercifully shortened by the players’ strike.  Things don’t go the Marlins’ way quickly, as their best hitter Gary Sheffield is injured for 4 games in his first plate appearance.  Then, in the 2nd Marlins starter Pat Rapp issues 3 straight walks, followed by a GBX to 3b-4 Jerry Browne (who apparently could field 5 positions about as well as the former Governor of California) that turns into a double, and the Giants lead 3-0.  A Jack Lohrke fielder’s choice scores another run in the 3rd, and when Rapp issues a bases loaded walk in the 4th inning to Bobby Thomson, Rapp’s 3rd BB of the inning, he’s replaced by Luis Aquino, who ends the inning without further damage, but it’s now 5-0.  The Marlins put up a run on a Kurt Abbott solo shot in the bottom of the 4th, and get another one in the 5th when Greg Colbrunn pushes an RBI single past Giants 2b-4 Hank Thompson, and the sparse crowd at Joe Robbie Stadium is starting to show signs of interest in the game.  However, in the 7th Bobby Thomson rips a triple followed by a Lohrke sac fly, and the Giants hold the 6-2 lead at the 7th inning stretch.  Unfortunately, in the bottom of the inning that stretching seemed to injure the Marlins replacement for Sheffield, Carl Everett, and he’s out of the game, and Florida is trying to talk some of the few remaining fans into playing RF.  However, the Marlins put together a 2-out rally in the bottom of the 8th, with a Chuck Carr single and a Johnny Mize error leading to two Florida runs, and we have a game entering the 9th inning, with the score now 6-4.  The Giants promptly get to Marlins new reliever Robb Nen for two more runs, keyed by a Bobby Thomson double, and it’s up to Koslo to hold the Giants lead as there isn’t much help in the pen for New York.   He sets the Marlins down in order, and the Giants move on to the semis with the 8-4 win.

With Ruth and Gehrig in their primes and a remarkable 9 Hall of Famers on the team, it was remarkable that the 1930 Yankees only managed to win 86 games to finish 3rd in the AL.  Their opponent, the 2008 Braves, lost 90 games but they did have two carded HOFers of their own--Chipper Jones who had a monster year, and a 42 year old Tom Glavine who was ineffective and retired after the season.   The Yanks were starting one of their HOFers in Red Ruffing, and they had the added incentive for payback in that the vaunted 1927 Yanks had been eliminated from the tournament by a Braves team.   The Yanks flex their muscles early when in the bottom of the 1st Earle Combs doubles, and Braves starter Jarr Jurrjens walks both Gehrig and Ruth wanting no part of pitching to them.  However, Ben Chapman makes him pay by slicing a triple into the corner to score three, Bill Dickey singles Chapman home, and it’s 4-0 after one inning.  The Braves show some life in the 2nd when Mark Kotsay triples and scores on a Kotchman sac fly, but the Yanks punish them in the bottom of the inning with 3 straight 2-out hits that include another Combs double and a Gehrig triple, and the score is now 6-1.  Two more NY runs in the 3rd and Jurrjens has to be removed to preserve his sanity, and the Braves summon Will Ohman from the pen, as in “Oh man, can’t you pitch somebody else?”  Chipper Jones scores on a Kotchman fielder’s choice in the 4th to make it 8-2, Ohman pitches four shutout innings, but the brief glimmer of hope for the Braves fades when Combs triples in Harry Rice in the 8th off Ohman’s replacement, Buddy Carlyle.  However, Ruffing can’t get the CG as he is injured for 2 games in the 9th, leaving the Yanks to pull something out of an atrociously bad bullpen.  They go with Roy Sherid and his 5.23 ERA as the best option, and he records the final two outs as the Yanks cruise to the semifinals with the 9-2 win.

The survivors

Milton Bradley gaming

The 2008 Rangers had persevered with two comebacks in their first round win, but they burned their best reliever in the process and in this semifinal they were now forced to dip deeper into an extremely shallow rotation, with Kevin Millwood getting the start.  Fortunately for them, the 2002 Reds had an even poorer ELO rank and their starter, Jimmy Haynes, wasn’t much to write home about either.  The Reds start the scoring in the bottom of the 1st with an Adam Dunn solo HR off Millwood’s card, Dunn’s second dinger of the regional.   That lead is extended in the 2nd when Griffey Jr. hits HIS second HR of the regional, a 2-run shot also off Millwood’s card, and it’s 3-0 after two.  In the 3rd, the Rangers rack up three hits but only score one on Milton Bradley’s RBI single, but in the 5th Bradley nails a 2-run blast off Haynes’ card to knot the game at 3-3.   In the 6th, back to back doubles by PH Taylor Teagarden and 3b Ramon Vasquez put the Rangers on top, and two batters later Nelson Cruz contributes a 2-run double that sends Haynes to the showers in favor of Scott Williamson, but the Rangers now hold the 6-3 lead.  For added insurance, Josh Hamilton crushes a 2-run blast in the 9th, and Millwood recovers from his shaky start, only allowing one hit in the final five innings to earn the Rangers the 8-3 win and a spot in the regional final.

Both the 1930 Yankees and the 1949 Giants won their first round games easily, but each team expected a greater challenge in their Subway semifinal matchup.   It was the Yanks’ George Pipgras against the Giants’ Sheldon Jones on the mound, and it was the Giants who struck quickly against Pipgras in the top of the 1st, with Sid Gordon singling in Hank Thompson for a 1-0 lead.   Jones shackles the Yanks until the 5th, when Lyn Lary, the least likely slugger on the the team, nails the HR split on Jones’ card to tie the game, but the Yanks are stymied in the 6th when Dickey misses a TR 1-8 with a 9, and Chapman (1-17 with 2 out) is nailed at the plate on the resulting double to end the inning.  The splits are more fortunate for the Giants in the 7th when Whitey Lockman gets a double on a 1-3 split and then gets the split to score on Bobby Thomson’s single, and they regain the lead 2-1.   Facing the top of the Yankee order in the 8th, Jones insists on pitching to Ruth with 2 out and Jimmy Reese on 3rd, and Jones gets Ruth to hit a grounder to Sid Gordon, 3b-4, who boots it and allows the tying run to score.  Pipgras sets the heart of the Jints lineup down in order in the 9th, and then Jones, facing the bottom of the Yankee order in the bottom of the 9th, has Harry Rice find Jones’ HR result, Rice gets the split, and the Yankees get the walk-off, come from behind 3-2 victory to earn a trip to the regional final.  It’s worth noting that the powerful offense of the Yanks scores all of its runs off Giants’ pitching and defensive lapses.

The 2008 Rangers had no options other than Scott Feldman to pitch the regional final, giving him the unenviable task of facing the 1930 Yanks Murderer’s Row lineup and Herb Pennock on the mound, but Texas had come back from deficits in both previous games proving that they were not easily daunted.  Sure enough, they begin the game with two straight singles and a sac fly from Nelson Cruz and take an early lead, but the Yanks load the bases in the bottom of the 1st and tie it up on a Ben Chapman sac fly.  A David Murphy solo shot puts the Rangers back up in the 2nd, but that lead is equally short-lived as Josh Hamilton misplays a Lazzeri single, and Harry Rice drives Lazzeri home to knot the score at 2-2 after 2.  Rice goes down to injury in the 4th, replaced by Sammy Byrd, but the Rangers run into some bad luck of their own when Cruz lines into a triple play to bring a quick end to the 5th inning.  When Feldman allows a walk and a single to start the 6th inning, the Rangers waste no time in bringing in Frank Francisco, their relief hero from the first round win, and they get their money’s worth as Francisco retires three in a row to keep the game tied.  However, the Yanks do pull ahead in the 7th when, with runners on 1st and 3rd and the infield back, Ian Kinsler fails to complete a DP that allows Combs to score from 3rd.  When the Rangers load the bases with one out in the 8th, the Yanks remember the previous inning and bring the infield in for Chris Davis, who promptly rolls the gbA that would have ended the inning--but Hamilton whiffs anyway and the Yanks escape still holding the one run lead.  The Rangers begin their last chance in the 9th with a David Murphy double, but Pennock bears down to retire the next three in order, aided by two great fielding plays from ss-3 Lyn Lary, and the Yanks squeak out the 3-2 win to capture the regional--without a single long ball from either Ruth or Gehrig in any of the games. Worthy of note: this was the first time since Regional #94 that I accurately predicted the result of the regional final, including which teams would be playing. 

Interesting card of Regional #107:  As much as I wanted to highlight Babe Ruth for this feature, the Yanks won the regional with almost no contribution from the Bambino, with no homers or RBI in support of his teammates.   Plus, by the end of the regional final, the Babe didn’t even have the best HR card in the game.   No, that honor belonged to this pinch hitter, Taylor Teagarden, who is probably somewhat lower on the household name scale than Ruth.   This was Teagarden’s first Strat card, and it was steeply downhill from there; his .2008 SLG of .809 never got higher than .374 again, and his .319 BA never exceeded .235 in subsequent years.  His career came to an ignominious end in 2016 when he was handed an 80 game suspension for PED use, and he never played in the majors again, after a career in which he hit 21 homers.  Even so, for these 47 brief, shining at-bats, Teagarden could stand shoulder to shoulder with the Babe.

REGIONAL #106:  For the 3rd regional in a row, there were no pennant winners in this group of eight, but five of those teams were within 4 seasons of winning their league, including three NL teams from the 50s:  the Braves, Reds, and Dodgers.   With four of the aforementioned contenders comprising the bottom half of the bracket, I had a feeling that the squad that could survive there would take the regional, and on a whim I picked an all-Dodgers final, with the ‘57 Dodgers prevailing over the 2006 version.  The ELO ranks also selected the ‘57 Dodgers as the favorite, with the ‘53 Braves expected to face them in the finals.

First round action

The 78-win 1987 Mariners and the 75-win 2003 Pirates had similarly mediocre ELO rankings and had many other things in common--a core of solid players, several holes in the lineup, and each had exactly one really good starting pitcher:  Mark Langston for the M’s, Kip Wells for the Pirates.  The Pirates also had an additional handicap in that they seemingly traded a number of key parts of their team before the end of the season, meaning that Strat carded those players on other teams and left the Pirates bereft of quite a few at-bats.   However, the Pirates didn’t look too handicapped when Reggie Sanders blasts a 2-run HR in the bottom of the 1st, and Seattle also gets to play shorthanded when RF Mike Kingery is injured for the remainder of the game in the 2nd.  Langston then issues two walks in the bottom of the 2nd, and yields a 3-run shot by Tike Redman off Langston’s card, and the Mariners are looking at a 5-0 deficit after two innings.  Seattle scores a run in the 3rd on a Phil Bradley fielders’ choice, and in the 5th their other Bradley, Scott, contributes a sac fly and the M’s are trying to climb back into the game.  They clearly do so when Jim Presley finds Wells’ HR result in the 6th for a 2-run dinger, and now the Pirate lead is only 5-4 and Langston seems to have recovered his stuff, only to falter and allow an RBI single to Craig Wilson in the bottom of the inning to make it 6-4.  Wells allows 2 hits to lead off the 8th, and Pittsburgh eyes the bullpen but doesn’t like what they see, so Wells is left to get out of his own jam, which he does unscathed, and Matt Stairs leads off the bottom of the inning with an insurance HR that makes it 7-4.  In the 9th, a Scott Bradley single and an Abraham Nunez error puts the tying run at the plate with two outs in the form of Harold Reynolds, but Reynolds lines out to third and the Pirates head to the semis with the 7-4 win, in a game in which they were outhit 11 to 7.

When the 1953 Braves were selected by my random seeding program, I did remember that Hammerin’ Hank wouldn’t come along until the next season, so I underestimated how good this team was.   Turns out they won 92 games to finish second to the legendary Dodgers of that season, and they had a monster year from Eddie Mathews (2nd in the MVP voting) and had Warren Spahn in his prime (23 wins, 5th in the MVP voting).   The 2006 Dodgers tied the Padres for the NL West, winning 88 games and making a brief appearance in the postseason, and had 15-game winner Derek Lowe on the mound in support of a lineup where everyone exceeded .400 SLG%, so Spahn was expecting to get tested.  In the early innings, both starters get in trouble but work their way out of jams, although when Lowe loads the bases in the 5th with nobody out, he does get touched for a Mathews sac fly, although the 1-0 margin could have been much worse.   Del Crandall then leads off the 6th with a HR, but the Dodgers finally get to Spahn in the bottom of the inning with a Kenny Lofton triple followed by an Andre Ethier single to make it 2-1 Braves, but Garciaparra hits into a DP to cut the rally short.   However, in the bottom of the 8th Spahn walks the first two batters and then Ethier delivers another RBI single, and the game is tied heading into the 9th.  In the bottom of the 9th, Spahn gets the first two out but then Wilson Betemit doubles; Jason Repko comes in to pinch run, but Spahn retires Furcal and the game heads to extra innings with both starters still in the game--but with the Dodgers boasting a much deeper bullpen.  Out of that pen in the 11th comes Dodgers closer Takashi Saito, but Johnny Logan rips one into the gap and Lofton can’t get to it; it falls for a double, and a rattled Saito then is tagged by a Bill Bruton TR 1 flyB 2-20 result that Bruton converts, and the Braves have the lead.  Saito keeps Bruton from scoring, and so it’s now up to the Dodgers to come back against Don Liddle, on in relief of the exhausted Spahn.   Jeff Kent hits a one-out double, but Liddle whiffs Ramon Martinez, who replaced Betemit, and it’s all up to Furcal--and he comes through, smashing a hard single that scores Kent, and it’s game tied.   AA stealer Furcal promptly steals second, and Liddle faces Dodger #9 hitter Russell Martin, who smashes one off the LF wall of Dodger Stadium and the crowd erupts as Furcal scores the winning run in the Dodgers’ walk-off 4-3 win.  For the Braves, Spahn allows 5 hits in 10 innings; Liddle allows 3 hits in 2/3rds of an inning.

Setting the lineups for the matchup between the 76-78 1958 Reds and the 83-win 1985 Orioles, I found that neither team was quite as good as I expected; the Reds didn’t have the power that I remembered from earlier Reds teams from that era, while the Orioles starting pitching had some impressive names (Scott McGregor, Mike Boddicker, Dennis Martinez) having fairly terrible seasons.  I ultimately chose swingman Ken Dixon as the O’s best shot against the Reds’ 17-game winner Bob Purkey.  Things don’t start well for Dixon when errors by Rick Dempsey and Gary Roenicke lead to two runs in the top of the 1st, but Baltimore responds with three straight hits to start the game and they take the lead 3-2 after one eventful inning.  Doubles by Alan Wiggins and Floyd Rayford give the O’s another run in the 3rd, but they give the run right back in the 4th courtesy of Roenicke’s (a LF-2) second error of the game.  However, Mike Young leads off the bottom of the 4th with a homer and Baltimore’s lead is now 5-3.  The Reds punch back in the 5th when a Pete Whisenant triple scores Jerry Lynch to make it 5-4, and a Johnny Temple sac fly ties it up in the 6th.  When Lynch smacks a leadoff HR in the 7th off Dixon’s card to give the Reds the lead, Nate Snell comes in to relieve and he stops the bleeding.  The bottom of the inning sees Lacy lead off with a double off Purkey’s card, so Purkey’s out and Alex Kellner gets the job of preserving the lead; but Honey Bear Rayford sends his first offering into the cheap seats for a 2-run homer and the Orioles regain the lead 7-6.  They summon Don Aase to try to lock down the 9th, but that goes terribly wrong, with a Ripken error followed by four straight hits, two run doubles by Whisenant and Gus Bell, and when the dust settles the Orioles trail 10-7 entering the bottom of the 9th.  Now it’s the Reds turn to pick a closer, and they go with Willard Schmidt, who set the O’s down in order to give Cincy a 10-7 come from behind win and a trip to the semis.

Shuttin' out the Bums

Although they were ELO favorites in this bracket, the 84-70 1957 Dodgers were a third-place team in transition--between Brooklyn and Los Angeles (this was their last year in Ebbetts), and between the slugging Boys of Summer and the Koufax/Drysdale southern California set.  Many of the former were on still on this team but were in noticeable decline--notably Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella, and Carl Erksine--but Gil Hodges, Carl Furillo and the Duke were still formidable, and 20 year old Don Drysdale had emerged as a staff ace to be reckoned with.  However, their opponents, the 95-win 2016 Nationals, were no slouch either as they won the NL East and would send NL Cy Young Award and 20-game winner Max Scherzer to the mound to counter Drysdale.  Both pitchers live up to their reputation, and the game remains scoreless through seven, but in the 8th light-hitting Ben Revere converts a SI 1-4, and then Trea Turner follows it up with a 2-run homer and the Nats carry that lead into the bottom of the 9th.  Scherzer must face the heart of the Dodgers order, and Furillo pops out, both Snider and Hodges fan, and Ebbetts Field goes dark as the Nationals win 2-0 behind Scherzer’s masterful 4-hit shutout.

The survivors

Two underdog winners from the first round faced off in the semifinal between the 2003 Pirates and the 2006 Dodgers, with the starters involving Pittsburgh’s Jeff Suppan against a rather over-the-hill Greg Maddux for the Dodgers.   Maddux immediately gets into trouble in the top of the 1st, starting the game with two straight singles and a walk allowed, but only one run scores when Matt Stairs hits into a DP.   The Dodgers, who came from behind twice in their 1st round win, didn’t blink a bit, with a 2-run double from Nomar Garciaparra and an RBI single from JD Drew in the bottom of the inning makes it 3-1 Dodgers after one.  LA adds another run in the 2nd when Kenny Lofton singles, steals second, and scores on an Ethier base hit, and Ethier adds two more RBI on a double in the 4th that sends Suppan to the showers and Julian Tavarez to the mound.  However, Wilson Betemit rips his second double of the game in the 5th to score Drew, and the Dodger lead extends to 7-1.  Meanwhile, the Pirates continue to scratch out hits against Maddux, but the veteran keeps them from scoring, and Oldmedo Saenz adds an RBI single in the 6th and it’s now 8-1.  That’s way more support than Maddux needs, as the crafty 40-year old righty finishes out the 8-1 victory that sends the Dodgers to the regional finals.

The 2016 Nationals won the NL East on the arms of a strong starting rotation, and after defeating Don Drysdale in round 1 they were hardly intimidated by Joe Nuxhall and the 1958 Reds with the Nats sending 15-4 Stephen Strasburg to the mound.   Washington moves to the early lead in the bottom of the 3rd when Trea Turner, who had provided all their offense in game one, doubles off Nuxhall’s card to score Zimmerman.  However, the Reds had come from behind multiple times in their first round game, and they did so immediately in the top of the 4th with George Crowe and Pete Whisenant driving in runs to make it 2-1 Reds.  However, the Nats counterpunch with four hits and three runs, including a 2-run Ben Revere double, and it’s now 4-2 Nationals and it’s looking like this will be one of those semifinal games where both teams refuse to lose.  Sure enough, Frank Robinson drives in a run in the 5th to narrow the gap to 4-3, and when in the 7th the Nats try to add some insurance runs, Ed Bailey throws out both Turner and Bryce Harper trying to steal to squelch that plan.  However, when Washington leads off the 8th with two straight hits, Nuxhall is gone and Alex Kellner comes in to try to recapture the magic that earned him the win in round one.  Kellner records three quick outs, and it’s now up to Strasburg, who hasn’t allowed a hit since the 5th inning, to try to stop the Reds in the top of the 9th.  He does allow a hit to Bailey to put the tying run on base, but he fans Gus Bell to seal a 6-hit CG, the 4-3 win, and a trip to the finals for the Nationals.

Despite the efforts of three tough NL teams from the 50s in this regional, the final matched two 21st century division-winning NL squads, a 2006 Dodger team that came from behind in both prior games to reach the finals, and a 2016 Nationals team that only allowed their opponents 10 hits total in their first two games.   Both teams were able to send out a 16-game winner as their #3 pitcher for the final, although the Nats Tanner Roark had an ERA that was a run and a half lower than LA’s Brad Penny.   And, it’s Penny who gets damaged first, as he yields an infield single and a couple of walks, and then Ben Revere clears the bases with a triple that gives Washington the 3-0 after two innings.  Being comeback artists, the Dodgers immediately load the bases in the top of the 3rd on three Roark walks, but Anthony Rendon makes a brilliant play on a Drew grounder to turn the double play and Roark escapes the inning unscathed.  The Dodgers finally do get on the scoreboard in the 5th, when Turner boots a Kenny Lofton grounder, Lofton steals second successfully for the third time in the game, and Garciaparra drives him home with a sharp single.  When Roark gives up three singles to load the bases in the 6th, the Nats want to squelch another comeback from the Dodgers and go early to closer Mark Melancon in hopes he can fend off the rally, but Andre Ethier comes through with yet another clutch hit to drive in two and tie the game.  However, the Dodgers hand the Nats a run in the 8th when C Russell Martin drops a Bryce Harper popup, and Daniel Murphy singles Harper home to give Washington the 4-3 lead.  That means it’s up to Melancon, pitching at the end of his endurance, to lock out the Dodgers in the 9th.  But Melancon boots an Ethier grounder, yields a single to Garciaparra, and then grooves one to JD Drew, whose 3-run homer results in the 5th comeback of the regional for the Dodgers and gives them the 6-4 lead.  Now it’s Penny’s turn in the bottom of the 9th, and he proves that he's not spare change, striking out the side to give the Dodgers a 6-4 win and the regional crown, the 7th for the Dodgers franchise but the first from this millennium.  Andre Ethier, with multiple RBI in every game in the regional, is awarded the bracket MVP, although he should share it with Kenny Lofton, who stole six bases in the three games and who typically was the one Ethier was driving home.

Interesting card of Regional #106:  After showing the first, unimpressive, cards of a few recent Hall-of-Famers in the last installment of this feature, I figured I would highlight one of the last cards of another Hall-of-Famer this time around.  I admit that I don’t think that the card is particularly interesting, as it looks like countless other modern Strat cards, which is why I like the look and feel of the older cards.   This selection is more about an interesting player on the regional winner.  The Dodgers traded Cesar Izturis to the Cubs for Maddux at the end of July 2006 to help in their bid for the postseason, and it worked as the Dodgers tied San Diego for the NL West title; after managing this team through the regional I can confirm that the team needed all the starting pitching help they could get.  As he did for LA in 2006, Maddux did his job in this regional, holding the Pirates to a single run in winning the Dodgers’ second round game, and while his card is certainly not Cy Young Award material, it isn’t bad for a 40-year old.  In fact, it got me wondering whether Maddux would make the starting rotation of the all-time 40+ Senior All-Stars, so as I dug around a little I decided...probably not.  Who had better seasons at 40+?  For starters, I’d go with Randy Johnson, Clemens, Warren Spahn, Nolan Ryan, big Bartolo Colon, and of course the aforementioned Cy Young.  Even so, Maddux gets the last laugh because his team won this regional, defeating Spahn and the Braves in the first round.

REGIONAL #105:  This regional didn’t include any pennant winners, but some entries were close.  The 2009 Rays had won a pennant the prior year, and they had the added motivation that no Tampa team has yet managed a regional win in this tournament.  The 1995 Yankees would win the AL the following season, and the 1988 Mets had famously taken the World Series two years earlier.  And, the 1994 Reds might have won the NL if there had actually been a pennant awarded in that strike year, as they had the best record in the NL Central.  Unlike the prior regional that only included two teams with winning records, it seemed to me like most of these teams were winners and it was difficult for me to choose among them, but I ultimately took a stab and guessed that the Reds would top the Mets in the finals.   The ELO rankings concurred with my view that this slate of teams was much stronger than those from the prior regional, but those ranks favored the Mets to win a subway series final over the Yankees.

First round action:

Setting the lineups for a 1st round Buckeye State matchup between the 1934 Indians and the 1994 Reds, I quickly realized that these were two pretty good teams.   The Reds finished that strike-shortened season 66-48, the best record in the NL Central, and had an offense led by a monster year from Kevin Mitchell.  The Indians went 85-69 to finish 3rd in the AL and were driven by the powerful tandem of Earl Averill and Hal Trosky, and they also had 20-game winner Mel Harder on the mound facing the Reds’ Jose Rijo.   The Reds have a nightmarish 1st inning, getting three hits but not scoring courtesy of Barry Larkin getting caught stealing, and Bret Boone (grandson of Ray, who acquitted himself well in the prior regional) hitting into an inning-ending DP accompanied by a 4-game injury.  The Reds do get on the board first in the 5th when Indians LF Joe Vosmik misplays a Mitchell single that leads to two runs.  The Indians strike back in the 7th when Trosky leads off with a HR, but Odell Hale misses a split chance for a second one and gets stranded at second, and the score is now 2-1 Reds after 7.  The Indians get a runner in scoring position in the 8th when Reds SS-1 Larkin boots a grounder from PH Johnny Burnett, but the .341 hitting Vosmik fails to drive him in, and then in the bottom of the 8th Vosmik can’t get to a Brian Dorsett liner, and the resulting single scores two to extend the Reds lead to 4-1.  Rijo now just has to get through the heart of the Cleveland order in the top of the 9th, and he quickly retires Trosky and Averill.  But Hale doubles, Billy Knickerbocker singles Hale home, and the tying run is at the plate in the form of 44-year old Hall of Famer Sam Rice.   But Rice hits a sharp grounder to 2nd that is fielded cleanly by injury replacement Jeff Branson, and it’s game over--the Reds win 4-2 to move to the semifinals.

The 1995 Yankees went 79-61 (with one tie) in another strike-shortened season, finishing 2nd in the AL East and making a brief post-season appearance as a wildcard team.  Perhaps the most interesting thing I noticed about this team is that it had a bunch of surprisingly bad versions of well-known players, including Derek Jeter, Jimmy Key, Steve Howe, Darryl Strawberry, and Mariano Rivera.  However, there was certainly enough Yankee talent in the form of Bernie Williams, Paul O’Neill, and Wade Boggs to make them favored over a 70-win 1930 Braves team.  Although the Braves did field five .300 hitters in that offense-crazed season, they predictably lacked much pitching or power aside from Wally Berger’s 38 homers, with the second highest HR total on the team being Buster Chatham’s 5.   The Yanks tapped 18-game winner David Cone, a mid-season acquisition, to start against the Braves’ Bob Smith (hey, if I was a starting pitcher for that Braves team, I’d use an alias too).  Things get interesting quickly in the 3rd when Chatham singles for the Braves, Freddie Maguire beats out a sac bunt, and George Sisler’s grounder advances the runners to 2nd and 3rd with 2 out and Berger at the plate.   With first base open, the Yanks ponder the intentional walk given that Berger is the sole power threat for Boston, but decide it’s too early in the game for that and pitch to him.  Wrong answer:  boom, three run homer, and the Braves lead.  Cone pitches his way out of a jam when he walks three batters in the bottom of the 6th but strands them all, while Smith catches the disease and starts off the top of the 7th by walking three consecutive batters.  Unfortunately for the Braves, Smith can’t get out of that jam as Randy Velarde smacks a triple off Smith’s card to tie the game, and then pinch hitter Gerald Williams homers to put the Yanks up.   A Boggs triple followed by a Mattingly sac fly and the score is 6-3 New York, and there is no relief in sight in the Boston bullpen.  Berger isn’t giving up, however, as he blasts a solo shot in the bottom of the inning to narrow the gap to 6-4, and when Rabbit Maranville leads off the 8th with a HR off Cone’s card to bring the Braves within one, the Yankees turn to closer John Wetteland to try to finish things out.  Mattingly promptly drops a grounder and a sac bunt gets the tying run in scoring position, but Wetteland gets Neun to popout to end the threat.  Wetteland then just has to get through the heart of the Boston order in the 9th, and they go down 1-2-3, including a strikeout by Berger, and the Yankees advance to the semis with a hard fought 6-5 win.

The 1988 Mets won 100 games and the NL East; they lost the NLCS to the Dodgers in 7 games but the ELO rankings had the Mets as the best team in baseball that season, and the easy favorite in this regional.  The Mets shared two players with the winners of the previous game--David Cone and Darryl Strawberry--except the Mets versions were better, with Strawberry’s 39 homers pacing the team and 20-game winner Cone taking the mound for the first round.  With largely the same lineup as the vaunted 1986 WS Champs that exited the tournament in the 1st round in regional #41, this Mets team was determined to atone for that embarrassment.  They faced a 2015 Brewers team that lost 94 games, boasting a few sluggers but not much starting pitching, with Taylor Jungmann starting as perhaps the best among unimpressive options.  However, the Brewers did have a potential secret weapon at second base--Scooter Gennett had led the 2018 Reds to an unlikely regional win in the previous bracket, and Brewer fans were hoping that lightning would strike again.  The Mets don’t take long to make a statement, with a 2-run homer by Kevin McReynolds in the top of the 1st establishing a quick lead, and Keith Hernandez leads off the 2nd with a solo shot to make it 3-0.  In the 5th, Dykstra leads off with another HR and later Strawberry adds an RBI single to make it 5-0.  The Mets load the bases in the 7th and Jungmann is gone in favor of Francisco Rodriguez, but Hernandez nails a single that scores two; the Brewers finally put together two hits in an inning in the bottom of the frame but Cone fans Gennett to squelch any rally.  Strawberry puts a cap on things in the 9th with a colossal solo HR, but Khris Davis breaks the shutout by converting a HR 1-3 on Cone’s card, and things end that way with the Mets winning easily, 8-1.  Cone tosses a 5-hitter and fans 10 to win a second consecutive game in this regional.

As a relatively young expansion franchise, the Rays had never captured a regional, but the ELO ranking for the 84-78 2009 Rays were surprisingly strong, with the team showing solid offense and good defense, albeit suspect pitching.   It was interesting that their ranking was so much better than that for the 1973 Royals, who had a better record with 88 wins, but the Royals didn’t have much punch beyond Amos Otis and John Mayberry, although they were starting 20-game winner Paul Splittorff against Tampa’s Matt Garza, who only won eight.  The Royals rack up three hits on Garza in the bottom of the 1st, including a Mayberry RBI single and a Fran Healy sac fly, and the Royals jump to the 2-0 lead.   The Rays quickly strike back with Carlos Pena leading off the top of the 2nd with a HR, but Schaal rips an RBI single past Garza in the bottom of the inning that makes it 3-1 KC.   Mayberry leads off the 5th with a HR, and the Rays start frantically searching their bench for answers against Splittorff.  That answer comes in the 6th in the form of PH Matt Joyce, who blasts a 3-run shot and the game is now tied at 4 each.  Undaunted, Rick Reichardt sends Garza’s first offering in the top of the 7th into the cheap seats, and the Royals regain the lead and the Rays boot Garza in favor of Randy Choate out of the pen.  However, in the 8th, for the second inning in a row, a Rays PH (this time Joe Dillon) launches a 3-run homer and the Rays take the lead for the first time, 7-5, after 8 innings.  For the 9th, the Rays summon closer JP Howell to handle the top of the Royals lineup, and he faces the minimum as the Rays finish out a come-from-behind 7-5 win to vault them into a tough semifinal round where all four contestants are ranked among the top thousand teams of all time.

The survivors

The semifinal matchup between the 1994 Reds and 1995 Yankees featured two teams impacted by the same baseball strike, but because the Reds missed more games, they had fewer options among starting pitchers that reached the 100 IP threshold.  Still, their John Smiley matched up reasonably well with the Yanks’ Jack McDowell, and the game promised to be a competitive one.   McDowell gets in trouble quickly, loading the bases in the 2nd and allowing a 2-run double to #9 Reds hitter Brian Dorsett, although a Paul O’Neill sac fly in the bottom of the 3rd narrows the Reds lead to 2-1.  Bernie Williams ties it up in the 5th with an RBI single, but then in the top of the 6th McDowell gives up a 2-run triple to Neon Deion Sanders, and the Yanks are forced to go early to Wetteland to try to stop the bleeding.  Wetteland strikes out the remaining Reds but the damage is done and Cincinnati has the 4-2 lead, but it doesn’t last long as the Yanks begin the bottom of the inning with three straight hits, the last being a double by PH Gerald Williams that should have scored two, but Velarde was cut down at the plate.  With the tying run on 3rd, Smiley then exits in favor of Jeff Brantley, who promptly uncorks a wild pitch, and the game is again tied.  However, in the 8th Wetteland is toast and the Yanks don’t have many good options left in the pen, choosing Bob Wickman to try to shut down the Reds.  The Yanks load the bases in the 8th courtesy of a walk and two Reds errors (by a 3B-1 and a 1B-2), but Brantley squirms out of the jam and the game enters the 9th all tied up.  Both Wickman and Brantley shut down the opposition in order in the 9th, and we head to extra innings.   The Reds go down quietly in the top of the 10th, and with Brantley now burnt they have to reach deeper into their pen, tapping Chuck McElroy to face NY, and he survives a jam, getting Mattingly to pop out with the winning run on 3rd.   In the 11th, Wickman is depleted and NY sends Scott Kamieniecki to the mound, and he does his job; in the bottom of the 14, McElroy is burnt and the Reds try Johnny Ruffin, who gets only one out before Yanks DH Ruben Sierra finds Ruffin’s HR result and it’s game over--the Yankees survive a marathon to win 5-4, but they will move on to the finals with nothing decent left in the bullpen.

One clutch .188 hitter

The 1988 Mets sported a 4-man starting rotation that seemed built for this tournament, and they felt good sending 18-game winner Doc Gooden against David Price and the 2009 Rays, who reached the semifinals only because of two clutch pinch-hit homers.  That good feeling didn’t make it out of the 1st inning, which began for the Mets with Dykstra getting caught stealing, and then in the bottom of the inning leadoff hitter Carl Crawford singles off Gooden’s card, successfully steals second, and then scores when Mets SS-2 Kevin Elster misplays a Jason Bartlett grounder and then throws the ball into the Rays dugout.   However, the Rays have problems of their own in the 2nd when BJ Upton hits into a DP and gets injured for 10 games in the process--replaced by a hero of game one, Matt Joyce.  Crawford adds a solo shot in the 3rd to make the Rays lead 2-0, but the Mets bats finally wake up in the 4th when Kevin McReynolds launches a 2-run blast to tie things up.   However, the Mets give the lead right back in the bottom of the 4th when Dykstra misplays a Navarro fly ball to allow Carlos Pena to score, and in the 5th an Evan Longoria 2-run HR pushed the Rays lead to 5-2.  The Mets scratch out a run in the 6th on an RBI single by Howard Johnson, but when Gooden allows two baserunners to begin the Rays 8th, the Mets send out closer Randy Myers to try to keep within striking distance.  Myers walks Pena to load the bases, then PH Joe Dillon loops a sac fly to score one; next batter, injury replacement Matt Joyce, hits his second 3-run homer in as many games and the Rays lead is now 9-3.  The Mets do get a couple of base runners in the 9th, but Price prevails, striking out Dykstra to end the game and propel the Rays into the regional final with a comfortable 9-3 win.

According to the ELO rankings this regional final matched the 2nd and 3rd best teams in this group, the 2009 Rays and 1995 Yankees, with the two teams having very similar ranks.   Neither team was coming into the final at full strength, with the Yanks bullpen seriously depleted by their semifinal 14-inning marathon, and the Rays with an injured Upton out for the tournament, and with the unimpressive #3 starter matchup of NY’s Sterling Hitchcock vs. Tampa’s Jeff Niemann, the Yanks’ bullpen issues were looming large.  However, the Rays are dealt a big blow when their slugging 2B Ben Zobrist is injured in the 1st inning and out for 4 games, so they turn to Joe Dillon, who has delivered clutch pinch hits throughout the regional, to plug the hole.  In the bottom of the 3rd, Rays DH Pat Burrell gets his first hit of the regional, a solo blast off a 2-2 roll, and Niemann seems to be getting stronger against the Yanks as he goes along.   In the 7th, the Rays get another blow, losing All-Star 3B Evan Longoria to injury, and Tampa tries to cling to its slim 1-0 lead as the casualties mount.   When Niemann walks Mike Stanley to lead off the top of the 9th, the Rays bring in closer JP Howell, who promptly allows a double to Ruben Sierra and then a single to Randy Velarde, scoring Stanley, but Sierra is cut down at the plate trying to score the go-ahead run.  The Rays then get runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out in the bottom of the 9th, but Hitchcock gets out of the jam on his own, and the game heads for extra innings.  Both squads go down quietly in the 10th, and in the 11th Hitchcock has to come out, so NY tries Rick Honeycutt in relief, who has a good card other than considerable gopher ball issues.  He does his job, so in the 13th the Rays have to pull Howell and send out Randy Choate, who allows two quick baserunners, but Ruben Sierra erases one of those on a DP grounder.   However, Velarde drives in his second of the game with a single off Choate’s card, Gerald Williams doubles, Tony Fernandez drives them both in with a long single, and then Mattingly drives in Fernandez, and when the dust clears Choate has allowed 4 runs on 5 hits and the Yanks lead 5-1.  Now it’s just up to Honeycutt to hang on, and although Carl Crawford does find one of Honeycutt’s HR results to make it 5-2, that’s all the depleted Rays can muster and the Yankees win the regional (the 5th for the franchise) with their second extra-inning marathon in a row.

Interesting card(s) of Regional #105:  The 1995 Yankees managed to capture this regional coming from behind in all three games, but they did so with absolutely no contribution from these two bench-warmers.  If you’re like me, perhaps you've played in a keeper league where every new season there would be a draft of new players receiving their first Strat cards.  If that draft was after the 1995 set came out, you could have had a choice of either of these two cards to draft; as the first cards for both of these players, I probably wouldn’t have picked either one.  The Jeter guy had a few doubles but not much plate discipline, and he also couldn’t field his position (this was apparently before the notorious NY Strat bias kicked in, which was much kinder to him).  His fellow rookie, the reliever Rivera, was a disaster waiting to happen in the bullpen.  Surely neither one of these guys would amount to much, would they?