REGIONAL #109:  No pennant winners in this draw, although there were two division winners from the present millennium: a Braves team and a 2004 Angels team that had won the AL two years previously.  There was also a 1980 Brewers team that won the AL two years later, and I suspected that the 1949 Red Sox would be a good hitting team with the Splendid Splinter in the lineup, so the bottom half of the bracket looked to be where the tough competition was going to be.   I called a win for the Brewers, which would be the first regional win for that franchise in this tournament, with a wild guess that they would defeat the Twins in the finals.   I was surprised to then discover that the ELO ratings had the 1949 Red Sox as the 69th best team of all time, making them prohibitive regional favorites according to those rankings.

First round action

The 2005 Braves won 90 games and the NL East, and though they only retained one member of their storied rotation from previous years, John Smoltz was still a formidable starter and he could look forward to run support from the Joneses, Chipper and Andruw.   It didn’t seem like he would need much support facing the last place, 105-loss 1964 A’s, ranked as the worst team in the regional and having almost no weapons other than Rocky Colavito, who had to be wondering what he had done to deserve playing on this squad.  A’s starter Orlando Pena does a decent job until the 4th, when he issues three walks and two doubles to Adam Laroche and Todd Hollandsworth, and the Braves stake Smoltz to a 3-0 lead.  In the next inning, Andruw Jones and Jeff Francoeur contribute homers to make it 6-0 to chase Pena in favor of Wes Stock, but in the bottom half of the frame the A’s finally get on the board on a Doc Edwards sac fly.  Stock does his job in holding the Braves, but Smoltz is in control and finishes things out with a 5-hitter as the Braves move easily into the semis with a 6-1 victory.

The 1975 Rangers won 79 games, which wasn’t good enough for manager Billy Martin to keep his job.  In this first round game they were putting their hopes on the creative pitches of 18-game winner Gaylord Perry, as they faced an 85-win 2001 Twins team that had a steroid-era lineup with 8 hitters having SLG% exceeding .400.   Things remained scoreless until the 4th, when Texas CF Dave Moates finds Twins’ starter Joe Mays’ HR result to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead.  However, the porous Texas defense lets Perry down by starting the 6th with consecutive errors, setting up RBI from Cory Koskie and super-PH Matt LeCroy that tie things up.  Another Ranger error in the 7th and Perry starts to come undone, loading up the bases and then watch a LeCroy liner get past RF-4 Jeff Burroughs for a triple--a play on which Perry is injured, which may have been feigned simply to get him away from the Rangers’ efforts at defense.  Stan Thomas comes in and promptly grooves one to Torii Hunter for a 2-run blast, and by the time the smoke clears the score is 9-2.  From there on out, Mays simply has to lob it in and the Rangers can’t do anything with it, and the game ends with a 10-2 Twins victory, Mays finishing out the 6-hitter.

The ELO rankings placed the 1949 Red Sox as one of the best 70 teams of all time, winners of 96 games and finishing just one game off the AL pennant.  Although I accurately figured that Ted Williams would be a big factor, they also had big years from Vern Stephens and Bobby Doerr, and with two 20-game winners in the rotation they were favorites to win the regional.  However, the 2004 Angels were no patsies, winning 92 games and the AL West with some steroid-era offense, and although their starting pitching was the disaster typical of that era, they had some quality help in the bullpen.   Furthermore, this was the third straight matchup of 20th century vs. 21st century teams in this regional, and the latter had won all of them in prior games.   And the 21st century treats 25-game winner Mel Parnell roughly in the top of the 1st when Sox ss-2 Vern Stephens boots a grounder by the leadoff hitter, Parnell issues a walk, and then Vlad Guerrero misses a HR split but drives in both runners on the resulting double.  The next batter, Troy Glaus, knocks the ball over the Green Monster and it’s 4-0 before an out is recorded.   Another Boston error and some walks load the bases back up, David Eckstein and Adam Kennedy rap singles, and when the dust settles the score is 7-0 and the Red Sox are still waiting to have their first at-bats.   However, Boston shows that they won’t go quietly, as they start against Angel’s starter Kelvim Escobar with five straight hits, ultimately also batting around but leaving the bases loaded with the score 7-3 after one inning.   The Red Sox score another three in the 3rd courtesy of doubles from Pesky, Batts, and Tebbetts, and suddenly it’s a one run ballgame with a long way still to go.  When Williams doubles in the 4th, the Angels can tell that Escobar isn’t the answer, and they go very early to their closer Troy Percival in a desperate attempt to try to staunch the Boston momentum.   Percival does his job to end the threat, and the Angels come back to score three on RBI singles from Eckstein and Benji Molina in the top of the 5th to give them some breathing room with a 10-6 lead.  That doesn’t last long, as the Sox answer with 3 of their own in the bottom of the inning with RBI singles from Williams and Tebbetts, and the Angels are wondering what it is going to take to put the Red Sox away.  When Boston starts the 6th with two straight singles, Percival is yanked (after allowing 7 hits in recording 5 outs) and Francisco Rodriguez gets his chance to try to stop the Sox, but he surrenders a single to Billy Goodman and the game is tied at 10 apiece and there are still three innings left to play.  The Angels load the bases in the 8th with two out and summon .344 hitting Robb Quinlan to pinch hit, but Parnell strikes him out to keep the game deadlocked.   However, FRod is striking out the Red Sox himself, and the game remained tied after nine.  Chone Figgins rips a triple to lead off the 10th, and the Sox let Parnell try to work his way out of the jam, but then Ted Williams drops a Glaus flyball to give the Angels the lead.  With FRod burnt, the Angels turn to their 4th pitcher, Brendan Donnelly, to try to save the game, with Ted Williams staring at him to leadoff the bottom of the 10th.   But Chone Figgins makes a great play on a Williams grounder, Stephens pops out, and Donnelly fans Batts to send the Angels to the semis with a hard-fought 11-10 win.

I had picked the 1980 Brewers to win the regional because the ‘82 Harvey’s Wallbangers squad was a favorite of mine and I guessed that the ‘80 team had many of the same assets, and this time my guess was correct, as they had strong years from Cooper, Molitor, Yount, Oglivie et al., and a capable Moose Haas ready to start for the first round.  In fact, after setting the lineup I thought that they looked better than an 86-win team, and sure enough their Pythagorean projection indicated that they should have been good for 94 wins, which might be why they fired Buck Walters in ‘82 so that Harvey Kuenn could then lead them to the AL pennant.  They faced a near-contemporary AL team in the 1981 Angels, who went 51-59 in that strike year and relied primarily on Bobby Grich to provide offensive spark.   And he does so in the top of the first, missing a HR 1-13 split but driving in Carew on the resulting double, and the Angels have a quick 1-0 lead.  The Brewers get it back in the 2nd when Angels starter Ken Forsch flubs a Gorman Thomas grounder, and Charlie Moore drives Thomas in to tie it up.   This pattern is repeated in the 4th, when Angel C Ed Ott drops a popup and Moore drives him in to give Milwaukee a 2-1 edge, with both runs off Forsch unearned.  With the Angels threatening in the 6th, Cecil Cooper makes a dazzling stab to convert the DP and maintain the slim lead, and from there on out both pitchers are untouchable.  Forsch allows no earned runs and only 5 hits, but that’s not good enough as Haas closes out a 3-hitter and wins the 2-1 duel to send the Brewers to the semis.

The survivors

The 2005 Braves and the 2001 Twins had both cruised easily through their first round games, and although neither team was blessed with a particularly deep starting rotation, both could send out decent options in their #2 slot, with Atlanta’s Tim Hudson facing the Twins’ Brad Radke.  The first run of the game is driven in by a Jones, but it isn’t either of the Braves stars--rather, it’s Minnesota’s Jacque Jones that gives the Twins a 1-0 edge in the 4th.  However, in the 6th back to back doubles by Todd Hollandsworth and Johnny Estrada, coupled with an error by Twins RF Matt Lawton, gives the Braves a 2-1 lead.  Another double by Adam LaRoche in the 7th and Radke is pulled for Eddie Guardado, who prevents the run from scoring.  However, a Jeff Francoeur RBI single in the top of the 9th gives the Braves an insurance run, so it’s just up to Hudson to record the final three outs against the top of the Twins order.   A Lawton walk and a Torii Hunter single puts the winning run at the plate with two out in the form of Cristian Guzman, but Hudson strikes him out and the Braves head to the finals with the 3-1 win.

Both the 1980 Brewers and the 2004 Angels survived one-run games to make this semifinal--the Angels surviving a slugfest and the Brew Crew squeaking by in a pitchers’ duel.  One difference was that the Angels bullpen was severely taxed in their win, and they were hoping that Jarrod Washburn would be able to go deep in the game to give their relievers some rest.  The Brewers had a fresh pen and sent Reggie Cleveland to the mound, and they spotted Cleveland a solid lead by rapping five hits in the 1st inning, including a Molitor leadoff HR and a Don Money 2-run double that eluded Angel RF Vlad Guerrero, and the Brewers have a quick 4-0 lead.  When Yount smacks a 2-run shot to make it 6-0 in the 2nd, the Angels are already eyeing their pen, but they also rip five hits in the 3rd, including a Guerrero RBI double and a Troy Glaus 3 run HR, and it’s 6-4 and clearly anyone’s game.  A solo shot by Benji Molina in the 4th makes it 6-5, and he adds an RBI double in the 5th to tie things up.  Meanwhile, Washburn has recovered and is now tossing scoreless innings, although he has a scare in the 7th when Yount is cut down at the plate trying to score on a Cecil Cooper double.  A one-out double by David Eckstein in the 8th sends Cleveland to the showers, with Milwaukee bringing out Bob McClure to try to stop the Halos, and although he does so, in the top of the 9th Garrett Anderson finds McClure’s HR 1-6/flyB result and rolls the 6, giving the Angels their first lead heading into the bottom of the 9th.  Gantner leads it off with a single, so Anaheim pulls Washburn and gives Brendan Donnelly the chance to earn his second save in a row.  Molitor pushes a single past Angels SS Eckstein, and with two out Cecil Cooper comes to the plate with the tying run in scoring position and the winning run at first.   But Donnelly strikes Cooper out, earning the save and sending the Angels to the finals with a scrappy 7-6 comeback victory.

Although neither the ELO rankings nor I predicted it accurately, the pairing for the regional final seemed obvious--the two teams in the group that won their divisions.  In fact, with the two teams being from successive years, this matchup is a bit of an alternative World Series if some postseason games had gone differently.    Starting pitchers included Big Sexy Bartolo Colon for the 2004 Angels, and Horacio Ramirez for the 2005 Braves, two similar workhorses who both allowed too many hits and too many HRs for comfort.  The Angels get on the board in the bottom of the 1st when Atlanta LF Ryan Langerhans mishandles a Chone Figgins single, and Vlad Guerrero knocks him in on the next pitch for a 1-0 lead.  Four straight hits in the 2nd, including a Figgins 2-RBI single, and the Angels lead 3-0 and the Braves are in unfamiliar territory, having only allowed one run in each of their prior regional games.   In the 4th, the red-hot Figgins rips a triple to score Eckstein, and Guerrero singles him in again and it’s 5-0 Angels, and when Ramirez allows a single in the 5th the Braves bring in their closer Kyle Farnsworth in a desperation move to try to stay in the game.  That meets with limited success, as in the 6th Troy Glaus takes Farnsworth deep for a 2-run HR, Glaus’s third homer of the regional, and it’s now 7-0 Angels.   Although Colon had managed to strand numerous runners in scoring position, his luck runs out in the 7th when the Braves rap three straight hits against him, the last being an RBI double by Chipper Jones, and the Angels turn to Troy Percival to try to close things out.  He escapes the jam in highly efficient fashion, as Jeff Francoeur rolls the dreaded LOMAX and the Braves are immediately shut down courtesy of the triple play.  However, Percival struggles in the top of the 9th, and 3rd string catcher Eddie Perez rips a 2-run double that narrows the score to 7-3.  Although the Angels think about going to Brendan Donnelly again to see if he might be able to record a 3rd straight save, they stick with Percival and he gets the final two outs to give the Angels the 7-3 victory and the third regional title (with 1977 and 1989) for the Halos.  Glaus’s three homers and nine RBI earn him the regional MVP recognition, and the Angels thank the heavens that he never hit that ominous 2-6 injury roll in the bracket.

Interesting card of Regional #109:   Although regional MVP Troy Glaus had an interesting card with lots of power and a horrible injury roll, I had to go with Twins low-AB wonder boy Matt LeCroy, for obvious reasons.  Restricted to late-game PH duties because of his ABs, LeCroy wreaked havoc upon the Rangers in the first round but was unable to get his Twins past the semifinals.  As a kid, I played the heck out of those original Basic-only Hall of Fame cards and this card would have been formidable even in that set.   Who wouldn’t want a catcher that hit .425 with power and doubles scattered everywhere?  Okay, so he couldn’t draw a walk to save his life, and he was pretty terrible in the field, but I think I could overlook that.  He was age 25 during this season, and although he never lived up to the numbers he put up in these 40 at-bats, he did prove to have some power and eventually learned to draw a walk later in his career, although he never came within 150 points of this batting average again.   Now the manager for the Nationals’ AAA team in Rochester, LeCroy should just wave this card around if any of his players ever question his decisions.