REGIONAL #146: In this batch of teams, the ‘47 Braves were the closest squad to winning a pennant, which they would do the next year, although there were also a couple of entries that were building up to one, such as the Giants from the same year or the Cubs working their way to their first championship in forever. The ‘63 Pirates had won one at the beginning of the decade, and there was also a pandemic Twins team whose prior year version had powered their way to a win in Regional #54. I had no inkling of any clear favorite and it seemed that anyone except maybe the Senators could win here; when in doubt it seems that modern era teams have an edge and so I guessed it would be the Cubs over the Twins in the finals. The ELO ranks laughed at my pick of the Cubs, indicating that they were barely better than the Senators, and had the Braves and the Twins (based on their season ending ELO score, which was the exact same as the composite score of the Braves) in a tie for the top seed that would be settled in the first round.
First round action
The 1947 Braves were one year away from their first pennant in ages, and their 86-68 record was good for third place in the NL. They were in the midst of their “Spahn and Sain and a day of rain” rotation, with both winning 20 games and Spahn (21-10, 2.33) getting the call to face what should be the toughest opponent in the regional. That opponent was the 2020 Twins, a team loaded with pandemic-year weirdness whose 36-24 record won the AL Central. Because of innings issues and tournament rules, they had no flexibility at all in their rotation but fortunately for them their highest IP pitcher was also their best, Kenta Maeda (6-1, 2.70). With the two teams sporting identical ELO scores that were the best in the regional, there was no favorite here but the winner would be the team to beat. The first hit of the game is a solo HR by Twins LF Eddie Rosario in the bottom of the 2nd, to recorded applause piped into pandemic-emptied Target Field. However, the cardboard cutouts of fans in the stands can only look on stoically as Bob Elliott immediately ties it with a 2-out RBI single in the top of the 3rd, and when Bama Rowell finds Maeda’s solid 5-9 HR result in the 4th the Braves take the lead. In the 6th, the Twins have license to bring in their low-AB wonders, and one of them, Josh Donaldson, drives an RBI single past bad-fielding P-4 Spahn and the game is tied again. The Braves respond in the 7th as SS Dick Cullers finds Maeda’s 5-9 for a solo shot, and the Twins have seen enough of that roll and move to Tyler Duffey and his 1.88 ERA out of the pen. It then comes down to Spahn against the Twins in the bottom of the 9th; PH Brent Rooker singles off Spahn’s card, Max Kepler hits into a fielder choice, but when Jorge Polanco singles the 1-14 Kepler is nailed at third, so it’s two outs, Polanco at 2nd, and the Ruthian card of Nelson Cruz is up as the winning run. Spahn delivers, and Cruz singles, 1-16 Polanco scores and the game is tied. Spahn then retires Byron Buxton but the game is headed to extra innings. The Twins bring in Caleb Thielbar to begin the 10th, and both he and Spahn work through the 10th with no damage. The Braves load the bases with one out in the 11th, but Thielbar works his way out of the jam, and in the bottom of the inning with Spahn exhausted the Braves are forced to move to Walt Lafranconi. Walt gets two outs quickly, but then allows consecutive doubles to Max Kepler and Polanco–both off Lafranconi’s card–and the Twins walk off with the 4-3 extra-inning victory.
The second ‘47 team in the regional, the 81-73 1947 Giants, had a powerful lineup led by Johnny Mize’s 51 round-trippers, but their starting rotation after Larry Jansen (21-5, 3.16) got bad quickly. They were hoping Jansen would be enough to get past the 1995 Rockies, who went 77-67 and made a brief postseason appearance as a wild card; they were a modern equivalent of the Giants having four guys with 30+ homers but a terrible rotation with Kevin Ritz (11-11, 4.21) representing the best option. The Giants self-destruct in the bottom of the 3rd, beginning the inning with an error by 3B-3 Jack Lohrke and then watching two errors in a row by SS-2 Buddy Kerr, and a Larry Walker double then insures that all three mistakes will score. Meanwhile, Ritz has a one-hitter going until the 8th, when with two out he suddenly allows three doubles in a row to Bill Rigney, Lohrke and Kerr, and with it a one-run game the Rockies bring in Bruce Ruffin to try to close it out. He gets out of the 8th, and then faces the heart of the Giants order in the 9th; he gets two quick outs but then walks Willard Marshall, and to the plate steps Bobby Thomson. Thomson nails a TR 1-4/DO, gets the double, and Marshall (1-15) races home to tie the game. Ruffin then walks Lombardi and Rigney to load the bases, and the Rockies have seen enough of Ruffin, turning to Steve Reed to try to get the last out. Reed gets a grounder back to him, fields it cleanly, and the side is retired and the game enters the bottom of the 9th with things tied up. Galarraga grounds to Mize for the first out, so Jansen then faces #8 hitter Mike Kingery–who finds Jansen’s 6-5 HR 1-16 split and converts it for the walk off homer that propels the Rockies into the semifinals with a 4-3 win. Reed gets an economical win with one-third of an inning’s worth of work, while the Giants make as many errors (5) as they do hits.
The 1994 Brewers, who went 53-62 in that strike-shortened season, were seeking redemption for the loss of the ‘96 team in the finals of Regional #144, and although they were ranked as slightly worse than that team, here they faced the worst-ranked team in the regional, the 93-loss last place 1958 Senators. The Senators did get 39 homers from Roy Sievers and Camilo Pascual (8-12, 3.15) deserved better as the ace of their rotation, while Ricky Bones (10-9, 3.43) headed up the Brewers’ staff. The Senators take a lead in the bottom of the 2nd on a sac fly by Clint Courtney, and the Brewers’ effort to strike back quickly in the 3rd comes to an abrupt end when BJ Surhoff lines into a triple play. The Nats then add another in the bottom of the inning on an Eddie Yost fielder’s choice, but the Brewers tie it in the top of the 4th with the alliterative duo of Matt Mieske and John Jaha driving in runs before Turner Ward ends the rally grounding into a double play. In the 5th, Yost draws a two-out walk to set up a 2-run blast from Sievers, and the sparse crowd at Griffith Stadium is beginning to wonder if they have a team of destiny here. However, in the 7th the Brewers tie the game by staging a two-out rally with three straight hits, including an RBI double from Kevin Seitzer, but when Bones drops a Yost grounder to lead off the 8th the Brewers summon closer Mike Fetters. Fetters creates excitement by walking the bases full but manages to escape the inning with no runs scoring and the game is still tied. Pascual and Fetters both retire the opposition quietly in the 9th, and we head to extra innings. The 10th passes quietly, and an exhausted Pascual is relieved by Dick Hyde and his 1.75 ERA in the 11th, but he can’t Hyde from leadoff batter Jose Valentin, who crushes a fastball to give the Brewers the lead. It’s now up to Fetters, in his last inning of eligibility in the regional, to try to hang onto the game against the bottom of the Senators order; he makes it exciting by allowing a single and a walk but manages to escape the jam once again to earn the 5-4 extra-inning win.
In picking the 2012 Cubs to win the regional in my usual unresearched style, I mistakenly assumed that they were starting to emerge as the squad that would in a few years finally capture a World Series for the long-suffering franchise. Turns out that the Cubs lost 101 games and had few of the parts in place for their later success. The best eligible starting pitcher card I could find was that of 35 year old Ryan Dempster (5-5, 2.25), who the Cubs dumped on the Rangers at midseason. The Cubs would be saying hello to Bob Friend (17-16, 2.34) of the 1963 Pirates, who went 74-88 with Clemente being really their only star to have a good year. And writing those words seems anger the dice gods, as Clemente is injured in the bottom of the 1st and Manny Mota will get some unexpected playing time. Both teams threaten but cannot convert the two-out hits they need to score, and the game enters the 9th inning in a scoreless tie. Friend sets the Cubs down in order in the top of the 9th, Dempster just allows a harmless single to Mota in the bottom, and the game goes to extra innings still tied 0-0. Friend tosses another 1-2-3 frame in his final inning of eligibility, and so it’s up to Dempster for his final set. He stares down the first batter, 23 year old rookie Willie Stargell, and the future Pops pops it into the bleachers to send the Forbes Field crowd into a frenzy, with the walkoff homer (only the 4th hit of the game off Dempster) securing the 1-0 win.
The survivors
The 2020 Twins taxed their bullpen in surviving round one, and with the pandemic season strictly dictating their pitching rotation, they were hoping that Jose Berrios (5-4, 4.00) would be able to go deep in the game. The 1995 Rockies were also limited in the rotation, here due to a strike, and Bret Saberhagen (7-6, 4.18) would attempt to reclaim past glories. However, the Twins start off the top of the 1st rattling hits off Saberhagen, and he wouldn’t record an out until Jorge Polanco (1-14) got cut down trying to score; Bret then settled down to limit the damage to a 2-0 deficit. A Vinny Castilla solo shot in the bottom of the 2nd makes it a one-run game, and in the 3rd a 2-out 2-run blast from Larry Walker gives the Rockies the lead. In the 5th John Vanderwahl misses a HR 1-14 split and gets stranded at second, and in the 7th Saberhagen gets touched for two single and the Rockies waste no time in calling in Steve Reed, who won game one with 1/3rd of an inning pitched. He loads the bases up with a walk, and with one out the Rockies bring the infield in. It’s a grounder to 2B-4 Eric Young, whom they had contemplated replacing with a defensive specialist at the top of the inning…..but Young cuts the runner down at the plate and Reed retires slugger Nelson Cruz with the bases loaded and Colorado escapes the inning still clinging to the lead. Walker then doubles in Young in the bottom of the inning to provide an insurance run and the Twins go to Thielbar out of the pen. In the 9th, Twins PH Ryan Jeffers doubles but Ehire Adrianza is cut down on an ill-advised attempt to score, and Reed is burnt for the regional so it is Curtis Leskanic’s game to preserve. Max Kepler promptly singles in Jeffers and it’s a one run game; Polanco pops out and it’s up to slugger Nelson Cruz with the Twins having their back to the wall. Leskanic delivers and strikes out Cruz to save the game, earning the Rockies a trip to the finals with their second 4-3 win in a row.
The regional finalists were very closely matched according to the ELO ranks, but the #4 seed 1963 Pirates were feeling pretty good about their chances against the #5 seed 1995 Rockies. The Pirates were getting their HOFer Roberto Clemente back from injury, and their starting pitching had only allowed 1 run in 19 innings thus far in the tournament, with two complete games allowing them to pull Tommie Sisk (1-3, 2.92) from the bullpen to face Colorado’s only remaining starting option, the sometimes frightening Bill Swift (9-3, 4.94). The Rockies strike first with a 2-out triple by Larry Walker bringing Dante Bichette home, but Donn Clendenon leads off the 2nd with a triple of his own and scores on a Bill Virdon single to tie the game. The Pirates then load the bases with nobody out in the 4th, and although then Swift gets Dick Schofield to hit into a DP, he can’t get that last out, and finally a 2-run homer from Clemente breaks things open and the Pirates lead 5-1. Swift hangs on for a little bit, but after a single off his card in the 7th the Rockies try Bruce Ruffin, who pitched one rough inning in the first game of the regional. A walk and then a single by Stargell provides an insurance run, and in the 8th Jerry Lynch delivers a bases loaded single with two out, although 1-14 Schofield is cut down at the plate for the third out. The Rockies lead off the 9th with back to back homers by Vinny Castilla and Andres Galarraga to demonstrate that they don’t intend to go down without a fight, but Sisk recovers, fielding a grounder by Eric Young for the last play of the game and the Pirates secure the 7-3 win and the regional crown, riding excellent starting pitching and timely hitting to give the franchise their 6th regional and cementing an early 60’s Pirates mini-dynasty in joining the 1960 and 1964 teams as bracket victors.
Interesting card(s) of Regional #146: The two teams in the regional finals each boasted a pretty fair right fielder, and looking at their cards side-by-side underscores a number of similarities between the two. Fielding, speed, extra base potential, and for those clamoring for the ugly side of the cards, I’ll just say that Clemente had a -6 arm while Walker’s was -5. Of course, Walker had a bit more power, but that was in part due to the rarefied air of Coors Field (in his years with the Expos, his HR totals were much more Clemente-like) and also the general shortage of longballs during the 60s impacting Clemente. Most are probably familiar with the Baseball Reference “Similarity Score” where they identify players with similar records; I found it interesting that neither of these two appeared in the other’s top ten most similar players. However, one similarity that is not recorded in that metric: they both led their teams to the regional finals in this tournament; another is that I’d be happy to have either one playing RF for me. Worthy of note: Walker rolled that 2-7 hole twice in the loss to the Pirates in the final.
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