REGIONAL #113: I was excited to have my draw for this regional finally pull a 2020 team as an entrant, particularly an NL squad, as I was curious as to how a team from that weird season would fare given tournament rules around IP/AB restrictions, but with that obstacle potentially offset by the enhanced possibility of low usage wonders that could be situationally useful. That 2020 team, the Nationals, was one of five teams that was within 1 or 2 years of a pennant, and with a couple more squads that I felt were probably contenders as well, I thought that just about anybody aside from the ‘57 Senators could take this bracket. However, tradition required that I hazard an ill-informed guess, so I went with the Phillies over the Nationals in the finals, as the Phillies from around that vintage had been quite successful in this tournament. I was surprised to discover that the ELO rankings agreed with me, ranking the Phillies as the best team in baseball that season and among the 100 best teams of all time.
First round action
The 1988 Reds won 87 games to finish 2nd in the NL West, and they might have done better if manager Pete Rose hadn’t been suspended for 30 days for shoving an umpire, a suspension during which they played under .500 ball. Aside from Eric Davis, the offense wasn’t much to write about but they had an excellent bullpen and a rotation fronted by Danny Jackson, who won 23 games and was the Cy Young Award runner-up. They faced the 1958 Dodgers, who were in their first year in Los Angeles and would win the NL the next season. However, they were 71-83 in 1958 and finished next to last in the NL, being in transition with stars like Erskine, Hodges, Snider and Furillo fading and others like Koufax and Drysdale not yet in their prime. Still, it was the Dodgers who struck first in the 1st, grabbing a 1-0 lead courtesy of two consecutive poor fielding plays by Barry Larkin (a two base error and a single-2). Meanwhile, Dodgers starter Johnny Podres is almost untouchable until the 7th, when two consecutive two-out singles makes LA search their bullpen, but seeing no better options stick with the tiring Podres, who retires PH Ron Oester to end the threat. Sensing his pitcher in need of support, John Roseboro leads off the bottom of the 7th by clouting one over the netting at the Colosseum, and the Reds yank Jackson for Rob Dibble, who gets out of the inning without further damage but the Dodgers still lead 2-0 with two innings to go. In the 8th, the Reds get a run on a Kal Daniels RBI single, but Larkin gets caught stealing and the Dodgers hold onto a slim lead, and Podres sets the Reds down in order in the 9th to seal the 2-1 victory.
According to the ELO ranks, the first round matchup between the 55-99 1957 Senators and the 102-win 2011 Phillies was one of the most lopsided in the history of the tournament, with the Phillies listed as one of the 100 best teams in baseball history, and the Senators ranked as one of the 100 worst. The Phillies won the NL East with a strong rotation, tight defense, and a lineup with 7 players in double digits in homers; the Senators, well, they had Roy Sievers, whose 42 homers led the AL, and little else. The Phillies score on Nats starter Camilo Pascual in the 2nd when Ryan Howard (1-10) puffs home safely on a Jimmy Rollins single, which is followed by a Carlos Ruiz double that scores another but Rollins (1-16) gets nailed at the plate--Howard then offered Rollins some baserunning tips and the Phils lead 2-0. In the 5th, Hunter Pence singles off Pascual and Howard doubles him home, and with the great Phils defense operating flawlessly behind starter Cole Hamels, a three run lead is looking pretty formidable. Pence adds a two-out, two-run double in the 6th, but the Senators finally respond in the 7th when Sievers leads off with a big fly, and Herb Plews contributes a two-out RBI double of his own to narrow the gap to 5-2, and the fans at Citizens Bank Park are wondering if they should withdraw their money. They get even more worried when in the 8th Sievers hits his second HR of the game, a two-out two-run shot, and Hamels heads to the showers in favor of closer Ryan Madsen--whose card I personally think isn’t as good as his stats suggest it should be. Regardless of what I think, Madsen does his job and the Phils survive a scare to notch a 5-4 win and a trip to the semifinals. The Nats may have had little besides Roy Sievers, but that was almost enough.
The matchup between the 2013 Yankees and the 2020 Nationals was the featured first round game of the regional, according to the rankings, as both were in the top 1000 teams, but both teams had their issues. The Yankees won 85 games and featured a long list of good players reaching the end of their careers at the same time, with the result being uglier than their record--Joe Girardi must have earned his paycheck as their Pythagorean projection suggested that they should have been a sub-.500 team. The Nationals were following up on 2019 WS champs, but in the pandemic year only went 26-34, equating to a 90-loss year in a regular season. The tournament usage rules present a challenge for the 2020 teams, as they have a fixed rotation (starters in descending order of IP) and typically few DH options, particularly the NL teams. However, these pandemic teams also tend to have some low usage wondercards that may come in handy in the 6th inning plus, and the Nats had a couple of those, so things could balance out. Washington was fortunate in that their top IP starter was Max Scherzer, who was facing off against the Yanks’ Hiroki Kuroda. New York grabs a run in the top of the 1st when Gardner scores on a Robinson Cano DP ball, and add another in the 4th when Alfonso Soriano drives in Ichiro with an RBI single. However, in the bottom of the inning the Nats’ big basher, Juan Soto, crushes one with one aboard and the game is tied 2-2. Cano leads off the 7th with a monster blast of his own to give the Yankees the lead, and they start warming up their strong bullpen, so when Yan Gomes doubles with one out in the bottom of the inning, NY relieves Kuroda with David Robertson. The Nationals respond with one of their low AB wonders as a PH, Andrew Stevenson, and he laces a single (off the only complete hit on Robertson’s card, no less) to score Gomes and tie the game, and in the bottom of the 8th Soto launches a two-out solo moonshot to give the Nats their first lead. When Brett Gardner leads off the top of the 9th with a single, Washington looks to their bullpen, and I discover that their closer has a 6.10 ERA and two solid HR results on his card, so Scherzer remains in, but then Ichiro doubles and the tying run is on 3rd and the go-ahead on 2nd. I grit my teeth and summon Tanner Rainey, who also has two complete HR results on his card, but a ton of strikeouts as well, which is what’s needed. Cano grounds out with the runners holding as the infield is in; Soriano whiffs, and the game is up to a 37-year-old ARod. The roll: SI* 1, lineout 2-20, and the split is a 9. The Yankees go back into storage, and the first pandemic team gets a come-from-behind 4-3 win.
The first round game between the 84-78 2019 Cubs and the 73-81 1951 Phillies appeared to feature two “okay” teams with different strength, with the Cubs sporting some Wrigley-fueled offense and the Phillies having solid defense and 21-game winner Robin Roberts, who was in the midst of a 7-year stretch of receiving MVP votes. The Phils take a 1-0 lead in the 2nd courtesy of a two-base error by Cubs LF-4 Kyle Schwarber on an Andy Seminick flyball, although Seminick is later cut down at the plate trying to score on a two-out single by Waitkus. Bill Nicholson adds an RBI single in the 3rd to make it 2-0, and Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks is struggling. When Seminick singles in a run in the 6th to make it 3-0, the Cubs bring in reliever Rowan Wick to try to keep the game from getting away from them, and although Wick issues a couple of walks, he escapes further damage when Schwarber actually makes a tough fielding play. That seems to inspire Cubs SS Javier Baez, who then leads off the top of the 7th with a round tripper, but Phils 3B Willie Jones responds by leading off with a HR in the bottom of the inning and the score is now 4-1 Phils with two innings remaining. However, in the 8th, an error by Phils SS-2 Granny Hamner opens the door for disaster, and Schwarber bulls through it with a 3-run homer that ties the game. The Cubs then begin the 9th with two straight singles and the Phils finally pull a tiring Roberts for Andy Hansen, but Kris Bryant greets him with a double and the Cubs head into the bottom of the 9th with their first lead of the game, ahead 5-4. Cubs management eyes the card of their leader in saves, Craig Kimbrel, and with its FOUR solid HR results decide maybe they would try Steve Cishek instead. Cishek issues two straight walks but then gets Dick Sisler to ground into a DP, and so it’s up to PH Mel Clark with the tying run on 3rd. The result--CATCH X, Wilson Contreras drops the popup, and the game is tied and we head to extra innings. The teams then trade blown opportunities, as Cishek walks the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th but the Phils can’t score, and then Jason Heyward misses a HR 1-16 split and gets stranded at 2nd in the 12th. In the 13th the Phils have to dig deeper into their shallow bullpen and try Niles Jordan, but Schwarber finds Jordan’s HR result for his second blast of the game, and it’s 6-5 Cubs with Tyler Chatwood coming in to try to notch the save. He gets two quick outs, but then he commits the Cubs’ 5th error of the game to put the tying run on 1st. However, he gets a popout from Seminick and the Cubs manage a 6-5 extra inning win--meaning that all of the first round games in this regional were one-run affairs.
The survivors
The 1958 Dodgers were the elder statesmen of the remaining four teams in the regional, as the others played at least 50 years after the recently relocated Bums. Although young versions of Koufax and Drysdale were available, LA opted to start swingman Stan Williams against the 2011 Phillies and Roy Halladay, runner-up for the NL Cy Young Award. The Phils go through the bottom of the 1st with mixed blessings, scoring a run when LA SS-3 Don Zimmer throws a ball into the Dodger dugout, but the inning ends with Chase Utley injured, with a split roll of 20 putting him out in perpetuity. Zimmer atones for his miscue in the 5th with a two-out double, and then he races home on a Jim Gilliam single to tie the game. Williams immediately gives the lead back to the Phils by allowing a single and walking three, while also striking out three, but the casualties mount for the Phils as their DH John Mayberry Jr. gets injured for two games. Even so, Halladay is cruising, and he takes his one-run lead into the 9th and gets two quick outs. However, Roseboro singles and that brings up Dodger veteran Gil Hodges as the potential go-ahead run, but Hodges pops out and the battered Phils head to the finals with a 2-1 win, the 5th straight one-run game of the regional. The Phils only manage three hits against Williams, but he issues 8 walks to provide the Phils with their chances.
The disadvantages of a pandemic-shortened season caught up with the 2020 Nationals in the semifinals, because without any 100 IP starters, under tournament rules they were compelled to start Patrick Corbin and his 4.66 ERA with the second most IP on the staff. The 2019 Cubs had a much better option with Yu Darvish, but they also had a seriously depleted bullpen after their 13-inning win in the first round. And it’s Darvish who gets roughed up in the top of the 1st, as the Nationals explode for 4 runs, keyed by an Adam Eaton triple, and things could have been worse as Yan Gomes missed a TR 1-16/FlyB split that would have added more damage. Juan Soto hits his third homer of the regional in the 2nd to make the score 6-0, and now all Corbin has to do is be suitably mediocre to finish things out. A Kris Bryant solo shot in the 4th makes it 6-1, and in his next AB Bryant adds a 2-run blast and it’s now Nats 6, Bryant 3. When the Cubs start off the 7th with two straight singles, Washington goes to the bullpen, which has some truly frightening options, and selects Kyle Finnegan to try to nail things down. Finnegan allows an RBI single to Willson Contreras, but is bailed out when Contreras is nailed at the plate trying to score on a Baez single, so the score is 6-4 heading into the 8th. After his early issues, Darvish has been lights out, allowing only one hit since the 2nd inning, but when the Nats get two men on in the 9th the Cubs bring in Tyler Chatwood to try to keep it close. That goes awry, as Chatwood issues two straight walks and a long Soto single, and the Nats take a 9-4 lead going into the bottom of the 9th, where they turn to Ben Braymer, who issued 5 walks in his 7 IP. Braymer does walk one, but that threat ends with a DP and the Nationals head to the finals with a 9-4 win.
The regional final featured the tournament’s first pandemic-year team in the 2020 Nationals against an injury riddled 2011 Phillies squad that had the opportunity to continue an era of tournament dominance for the franchise, with this being potentially their 5th regional win in the decade from 2005 to 2014. Although they had no injuries, the pandemic impact on the Nats was evident as they were forced to start Anibal Sanchez and his 6.62 ERA against 17-game winner Cliff Lee and his 2.40 ERA. However, it’s Lee who meets with disaster in the 1st inning, giving up two straight singles off his card to lead off the inning, and then being taken deep by Juan Soto for a 3-run shot, Soto’s 4th HR of the regional. Trea Turner then goes back to back, and the Phils are down 4-0 after one and trying to figure out how they can come back while missing important cogs in their offense. The answer comes quickly in the top of the 2nd, as Sanchez issues three straight walks and then Shane Victorino finds Sanchez’s solid 5-9 HR result for a grand slam, and then Ryan Howard goes back to back (this time on Howard’s own card) and suddenly the Phillies lead 5-4, with a lot of game left to go. Not to be outdone, Soto leads off the 3rd with his 5th blast of the tournament and the game is tied. In the 5th, replacement DH Domonic Brown smacks a 2-run HR to put the Phils back on top, and the Nats have seen far too much of Sanchez, and bring in Kyle Finnegan, who gives them two innings without further damage. Tanner Rainey adds two more perfect innings for Washington, but in the 9th Ben Braymer walks the bases loaded and then walks in a run, and the Phils now lead 8-5 heading into the bottom of the 9th. Yan Gomes then leads off with a HR to make it 8-6, and Philadelphia pulls the tiring Lee for Ryan Madsen, who recorded the save in the first round. Madsen allows a single to .353-hitting PH Jake Noll, but he goes nowhere as the Phillies lock down the win and the regional title. The 2011 Phillies thus join the 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2014 squads as regional winners, with the 5 titles in a 10 year span representing a dynasty unequalled in this tournament. Juan Soto is the regional MVP in a losing effort, contributing 5 HR and 11 RBI to almost single-handedly push the Nats to the brink of the title.
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