REGIONAL #114:  This regional included a collection of teams that I suspected would be decent--not great, not terrible, but fair to okay and pretty evenly matched.  No pennant winners, and only one team within a year of doing so, but that was the 2019 Rays and I had the feeling they were a different team in the weird 2020 season.   There were two Mariners teams trying to give Seattle their first regional win, and two Tigers teams trying to give Detroit their first win since Regional #95.  After correctly picking the outcome of the previous regional, I was really at a loss in guessing on this one, but I took a flyer on the 1988 Tigers over the 1994 Mariners in the finals.  The ELO ranks didn’t suggest that my Tigers pick was delusional, but they did remember (which I didn’t) that the Rays were a post-season team in 2019 and ranked them over the oldest team in the bracket, the 1950 Cards, in the finals.

First round action

The 1994 Mariners only went 49-63 but had a monster year from Ken Griffey Jr., and although the strike-shortened season left gaping holes in their starting rotation, at the top of it was a fireballing Randy Johnson, who could give them a shot against any first round opponent.   That opponent was the 2006 Marlins, a 78-84 team that had an infield that could hit, although almost nobody on the team could play defense worth a damn.   Things get ugly quick for Marlins’ starter Scott Olsen, as Jay Buhner and Tino Martinez take him deep in the top of the 1st to push the Mariners out to a 3-0 lead, but a 2-run blast from Florida’s Wes Helms in the bottom of the inning narrows the gap quickly.   Then, in the 2nd Johnson issues three walks, allows a couple of RBI singles, and Dan Wilson throws in a bases-loaded passed ball and the Marlins now have a 5-3 lead.  However, the Mariners tie it up in the 3rd on a Reggie Jefferson solo shot and a Felix Fermin triple, and the smattering of fans in Dolphins Stadium are figuring that they’ll need to stay to the end of this one to see who wins.   Things stay quiet until the 6th, when Fermin is cut down at the plate to end the inning trying to score on an Edgar Martinez double, but the Marlins get payback in the bottom of the inning with Mike Jacobs out trying to score on a Hanley Ramirez single, so the score is still tied.   Rich Amaral breaks the deadlock in the 8th by finding Olsen’s HR result for a solo shot that gives the Mariners a 6-5 lead, although Joe Borowski comes in to relieve and prevents further incidents.  It thus comes down to Johnson in the 9th; he records a strikeout, then has Miggy Cabrera miss a 6-12 roll TR 1-10/flyB split.  Wes Helms then finds a triple result on his own card, and the tying run is 90 feet away and the winning run at the plate in the form of Josh Willingham….but Josh grounds out and the Mariners survive to play another day with the 6-5 victory, one in which Griffey Jr. goes 0 for 5.

In setting the lineup for the 60-84 1995 Tigers, I hoped for their sake that the ‘88 team that would play later in the regional was better, because the ‘95s didn’t look so hot.  Lou Whitaker had some unexpected pop, but he could no longer play 2b adequately and was relegated to DH duties, Alan Trammell was a backup, but David Wells had a good year and would start the game.   Their opponent, the 1950 Cardinals, had a much better ELO ranking, but aside from Stan Musial they looked like the .500ish (78-75) team that they were.   The Cards rap out three singles against Wells in the top of the 1st, the last being an RBI poke from Enos Slaughter, to jump to a 1-0 lead, and extend it in the 6th when Musial finds Wells’ HR result for a 2-run shot and it's 3-0.  Meanwhile, the Tigers are struggling to gain a foothold against Cards’ starter Howie Pollet, and when Wells allows two baserunners in the 7th the Tigers turn to closer Mike Henneman for help, which he provides by getting the DP ball from Schoendienst to end the inning.   The Tigers then get two baserunners on in the bottom of the 7th and summon elder statesman Kirk Gibson to pinch hit, to see if he can recapture his past glories in that role, but he pops out to the catcher for the second out.  However, the next batter, another PH in the form of Todd Steverson, doubles to score both runners and the Cards lead is cut to 3-2.  The Cards strike back as the 8th inning begins with back to back doubles from Chuck Diering and Musial, and the game goes into the bottom of the 9th with Pollet trying to hang on to that 4-2 lead.  Cecil Fielder leads off with a long single, then Pollet records two outs.  Trammell comes in and delivers a pinch hit single, so now Steverson is back up to bat representing the winning run.  He sends a towering fly to deepest center field, but Diering hauls it in and the Cards move on to the semis with a 4-2 victory on Pollet’s 6-hitter.

The 90-loss 2000 Astros were a typical steroid era team, with 5 guys in the lineup smacking over .500 SLG%, but little defense and only one starting pitcher with an ERA under 5.00, that being Scott Elarton who was getting the first round start.   They still looked better than the 2010 Mariners, who lost 101 games and had only one guy in the lineup who had a SLG% above .400--but they had Felix Hernandez on the mound, who managed to win the AL Cy Young Award while pitching for a 100 loss team.   Mariners SS Josh Wilson finds Elarton’s solid HR result in the 2nd to give Seattle a 2-0 lead, and the Astros don’t get their first hit off Hernandez until the 4th from Daryle Ward, but that drives in Caminiti who had reached courtesy of a Jose Lopez error.  Both pitchers are on lockdown from there out, but when Elarton issues a walk in the 8th the Astros bring in Joe Slusarski to keep things within reach, and he retires the side without incident.  That makes it Hernandez’s job to nail down the win in the top of the 9th, and he puts the Astros down in order, fanning Meluskey to end the game with a 4-hitter and a 2-1 victory.  The Mariners themselves only get 6 hits and commit 3 errors, numbers that will need to improve in the semifinal when they won’t have a Cy Young winner on the mound for them.

The ELO ranks pegged this game as the marquee matchup of the first round, with the two best rated teams in the regional facing off.   The 2019 Rays won 96 games, good for a wild-card appearance in the postseason; they were the ELO regional favorites, sporting a lineup in which all nine batters had double-digit HR totals, and Charlie Morton on the mound came in 3rd in the Cy Young voting.  Like the Rays, the 88-win 1988 Tigers also finished 2nd in the AL East, doing so with solid defense and a veteran rotation backed by a strong bullpen.  However, the Tigers elect to go with swingman Jeff Robinson as their best option against the favored Rays, and Detroit spots Robinson a quick 2-0 lead courtesy of a Fred Lynn triple in the top of the 1st.  The Rays get some of that back in the bottom of the inning on a Matt Nokes error and an Austin Meadows sac fly that makes it 2-1.  Nokes does atone for his mistake in his next at-bat, crushing a 2-run homer, and an RBI single from Luis Salazar in the 4th chases Morton, who allowed 10 hits in his 3+ innings, as Colin Poche inherits the 5-1 deficit.  However, in the 6th Robinson walks two and then Yandy Diaz launches a homer that cuts the margin to 5-4, and a subsequent Eric Sogard double sends Robinson to the showers, with Eric King coming in to try to hold the lead.  He immediately yields a single to d’Arnaud off the pitcher card, but Sogard is cut down at the plate trying to tie the game and the Tigers escape the inning still holding a slim lead.  When King issues two straight walks to start the 7th, the Tigers have seen enough and as they had done previously in this regional, summon their closer Mike Henneman, who records two straight popouts.  However, then Nokes drops a third popup, and with the bases now loaded Diaz drives in two with a double and the Rays take the lead for the first time.  The Rays bring in four defensive replacements in the 9th and send spot starter Tyler Glasnow out (with his 1.78 ERA but only eligible to relieve with just 61 IP) as their 4th pitcher to try to lock it down against the top of the Tigers order.  A two out Salazar single gives Detroit faint hope, but Lynn strikes out for the final out and the Rays escape with a 6-5 come from behind victory.

The survivors

With Randy Johnson spent, the 1994 Mariners had very little talent left in their rotation, and facing a big favorite in the 1950 Cardinals they had to hope that Griffey Jr. would be a much bigger factor than he proved to be in the first round.   The Cards certainly look to have an advantage in sending Max Lanier to the mound against Seattle’s 4-10 Chris Bosio, but Griffey announces his presence with a long 2-run homer in the top of the 1st.  The Cards are struggling to find a way to score, and in the 5th they try some smallball, with Marion singling, sacrificing him to 2nd, and then Chuck Diering comes through with a single, but Marion is cut down at the plate to end the inning.  The M’s then put up another run when Enos Slaughter can’t get to a Tino Martinez liner, and Buhner scores to make it 3-0, and Seattle is now ready to go to their bullpen at the slightest sign of faltering from Bosio.  Those signs don’t appear until the bottom of the 9th, when Bosio walks the first two batters, so closer Bobby Ayala is summoned--but Ayala walks one to load the bases, records a whiff, and then Red Schoendienst rips a long single that scores two.  Ayala fans Diering, but now has to face Musial with runners on 1st and 3rd.  Musial hits a grounder to Edgar Martinez, who muffs it and the game is tied and will head to extra innings.  The Cards have to turn to their non-existent bullpen in the 11th, but Erv Dusak retires the Mariners, and in the bottom of the inning new Seattle reliever Jeff Nelson allows a Musial triple with one out.   The infield comes in for Enos Slaughter, who nails one deep to RF, and although Buhner grabs it Musial races in to give the Cards the 4-3 come from behind win and a berth in the regional final.  

The semifinal between the 2019 Rays and the 2010 Mariners had the makings of a lopsided affair with a 96-win team against a 101-loss squad, although both teams had a little added incentive in that neither franchise had ever won a regional before.   The starters were Ryan Yarbrough for the Rays and Jason Vargas for Seattle, and Vargas gets off to a rough start by allowing a HR on his card to Tampa leadoff hitter Tommy Pham, with cleanup hitter Brandon Lowe adding another solo shot (off Lowe’s card this time) and the Rays lead 2-0 after one.  In the 3rd, Pham comes up for his second AB and nails Vargas’s HR result again to make it 4-0; the Mariners threaten in the 5th as a Jose Lopez double puts runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out, but Yarbrough strands them to keep Seattle off the board.   However, they do put up some numbers in the 6th on a Russell Branyan RBI double and a Franklin Gutierrez single that makes it 4-2.  In the 8th Branyan singles and the Rays look at their pen, but it was seriously taxed in their 1st round win and they decide to stick with Yarbrough to preserve their relievers, but that proves to be a mistake as Gutierrez nails Yarbrough’s HR result to tie the game 4-4. A Lowe double in the bottom of the inning chases Vargas for Seattle closer David Aardsma, who ends the inning with no damage.  Neither team can break the stalemate in regulation, so we head to extra innings, with Yarbrough finally yielding to Tyler Glasnow to face the top of the Mariners order in the 10th, where Chone Figgins starts off with a single and a stolen base, but Seattle can do nothing further to bring him home.  Aardsma then starts the bottom of the inning by fanning Pham, walks Ji-man Choi, and Austin Meadows pops out to the catcher.   That leaves it to .231 hitter Joey Wendle, in the game as a pinch runner and defensive replacement for Lowe; however, Wendle finds Aardsma’s 5-5 HR 1-15 split, rolls a 2, and it’s a walk off 6-4 win that vaults the Rays into the finals and provides a chance for their first regional win.   Meanwhile, the Mariners’ chances for their first win are dashed by two extra-inning losses in the semifinals.

Yonny Chirinos, you have mail

As predicted accurately by the ELO rankings (and certainly not by me), the regional finals feature a 2019 Rays team that made the postseason and are trying to earn the first such title for the fledgling franchise, and a 1950 Cardinals team trying to win their 6th regional.  Although separated by almost 70 years, the two starting pitchers (Harry Brecheen for the Cards, Yonny Chirinos for the Rays) were pretty similar, with both having good control but a propensity to allow the longball a bit too much for comfort.  And it takes exactly two Cardinal batters for Chuck Diering to find Chirinos’s solid 6-5 HR result for a quick St. Louis lead, which expands to 3-0 in the 2nd when Del Rice also finds that same HR result.  In further deja vu news, Diering again finds the 6-5 in the top of the 5th for a solo shot, and the Rays have seen enough of Chirinos, whose mistakes have put them in a 4-0 hole after five, and try Nick Anderson.   Finally, in the 7th Rays SS Willy Adames finds Brecheen’s solid 6-4 HR result and the score is narrowed to 4-2, with the Cards having little in the bullpen if Brecheen falters further.  But Brecheen is solid until he allows a 2-out triple to Kevin Kiermaier in the 9th, but the sure handed Schoendienst then handles a Pham grounder to clinch the regional for the Cardinals, sustaining the legacy of the great Cards teams of the 1940s and torpedoing one of the Rays' best hopes for their first franchise win.

Interesting card of Regional #114:  Okay, so maybe I’ve been living under a rock for a few years, but when I was digging deep into the bullpen of the 2019 Rays I was initially mystified when I ran across this guy.   At a quick glance, this card doesn’t seem all that unusual, but wait a second--this guy was second on the Rays staff in Games Started, but he only has the “relief” role on his card, meaning that in this tournament, he can’t start because I take those pitcher role assignments kind of literally.  On the other hand, he ALSO can’t start in this tournament because he needs at least 100 IP to be an option as a starting pitcher, and he’s only got 56 IP despite having 27 starts!   Yes, this is a prime example of the “opener” concept, for which the Rays of 2018-2019 were really the primary innovators.  Now, on the Advanced side of the card, Stanek is rated as a relief(1)/starter(1), which describes his role better than the Basic relief-only card, but I guess I had never really noticed before how Strat handled this prior to playing the Rays.  It seems that the pennant-winning 2020 Rays had pretty much abandoned the use of an “opener”, but while it lasted it certainly created a challenge for representing Stanek in the Basic game.