REGIONAL #138:  The attention-grabbers in this group were two pennant-winning squads, the 1996 Braves with that great rotation that dominated the NL in that era, and the power-laden 2004 Cardinals.  In addition, there is another representative from the Braves franchise–Milwaukee variant–that I suspected would be pretty strong, as well as a pair of Cubs teams and another 2004 team from KC that was probably bad.  I put my money on an all-Braves final, with the ‘96 squad riding their pitching staff to the crown.  The ELO ranks were quite enthusiastic about those ‘04 Cards, however, and picked them over the ‘99 Rangers in the final.

First round action

The pennant-winning, 96-win 1996 Braves were such prohibitive favorites over the 103-loss 1962 Cubs, I decided to do something I sort of stopped doing years ago in this tournament:  save their best pitcher for a tough matchup anticipated in the second round.  Of course, it helps when your alternative pitcher is Greg Maddux (15-11, 2.72).  Upon grabbing the Cubs and setting their lineup, I thought to myself “hey, this isn’t a bad team for one that had trouble staying in front of the ‘62 Mets”--but then I realized I had grabbed the wrong Cubs team, ‘67 instead of ‘62, and upon further review, yes indeed they were not good.  However, they did have a core of the same players–Banks, Santo, Billy Williams–and their starting pitcher, Bob Buhl (12-14, 3.87) was decent, so I was a little nervous about the Maddux strategy.  I didn’t get less nervous in the top of the 1st when Chipper Jones hits into a DP that scores a run, but he gets injured for 5 games in the process.  Maddux then allows three straight hits in the bottom of the 1st to load the bases, then walks Ron Santo and the score is tied and the second-guessing is in full swing.  However, Buhl issues a couple of walks in the 5th to load the bases, and then Mark Lemke squibs a single past Ron Santo, and Dave Justice adds a sac fly to make it 3-1 Braves, but in the bottom of the inning Maddux again allows three hits, including an RBI single by Banks, and the lead is narrowed to 3-2.  In the 6th, Jermaine Dye singles to score McGriff, and they add another in the 7th when LF-4 Billy Williams (I remember him being a better fielder than that) turns a McGriff fly into a double.  When Dye doubles in the 8th and Lemke singles him home, the Cubs run up the white flag on Buhl and Barney Schultz gets his turn.  Schultz does his job, so it comes down to Maddux against the Cubs in the bottom of the 9th.  Lou Brock (probably shouldn’t have traded him) singles, but Maddux gets two outs to face RF George Altman–who misses a TR 1-4/DO split but with 2 out Brock is 1-19 going home and I figure it will at least make the final score look closer.  But, of course….split roll is 20, game over, and yet another bad decision by me sends a team back to the drawers and the Braves advance with the 6-2 win.  

The top-seeded 2004 Cardinals won 105 games and the NL, although they infamously lost to the Red Sox in the Series to break the curse of the Bambino–despite honoring the Babe with a slew of homer hitters like Pujols, Edmonds, and Rolen.   The 1953 A’s were getting ready to pack up and leave Philadelphia for Kansas City, and aside from Gus Zernial there wasn’t much in the way of offense, although starter Alex Kellner (11-12, 3.93) was a decent option to go against the Cards’ ace Chris Carpenter (15-5, 3.46).  The A’s issue a wake-up call in the top of the 1st when Eddie Joost scores on a Ray Murray single, but the Cards quickly tie things up on a Pujols RBI single and almost take the lead, but Larry Walker gets nailed at the plate.  Walker is thrown out again in the 3rd trying to score on Pujols single, and the St. Louis thirdbase coach receives revised instructions about Walker’s baserunning.  In the 4th, Cards LF John Mabry turns a Joe DeMaestri flyball into a double, scoring Eddie Robinson as the A’s regain the lead, but a 2-run homer by Cards DH  Reggie Sanders in the bottom of the inning and the Cards now lead 3-2.  A nervous Cards team moves to closer Jason Isringhausen to begin the 8th, and after a perfect inning his job gets a lot easier when Scott Rolen pokes a 2-run HR in the bottom of the inning to pad the St. Louis lead.  To preserve Izzy, the Cards move to Steve Kline for the 9th inning, and he is also perfect to wrap up the 5-2 win and send the Cards to the semifinals.

After having previously set their lineup when I confused them with their hapless 1962 brethren, I could now play a much better 1967 Cubs that won 87 games with the core of a team that consistently competed for pennants for several years, sporting 20-game winner Ferguson Jenkins (20-13, 2.80) on the mound.  However, they were ELO underdogs against the seriously juiced lineup of the 1999 Rangers, who won 95 games and the AL West and had Rafael Palmiero (5th in the MVP votes), Juan Gonzalez, and Ivan Rodriguez fortified to provide Aaron Sele (18-9, 4.79) with run support.  That support begins with a solo shot by Pudge in the 2nd to give the Rangers their first run, and Tom Goodwin finds Jenkins’ HR result to lead off the 3rd for a 2-0 lead.  However, CF-2 Goodwin then gives up a double to Ted Savage in the bottom of the inning for the first Cubs hit and the first Cubs run, but in the 7th Rusty Greer leads off and also finds Jenkins’ homer, and the Ranger lead 3-1 going into the 7th inning stretch.  Sele hangs tough but when the Cubs get two straight singles to begin the bottom of the 9th, they head to the pen for Jeff Zimmerman, who has no complete hits on his card.  Zimmerman walks Randy Hundley, and then Glenn Beckert’s sac fly makes it a one-run game with the tying run in scoring position and the winning run on first.  Cubs DH Clarence Jones then singles past 3B defensive replacement Jon Shave to tie the game and put the winning run 90 feet away.  Zimmerman then walks #9 batter Don Kessinger and the bases are loaded for Adolpho Phillips; the infield stays in and Phillips whiffs to bring up Ted Savage for all the marbles.  Zimmerman delivers, Savage lines out, and the game heads to extra innings.  The 10th inning goes quietly, so the Cubs have to move to Chuck Hartenstein out of the pen in the 11th; he does the job, but Clarence Jones misses Zimmerman’s HR 1-14/flyB split in the bottom of the frame and the game proceeds to the 12th.  In the top of the inning Greer hits his second solo HR off the pitcher’s card in this game, and the Rangers take a one run lead into the bottom of the inning, summoning John Wetteland to try to preserve some eligibility for Zimmerman, but Adolpho Phillips finds Wetteland’s HR result to tie the game back up and we head to the 13th.  Roberto Kelly leads off with a double and scores on Palmiero’s long single to give the Rangers the lead once again, and although the Cubs get Beckert into scoring position when Royce Clayton fails to convert a DP, Wetteland hangs on and the Rangers take the 5-4 marathon win.

When I saw that a Braves team from the early ‘60s was involved in the regional, I figured that with Hammering Hank, Eddie Matthews, and Warren Spahn, the 1963 Braves had to be pretty good.  Yet, although those three led them to a winning record of 84-78, after setting the lineup it was clear that there wasn’t much of a supporting cast.  However, it didn’t seem like much support would be needed against the 104-loss 2004 Royals, a team with too many DHs and too little of anything else.  The pitching matchup was quite an age contrast between 20 year old Zack Greinke (8-11, 3.97) and Spahn (23-7, 2.60), who at age 42 was more than twice Greinke’s age.  However, the Royals show no respect for the elder Spahn when they begin the 2nd inning with three straight hits, the third one a 2-run double for Joe Randa, and Tony Graffanino singles in Randa and the Royals have a 3-0 lead.  In the 3rd, a two-base error by RF-2 Hank Aaron sets up a sac fly by Randa, and one inning later Graffanino finds Spahn’s HR result and Denis Menke boots a two-out grounder and the Royals lead is up to 6-0, and Milwaukee fans start looking for real estate in Atlanta.   From there it’s academic as the Braves can’t solve Greinke, who ends up with a 6-hit shutout as the Royals head to the semis with the 6-0 upset win.

The survivors

The first semifinal is the most anticipated matchup of the regional between two pennant winners.  The 1996 Braves must go without their injured HOF 3B Chipper Jones, but they saved another HOFer, Cy Young Award winner John Smoltz (24-8, 2.94), for this game.  In contrast, the 2004 Cardinals were at full strength with their power-laden lineup although Jason Marquis (15-7, 3.71), coincidentally just acquired from the Braves, was hardly a Cy Young candidate.  Both pitchers dominate until the top of the 5th, when Cards LF-3 John Mabry allows a double to Jeff Blauser that scores two, but in the bottom of the inning Mabry atones by swatting a solo HR, the first hit off Smoltz.  Smoltz then loses his composure, allowing three straight hits plus a 2-base error by RF-3 Jermaine Dye, and the Cards take a 3-2 lead.  They add another run to their lead when Pujols leads off the 5th with a homer, but they then lose Mabry to injury for two games and bring in defensive replacement Taguchi.  Smoltz settles down, but Marquis is steady and the Cards enter the top of the 9th with a two-run lead.   With one out, Braves PH Jerome Walton singles, but Mark Lemke hits into a game-ending DP and the Cardinals take the clash of the titans with a 4-2 win, despite a 5-hitter from Smoltz.

This semifinal matches the #3 seed 1999 Rangers and the #7 seed 2004 Royals, with neither team being blessed with an abundance of adequate starting pitching.  The Rangers were banking that their huge offense would feast on Royals swingman Dennys Reyes (4-8. 4.75) while hoping that their own swingman Esteban Loaiza (9-5, 4.56) could keep the Royals in single digits.   The Rangers strike quickly in the top of the 1st with back to back triples from Royce Clayton and Mark McLemore and grab a 2-0 lead, and a Pudge Rodriguez RBI single in the 2nd makes it 3-0.  However, the Royals were lucky in round one and continue that trend in the bottom of the inning, with Texas 1b-2 Rafael Palmiero making a 2-base error with the bases loaded and when David Dejesus follows with a 2-run single KC takes a 4-3 lead.  However, Reyes begins the 4th allowing five straight baserunners, including a 2-run poke by Rodriguez that gives Texas their lead back, and the Royals move to Jaime Cerda out of the pen but by the time the inning ends the Rangers lead 8-4.  Unfazed, the Royals retaliate in the bottom of the inning with a Graffanino RBI single and a Dejesus sac fly to cut the Texas lead to two, and fourteen runs have been scored with the game less than half over.  In the 5th, Angel Berroa hits a 2-out single and, counting on their luck, John Buck (1-11) stomps home from second and it’s a one-run game entering the 6th, with the Royals summoning their supersubs to try to match the Rangers’ firepower.  One of those subs, C Kelly Stinnett, contributes an RBI single in the 6th and we have a tie game and the Rangers are sweating with their bullpen seriously depleted following their extra-inning game in the first round.  But the Rangers load the bases in the top of the 7th assisted by two Royals errors, and Todd Zeile clears them with a 2-out double, and Cerda ends his eligibility for the regional by handing Texas a 12-8 lead.  Of course, the Royals immediately load the bases against Loaiza in the bottom of the inning and the Rangers have seen enough, bring in Mike Venafro, who promptly walks in a run but then induces a double play from Matt Stairs to prevent further damage.  Thus, Loaiza leaves the game with 9 runs charged to him, meaning that he did manage to avoid double-digits.  The Royals start the 8th with the best of their terrible remaining relievers, D.J. Carrasco, and the KC faithful give him a standing ovation when he tosses a perfect inning, but the adulation ends when Palmiero leads off the 9th with a homer that pushes the Texas lead to four.  In the bottom of the 9th, the Royals get two hits off Venafro, but he makes a nifty play on a Carlos Beltran grounder to end the game and preserve the 13-9 win and a berth in the finals.

The finals pair two offensive juggernauts, the #1 seeded 2004 Cardinals (214 team HR) and the #3 seed 1999 Rangers (230 team HR), and with neither team boasting a great rotation the number three starters for the two teams, Rick Helling (13-11, 4.84) for the Rangers and Woody Williams (11-8, 4.18) were both likely to be on a short leash.  The pitchers begin things decently, but in the 4th Helling allows a single and two walks, all off his card, and then allows a 2-run single to Renteria–also off Helling’s card.  The hits keep coming, including a two-run double from Jim Edmonds, and the Rangers get their starter the Helling out of there after 3+ innings, with a rested Zimmerman coming in to try his luck.  He retires Pujols to end the inning, but the Cards lead 5-0.  The Rangers move to their closer Wetteland in the 8th, and that goes off the rails as he allows four hits, including a 3-run blast by Edmonds, and Texas has two innings left to make up an 8-run deficit.  They do nothing in the 8th, and Williams takes a 2-hitter into the bottom of the 9th.  He gets one out, but then the Rangers reel off four straight hits, including RBI singles from Rodriguez and Rusty Greer, and the Cards bring closer Jason Isringhausen just to be safe.  He makes one pitch to Todd Zeile, who hits into a DP, and it’s game, set, and regional to the Cards with the 8-2 win over the Rangers–exactly as the ELO ranks predicted.  

Interesting card of Regional #138:  With a homer, a double, and five RBI in the final, this guy merited consideration for the MVP of the regional, as he did for NL MVP this season.  However, he only finished 5th in that 2004 voting, but talk about splitting the vote:  his teammates Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen finished 3rd and 4th, respectively.  Although he hit a few homers less than Pujols, he actually had a higher OBP and the OPS for the two was very close, with a slight edge to Albert.   Even so, anybody who watched the Cards during those years (or the Angels before them) knows that Edmonds would have been quite valuable even if he couldn’t hit a lick, mainly because he was one of the best centerfielders in recent memory–a mainstay on the highlight reels with incredible catches.  Of course, Rolen was also a great fielder but wasn’t quite the hitter that Edmonds was this season.  I’m not sure how the voters sorted it all out, but it’s easy to see how the Cards won the pennant and this regional with three strong MVP candidates.   With better pitching, this team could have been one of the all-time greats.