REGIONAL #131:  In the 1950s, the Yankees dominated the AL, but the performance of those teams in this tournament has been dismal, going zero for six in efforts to win a regional.  For this bracket it’s the turn of the pennant-winning 1958 Yanks team, who will face challenges from Orioles and Dodgers teams that would each win their league in the following season, two 21st century Toronto squads, and a longtime Yankee nemesis, the Splendid Splinter himself.  I suspected that the Yanks would be the rankings favorite but given their previous failures I doubted they would come through this time; instead, I picked the Dodgers over the Orioles in the finals.  As expected, the ELO rankings suggested that the Yanks would break their 50’s drought and finally come through with a regional win.

First round action

The 2010 Blue Jays were a 4th place team with 85 wins, but they had a formidable lineup led by Jose Bautista’s 54 round-trippers and a solid starter in Ricky Romero (13-9, 3.73) to begin the bracket.  As a team of the mid-60s, the 94-win 1965 Orioles couldn’t come close to the Jays power numbers, but were relying on defense and the pitching of Steve Barber (15-10, 2.69) to get them through.  Things start out auspiciously for the Jays in the top of the 1st when leadoff batter SS Yunel Escobar gets injured and has to leave the game, but then Bautista sends a solo shot into the cheap seats at Memorial Stadium and Toronto leads 1-0.  However, the Orioles bat around in the bottom of the inning, with Aparicio making 2 of the 3 outs, and rack up 6 hits–including a missed grand slam by Norm Siebern on a HR 1-10 split–and Baltimore ends the inning leaving the bases loaded but holding a 4-1 lead.   In the 5th, Siebern comes up again with the bases loaded, but only drives in one on a fielder’s choice, although that is followed by Jerry Adair’s second RBI single of the game and the O’s lead is now 6-1.  Meanwhile, Barber is cruising until the 9th, but Lyle Overbay leads it off with a homer and Barber starts to lose his touch, leaving with runners on 2nd and 3rd as Stu Miller is summoned to close things out.  Miller records two straight outs (one a sac fly), and the Orioles move on with a 6-3 win.

The 1955 Red Sox went 84-70 despite the efforts of Ted Williams, who had an OPS of 1.200 despite battling injuries during the season.  Their opponents, the 71-81 1934 Dodgers, didn’t have much pop in their lineup, with their leading HR hitter having only 14, but they did have the infamous Van Lingle Mungo (18-16, 3.37) on the mound to go against Boston’s Ike Delock (9-7, 3.76), who as far as I know did not have any songs written about him.  However, Mungo faces the music in the bottom of the 1st as Billy Goodman and Williams hit doubles and Boston takes an early 1-0 lead.  That doesn’t last, as in the 2nd leadoff hitter Sam Leslie picks Delock for pitcher’s-card homer to tie it, but the Red Sox take back the lead immediately when Norm Zauchin and Jimmy Piersall hit back-to-back doubles (both off Mungo’s card) to lead off the bottom of the inning.  Despite that boisterous start, the game then sinks into a display of offensive ineptitude, with the Red Sox hitting into three rally-killing DPs and the Dodgers unable to get to Delock again.  Brooklyn finally mounts a threat in the top of the 9th as Boston makes two straight errors to begin the inning, but Red Sox 2B-4 Goodman actually makes a key play and Delock fans Buzz Boyle with the tying and go-ahead run both in scoring position to close out the 2-1 Red Sox win.  

The 2019 Blue Jays had some great names that I was familiar with–Vlad Guerrero, Biggio, Bichette–although it was mainly because of their fathers; it was easy to see why they lost 95 games as they had no pitching depth, with only two starting pitchers with 100 innings or more.   Although Marcus Strohman (6-11, 2.96) was not terrible as their top option, the Jays still would have liked to borrow a couple of starters from the 95-win 1973 Dodgers, who had five good ones, paced by Don Sutton (18-10, 2.43) who was 5th in the Cy Young voting that year.   A Freddy Galvis solo shot in the 2nd gives the Jays the early lead, and the Dodgers’ attempt to strike back in the bottom of the inning ends in disaster as Joe Ferguson and Ron Cey are both cut down at the plate in consecutive at-bats.  Things stay status quo until the 7th, when Toronto C Danny Jansen nails Suttons HR split for a solo blast that makes it 2-0, but when Bill Buckner leads off the bottom of the inning with a single the Jays take no chances and move to their closer, Ken Giles, and his 1.87 ERA.  However, that doesn’t go well as Giles allows a hit to Russell and then Davey Lopes converts Giles’ HR 1-5 split for a 3-run shot that gives the Dodgers their first lead.  The Jays do get the tying run in scoring position in the top of the 9th, but Sutton bears down and closes out the 3-2 comeback win.

The 1958 Yankees went 92-62 and won the AL by 10 games as well as a tough 7 game World Series against the Braves.  Although starter Bob Turley came in 2nd in the MVP voting, I opted to go with young Whitey Ford (14-7, 2.01) because skipping over him in past matchups for 50s Yankee teams has not worked well for them.  He would face a strong lineup from the 97-loss 1999 Royals, featuring typical steroid-era power but a largely terrible pitching staff, with Jose Rosado (10-14, 3.85) by far their best option to start.   The Royals get on the scoreboard first when Johnny Damon’s sac fly scores Carlos Febles in the 3rd, but in the bottom of the inning the Yanks respond when Enos Slaughter contributes a sac fly of his own to tie it up.  KC regains the lead on a Joe Randa RBI double in the 6th, but once again the Yanks respond in kind with a Bill Skowron RBI double that knots it at 2-2.   New York threatens in the 7th when Tony Kubek hits a one-out triple; the Royals eye their terrible bullpen but stick with Rosado, who rewards them by stranding Kubek at third and the score remains even.  However, the Yanks break through in the 8th when Hank Bauer raps a clutch two-out single that scores two, and Rosado never recovers as two batters later Kubek adds a two run double to make it 6-2 New York.  The Royals put men on 2nd and 3rd in the 9th, but PH Sal Fasano lines into a double play and the Yankees escape the first round with a 6-2 victory, Ford tossing a 6-hitter.  

The survivors

The 1955 Red Sox and 1965 Orioles were winning teams from a decade apart, but they were miles apart in team construction with the pitching/defense O’s against the offense-minded Bostonians, led by Ted Williams who didn’t believe much in either defense or pitching.   Still, the Red Sox had a decent #2 in Frank Sullivan (18-13, 2.91) to go against the O’s Milt Pappas (13-9, 2.61), although Brooks Robinson converts a solo HR 1-5 in the top of the 1st to give Baltimore the early edge.  In the 3rd, the O’s get two straight hits against the Red Sox defense, one a Charlie Lau RBI single, but the Red Sox retaliate in the bottom of the inning with four hits and three runs, including a 2-run single from Jackie Jensen, and things could have been worse but the Sox killed the rally by hitting into a DP.   A Curt Blefary RBI single ties it up in the top of the 5th, and in the 7th the O’s load up the bases but Sullivan fans Norm Siebern and the score remains tied.  In the bottom of the inning, Billy Goodman avoids the DP and instead smacks an RBI single to give the Red Sox a one run lead, and when Jensen leads off the bottom of the 8th with a walk Pappas is gone in favor of Stu Miller, but the Red Sox still score when lumbering LF Boog Powell can’t get to a Sammy White line drive.   That puts the O’s down by two entering the 9th, and all they can muster is a Robinson single and Sullivan closes things out to give the Red Sox the 5-3 win and a trip to the finals in search of their 6th regional crown.

Turley twirls a two-hitter

The 1958 Yankees’ quest for dynasty redemption moves into the semifinals, riding the arm of AL MVP runner-up Bob Turley (21-7, 2.97).  However, they would face another solid arm, that of Andy Messersmith (14-10, 2.70) fronting the 1973 Dodgers, who had generated all of their runs in the first round game on a single roll off the pitcher’s card.   The Dodgers take a 1-0 lead in the top of the 3rd with two-out back-to-back doubles from Bill Russell and Davey Lopes, but in the 5th Hank Bauer whallops a 2-run HR to give the Yanks the lead.  In the bottom of the 8th, a Mantle double puts men on 2nd and 3rd with one out, but Messersmith delivers two whiffs in a row and the game heads into the 9th with the Dodgers down a run.  And Turley sets the heart of the LA lineup down in order to preserve the 2-hitter (those two doubles in the 3rd) and the Yankees head to the finals with a 2-1 win to face their longtime rivals.

It was an all-50s regional final featuring an epic matchup between two bitter rivals, the world champion 1958 Yankees and the 1955 Red Sox, with Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams facing off in their prime.  Neither of those stars had been a major factor in their teams reaching the finals, but fans of both were waiting for a breakout in this game.  The game would be played in Yankee Stadium, which is of particular note as the home team had won every game thus far in the regional, and the pitching matchup was a good one for #3 starters, Don Larsen (9-6, 3.07) for NY and George Susce (9-7, 3.06).  The Yanks lose Yogi Berra to injury to lead off the top of the 2nd, and it looks like he’ll be out for multiple games, but fortunately for them they have Elston Howard ready to come off the bench–who is arguably better.   The game remains scoreless until the 5th, when a two-out single by Gene Stephens is followed by a missed HR 1-7 split on Sammy White, but Stephens races home on the resulting double and the Red Sox lead 1-0.  In the bottom of the 6th, Enos Slaughter hits a leadoff triple and Susce walks Mantle, but records two straight popouts and it’s looking like he’s going to escape the inning.  At the plate is sub Elston Howard–and he finds and converts Susce’s HR 1-12 result and the Bronx erupts.  In the top of the 8th, a single, a walk, and an error by Yank 3B-1 Andy Carey loads the bases with one out for Williams.  New York eyes wild man Ryne Duren in the pen, but his wildness is an issue with the bases jammed, and so Larsen is told to get out of his own jam.  Williams hits a sac fly and one run is in, but then Yanks 2B-2 Gil McDougald drops a Jackie Jensen grounder and the bases are loaded once again.  This time, Larsen fans Norm Zauchin and New York clings to a one-run lead.  They get some insurance in the bottom of the inning when Mantle doubles, and Carey atones for his fielding miscue by shooting a single past SS-3 Billy Klaus that scores Mantle.  Susce can’t recover, allowing two more hits including a Bauer 2-run double, and by the time Tom Hurd can record the third out the Yanks have expanded their lead to 7-2 and the Sox face their final chance in the 9th.  When Jimmy Piersall singles and Sammy White doubles, the Yanks take no chances and now summon Duren, who strikes out two in a row to lock down the win and the regional title for the Yanks.  And, for the first time in many tries, a pennant-winning Yankee team of the 50’s emerges victorious and will ultimately proceed to the super-regional level.

Interesting card of Regional #131:  I present to you the 5th-place finisher in the AL MVP voting in 1958, a vote that was won by Jackie Jensen of the Red Sox.  I bring this up because I find that vote puzzling.  Jensen certainly had a good year, and led the league in RBI, but Mantle led the league in homers, walks, runs scored, and WAR (which was almost double Jensen’s); Mantle bested Jensen in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, hits, and stolen bases, and although both were outstanding fielders, Mantle played a more demanding position.  And then, of course, there was the simple fact that Mantle’s team won the pennant and Jensen’s team finished 16 games behind them.  Once might argue that Mantle had to “split votes” with teammate Bob Turley, who finished 2nd in the voting, but then the same claim could be made about Jensen and Ted Williams, as the Splinter finished 7th in the voting and actually led the AL in batting average, on-base percentage, and OPS.  Finally, add to this a supposed “New York bias” among the baseball writers, and the fact that Mantle was an immensely popular player, and I’m just baffled that he finished FIFTH–behind Bob Cerv, of all people!  Perhaps it was some redemption that both Mantle and Jensen played in the finals, with Mantle helping his team to the regional win over Jensen’s squad.  Regardless–it’s a pretty good card.