REGIONAL #111:  This group didn’t appear to have any teams within hailing distance of a pennant; I had a strong hunch that certain teams were likely to be pretty bad, and a few others I wasn’t certain about.   The ‘96 Red Sox were a team that I remembered fondly as I spent that summer in the Boston area and took my son to a fair number of their games at Fenway, and he became a big fan of that team--and I remember them as being pretty good, albeit not pennant winners.  In terms of other competitors, I thought that given some success from their ‘96 and ‘98 teams in recent regionals, the ‘97 Rangers should represent well, and I seemed to remember some strong Angels teams in the ‘80s although I had no idea if 1982 was one of them.  As a sentimental choice, I picked the ‘96 version of the Red Sox over the Rangers in the finals.  The ELO ranks indicated that this was indeed one of those strong Angels teams, and they favored those Angels over my Red Sox pick in the finals, but the rankings did agree with my general impression that most of these teams simply weren’t very good. 

First round action

The 1996 Red Sox won 85 games with some impressive offense, having four guys in the heart of their order with SLG% over .500, and at the top of their rotation they had Roger Clemens, who somehow managed to have a losing 10-13 record despite all those bashers behind him.  The 74-88 2015 Padres were a very different team, with an anemic offense--top SLG was .440, and they only had 3 hitters with an OBP greater than .300--but one of the better bullpens I had seen in a long time.  The Padres grab the lead in the 2nd when Jedd Gyorko nails a 2-out triple off Clemens’ card and Amarista singles him in, but it doesn’t last long as a Darren Bragg RBI single ties it in the top of the 3rd.  However, in the bottom of the inning Rene Rivera gets the same TR 1-4 split off Clemens, and he scores on a Grandal single to put the Padres back in the lead.  Not to be outdone, in the 5th John Valentin nails a TR 1-3 off Padres’ starter Ian Kennedy, and Jeff Frye’s sac fly ties it up again, and a Tim Naering single in the 6th gives the Red Sox the 3-2 lead, although Canseco makes the final out trying to score on the hit.   When Frye doubles in the 7th, the Padres dip into their stellar bullpen, and Kevin Quackenbush ducks any damage, but when he loads the bases up in the 9th, the Padres summon Huston Street who keeps the game within a run heading into the bottom of the 9th.  And Clemens hangs on for the CG win, scattering 8 hits as the Red Sox squeak by with a 3-2 win in which their high-powered offense did not make an appearance.  

The matchup between the 76-76 1934 Red Sox and the 56-97 1948 Senators did not look like it would be a slugfest, as the top HR hitter for the Red Sox put up 11 homers while for the Senators the top slugger managed only 7.   Although Boston was not quite as good a team as the ‘96 version that had barely survived the previous game, they certainly looked better than the Senators, who were ELO-wise in contention to be one of the 100 worst teams of all time.  Adding to the likelihood of a low scoring game were two good starters, the Senators’ Ray Scarborough and Red Sox Wes Ferrell, with the latter generally regarded as one of the best hitting pitchers, although that is not an asset in this tournament.  Still, it doesn’t take long for the Senators to score on a Gil Coan sac fly in the bottom of the 1st, and when a Carden Gillenwater liner gets past Boston RF Dick Porter for a double in the 2nd, the Senators lead 3-0.  An RBI single from Carl Reynolds in the 3rd puts Boston on the board to make it 3-1, but then Ferrell loads up the bases in the 4th and Eddie Yost clears them with a double to give the Nats a commanding 6-1 lead.  From there on out, both pitchers are in control and Scarborough cruises to a 7-hit, 6-1 victory that propels the underdog Senators into the semifinals.

The 1982 Angels won 93 games and the AL West, only missing the AL pennant because of a Cecil Cooper single in the deciding game of the ALCS, and they were heavy ELO favorites to win this regional.   The 2016 White Sox went 78-84, a team building towards their current respectability but not there yet--although in Chris Sale they had a strong #1 starter to face the Angels’ Mike Witt.  The Sox get a timely hit in the 3rd from an unlikely source, .205 hitting CF JB Shuck, and jump out to a 2-0 lead, but that lead is short-lived as Fred Lynn raps a 2-out double in the 4th that ties the game.  The Angels dodge a bullet in the 5th when Reggie Jackson misplays a Brett Lawrie line drive into a triple, but Witt fans the next two Sox batters to strand Lawrie at third, and in the 7th Bobby Grich finds Sale’s HR result to give California the 3-2 lead.  Reggie then leads off the 8th with a prodigious HR off the US Cellular exploding scoreboard.  That’s more than Witt needs, and he closes out a 5-hit CG as the Angels move on with the 4-2 win.

The 77-85 1997 Rangers sought to maintain the tradition of first round victories established by the ‘96 and ‘98 teams in the past two regionals, and like those teams their power-packed lineup featured Juan Gonzalez, who did not win the MVP as he did in those two adjoining seasons but was still good for 42 HR and 131 RBI.  They faced a 95-loss 1991 Orioles fronted by an injury-less Cal Ripken Jr., with Bob Milacki getting the starting nod against Darren Oliver, the pick of a bad Rangers rotation.  Oliver escapes a threat in the 1st by retiring O’s DH Sam Horn, but is injured for the rest of the game on the play and Rick Helling, who pitched 10 innings for a win in Regiona #108, gets his chance.   The Rangers then stake Helling to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the 2nd, which featured a 2-run single by Rusty Greer with 2 out.  Lee Stevens leads off the 3rd with a HR that makes it 4-0, but the injury bug strikes again and the Rangers lose SS Benji Gil for 6 games, meaning that Billy Ripken, who is already in the game playing for Baltimore, gets to play for both teams.  The Orioles respond with 3 runs in the 4th from a Chris Hoiles HR and a Cal Ripken RBI single, and then tie it in the 5th on a Baltimore Billy Ripken single, making the Rangers turn to their closer John Wetteland to prevent further damage.  He does so, and in the 8th Mike Devereaux misses a HR 1-15 split and gets stranded at third by the 4th Rangers pitcher, Eric Gunderson.  When the Rangers lead off the bottom of the inning with two straight singles, Milacki is gone in favor of Jim Poole, who retires the side without incident and neither team scores in the 9th, so we head to extra innings.   Gunderson gets two quick outs in the top of the 10th, but then it all comes apart, with Cal Ripken and Sam Horn going back to back and the Orioles bring in Mike Flanagan to try to seal the deal against the heart of the Rangers order.  He does so with three quick outs, and the Orioles head to the semis with a 6-4 come from behind win.  

The survivors

Five RBI to Bragg about

Although the 1996 Red Sox managed to win a pitching duel behind Roger Clemens in round one, their rotation dropped off quickly and if Tim Wakefield’s knuckler wasn’t working, they were going to need their formidable offense to wake up.  Of course, it didn’t look like much would be needed against the 97-loss 1948 Senators, but the Nats had already upset one Red Sox squad and they were optimistic about eliminating another, sending Mickey Haefner to the mound.   The Red Sox don’t like the omens of the top of the 1st, rolling 5 straight results on Haefner’s card and having the inning end with a 1-16 runner cut down trying to score on a Canseco single.  The Senators show how it’s done in the bottom of the 1st, when their 1-16 runner scores on a Gil Coan single, and in the 3rd Bud Stewart gets hold of a floating knuckler for a solo shot and it’s 2-0 Washington.  But the Bosox bats come alive in the top of the 5th, when a Darren Bragg 2-RBI single is followed by a Reggie Jefferson 2-run homer, and Boston moves in front 4-2.  The Senators promptly load the bases with no outs in the bottom of the inning, courtesy in part from a Mike Stanley dropped popup, but Wakefield holds the Senators to one run on a Coan fielder’s choice.  The Red Sox decide they’ve seen enough of these upstarts, and explode for five runs in the 6th, including a Bragg 3-run blast, and it’s now 9-3.  The Senators try Tom Ferrick on the mound, but that doesn’t work either as Boston scores three more in the 8th, two on a Jefferson double.  The Senators do load the bases with no outs in the bottom of the 9th, but Stewart hits into a DP and Wakefield fans Coan to end the game, and the Red Sox move to the finals with a dominating 12-4 performance.

Remembering the great Baltimore pitching staffs of only a few seasons earlier, it was painful to discover that the 1991 Orioles had considerable trouble finding a #2 starter with an ERA below five, with the only one to meet that criterion being Ben McDonald (4.84).   As a division winner, the 1982 Angels had far more rotation depth, and they went with Bruce Kison but actually had four other decent alternatives.  The Angels strike in the 1st with a Doug Decinces solo blast, and were robbed of another when 1-16 Reggie Jackson was cut down at the plate trying to score on a Fred Lynn double.  The Orioles tie it in the 3rd when Cal Ripken misses a HR 1-15 split, but Joe Orsulak scores from 1st on the resulting double and it’s tied at one apiece.  From there on, both pitchers assert control, with McDonald looking strong until the 8th, when he allows two hits and is pulled with two outs for Jim Poole, who won the first round game in relief.  Poole gets the out, and Kison find himself in a similar jam in the bottom of the inning, but he gets out of the jam himself, fanning Cal Ripken with the go-ahead run on 3rd.  Poole then allows two straight singles to begin the 9th, and with 1 out and the go-ahead run on 3rd the Orioles bring the infield in, but Brian Downing rips it past the drawn-in 3rd baseman, Decinces adds a sac fly and the Angels take a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the 9th.  Hoiles gets a hit for the O’s, but that’s all as Kison fans Dwight Evans for the final out, wrapping up a 6-hitter and sending the Angels to the finals in pursuit of the 4th regional title for the franchise.  

The 1982 Angels were a well-balanced team with some strong defense, a deep starting rotation, and a core of good hitters, which explained their AL West title.  The 1996 Red Sox were pretty much a one-dimensional team, with that dimension being offense, and the best they could muster for a #3 starter was Aaron Sele and his 5.32 ERA to go against Angels’ 18-game winner Geoff Zahn.  However, things go wrong for Zahn in the 2nd when he allows five straight baserunners to begin the inning, the last one being a bases-loaded triple served to John Valentin, and the Red Sox jump out to an imposing 4-0 lead.  However, the Angels strike back in the 3rd with three runs, with Brian Downing picking up a HR 1-3 split, and it’s looking to be a dogfight.  In the 6th, Fred Lynn makes a costly error on a Valentin single to score two, and Jeff Frye drives him in with a double that chases Zahn for Andy Hassler, Boston now leading 7-3.  However, in the bottom of the inning Carew smacks an RBI single, the Angels load the bases, and Boston doesn’t trust Sele to get out of the jam, turning instead to Mark Brandenburg, who ends the inning by striking out Reggie Jackson but only after a Decinces sac fly makes the score 7-5.   The Angels threaten again in the 7th when Lynn walks and Baylor doubles, Lynn getting the stop sign at 3rd, but Brandenburg strikes out three in a row to quell the uprising.  A Darren Bragg triple in the 8th makes it 8-5, and then the Sox turn it over to closer Heathcliff Slocumb to try to finish things out.  That proves to be frightening, as the Angels lead off the bottom of the 9th with a Lynn double followed by a Baylor homer, and its now a one-run game and the Angels rap out two consecutive pinch-hit singles to put the tying run on 2nd in the form of pinch-runner Juan Beniquez.  Slocumb finally bears down and fans Carew and gets the groundout from Downing, and it goes in the books as an 8-7 victory that gives the Red Sox their 5th regional win, following 1950, 1978, 1983, and 2005.  

Interesting card of Regional #111:   This one was an easy selection, as this regional included  one of the most infamous cards in Strat history.  With no name on the card, you might think this is some sort of personalized card resulting from a twisted imagination, but no--these are the actual statistics of one Rudy Pemberton.  Rudy made his MLB debut in April 1995, which was immediately after the resolution of the 1994 strike, so I’m guessing that Rudy played in spring training games as a “replacement player” and as such was not invited to join the Players Association, which at the time licensed the use of player names to the game company.   Thus, Rudy was a “no-name” card...but not just any such card.  Replacement or not, Pemberton has gone down in history as the player with the highest batting average for any player who had 30 or more at-bats in a major league season.  Remarkably, Rudy only had another 63 MLB at-bats after this season, finishing his “career” with a lifetime .336 batting average--better than Stan Musial, Al Simmons, or Eddie Collins.   Afterwards he bounced around the minors with some stints in Japan, Korea, and Mexico, typically recording good batting numbers but of course never anything like the 1.336 OPS represented by this card.