REGIONAL #136:  The closest this bracket would get to a pennant winner would be the 1988 Twins, who had famously won the World Series the previous season.   There was a Giants team that had won a pennant four years prior and would win one four years later, but this version was best known as one of the final years of the home run hitter who by this time was nameless, at least on his card.  Most of the other teams didn’t seem serious contenders to me; there were a couple of fairly recent Diamondback teams, and alliterative entries from the Angels, A’s, and Astros that all seemed like Also-rans.   So I was guessing a Twins-Giants final, with my suspicion being that the PED-assisted Giants would come out on top.   The ELO ranks indicated that I had totally overlooked the 2003 Braves, who were actually ranked as the best team in the NL that season, and those rankings predicted the Braves over the Twins in the final. 

First round action

The first matchup of the regional featured two teams that lived and died by the longball:  the 76-85 2006 Giants and the 81-81 2012 Diamondbacks.   The Giants featured the next to last season of one Barry Bonds (we think, given there is no name on the card), who only managed 26 HR while battling nagging injuries, a number bettered by Arizona’s Jason Kubel.  The Dbacks’ Wade Miley (16-11, 3.33) looked like an advantage over SF’s Matt Cain (13-12, 4.15), but both pitchers start out strong as neither team can record a hit until the bottom of the 3rd.  It’s not until the top of the 7th that a run is scored, with Arizona CF Chris Young connecting on a solo HR (located at 1-2, requiring triple snake eyes) for only the second Dback hit of the game.  That seems to wake up the sleeping Giants, as Eliezer Alfonzo leads off the bottom of the inning with a double and Shea Hillenbrand follows with a triple that ties the game; the infield then comes in as does AZ closer JJ Putz.  But Dback 2B-2 Aaron Hill boots a Pedro Feliz grounder, and the Giants have the lead.  A walk to Steve Finley and then gloveman Omar Vizquel putz one into the Bay for a 3-run blast.  Another Dback error, this one by CF-2 Gerardo Parra, and a few more singles and by the time the inning ends it’s 6-1 Giants and Putz has been yanked.  Arizona does load the bases up in the top of the 9th, but Cain gets the last out with Justin Upton missing a DO 1-9/flyB split and the Giants head to the semifinals.  They move on seeking to be the first Giants team of the 21st century to capture a regional, thus joining ten such winners from the previous century.

I had overlooked the top-seeded 2003 Braves in picking contenders partially because I thought that the Braves had begun to decline from their great teams of the 90s, and also because they played during the height of the steroid era during which I kind of stopped paying attention to contemporary baseball.  The ELO ranks, however, were paying attention to their 101 wins and NL East crown, as they combined steroid era power numbers with a still-strong pitching staff, fronted by Russ Ortiz (21-7, 3.81) having his career year and finishing fourth in the Cy Young voting.  They faced a 91-loss 1969 Angels team from a far less prolific offensive era in baseball, but Andy Messersmith (16-11, 2.52) was a reminder of the dominance of pitching in the prior season.  The Braves load the bases in the top of the 2nd with nobody out on a Gary Sheffield double and a couple of walks, but only convert one run from a Julio Franco sac fly.  That lead is erased immediately in the bottom of the inning by a 2-run homer from Angels DH Bubba Morton, and the Braves manage to hit into rally-killing DPs in the 4th, 5th, and 6th innings to repeatedly bail out Messersmith.  When Rich Reichardt converts a HR 1-9/flyB for a solo shot in the 6th, the Braves sense that their stay in this tournament might be a short one and throw in all their chips, bringing in nearly unhittable closer John Smoltz to try to stay in the game.  Smoltz proves to be hittable, allowing three squib singles in the 7th, but he manages to escape with no runs crossing the plate.  The Braves narrow the deficit to one when Marcus Giles crushes a solo HR in the 8th, but Smoltz immediately hands that run back to the Angels in the bottom of the inning with a leadoff single by Reichardt followed by an RBI double to Morton–off Smoltz’s card.  So it’s now up to Messersmith heading into the top of the 9th; Sheffield singles to lead off the inning and advances to 2nd on a Chipper Jones groundout.  Then, it’s Andruw Jones’ turn, and he deposits it into the cheap seats for a 2-run blast that ties the game.  The panicked Angels, who by this time have put in a bunch of defensive replacements that all hit below the Mendoza line, summon Hoyt Wilhelm to try to stop the bleeding.  He does so, and we head to the bottom of the 9th with Smoltz on the line, nearing the end of his eligibility for the regional.  Smoltz gets two quick outs but then Bill Voss bounces a double off the leaden glove of LF-4 Chipper Jones, and Smoltz is facing .155 hitting Vic Davallilo with the game on the line; with not much of anything on either the pitcher or hitter card, the inning ends and we head to extra frames.  In the top of the 10th, Rafael Furcal singles, and then with two out Angels SS-2 Jim Fregosi boots a Javy Lopez grounder, and Gary Sheffield follows with a single; 1-19 Furcal heads for home, and barely makes it with a 17.  The game then heads to the bottom of the 10th, and with Smoltz now burnt for the regional, it’s up to Ray King to try to earn the save.  He sets the Angels down in order, retiring the hapless Fregosi for the final out, and the Braves survive a scare and move on with the 5-4 comeback win.

The 1988 Twins were unable to replicate their pennant from the previous season, but they still won 91 games with largely the same team, and ace starter Frank Viola (24-7, 2.64) had an even better season, winning the AL Cy Young award.  They faced the second Arizona entry in the regional, the 85 win NL West runner-up 2019 Diamondbacks, sporting a big season from Ketel Marte who finished 4th in the MVP voting, and they had a good #1 starter in Zack Greinke (10-4, 2.90)--at least until they traded him to Houston midseason.  The game starts slow as both pitchers dominate until the bottom of the 4th, when Gary Gaetti hits his second double of the game to score Kirby Puckett from 1st and the Twins take a 1-0 lead.  However, 3B-1 Gaetti quickly goes hero to goat, dropping a grounder to lead off the 5th that rattles Viola, who delivers a gopher ball to Christian Walker and the Dbacks take the lead.  The Twins luck continues to run bad in the bottom of the inning as SS Greg Gagne goes down to injury, and both pitchers settle back into dominant mode.  So it comes down to Greinke vs. the meat of the Twins order in the bottom of the 9th; John Moses leads off with a hit but Puckett and Hrbek go down quietly.  This brings up Gaetti, who raps a hard single that sends Moses to 3rd, and the tying run is 90 feet away with two out.  The Dbacks decide to stick with their ace against Randy Bush, who lifts a tough fly ball out to CF-2 Marte–he hauls it in, and the Dbacks squeeze out the 2-1 win despite being 4-hit by Viola.   

The last game of the first round matched two also-rans from two distinctly different eras of baseball, the 2007 Astros against the 1966 A’s.  Even though the Astros had won the NL pennant two years earlier, the team had not aged well and this version lost 89 games despite good years from Lance Berkman, Carlos Lee, and Hunter Pence.  The 1966 A’s similarly lost 86 games, but in different fashion, with good pitching and defense paired with a punchless offense whose top HR hitter, Roger Repoz, had 11.  However, they did have the remarkable Jim Nash (12-1, 2.06), who must have won a lot of 1-0 games, to go against Roy Oswalt (14-7, 3.18).  Unfortunately for the A’s, Nash looks quite mortal in the top of the 1st, allowing an RBI single to Lee, a sac fly to Berkman, and then loading the bases for Brad Ausmus, who sends a flyball to RF-2 Mike Hershberger who plays it into a 2-run double.  Nash then settles down and tosses three perfect innings, but in the 5th he issues a walk and Lee follows it with a blast into the far reaches of old KC Municipal Stadium, and the Astros hold a 6-0 lead that appears insurmountable for the feeble A’s offense.  Houston begins wholesale substitution in the 6th, and the scrubs set up a Biggio sac fly to expand the lead further, while the A’s finally get on the board in the bottom of the 7th courtesy of a Phil Roof RBI single.  However, when Oswalt loads the bases in the 8th with nobody out, the Astros decide to bring in closer Brad Lidge, who limits the damage to a Larry Stahl sac fly.  Lidge is also lights out in the 9th, and the Astros head to the semis with a 7-2 win, despite being outhit 11 to 6. 

The survivors

After a first round where the PED era teams were dominant, two of chemistry’s best were facing off in the first semifinal between the 2006 Giants and the 2003 Braves.   The Braves had their 37-year old Hall of Famer Greg Maddux (16-11, 3.96) and the Giants’ Jason Schmidt (11-9, 3.59) selected to try to keep the big bats in check.  Maddux fails to do so in the top of the 1st, with RBI doubles from Moises Alou and Shea Hillenbrand spotting the Giants a two-run lead, but back to back doubles from Marcus Giles and Javy Lopez in the bottom of the inning cut that lead to one.  The Braves tie it in the 3rd when Gary Sheffield misses a HR 1-10/DO split, takes 3rd on an error by Giants 3b-2 Pedro Feliz, and scores on a squib SI* 1-11 by Andruw Jones.  In the 6th with two out, Rafael Furcal also misses that HR 1-10 split on Schmidt but Vinny Castilla lumbers home on the resulting double and the Braves take the lead.  In the bottom of the 7th, Andruw Jones misses a HR 1-4/flyB split with a 5 that would have been a 3-run shot; the next batter, Castilla, misses a HR 1-3/DO split that does score one, but Chipper Jones is nailed at the plate for the final out and the score is now 4-2 Braves.  A leadoff walk followed by a Robert Fick double in the 8th and the Giants have to turn to a not-so-good bullpen, with Kevin Correia assigned to try to keep things close; he does a great job in preventing any damage and the game heads to the 9th with Maddux trying to hold on given the unavailability of Smoltz.  Alfonzo leads off with a single, but Hillenbrand whiffs and Feliz comes up with a gbA and the Braves take the 4-2 win behind Maddux’s 7-hitter.  

This semifinal matched the #3 seeded 2019 Diamondbacks against the #6 seed 2007 Astros, with Arizona’s Robbie Ray (12-8, 4.34) against Houston’s Wandy Rodriguez (9-13. 4.58) in a battle of uninspiring #2 starters.  Ray strikes out the side in the 1st, but the Astros open the bottom of the 2nd against him with five straight hits, including two allowed by Dbacks 2B-4 Wilmer Flores, and Houston jumps to a 4-0 lead but loses CF Hunter Pence to injury for the rest of the regional.  The Dbacks then lose THEIR CF and MVP, Ketel Marte, to injury for the rest of the regional in the top of the 3rd.  That seems to rouse the team, as they push across two runs in the top of the 5th, including an RBI single by Flores past Astros 2B-4 Craig Biggio as some measure of payback.   The Astros get one of those runs back on a couple of walks and a Ty Wigginton double, and they start to put in their defensive replacements in the 6th.  Two straight walks by Rodriquez to open the 8th and the Astros have a conference on the mound, but decide to try to preserve Lidge for the 9th.  Wandy gets one out, but then Carson Kelly finds Rodriguez’s HR result for a 3-run shot that ties the game, and the Astros too late move to Chad Qualls, who retires the side without further incident.  With one out in the top of the 9th, David Peralta bounces a double past Astros LF-4 Carlos Lee and Lidge is summoned to try to strand him, which he does and we head to the bottom of the 9th with the score still knotted at 5-5.  The Astros replacements can’t do anything against Ray, who records strikeout number 13 in the inning, and the game goes to extra innings.  In the top of the 10th, Christian Walker leads off by finding and converting a DO 1-15/flyB at Lidge’s 5-2 result, and then Eduardo Escobar singles the 1-13 Walker home to put the Dbacks on top for the first time in the game; Arizona almost gets another when Nick Ahmed misses a HR 1-11 split but gets stranded at second.  Thus it comes down to Ray, in his last inning of eligibility in the bottom of the 10th, and he can’t do it; Houston PH JR Towles finds Ray’s solid HR result at 6-9 and it’s game tied once again.  Ray is now gone in favor of Zac Gallen, who retires the side and we head to the 11th.  Lidge, with one-third of an inning of eligibility in the regional left, stays in to try to get one out, but leadoff hitter Alex Avila finds and converts a triple on Lidge’s card; the infield comes in and Lidge is left in to try to get his one out, which he does and he leaves the game having allowed four hits in two innings.  The Astros now enter the ugly portion of their bullpen with Trever Miller getting the assignment, but he gets two quick popouts to strand Avila at 3rd.  In the top of the 13th Miller issues a walk and then defensive replacement 3B-3 Eric Bruntlett boots a grounder; Tim Locastro (1-16) goes in to pinch run at second, and Wilmer Flores singles with two out–Locastro heads home and scores on an 18 roll, courtesy of the two-out bonus, and the Dbacks again have the lead.  The game heads to the bottom of the 13th, with Gallen in his last inning of eligibility, and there are two straight X-chart rolls to RF-4 Adam Jones–and he makes both plays.  However, a walk and a hard single and the tying run is now at 3rd with Bruntlett up; Gallen fans him and the Diamondbacks capture a wild comeback 7-6 extra inning win, but head to the finals with their leading hitter injured and their bullpen depleted.

For the finals, it’s the #1 seed 2003 Braves against the #3 seeded 2019 Diamondbacks, with both teams missing key components–the Braves minus their star closer Smoltz, the Dbacks without their primary offensive threat Marte.  The Braves rotation was not as deep as it had been the previous decade, but Mike Hampton (14-8, 3.84) was still probably a better option than Arizona’s Merrill Kelly (13-14, 4.42).  Rafael Furcal starts the game off with a bang, hitting a triple and then scoring on a Marcus Giles single.  Kelly then proceeds to load up the bases, then issuing a run-scoring walk to Andruw Jones and a 2-run single to Vinny Castilla, and by the time Kelly retires Furcal in his second AB of the inning to record the final out, the Braves lead 6-0 and Dback fans are wondering if they can still get a refund on parking if they leave before their team bats.  A Gary Sheffield RBI triple in the 2nd and Kelly is gone, with Luke Weaver trying his hand at long relief, but back to back doubles in the 3rd by Robert Fick and Julio Franco gives the Braves an 8-0 advantage.  However, the Diamondbacks started out behind in both previous games, and so they get to work in the bottom of the 3rd with a 2-run double from Wilmer Flores and an RBI single from Carson Kelly.   The onslaught continues in the 4th, and after allowing five straight hits and another four runs, Hampton is pulled for Kent Mercker in the hopes that Mercker can finally get the last out.  He promptly delivers a gopher ball to Christian Walker for a 3-run homer and the Miracle Snakes take the lead, 10-8.  Weaver celebrates by getting two quick outs in the top of the 5th, but then Fick singles past AZ 2B-4 Flores and Rafael Furcal converts his HR 1-6 split and the game is tied.  In the 6th, Weaver has one out of eligibility left, but he walks two and then is taken downtown by Andruw Jones, and the Braves have the lead once again and the Dbacks decide that Weaver has to go in favor of Alex Young, who ends the inning with Atlanta in front, 13-10. The indomitable Christian Walker gets one of those runs back with a solo shot in the bottom of the inning, but Young walks three straight batters in the 7th and, although Vinny Castilla misses a HR 1-4 for a grand slam, he does clear the bases on the resulting double and it’s now 16-11 Braves.  Atlanta wants to take no chances, and Ray King comes in for the 8th; in the 9th the big bat of Javy Lopez finally wakes up and he clouts a leadoff homer to give the Braves more insurance.  It looks like it might be needed as the Diamondbacks load the bases against King with nobody out in the bottom of the 9th, but they only get one run out of a fielder’s choice and the Braves hold on with an NFL-type 17-12 win to capture the 6th regional for the franchise, and their first of the 21st century.  

Interesting card of Regional #136:  His Braves took the regional title, but remarkably this guy had little to do with it, contributing a solo homer and a total of two RBI over the three games.  Still, you have to figure that he’s going to warm up at some point, and their future super-regional opponents had better watch out.  This 2003 season followed a few poor campaigns during which it appeared that Lopez was washed up as he was a poor fielding catcher who wasn’t hitting, but in reality he was battling injury and a host of personal problems.  For the 2003 season, he demonstrated a renewed interest in physical conditioning, lost a lot of weight, and coincidentally this was the height of the steroid era.  Whatever the reason, 2003 was his career year, and in my opinion reflects one of the best hitter cards for a catcher in my collection.  One difference between the real-life Braves and their performance in this tournament:  for some reason, the real Greg Maddux did not want Lopez behind the plate when he was pitching, opting for Eddie Perez.   With me in control of the cardstock, Greg had no vote, and it obviously worked as Maddux, Lopez, and the Braves emerged as victors.