REGIONAL #156:  This bracket featured a grab-bag of teams from this millennium along with two pre-war squads that decided to crash the modern party, and none of them were within hailing distance of a pennant.  The 1927 Giants had been a dynasty earlier in the decade and I guessed that they still had some talent available; among the modern teams, there was a Royals team before they got good and Tigers and Expos teams that had previously been good; there was also a pandemic Rangers team and entries from that season can have unpredictable results. I thought that the bottom of the bracket here would be much stronger than the top, but had no clue about who might win, so I went old school and picked the 1927 Giants over the 2017 Tigers in the final.   The ELO rankings agreed with my pick of the Giants to win the regional, but they indicated that I overlooked the other vintage team in the group, the 1938 Indians, who was predicted to make it an all-golden era final.

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First round action

The ELO ranks characterized this first round game as a battle between two terrible teams, the 98-loss 2017 Tigers against the even worse 110-loss 2021 Orioles.  The pitching matchup of Detroit’s Michael Fulmer (10-12, 3.83) against the O’s John Means (6-9, 3.62) was hardly one for the ages, but whoever managed to win this game would be looking at some truly frightening options for round two.  Baltimore’s Means had a serious problem with gopher balls, which doesn’t take long to show up as Alex Presley leads off the game with a HR off Means’ card, and in the 3rd Andrew Romine leads off with the same HR roll.  A rattled Means then allows back to back doubles to Jeimer Candelario and Nick Castellanos (that’s nine syllables worth of last names there), and the Tigers now lead 3-0.  In the 4th, Miggy Cabrera rolls the same result on Means but this time misses the split, and he gets stranded at second while the O’s are just waiting to get Means through the requisite 5 innings before pulling him.  He doesn’t quite make it there unscathed, as Candelario finds Means solid HR result so there is no doubt about it, a solo shot.  Baltimore brings in Cole Sulser to begin the 6th, and he controls the Tigers until a 2-out double by James McCann in the 8th scores Castellanos to make it a five-run lead.  Meanwhile, Fulmer is sharp but starts to run out of gas in the 9th, loading the bases with two out, but Baltimore has no decent pinch hitters for Maikel Franco, who flies out and Fulmer closes out the shutout, scattering eight hits in the 5-0 win.

According to the ELO ranks, I had overlooked the 1938 Indians as a good team in my initial scan of the regional; I remembers the 20’s and the 40’s as strong years for Cleveland, but this team went 86-66 to finished 3rd in the AL with a strong lineup anchored by Hal Trosky, Earl Averill and the legendary Jeff Heath.  However, the pitching staff was worrisome, and Bob Feller (17-11, 4.08) was young and very wild, walking 208 batters!   They faced the 2020 Rangers, and  like Forrest Gump’s chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get from a pandemic year team.  What you got with the Rangers was a 22-38 team with three guys in the lineup below the Mendoza line, although at least their highest IP starter, Lance Lynn (6-3, 3.32) also turned out to be their best.  Lyn Lary scores on a Heath grounder in the top of the 1st to give the Tribe a quick lead, and they extend it in the 2nd when Bruce Campbell finds Lynn’s solid HR result for a solo shot.  However, in the bottom of the 2nd Feller walks four Rangers and the Cleveland lead is cut to 2-1.  Not for long, as in the 3rd Trosky misses Lynn’s split HR result but drives in two on the resulting double, and although Feller walks three straight in the bottom of the inning, he escapes with no runs scored.  A two-out solo shot from Heath in the 5th makes it 5-1 Cleveland, but the Rangers quickly get the run back when Shin-Soo Choo leads off the bottom of the inning with a shot into the stands at the empty Globe Life Field.  The Rangers bring in Joely Rodriguez to begin the 6th, trying to use their weird low IP cards to their advantage, and he holds the Indians at bay while Jose Trevino and Rougned Odor go back to back with solo shots in the bottom of the inning, and it’s suddenly a one run game.   Cleveland responds again, as Frankie Pytlak doubles to lead off the 7th and the Indians catcher plods home on a Lary single, and they add another in the 8th when new Rangers reliever Kyle Cody loads the bases.  Feller then bears down, striking out Joey Gallo for the final out to finish out the 7-4 win; Feller tosses a 5-hitter (3 of which were home runs) in which he walks 10 and strikes out 7.

After setting the lineup for the 1927 Giants, I was feeling pretty good about picking them to win the regional, as there were an amazing SIX Hall of Famers in their starting lineup plus another on the mound in the form of spitballer Burleigh Grimes (19-8, 3.53), and their 92-62 record left them only two games out of the NL pennant.  Still, their opponent, the 2014 Brewers, to me looked better than their 82-80 record, with some power throughout the lineup and a decent rotation fronted by Wily Peralta (17-11, 3.53).  Grimes looks masterful in the 1st, striking out the side to begin the game, while George Harper leads off the 2nd by crushing one into the stands at the Polo Grounds to give the Giants an edge.  In the 3rd, it’s HOFer Travis Jackson knocking in HOFer Rogers Hornsby, and Jackson scores on a single from HOFer Mel Ott and the Giants lead moves to 3-0, and Grimes is still throwing a perfect game until Carlos Gomez draws a walk in the 4th, with the no-hitter lost to an Aramis Ramirez single in the 5th.  A Mel Ott sac fly extends the Giants lead in the 5th, so when Edd Roush leads off the 6th with a single, the Brewers waste no time in going to Mike Fiers out of the pen to try to keep the game within reach.  He does his job until HOFer Fred Lindstrom finds and converts Fiers’ HR split in the 8th, and Grimes wraps up his 3-hitter with a perfect 9th as the Giants move on with the 5-0 win.

The 2009 Royals lost 97 games and they looked like they deserved each loss, but they had one and only one thing going for them–starting pitcher Zack Greinke (16-8, 2.16), who won the Cy Young Award despite pitching for a terrible team.  They were ELO favorites over the 2000 Expos regardless, as the Expos lost 95 games and although their lineup had steroid-era power with seven guys in double digit homers led by Vlad Guerrero’s 1.074 OPS, their pitching staff also looked like steroid-era victims, with Javier Vasquez (11-9, 4.05) being the best of bad alternatives.  Outpowered, the Royals try smallball in the 2nd as Willie Bloomquist singles, steals second, and races home on a Mitch Maier base hit, but the Expos show their muscle with a 2-out, 2-run homer from Orlando Cabrera in the bottom of the inning to take the lead.  However, Vasquez is having trouble getting anyone out, and three singles in the top of the 3rd ties the game, and a Billy Butler RBI single in the 5th puts the Royals up once again.  With Vasquez having allowed 9 hits in 5 innings, the Expos move to Scott Strickland in the 6th, and he sets the Royals down in order and the Expos get down to business immediately in the bottom of the inning as Vlad leads off with a colossal homer to tie the game back up.  Then, in the bottom of the 8th, just like he did in Game 3 of the 2005 World Series (I wuz there), Geoff Blum leads off the inning with a homer and Montreal regains the lead.  The Expos try to preserve some use for Strickland and bring in Ugueth Urbina to close things out in the 9th, and he allows a leadoff single to PH Jose Guillen which is followed by a Maier triple, off Urbina’s card, and the game is tied with the go-ahead run at 3rd with nobody out.  The infield comes in, but Coco Crisp gets the ball to the outfield for a sac fly and the Royals take the lead.  Urbina then allows another triple off his card to David Dejesus, but he gets stranded at 3rd and the Royals take the one-run lead into the bottom of the 9th, with their ace Greinke trying to finish it out.  The Expos go down in order, and the Royal go on with a come-from-behind 5-4 win–but with no more Greinke’s available in the rotation.

The survivors

The 2017 Tigers made it to the semifinals, but as befits a 98-loss team their starting rotation from here on out would be frightening, with Daniel Norris (5-8, 5.31) somewhat less terrible than the alternatives.  In contrast, the 1938 Indians felt good about Mel Harder (17-10, 3.83), who had much better control than their first round starter, Bob Feller.  The Indians miss a chance to score in the bottom of the 1st when 1-15 Lyn Lary is cut down trying to score on a John Kroner double, but Kroner gets his RBIs back in the 2nd with a bases loaded double, and along with a Bruce Campbell solo HR the Indians move out to a 3-0 lead.  The Tigers lose 2B Ian Kinsler to injury in the 4th, but in the bottom of the inning the Tribe loses SS Lary for 6 games, assuring that neither of these teams will be at full strength for the finals if they survive this game.  In the 5th, a 2-base error by Tiger LF-3 Andrew Romine along with two passed balls from C James McCann leads to another Cleveland run, but RBI singles from Miggy Cabrera and Jose Iglesias in the 6th get the Tigers on the board to pull within two.  A solo shot from Jeimer Candelario makes it a one-run game in the 7th, and in the 8th the Tigers move to reliever Shane Greene after Norris allows a leadoff single to Hal Trosky; Trosky ends up scoring on a Ken Keltner grounder and Harder and the Indians take a 2-run lead into the 9th.  Harder gets one out, but then 3B-1 Keltner drops a Candelario grounder for an error, RF-4 Campbell can’t get to a Nick Castellanos line drive, and then Mikie Mahtook doubles to put the tying run on 3rd and the go-ahead run on 2nd with one out.  With no pen to speak of, the Indians stick with Harder and bring the infield in, but James McCann finds Harder’s HR split; he misses the split but two runs score on the resulting double and the Tigers grab the lead for the first time in the game.  Cabrera then singles in McCann and now it’s Detroit that takes the two-run lead into the Cleveland half of the 9th; Greene sets them down 1-2-3 and the underdog Tigers move on to the finals with the come-from-behind 7-5 victory, bolstered by three costly errors by the Indians.  

The 1927 Giants had a number of passable but not spectacular choices for starter against the 2009 Royals, settling on Larry Benton (17-7, 4.09), while the Royals had an even bigger dropoff from their round one starter moving from a Cy Young winner to Brian Bannister (7-12, 4.73).   Things start off rough for Bannister in the top of the 1st when Fred Lindstrom misses a HR split for a double, but then Rogers Hornsby leaves no doubt about the next one as he puts it way back into the Polo Grounds stands for a 2-0 lead.  However, the Giants are quickly reminded that this is a Royals team that came from behind in the 9th to get here, as in the bottom of the 1st the Royals pound out four hits, including RBI singles from Miguel Olivo and Alberto Callaspo, and the game is quickly tied.   The Royals then load the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the 4th, and Yuniesky Betancourt raps a 2-run single to put the upstart Royals in the lead.  With Bannister having held on to the lead heading into the 6th, he’s on a very short leash.  Billy Butler gives him some padding with an RBI double in the 7th that comes on a missed HR split, but Bannister proves not to need it as he closes out a 6-hitter (four in the 1st inning) and the Royals head to the final, eliminating the top seed with a 5-2 win.

An unlikely regional final between the 97-loss 2009 Royals and the 98-loss 2017 Tigers looked like it could get ugly with two bad starters on the mound with KC’s Gil Meche (6-10, 5.09) against Detroit’s Matt Boyd (6-11, 5.27).  A spate of wildness by Meche in the 2nd sets up an RBI single from injury replacement Jim Adduci to give the Tigers an early lead, and a solo shot from Miguel Cabrera extends it to 2-0 in the 4th.  A two-out RBI triple from Alberto Callaspo gets one of those runs back in the bottom of the inning, but 3B Mark Teahen makes the last out for the Royals and gets knocked out of the tournament with an injury in the process.  Mitch Maier finds and convert’s Boyd HR split for a solo shot in the 5th that ties the game, but when the Tigers respond with a couple of single in the 6th the Royals move to their fully rested bullpen, taking no chances and bringing in closer Joakim Soria who quickly puts out the fire with no damage.  In the bottom of the 6th, David Dejesus leads off by missing Boyd’s HR split but the result is still a triple, and the infield comes in as does round two winner Shane Greene from the pen to try to keep the run from scoring.  But Greene walks three straight batters to drive one in, and another scores when injury replacement Alex Gordon hits into a DP, and the Royals take a two-run lead into the 7th.  In the 8th, Gordon makes the third base spot look like the drummer position for Spinal Tap as he’s injured for 10 games.  Figuring to try to save Soria for later in the tournament, the Royals bring in Robinson Tejada for the 9th inning, and he does his job to close the 4-2 win for the Royals and earn the 5th regional win for the franchise–and the first for one of their 21st century teams.  Despite having Greinke as the biggest weapon on this team, he was probably their least effective starter, and this was very much a team win for the Royals, who showed some pluck in playing from behind in every game in the bracket but ultimately prevailing as the #4 seed.

Interesting card of Regional #156:  Back in Regionals #90 and #91, I featured the cards of Randy Johnson and Nolan Ryan, two guys who led their leagues in both strikeouts and walks issued.  In discussing Ryan’s card, I pointed out that his walk total for that season (1977) had only been exceeded once in the modern era.   And this is the card that did so–a 19 year old Bob Feller who was getting his first chance as a regular in the rotation.  Feller managed to win his game in the regional despite walking 10 batters–seven in two innings–but it must have been agonizing for Indians manager Ossie Vitt to watch this kid pitch.  In this day of metrics, OBP, and pitch count, you really have to wonder if guys like Feller, Ryan, Johnson, and Bob Gibson, who was also featured recently, would get the chance from their teams to work out their control issues against major league opponents.  Funny, all of those guys pitched a LOT of innings when they were young and they were wild as they come–but they all went on to have lengthy, successful careers.  I wonder if we’ll ever see another pitcher from this mold again.