REGIONAL #122:  This seemed to be the regional of the Reds, with three representatives from three different decades selected for the bracket.  However, I didn’t remember any of them as great teams, although the ‘67 version was only a few years away from the beginning of a dynasty.  Instead, teams that caught my eye were the ‘85 Padres, a year after winning the NL and putting the Cubs away, and the 2012 Mets that were a few years away from an NL pennant.  I decided to go with the trend of more modern teams doing well, and picked the Mets over the Padres, and I was unsure if the latter would survive against the most modern team in the bracket, the A’s.   The ELO ranks selected the 2018 A’s, the only postseason team in this collection, over  the ‘50 Braves (who had won the NL just two seasons prior) in the finals--both teams that I had overlooked.

First round action

I had overlooked the 1950 Braves in thinking about regional favorites, but the ELO ranks recognized that this was the “Spahn, Sain, and a day of rain” era Braves that had won the NL two years prior, and both of those pitchers won 20 this season to lead the team to an 83-71 record.   Even so, they would only be considered slight favorites over the 87-75 1967 Reds, who were an enlarging Red Machine with many of the cogs in place, albeit not fully developed (e.g., a young Johnny Bench hitting .163).  The matchup of Spahn (21-17, 3.16) against Mel Queen (14-8, 2.76) looked like a good one, but the Reds get to Spahn immediately in the top of the 1st when a Tony Perez sac fly scores Pete Rose.  Spahn is not sharp and walks the bases loaded in the 3rd but whiffs Lee May to end the inning unscathed, which seems to buoy the Braves who then torch Queen for four hits in the bottom of the inning for three runs.  The Braves add another run in the 5th on a Bob Elliott fielder’s choice, which looks necessary as Spahn continues to struggle, allowing three straight singles to open the 6th.  However, the Reds only convert those into one run on a Rose sac fly, Spahn clings to the 4-2 lead, and to begin the 7th the Braves summon some defensive replacements to shore up their terrible fielding to try to support their ace.  Spahn does seem to settle down, recording his first 1-2-3 inning in the 8th, and Bob Elliott finds Queen’s HR result in the bottom of the inning to provide some insurance and a 5-2 lead.  That insurance seems badly needed, as two quick singles by Rose and Perez bring up Lee May as the potential tying run at the plate with one out.  May singles, scoring Rose, but Spahn again gets out of the jam without further damage and the Braves outlast the Reds 5-3, getting the win despite only managing six hits.

After the ELO rankings suggested that my blind pick of the 2012 Mets was ill-informed, I was interested to see what I had selected, and although they lost 88 games they looked like a decent team to me, with David Wright (who has been money for other Mets teams in this tourney) having a strong year.   They were still underdogs to the 80-82 2005 Blue Jays, and the pitching matchup was a good one with Jays ace Roy Halladay (12-4, 2.41) against 20-game winner RA Dickey (20-6, 2.73).   Things start out ominously for the Jays when their 2B-1 Orlando Hudson drops the first ball of the game, but that runner is erased trying for third on a Daniel Murphy single and Halladay fans Wright to keep the Mets off the board.   The Jays ride that momentum in the bottom of the inning as Aaron Hill doubles and Frank Catalanotto singles him home to give Toronto the early 1-0 lead.  The Jays score two more in the 3rd, courtesy of a Catalanotto double on a missed HR split, and Halladay keeps getting out of jams caused primarily by poor Toronto defense.  In the 7th, Dickey commits a 2-base error to start the inning, and the Mets bring in Matt Harvey, but Vernon Wells singles in the unearned run and the Jays lead extends to 4-0.   That’s all Halladay needs, as he finishes up a 5-hitter sustaining the shutout despite three Toronto errors, and the Jays move on to the semis.

The 1985 Padres were coming off their first NL pennant in franchise history, and although they slipped to an 83-79 record they still had players like Gwynn, Garvey, and Gossage that got them to the Series the previous year.  Their opponents, the 1927 Reds, may have come from the Year of the Babe but they had absolutely no power, with their top HR hitter managing only 6 HRs, but they still managed to go 75-78 with the help of some decent pitchers.  The Padres tapped Dave Dravecky (13-11, 2.93) to go against the Reds’ Dolf Luque (13-12, 3.19).  The Padres get lucky against Luque in the 3rd, when doubles by Garry Templeton and Bruce Bochy produce a 2-0 lead, but their luck runs dry in the 4th when runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out fail to score.  The Reds similarly get a triplefrom Red Lucas to lead off the bottom of the inning, but he gets stranded when Padres SS-1 Templeton turns a highlight reel DP to end the inning.  The Reds finally mount a threat against Dravecky in the bottom of the 7th, leading off with two straight hard singles, and the Padres turn to relief ace Goose Gossage to try to preserve the lead.  However, one run scores on a Tim Flannery error, and the game heads to the 8th with San Diego clinging to a 2-1 lead.   The Padres get some insurance runs courtesy of a 2-base error by Reds RF-2 Curt Walker, although Gwynn gets knocked out of the game with a minor injury which doesn’t help the Padres own RF fielding situation.  Eager to preserve Gossage for later rounds, the Padres bring in Craig Lefferts to pitch the 9th, and he does the job, only allowing a harmless single by Hughie Critz, and the Padres move to the semifinals with the 4-1 win.

With two of the three Reds squads in this regional already eliminated in the first round, it was up to the 1950 Reds to try to carry the standard, and although they only managed 66 wins, they had an imposing weapon in Ted Kluzewski and an outstanding #1 pitcher in Ewell Blackwell (17-15, 2.97) who finished 11th in the MVP voting.  He would need to be at his best against the offensive might of the 2018 A’s, led by Khris Davis’s 48 HR.  The A’s won 97 games and made a brief postseason appearance as a wild-card team, leading me to think that their season-ending ELO rating seriously underestimated them; they were sending Sean Manaea (12-9, 3.59) to the mound.  The game is scoreless until the 4th, when Davis crushes a 2-run blast; Matt Olson leads off the 7th with another longball, and it’s 3-0 with Manaea settling in after getting out of early jams.  Manaea finally loses the shutout in the 9th when Connie Ryan pushes a 2-out single past A’s SS-3 Marcus Semien, and when PH Bob Scheffing singles to bring up Big Klu as the potential winning run, the A’s take no chances and bring in killer closer Blake Treinen, who records the one-pitch save as Klu flies out.   The A’s move on with a tight 3-1 win, and the Reds go zero-for-three in the first round of this regional.  

The survivors

His name barely fits on card

For all the lore surrounding their “Spahn and Sain” rotation, the 1950 Braves decided to trot out Vern Bickford (19-14, 3.47), certainly better than a rainout, as their #2 starter for their semifinal matchup against the 2005 Jays.  The Jays countered with Gustavo Chacin (13-9, 3.72), who was decent enough but was a name that I had forgotten if indeed I ever knew it, and it is a testimony to the power of Strat that I was far more familiar with Bickford’s career, who pitched before I was born.  Anyhow, the Braves jump out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the 1st on a Sid Gordon sac fly, but the Jays immediately tie it in the bottom of the inning when Frank Catalanotto, the hitting star of the Jays’ first round game, converts a TR 1-3 to drive in a run.  The Jays then move on top in the 3rd when Vernon Wells blasts a 2-out solo shot, which is immediately matched by Walker Cooper to lead off the 4th, and it’s looking like another of those semifinal matchups where both teams refuse to lose.  The Jays decide its time to put away the pesky Braves, and in the bottom of the 4th they rip four hits, three of them doubles, and jump to a 5-2 lead, but the Braves promptly begin to chip away at that lead when Sam Jethroe converts a HR 1-3 split for a solo bast in the 5th.  Catalanotto returns the favor, nailing a HR 1-5 split in the bottom of the inning, and after five innings it’s 6-3 Jays, with Toronto nervously eyeing a bad bullpen hoping that Chacin can hold on.  He does so, and the Jays head to the finals with the 6-3 win, seeking to become the only Toronto team outside of the 80’s to win a regional.

The semifinal between the 2018 A’s and the 1985 Padres paired the #1 and #3 seeds in the regional.  There were two capable starters on the mound in San Diego’s Andy Hawkins (18-8, 3.15) against Trevor Cahill (7-4, 3.76), and although both teams had to use their excellent closers in round one, both would available for limited duty in this game.   Ralph Laureano kicks off things for the A’s in the bottom of the 1st with a leadoff homer, but things get quiet as both starters settle in.  However, in the top of the 6th the Padres lead off the inning with two straight hard singles, and the A’s sense that the game may be on the line and turn to their closer extraordinaire Blake Treinen to try to preserve the lead with the tying run on 3rd and nobody out.   The A’s keep the infield back, and Garvey hits a grounder to Jed Lawrie, who converts the DP but Gwynn scores to tie the game at 1-1.  However, in the bottom of the inning Matt Olson hits his second solo shot of the regional and the A’s regain the lead, and with a deep bullpen they decide to preserve Treinen and put in Santiago Casilla to begin the 7th.   Casilla tosses two hitless innings, and to begin the 9th the A’s summon Jeurys Familia to try to get the final three outs.  He does exactly that, with Marcus Semien converting a game-ending DP, and the A’s stellar bullpen hangs on to push them into the finals winning the 2-1 duel despite recording only 5 hits off Hawkins.  However, they lose RF Steven Piscotty to injury for the finals and beyond.

The final matchup between the 2005 Blue Jays and the 2019 A’s was between the top-seeded A’s and the #5 seed Jays, who scored twice as many runs as the A’s in their first two rounds but faced an A’s pitching staff that had only allowed 1 run per game.  Both teams were nervous about their starting pitchers, with the Jays sending out Josh Towers (13-12, 3.71) against a gopher-ball prone Mike Fiers (12-8, 3.56), but the A’s were confident in their outstanding bullpen.  Doubles by Matt Olson and Marcus Semien in the bottom of the 2nd put the A’s up early, 1-0, and Fiers only allows one hit in 5 innings, but the narrow lead and Fiers tendency to allow the longball prompt the A’s to turn to their pen to begin the 6th, with Chris Bassitt making his first appearance in the regional.  However, that doesn’t work as planned when Russ Adams gets a 2-out double on a missed HR split and Aaron Hill singles him home to tie the game.  Things remained deadlocked entering the 9th, and the A’s go deeper in their pen to Ryan Buchter, who sets the Jays down in order and the A’s enter the bottom of the 9th looking for walk-off heroics.  Towers gets the first two quickly, but then two walks and a Hill error loads the bases, and the Jays bring in Justin Speier to get the last out and send the game to extra innings.  The A’s respond by pinch-hitting Chad Pinder for Jonathan Lucroy, but he grounds out and the game heads to the 10th.  The Jays get a 2-out double from Reed Johnson in the top of the frame, and the A’s summon Santiago Casilla who retires Orlando Hudson to end the threat.  However, in the top of the 12th, Vernon Wells finally connects for the Jays, blasting a solo shot to give the Jays their first lead, and Speier hangs on in the bottom of the inning, recording the final out against Khris Davis as the Jays capture their third regional with a 2-1 extra inning win.

Interesting card of Regional #122:  I must confess that it has been years since I played in a Strat league that used contemporary players, and although I buy the new season every year I typically just separate the teams and send them straight into their storage drawers with little more than a glance at most of the cards.  It’s really only through this tournament that I discover some gems, like this relief pitcher who was the cream of a really good crop of 2018 A’s relievers.  Treinen came in 6th in voting for the Cy Young Award, the top vote-getter among relievers, even though he finished nearly 20 saves behind the league leader in that category.  Apparently the voters recognized that Treinen was virtually unhittable, as he was in this regional although other members of the A’s pen faltered in extra innings to lose in the finals.  Treinen subsequently became quite hittable in 2019, after which he was traded to the Dodgers where he has been pretty good.  However, it seems to me that we don’t see too many relievers anymore who are great year in and year out, for years on end.  I wonder if the three-batter minimum rule will increase the chances of seeing the next Mariano Rivera, albeit probably not the next Mike Marshall.