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.