REGIONAL #168:   This bracket seemed to have a thing for the Twins, with three different entries that I thought could each possibly compete.  After all, there weren’t any pennant winners and although there was a Marlins team just two seasons off from a pennant, my recollection was that they had immediately dismantled their team after their Series win and so would probably be pretty bad.  I remembered the Astros from this era, three years before their first pennant, as pretty strong, and I thought that some stars like Hondo, Killebrew, and Teddy Ballgame could possibly lead their squads to victory.  My hunch was that the Astros and the most modern of the Twins teams would meet in the finals, and even though a similar Twins team had captured their bracket a couple of regionals ago (Regional #165), the same could be said about the Astros (Regional #84) and I went with Houston to win.  I was amazed to find that the ELO ranks had those Twins as first round underdogs to the Senators, and that the ELO prediction was the Splinter’s Red Sox over the Senators in the finals.

First round action

One thing that the 1957 Red Sox and the 1971 Twins had in common was that they were each the last team from their season to play in this tournament (1971 teams had won 3 regionals, while 1957 had won 2).   The Red Sox were the top ELO seed, going 82-72 to finish 3rd in the AL; by far their biggest weapon was MVP runner-up Ted Williams, but they also had a very good top starter in Frank Sullivan (14-11, 2.73) who unfortunately had one of the worst DP combinations in recent tournament history backing him up.  The 74-86 Twins had Tony Oliva getting some MVP votes and although Harmon Killebrew was beginning to decline, 20 year old Bert Blyleven (16-15, 2.82) was coming into his own.  In the bottom of the 2nd, Killebrew draws a walk, gets singled to third by Leo Cardenas, and Killer races (?) home when Sullivan uncorks a wild pitch that gets past Reds C-2 Sammy White, but Williams crushes a solo shot in the 4th to tie things back up.  That doesn’t last long as in the bottom of the inning Killebrew singles, gets to third courtesy of a two-base error by Boston SS-4 Billy Klaus, and Killer scores again on a George Mitterwald sac fly and the Twins regain the lead.  They add to that lead in the 5th on an RBI single from Cesar Tovar, and Blyleven is baffling the Red Sox, cruising until there are two outs in the 9th, when Jimmy Piersall singles and RF-2 Oliva misplays it to send Piersall to second and Teddy Ballgame to the plate as the tying run.  Although Blyleven objects, the Twins call for the intentional walk with 1st base open, even though it brings the go-ahead run to the plate in the form of Jackie Jensen.  A grumbling Blyleven then walks Jensen and the bases are loaded for Dick Gernert; the Twins stick with their ace and Gernert singles off Blyleven’s card; Piersall scores and it’s up to Williams (who probably should have been pinch run for but you try telling him he’s coming out of the game) to try to score to tie the game, 1-11 with the two out boost.  Unfortunately, he wasn’t home Blyleven; the roll is a 13, Williams is out and the game is over, Twins win 3-2 in dramatic fashion and the first (and best-ranked) of the three Minnesota entries moves on.

The 2002 Astros won 84 games to finish 2nd in the NL Central behind the “Killer Bs” of Bagwell, Berkman and Biggio, and Roy Oswalt (19-9, 3.01) finished 4th in the Cy Young ballots.  They faced the 1993 Cubs, who also won 84 games (and also had Jose Vizcaino as their starting SS) but only finished 4th in their division; the Cubs got a career year out of catcher Rich Wilkins but also had Sosa, Sandberg and Grace with decent years, although with a mediocre rotation they felt that swingman Jose Bautista (10-3, 2.82) would give them the best chance of moving on.  The Cubs strike quickly as Sandberg locates and converts Oswalt’s HR split for a solo shot in the top of the 1st, but Houston ties it in the 2nd when Bagwell scores on a double play ball.  The Cubs find themselves B-hind in the 4th when Berkman doubles and Bagwell follows with a 2-run homer, and when Daryle Ward leads off the 7th with a double Bautista is pulled for 53-save closer Randy Myers, who ends the threat without incident.  However, the Cubs can never get it going against Oswalt, who finishes with a 5-hitter as the Astros win 3-1, despite only recording four hits themselves.

The second of three Minnesota entries in the regional, the 2015 Twins were a middling 83-79 team that did have 8 players in the lineup with double digit homers (although most weren’t very good at getting on base), mostly decent defense, and the recently acquired Ervin Santana (7-5, 4.00) tapped for the round one start.  I was surprised that they were slight ELO underdogs to the 1969 Senators, as my memory of that short-lived version of the franchise before they moved to Texas was that they were never competitive, but in fact manager Ted Williams managed to lead the club to an 86-76 record with big Frank Howard 4th in the MVP vote and teammate Mike Epstein getting some votes as well, and Dick Bosman (14-5, 2.19) leading the league in ERA while heading a strong rotation.   Both pitchers lock things down until the 6th, when the Twins convert a couple of singles into a run on a sac fly by Joe Mauer, although the inning ends when Eduardo Escobar misses a chance at a grand slam with a HR 1-3/flyB split.  The Twins bring in some defense for the bottom of the 7th, but Bernie Allen leads off with a triple, only the second of the game off Santana, and with the lead on the line the Twins go to the pen for Kevin Jepson and bring the infield in, electing to pitch to Howard.  Hondo grounds out but Mike Epstein draws a walk, and the Twins keep the infield in for the pitch to DH Brant Alyea, who rips an RBI single and there’s still only one out, game tied, runners on 1st and 3rd, infield still in.  Ken McMullen drills a grounder but SS-2 Escobar fields it cleanly, looks the runner on 3rd back, and records the second out.  It’s now up to the other Lee Maye with two out and two runners in scoring position, and Maye finds a 2-run single on Jepsen’s card–the only complete hit to be found anywhere on the card–and the Senators take the lead.  But Minnesota is not done yet, as Aaron Hicks promptly leads off the 8th with a triple and scores on Mauer’s second sac fly of the game, and it’s a one-run game entering the 9th with Bosman trying to hang on.  He does so in convincing fashion, retiring the Twins in order and the Senators advance with a 3-2 win, continuing the trend in the regional for pitching duels with Bosman tossing a 5-hitter while the Senators only manage four hits of their own–but three of them were in the same inning.

The third Twins team of the regional, the 1999 Twins, was the worst of the three, losing 97 and according to their ELO rank was the worst team in the AL that year.  Fortunately for them, they were playing the worst ranked team in all of baseball that season, the 1999 Marlins, who had won the Series just two years earlier but had been totally disassembled into a 98-loss squad; Alex Fernandez (7-8, 3.38) was embarrassed to be fronting the collection of misfits that passed for a rotation, while Eric Milton (7-11, 4.49) would try to keep the ball in the park for the Twins.  The Twins get a run in the top of the 1st when Marty Cordova and Jacque Jones both double off Fernandez’s card, but it evaporates quickly when in the bottom of the inning Luis Castillo leads off with a walk, steals second, scores on a Bruce Aven single, and then Aven ultimately scores on a sac fly by Kevin Millar, who is so embarrassed to be a Marlin he doesn’t even have his name on the card.  They extend their lead in the 5th in similar fashion, as with two out Castillo singles, steals second on a helpless Terry Steinbach, and scores on another Aven single.  However, in the 6th Jones gets on courtesy of the 3rd error of the game by the Marlins infield, and Chad Allen drives him home with a triple off Fernandez’s card; the Marlins scan their pen but see no answers there, so they bring the infield in but Steinbach singles over their heads to tie the game.  Marlins 2b-2 Castillo then makes his second error of the game, booting a DP ball that would have ended the inning, but instead the Twins take the lead.  Afraid of Milton’s longball issues, the Twins bring in Bob Wells to pitch the bottom of the 7th, and in the 8th they get some insurance from a Christian Guzman sac fly although the Marlins get the run back when Castillo walks, records his third steal of the game, and scores on a Cliff Floyd single.  Thus, the game enters the 9th as a one-run affair, and when the Twins go down quietly in the top of the inning they bring in 37-year old reliever Rick Aguilera and his 1.27 ERA to try to set the Florida sun.  He does so without a scratch, and the Twins take the 5-4 seesaw win to advance to the semis.

The survivors

The #2 seed 2002 Astros were the highest ranked team to survive to the semifinal rounds, although they didn’t generate a lot of offense in round one; still, Wade Miller (15-4, 3.28) was a capable number two starter who might not need a lot of run support.  However, the 1971 Twins had knocked off the #1 seed in the first round so they felt ready for the second seed, opting for swingman Tom Hall (4-7, 3.32) over a couple of workhorses in Jims Kaat and Perry.  The game remains knotted until there are two out in the bottom of the 6th, when Jeff Bagwell makes the crowd forget their bad investments in Enron with a two run homer and a Houston lead.  When the Astros get runners on first and third in the 8th, the Twins look to the pen but realize that their best reliever is the guy already in the game, so Hall delivers to Bagwell and SS-2 Leo Cardenas bails him out with a clutch DP.  So it’s up to Miller to preserve the two run lead facing the heart of the Minnesota order, and he does so in style, striking out Oliva, Killebrew and Cardenas in succession to wrap up the 5-hit shutout and send the Astros to the finals with the 2-0 win.

The last remaining of three Minnesota squads to begin the regional, the #7 seed 1999 Twins were decided underdogs against the #3 seeded 1969 Senators, who had Casey Cox (12-7, 2.77) up next in a deep rotation that Twins starter Brad Radke (12-14, 3.75) might not have made.  The Nats run themselves out of a rally in the 3rd when Ed Brinkman (1-12) is nailed trying to score on a Del Unser single, and the Twins come alive in the bottom of the inning opening with three straight singles followed by a base-clearing double from Marty Cordova and the Twins move out front by three.  In the 5th, Cordova adds a triple to his quest for a cycle and he scores on a Corey Koskie single to make it 4-0.  The Twins enter the 6th thinking about defensive replacements, but two Senator singles and an error by Twins SS-3 Christian Guzman load the bases, and Radke then loses control and walks Mike Epstein and Brant Alyea and there is still nobody out and they decide it’s time for Rick Aguilera out of the pen.  He gets Ken McMullen to line out, but then the other Lee Maye delivers a single and this time the Nats runner successfully scores from second, and it’s now a tie game.  In the 7th, Unser walks and then Twins CF-2 Torii Hunter misplays a Bernie Allen single, sending Unser to third and he scores when Frank Howard misses a HR 1-3/flyB split; two batters later, Alyea doesn’t miss his HR split for a 2-run shot and the Senators now lead 7-4.  A two-out RBI single from Howard in the 8th provides more insurance, but Cox doesn’t really need it as he finishes things out and the Senators head to the finals with the 8-4 win.

The two regional finalists got this far by playing against stereotype; the steroid era 2002 Astros only allowed a total of one run in their two games, but they only scored five themselves, while the 1969 Senators from the pitching-dominated ‘60s put up nearly three times as many runs as the Astros while allowing more runs than the the latter scored.  The #2 seeded Astros had no choice but to start Carlos Hernandez (7-5, 4.38) while the #3 seed Senators opted for workhorse Joe Coleman (12-13, 3.27), and it’s the Senators who strike first in the bottom of the first on a display of blazing speed from Frank Howard, who legs out a two-out double and then scores (1-8, +2 two out bonus) on a Mike Epstein single.  In the 2nd, Hernandez walks two straight and then Paul Casanova beats out a bunt to load the bases for Del Unser, who doubles in two; the Nats hold Casanova at 3rd and the Astros, sensing the game getting out of hand, bring the infield in for Bernie Allen, who rips a gbA++ through the infield for another two runs.  A Frank Howard single and Houston clearly has a problem, so Hernandez is gone and Octavio Dotel finally ends the inning with the Senators up 5-0.  In the top of the 3rd, the Astros load the bases with two out for Jeff Bagwell, who has provided 80% of the Houston offense in this tournament, but Coleman strikes him out to end the threat.  In the bottom of the 5th an error by 1B-3 Jeff Bagwell sets up an RBI single for Ed Brinkman for additional insurance, although Bagwell atones by leading off the 6th with a homer to get the ‘Stros on the scoreboard.  However, in the 7th it’s clear that Coleman is tiring, and he yields a three-run shot to Berkman that makes the score 6-4 and the rather mediocre Nats bullpen is on red alert.  Houston moves to their closer Billy Wagner and the Senators can’t do anything against him, and it comes down to Coleman against the Killer B’s in the top of the 9th.  After retiring Biggio, Geoff Blum walks, but Berkman whiffs and it’s two out with Bagwell at the plate.  The roll is on Bagwell’s card, HR 1-10, he converts the split and the game is tied.  That’s it for Coleman and Bob Humphreys comes in to get the third out; Wagner holds serve in the bottom of the 9th and we head to extra innings.  By this time, Wagner is toast and Tom Gordon comes in for the Astros, and in the bottom of the 11th Bagwell makes his second error of the game on a Howard grounder and Epstein walks; Ken McMullen then singles and after an agonizing decision they send Hondo (1-8) home with one away to try to win the game.  He lumbers in, performs a slide into home that registers on local seismometers, and evades the tag from Ausmus with a “2” split roll and RFK Stadium erupts as the Senators win 7-6 and earn only the second regional win for this version of the franchise.  And so Ted Williams, who as a player in this regional got his team bounced when he was nailed at the plate to end the game, decides as a manager to send his slowest runner home and this time it pays off.

Interesting card of Regional #168:  The best player on the top seeded team in the regional as well as the manager of the bracket-winning 1969 Senators (in fact, winning Manager of the Year in 1969 for getting that club over .500), this is the card of a 38-year old Ted Williams who led his league in batting average, OBP, SLG%, and of course OPS–but finished 2nd in the MVP voting to Mickey Mantle.   Back in Regional #131, I featured Mantle’s 1958 card and I wondered why he only finished 5th in the MVP voting, and I now suspect it was payback for a perhaps undeserved win in ‘57.  As evidenced in the presented newspaper clipping, the vote was quite controversial, with the outcome apparently determined by two sportswriters from Chicago not listing Williams among the top 8 players in the league.  That ballot was also the 10 year anniversary of another MVP vote in 1947, where Williams had a Triple Crown but the MVP was awarded to another Yankees centerfielder, with one “midwestern” writer leaving Williams off his ballot entirely. Although Williams mellowed some in his older years, by all accounts he was widely disliked while he played, not just in Chicago but by pretty much the entire league, including most people in Boston.  As Bill James describes him:  “He made obscene gestures at fans, carried on decades-long vendettas against selected reporters, sometimes didn’t treat his family well, sometimes didn’t hustle or even make any show of hustling in the field or on the bases, was obsessed with his own success, was contemptuous of coaches and some managers, and alternated in his dealings with the fans between rugged charm and uncharted rudeness.”  (2001, p. 652).  Although this is without question a great Strat hitting card, it is noteworthy that it was his lack of hustle, getting cut down at the plate as the tying run to end the game, that bounced his team from the tournament in the first round.  

REGIONAL #167:  The Padres won their first regional in quite a while last time out, and they apparently decided to press their luck with two entries in this grouping, one of them fairly close to the pennant winners that took the prior bracket.  However, they won’t be the featured attraction here; that honor will belong to a certain infamous home run hitter in his record-breaking year, and a certain  pennant winning team infamous for their former trashcan-bangers.  Add to the mix a Yankees team from a few seasons before they broke the MLB record for wins in a season, a Mets team the season after their most recent NL pennant, and there should be some fireworks.   I guessed that “cheaters never win” wouldn’t hold here, and that Bonds would lead the Giants to the finals but that the Astros would prevail.  The ELO season-ending ranking for the Astros also put them as the tournament favorite, but picked a different opponent in the finals as those rankings predicted that Bonds would get his comeuppance from the Yankees in the first round.

First round action

The 87-win 2016 Mets made a brief postseason appearance as a wild card team, but it seemed like they could have gone further with a lineup with some power and a strong pitching staff fronted by 23-year old phenom Noah Syndergaard (14-9, 2.60).  I didn’t see how they could be ELO underdogs to the 1989 Padres, who did win 89 games but had little pop aside from Jack Clark, although Tony Gwynn led the league in hitting and Bruce Hurst (15-11, 2.69) was a decent option on the mound.  The Mets turn on the power quickly as Neil Walker leads off the game with a moon shot; the Padres decide to play the smallball game and it works in the 4th as Bip Roberts singles, steals second, and scores on a Roberto Alomar base hit to tie the game.  When Curtis Granderson leads off the 7th for the Mets with a tiebreaking blast, the Padres waste no time and bring in Mark Davis to try to keep things close, and Chris James makes him the pitcher of record with a solo shot in the bottom of the inning to tie the game back up.  In the 8th, Alomar doubles with one out to bring up Gwynn and the Mets turn to Addison Reed to try to keep him from scoring; P-4 Reed makes a miracle play on a Gwynn grounder and then he retires Clark and the game heads to the 9th with the tie in the hands of the bullpens.  Both pitchers navigate the 9th successfully, and it’s time for extra innings.  The Padres decide to burn Davis with his last inning for the regional as he’s been masterful, and he wraps up with a 1-2-3 inning, but Reed holds serve in the bottom of the inning and SD summons Greg Harris to begin the 11th and the Mets have no luck against him either.  To try to preserve Reed somewhat, the Mets move to their closer Jeurys Familia in the bottom of the 11th and both relievers continue to churn through the batters.  In the top of the 13th, Walker misses a HR 1-3/flyB to end the inning, and then in the bottom of the inning a leadoff walk to Roberts and an Alomar double puts runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out and hit machine Gwynn at the plate.  The infield comes in, the 51-save Familia delivers, and SS-2 Asdrubel Cabrera makes a highlight play to keep the runners in place and get Gwynn at first.  Familia then whiffs Clark and now with two outs, he  stares down the next batter in an attempt at intimidation.  But yelling a war cry of “I’m Chris James, b*tch”, that batter rips a liner that bounces off the wall and Roberts trots home with the winning run, giving the Padres the walkoff 3-2 win in 13 innings.   

In the marquee game of the first round, the #2 seeded 1994 Yankees faced the #3 2001 Giants, with the strike year Yankees going 70-43 for the best record in the AL, although there was no postseason for them to conquer.  There was a vote for the Cy Young Award, and Jimmy Key (17-4, 3.27) came in 2nd in it; the 90-win Giants (2nd in the NL West) would counter with their best starter by far, Russ Ortiz (17-9, 3.29).  However, the featured attraction for the Giants was the record setting Barry Bonds, who hit almost as many homers as the Yanks starters combined (albeit in a shortened season).  However, it’s not Bonds but Shawon Dunston who gets the early lead for the Giants with a long 2-run homer in the 2nd, but RF-3 Dunston immediately gives those runs back in the bottom of the inning by committing two errors resulting in two runs.  However, he tries to atone in the 4th with a 2-out solo shot that continues his attempt to account for all the runs in the game and gives the lead back to SF.  The Giants begin to get to Key in the 7th and when defensive replacement Calvin Murray knocks an RBI single, the Yanks opt for a Key change and summon Steve Howe from the powder room.  But Benito Santiago proves to be a buzzkill by greeting Howe with an RBI single, and then John Vanderwal rips a 2-run single through the drawn-in infield and by the time Howe whiffs Bonds to end the inning the Giants have pulled away to a 7-2 lead.  Ortiz is looking adequate until the bottom of the 9th, when the 4th Giants error of the game, this one by 3B-3 Ramon E. Martinez (I guess we now know what the E stands for), sets up a 2-run single for Luis Polonia and the margin narrows with nobody out.  The Giants wish to take no chances and bring in Felix Rodriguez and his 1.68 ERA to close things out, but the Yanks aren’t done yet as after an out Paul O’Neill doubles in Polonia and it’s a two-run game.  A walk to Mike Stanley and Danny Tartabull comes up as the winning run; the roll is a HR 1/flyB on FRod but the split is a 17 and there’s two out.  It’s up to longtime Yankee Bernie Williams, but Rodriguez blows it past him for strike three and it’s game over, the Giants hang on for the 7-5 win–with no help from Bonds. 

At the time of this writing, the 2021 card set was the most recent available and the 95-win 2021 Astros were the AL pennant winners from that set; of course, it turned out that they went on to win both the AL and the Series this yet-to-be-printed season.  The 2021 version didn’t have quite the same pitching without Verlander, but Lance McCullers (13-5, 3.16) came in 7th in the Cy Young voting (while leading the league in walks issued) and the lineup had pop from top to almost bottom (sorry, Martin Maldonado).  The 1995 Padres went 70-74 in a strike year, but they had many of the same players as the ‘98 team that captured the previous regional, with Andy Ashby (12-10, 2.94) getting the round one start here.  The Padres serve notice of their capabilities in the top of the 1st, when after two quick outs they grab a 1-0 lead when Tony Gwynn and Ken Caminiti hit back-to-back doubles–the former hit past CF-3 Chas McCormick, and does anyone want to bet that he’s a better fielder in 2022 after his WS catch??  The Padres add another run in the 3rd when Bip Roberts doubles and scores on a Gwynn single, and when Gwynn strokes a one-out double in the 6th for his 3rd hit of the game, McCullers is pulled for Kendall Graveman, who escapes the inning without incident.  With their offense struggling, the Astros move to their bench and pinch hit Jason Castro for Maldonado to lead off the bottom of the 6th, and Castro responds by putting the ball in the Crawford boxes to make it a one-run game; two outs later and Kyle Tucker does the same and the game is tied.  The Padres load the bases with one away in the top of the 7th but Graveman escapes with no damage, and in the 8th the Astros bring in closer Ryan Pressly who sets the Padres down in order and we head to the 9th with the game still deadlocked.  In the top of the 9th PH Marc Newfield leads off with a double and Ray Holbert comes in to pinch run as the go-ahead run in scoring position; after two outs another PH Archi Cianfrocco singles, the fleet Holbert races for home and scores easily, and it’s now up to Ashby in the bottom of the 9th as the Astros face elimination but have the meat of the order scheduled to bat.  Altuve grounds out; Tucker grounds out; and Yordan Alvarez then rips a grounder to 2B-2 Jody Reed, who gobbles it up, tosses to first, and Padres magic continues with the 3-2 win as Ashby finishes out a 3-hitter.  The Astros’ loss means that both 2021 pennant winners were first round casualties, not a good showing for the current card set.   Worthy of note:  in playing this game the cardstock for the 1995 team was so much thicker than that for the 2021 team that I had to keep checking the ‘95 cards because I thought two of them might be stuck together!

The 2000 Reds won 85 games and were a representative steroid-era team with five .300 hitters and eight guys with double-digit homers in the lineup, but a starting rotation that had mainly bad options, with swingman Scott Williamson (5-8, 3.29) looking like the best bet to get them past round one.  Although from a similar period in baseball history, the 94-loss 2004 Blue Jays didn’t have quite the lineup that was seen in their opponents, but they did share the problem of the sorry pitching staffs of that era, with Ted Lilly (12-10, 4.06) as the opening round starter.  The Reds move on top when Ken Griffey Jr. leads off the 2nd with a long blast, but Alexis Rios and Reed Johnson knock back-to-back doubles to begin the bottom of the inning, and after Williamson walks the bases loaded Carlos Delgado rips a 2-run single past 1B-4 Sean Casey and the Jays take a 3-1 lead.  The Reds get one of those runs back in the top of the 3rd when Barry Larkin scores on an Alex Ochoa sac fly, but both pitchers then settle in.  However, in the bottom of the 8th, Williamson has been struggling with control all game and he walks the leadoff batter, and Reed Johnson follows with a triple, his third extra base hit of the game, and the Jays extend their lead.  That brings it to the top of the 9th with a two run Lilly pad, but Lilly allows a leadoff double to PH D.T. Cromer off the pitcher’s card, and then Lilly drops a Michael Tucker grounder to put the tying run on.  The Jays check their pen but don’t like the alternatives much, and decide to give Lilly the chance to work his way out of the jam.  That proves unwise, as Eddie Taubensee then finds and converts Lilly’s HR 1-17 split and the Reds take the lead, and the Jays belatedly summon their closer Jason Frasor, who yields a solo shot to Barry Larkin before the side is retired and in a turnabout it’s now the Reds who take a 2-run edge into the 9th.  However, Williamson as usual can’t find the strike zone and walks the first two batters of the inning, and now it’s the Reds who make the decision to lead their starter in.  So Williamson winds and delivers to Vernon Wells, it’s a 2-12 roll, LOMAX, triple play and the game is over; the Reds win a see-saw 6-4 battle and Williamson survives a 6-hitter in which he walks 8.

The survivors

The 13-inning marathon that got the 1989 Padres to this semifinal game took a serious toll on their bullpen, so they were hoping for a performance from Ed Whitson (16-11, 2.66) that was both strong and long.  The 2001 Giants would start Jason Schmidt (13-7, 4.07) and were mainly hoping that Barry Bonds would wake up after he seemed to nap through most of their round one win.  Their worries continued when Bonds misses a SI* 1-16 split in the bottom of the 1st to kill the inning,  Former Giant Jack Clark shows how it’s done in the top of the 4th with a solo shot that gives the Padres a 1-0 lead; Bonds leads off the bottom of the inning with a feeble groundout but after a whiff, Dunston/Galarraga/Benard/Santiago go double/triple/double/double and the Giants move ahead 3-1.  In the 5th, Giants DH John Vanderwal is knocked out of the game with an injury, but Jeff Kent then singles and Bond hits one out of Pac Bell Park that might have actually reached Candlestick, pushing the Giants lead to 5-1 and to stave off further injuries the defensive replacements begin coming in for the 6th.  Of course, what should happen but one of those replacements, JT Snow, promptly gets injured leading off the inning, but another replacement, CF Calvin Murray, doubles and scores on a single by Ramon E. Martinez and the Giants extend their margin.  However, the Padres magic is not dispelled yet, and a 2-base error by SS-3 Rich Aurelia in the 7th sets up an RBI single from the SD version of Benito Santiago, who is starting for both teams, and then it’s the Padres’ Martinez, Carmelo, blasting a 3-run homer and suddenly it’s a one-run game and there’s still nobody out.  The Giants have seen enough of Schmidt and they turn to Robb Nen to try to hold the lead, and although he allows two more hits the Giants escape when 3B-3 “E” Martinez makes a highlight play on a Gwynn grounder to end the inning.   Fortune smiles on the Giants in the bottom of the inning, as Kent scores from third on a Dunston SI* 1-16 split for which the roll is “16”, but in the 8th the Padres come roaring back as Jack Clark leads off with a double and he scores on a screaming single by Chris James; Nen then drops a Santiago grounder and he’s pulled for game one savior Francisco Rodriguez having recorded no outs in the inning.  FRod shuts down the Padres in order and the game heads to the 9th with SF still clinging to the one-run lead.  Garry Templeton misses a SI* 1-15 split to lead off, but then Alomar gets aboard as Ramon E. Martinez again lives up to his middle name; Alomar is held, and although the Padres think about sending him on the steal they let Gwynn bat, and he singles with Alomar racing to third with only one out.  With Jack Clark up, the Giants opt to hold the A-stealer Gwynn at first to try for the DP; Clark rolls a SI* 1-13 split on FRod but misses the split and there are now 2 outs with game one hero Chris James at the plate.  FRod delivers, a line drive is snared, and the Giants survive and move on to the finals with the 7-6 win; FRod records his second consecutive save but is now burnt for the regional.   

With one Padres team eliminated in the semifinals, it’s up to the 1995 Padres to carry the torch for the second straight regional win for the franchise, and Joey Hamilton (6-9, 3.08) would have a fully rested bullpen if he were to get in trouble.  The 2000 Reds, who only got here because of a 4-run 9th inning comeback, were the ELO favorites here, although after Denny Neagle (8-2, 3.52) the starting pitching options would get ugly fast if they were to make the finals.  The Padres make a statement in the top of the 1st with a long 2-run homer from Ken Caminiti, but the Reds get one back in the bottom of the inning courtesy of an Alex Ochoa RBI triple, although Ochoa gets stranded on 3rd when Dante Bichette misses a 2-out SI* 1-10 split.  Caminiti adds an RBI single in the 3rd, and then in the 5th Neagle commits his second error of the game, putting Tony Gwynn on 2nd and he scores when Reds LF-4 Dmitri Young misplays a Caminiti single, giving Ken his 4th RBI of the game.  In the bottom of the inning, Ochoa hits his second triple of the game and scores on a Griffey Jr. sac fly, and the score is now 4-2 Padres.  A leadoff single by Young in the bottom of the 7th and the Padres check their bullpen but are horrified to discover that closer Trevor Hoffman is a gopher ball waiting to happen, so they stick with Hamilton and he gets a DP ball out of Pokey Reese to quiet that threat.  Two straight hits to begin the top of the 8th and it’s the Reds turn to eye the pen, and Neagle is yanked for closer Danny Graves, and he escapes with no damage.  It then becomes a one run game when Barry Larkin leads off the top of the 8th with a homer, and when Chris Stynes singles to bring up Ochoa the Padres feel like they have no choice but to go to their closer Hoffman.  Hoffman gets Ochoa to line into a DP and then whiffs Griffey Jr. so the game heads to the 9th with both closers in and the Padres still up by a run.  Graves survives the top of the inning, and so it’s time to see if the Reds can pull off more 9th inning magic.  Two quick outs, but then Eddie Taubensee singles and Gookie Dawkins comes out to pinch run as Dmitri Young steps to the plate.  But Young grounds out harmlessly and the Padres continue their quest for two straight regionals with the 4-3 win; Ken Caminiti accounts for all the Padres runs and he guarantees that he will give Barry Bonds a dose of his own medicine in the finals.

The finals matched the #4 seeded 2001 Giants and the #7 seed 1995 Padres, and featured two infamous examples of the consequences of the steroid era in Barry Bonds and Ken Caminiti.   Considering the era, both teams were able to field okay #3 starters, with the Giants’ Shawn Estes (9-8, 4.02) against the Padres’ Andy Benes (4-7, 4.17).  In the bottom of the 1st, the Padres rap two singles to start the game, and although Tony Gwynn then hits into a DP, Bip Roberts is able to score to give SD an early 1-0 edge.  In the top of the 4th, Benes whiffs Bonds for the second time in a row, but gets overconfident to the next batter, Rich Aurelia, whose solo shot promptly ties the game, but that doesn’t last long as in the bottom of the inning Brad Ausmus singles, and the rare A-stealing catcher steals second and scores on a Jody Reed double.  Andujar Cedeno then singles in Reed and the Padres lead 3-1, but the inning ends with sparkplug Bip Roberts getting knocked out of the game with an injury that could prove costly.  Both pitchers control things for a while, but in the bottom of the 8th Gwynn leads off with his 3rd hit of the game and Caminiti walks, so the Giants pull Estes for Robb Nen, who gets out of the jam and sends it to the top of the 9th with SF down by two and the heart of the order coming up.  Jeff Kent starts the inning with a single, bringing up Bonds, and the Padres confer but decide an intentional walk that puts the tying run on base is not a good idea, and Benes is instructed to pitch cautiously.  However, he’s struck out Bonds twice already and isn’t afraid to go after him again, and sure enough Bonds whiffs and the Padres are two outs away from the regional win. Next up, Aurelia–whiff, two away.  The adrenaline is roaring in Benes and Shawon Dunston digs in, it’s strike three, and Benes is mobbed as the 3-1 win claims the second straight regional for 90s Padres squads.  And it’s back to the drawers, or perhaps the medicine cabinet, for Bonds and his teammates.

Interesting card of Regional #167:  When I saw that my little random team selector program had spit out the 2001 Giants as an entry in this bracket, I had no doubt what the featured card of the regional was going to have to be.  Has there ever been a more infamous individual season in the history of baseball?  Obviously, this was the season that smashed the home run record.  This card got me thinking about the old-school Strat Hall of Famer set, the ones that were all Basic only (which I obviously appreciate); those cards had a player's career stats represented on one side and their “best” season on the other.  I’m not sure if Bonds will ever make the HOF, but if he did and if Strat ever updated that old set (probably less likely than Bonds getting into the Hall), I wonder what they would select as Bonds’ “best” season?  In terms of OPS, his best season offensively was actually in 2004; however, by that time he had apparently become so musclebound that his fielding (LF-4) and speed (C 1-12) suffered, and to make matters worse he wouldn’t cooperate with the MLBPA and thus the game company couldn’t put his name on the card, seriously spoiling the aesthetics for me.  For me, I’d have to go with this card for his “best season” side, and it would be difficult to imagine that, in a draft involving that set, there would be any left fielder selected before him.

REGIONAL #166:  There was one pennant winner in this group, a rare accomplishment for the 1998 version of the Padres in the midst of the steroid-fueled home run craze.  However, there looked to be quite a few potential competitors for the Padres; for example, the 1991 A’s were coming off three straight AL titles and although I remembered them being disassembled quickly, they probably still were a team to contend with.  I also remembered the ‘93 White Sox as a strong squad who were potentially denied a pennant by the strike the next year, but the Sox had to contend with the bad karma that infects my favorite teams, plus a first round matchup with the ‘41 Cardinals who were probably still part of the Branch Rickey dynasty.  Another version of the Cards from 1977, and entries from the Twins and Astros could also make some noise, so this bracket seemed wide open to me.  I figured if the Padres could win the NL in 1998 over the likes of McGwire and Sosa, they could handle this bunch, so I picked them over the ‘41 Cards in the finals.  The ELO rankings echoed my sentiment that this was a competitive group, with only one weak team (sorry, Seattle); those ranks picked the same two squads in the finals as I, but had the ‘41 Cards favored over the Padres, who were ranked as only the 3rd best team in the NL that year. 

First round action

Two teams from two different strike years kicked off the first round of this bracket.  The 1994 Astros went 66-49, the 2nd best record in the NL Central in a season with no postseason games, but there still were postseason awards for the Astros as the NL MVP went to Jeff Bagwell and staff ace Doug Drabek (12-6, 2.84) was 4th in the Cy Young ballots.  Although there was a postseason in their strike year, the 1981 Mariners didn’t have to worry about appearing in it, with a 44-65 record with Glenn Abbott (4-9, 3.95) at the top of a shallow rotation.  In the bottom of the 2nd, Lenny Randle singles, steals second, and races home on a Jerry Narron single, and that breaks Drabek’s concentration; he loads up the bases (helped by Astros SS-3 Andujar Cedeno’s failure to get to a single), and then Cedeno commits his second error of the game, a 2-base muff of a Julio Cruz grounder.  Tom Paciorek adds a 2-run single and it’s 5-0 Mariners after two, with Cedeno 0 for 3 on groundball X chances.  The hole for Houston gets deeper in the 3rd with an RBI triple by Cruz, and he scores on a single by Jim Anderson, but in the bottom of the inning a long homer by Bagwell to lead off the inning gets the Astros on the board, still trailing 7-1.  Bagwell leads off the 6th by missing his HR 1-13 split and gets stranded at second, but in the 7th PH Milt Thompson singles and Craig Biggio follows with a 2-run homer and it may be getting interesting.  A one out single in the 7th and Houston finally pulls Drabek for Todd Jones to try to keep things in reach, and he keeps the Mariners off the board.  That looks important as the Astros open the top of the 9th with three straight singles, the third one from PH Tony Eusebio driving in a run, and Seattle makes a move to the pen with Jim Beattie in the save situation with the tying run at the plate.  Beattie delivers to Thompson, who grounds into a DP that scores a run but the Astros are still down by two with Biggio their last chance at bat.  He flies out harmlessly, and the Mariners pull off the upset as the #8 seed to advance with the 7-5 win.

By the ELO seedings, the top matchup of the regional was occurring in the first round with the #1 seed 1941 Cardinals against the #2 seeded 1993 White Sox.  The Sox won 94 games and the AL West, but lost in 6 games in the ALCS; they had the AL MVP in Frank Thomas and the AL Cy Young winner in Jack McDowell, but theirs weren’t even the best cards on the team, with Alex Fernandez (18-9, 3.13) tapped for the start in an effort to thwart the jinx that seems to affect all my favorite Sox teams.  Of course, the jinx had already set in as they had drawn the best team of the regional in the first round, as the Cardinals went 97-56 to finish a close 2nd in the NL, with two Johnnys in Mize and Hopp that finished 8th and 9th in the MVP votes and Ernie White (17-7, 2.40) sporting a dominating card on the mound.  The jinx quickly appears in full force in the bottom of the 1st when leadoff hitter Terry Moore singles and then Hopp finds and convert’s Fernandez’s HR split, and they add another when Enos Slaughter doubles off Fernandez’s card and Jimmy Brown rips a single past Sox 2B-3 Joey Cora to make it 3-0 after one.  However, the Sox respond in the top of the 2nd when an error by usually sure-handed SS-2 Marty Marion sets up a 2-out, 2-run double from his SS counterpart Ozzie Guillen, and it's a one-run game.  From there, both pitchers assert control until the bottom of the 8th, when it’s Moore’s turn to convert Fernandez’s HR split for a solo shot that sends Fernandez to the showers and gives the Cards a two-run edge entering the top of the 9th.  After issuing a leadoff walk, White burns through the Sox hitting, whiffing the final pinch hitter to finish out a 4-hitter and sending the Cards to the semifinals with a 4-2 win, with yet another of the best Sox teams of all time heading back into storage after the first round.     

The 1998 Padres won 98 games, the NL West, and the NL pennant, with Greg Vaughn’s 50 homers getting somewhat overlooked in that steroid-fueled year but still good for 4th place in the MVP voting, and Kevin Brown (18-7, 2.38) came in 3rd in the Cy Young sweepstakes.  They were not facing a pushover, however, as the 1977 Cardinals were a decent team, going 83-79 with Keith Hernandez and Ted Simmons leading the offense and 20-game winner Bob Forsch (20-7, 3.48) on the hill.  Both pitchers assert control and the game remains scoreless after 6 innings.  In the top of the 7th, Brown gets touched for two singles and so with one out it seems that the game is on the line so the Padres summon closer Trevor Hoffman, who was 2nd in the Cy Young voting and 7th in the MVP votes, so you know his card is pretty good.   He gets Lou Brock to hit into a force play so it’s runners on 1st and 3rd with two out and future Padre Garry Templeton and his .322 average is at the plate.  The roll:  5-7, a whiff on Hoffman which would have been a solid single on Brown, which the Cards had hit two times previously in the game.  The Cards seem unnerved by those developments, as Forsch boots a grounder to lead off the bottom of the inning, and then LF-4 Brock commits a 2-base error.  Chris Gomez then drives in both runners with a double and the Padres take the lead into the 8th.  SS-3 Gomez then returns the favor to St. Louis with a 2-base error that puts runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out, but Hoffman bears down and strands both runners to preserve the lead.  The Padres seek to preserve Hoffman for later rounds and take a chance bringing in Donne Wall to pitch the 9th, and he does the job, fanning the final two Cards to seal the 2-0 shutout and earn a trip to the semifinals.

It turns out that the 1991 A’s were still pretty much intact from their Bash Brothers group that had won pennants in the previous three seasons, but many of their starts had performance drops and they limped to an 84-78 record that spelled the end of their dynasty.  One player who didn’t regress was starter Mike Moore (17-8, 2.96), who would pose a challenge for the 1976 Twins, who had a similar 85-77 campaign with two high average hitters at the top of the order in Rod Carew and the gone-too-soon Lyman Bostock and Dave Goltz (14-14, 3.36) heading up an undistinguished rotation.   But disaster strikes quickly for the Twins, as on the first pitch of the game Carew is hurt and knocked out of the regional, and there’s nobody on the bench to replace him.  The game stays a scoreless pitcher’s duel until the Twins manage to load the bases in the 7th; the A’s don’t like the looks of their pen and stick with Moore, who almost escapes unscathed except the injury replacement Steve Brye manages to convert a SI 1-13 and the Twins lead 1-0.  However, in the bottom of the inning Rickey Henderson leads off with a grounder to the out-of-position 1B-5 Brye and it’s a two base error, and Rickey scores when LF-2 Larry Hisle can’t get to a Jose Canseco double.   Jose races home on a Dave Henderson single and Goltz is pulled for Bill Campbell, who records the final out but the A’s take a one-run lead into the 8th.  In the top of the 8th with two on and two out, Butch Wynegar bounces one off RF-4 Canseco’s head for a 2-base error that ties the game heading into the 9th.  Bostock walks in the top of the 9th, and with two out Disco Dan Ford converts his HR 1-4 split for a two run lead that is up to Campbell to preserve in the bottom of the 9th.  Campbell strikes out Hendu, McGwire and Steinbach in order, and the Twins hold on for the 4-2 win, and it’s now on the table for a possible and unprecedented third regional win in a row for the Twins franchise.

The survivors

When setting up the semifinal between the #1 seeded 1941 Cardinals and the #8 seed 1981 Mariners, I was pondering how these two teams were from very different eras of baseball–and then I was unnerved by the realization that the Mariners were closer timewise to the Cardinals than they are to a contemporary team.  Regardless, the Mariners clearly had their work cut out for them, with Floyd Bannister (9-9, 4.46) sporting a card that was worse than any of the remaining Cards starters, including swingman Max Lanier (10-8, 2.82).   Things don’t go well for Bannister in the bottom of the 1st, as after two quick outs Johnny Mize and Estel Crabtree hit back to back doubles off Bannister’s card to drive one in, and then next batter Enos Slaughter hits Bannister’s solid HR roll–three extra base hits off the pitcher’s card on three different roll numbers–and the Cards lead 3-0 after one.  In the 5th, Johnny Hopp leads off with a single and Mize follows with another tag of Bannister’s solid HR, and Floyd is gone for Larry Andersen but the onslaught continues as the Cards add three more runs in the 6th, with a Mize RBI double being the big blow.  The M’s finally get on the board in the 7th when Lenny Randle doubles and scores on a 2-base error by 1B-4 Mize, but it’s far too late as the Cards cruise to the finals with the 8-1 win, with Lanier going the distance scattering 7 hits.

The pennant winning 1998 Padres had difficulty scoring runs in round one, and because they had to use their bullpen strength to win that game they were hoping to get a strong performance from Andy Ashby (17-9, 3.34) to give the pen some rest.  They faced a 1976 Twins team that had pulled off a first-round upset but in the process burnt their best reliever and lost HOFer Rod Carew to injury for the regional; they gave Pete Redfern (8-8, 3.51) the start here.  In the top of the 3rd, a 2-out error by Twins injury replacement 1B-4 Craig Kusick loads the bases for Ken Caminiti, who deposits the ball into the Metropolitan Stadium bleachers and the Minneapolis crowd, raucous after two straight prior regional wins, suddenly goes very quiet.  They come alive in the 5th when Steve Braun singles in Steve Brye, or maybe the other way around, and it’s now 4-1 after 5 and Redfern seems to be settling down, but in the 6th he walks Quilvio Veras with two outs and Tony Gwynn follows with a 2-run blast that evicts Redfern with Tom Johnson coming in to whiff Greg Vaughn for the final out.  But the Twins aren’t done yet, and in the bottom of the inning they tag Ashby for four hits, including an RBI double for Bob Randle and a 2-run single from Roy Smalley, the Padres lead is cut to 6-4 after six innings, and they reluctantly begin warming up their relief aces.  SD tries to provide additional insurance in the 7th, but John Vanderwal is nailed at the plate; regardless, Ashby recovers his form and controls the Twins the rest of the way to lead the Padres to the finals with a 6-4 win with a fully rested bullpen, meanwhile dashing Minnesota’s hopes for a regional three-peat.    

The matchup for this regional final had the rare distinction of being accurately predicted by both myself and the ELO rankings, and it was a good one with the top seeded 1941 Cardinals and their crafty veteran Lon Warneke (17-9, 3.15) facing off against the pennant-winning #3 seed 1998 Padres who were looking for Sterling Hitchcock (9-7, 3.93) to deliver the game to their fully rested formidable bullpen.  The Padres jump on Warneke in the bottom of the 1st, with leadoff hitter Quilvio Veras finding and converting Lon’s HR split, and it doesn’t stop there as after a few more hits Wally Joyner delivers a 2-out, 2-run double and SD leads 3-0 after the 1st.  But the Cards didn’t get this far by accident, and Marty Marion quickly responds in the top of the 2nd with a 2-out 2-run double of his own and it’s now a one-run game.  However, a walk and an error by SS-2 Marion in the bottom of the inning brings up Greg Vaughn with two out, and he finally delivers his first blast of the regional and the Padres move their lead to 6-2, but there’s still a lot of baseball left to be played.  As a reminder of that, the Cards big bat, Johnny Mize, knocks a solo shot in the 3rd, but the Padres are relentless, with Ken Caminiti leading off the bottom of the inning with a homer.  A walk and a single and Warneke is pulled for Howie Krist, who promptly delivers a gopher ball to Chris Gomez off his own card and the Padres have hit double digits while making only six outs to this point.  And the inning isn’t over yet, as Vaughn also finds Krist’s HR result for a 2-run shot and after three innings, it’s Padres 12, Cardinals 3.  In the 5th Estel Crabtree locates Hitchcock’s solid 6-9 HR for a 2-run blast that narrows things somewhat, and Terry Moore singles in Marion in the 6th to draw closer and the Padres are beginning to wonder if it’s safe to leave Hitchcock in the game.  They feel somewhat more confident when he sets the Cards down in order in the top of the 7th and then Steve Finley greets new Cardinal pitcher Harry Gumbert with a solo shot in the bottom of the inning to extend the lead.  However, Gus Mancuso leads off the 8th with that 6-9 HR on Hitchcock and after a few more baserunners and a Crabtree RBI single, the Padres move to Dan Miceli from the pen but Enos Slaughter tags him for an RBI single before he can get the final out and the score is now 13-9.  The Padres go quietly in the 8th, and it’s now up to Miceli in the top of the 9th and the bottom of the Cards order.  He gets two quick outs and then faces PH Coaker Triplett, who rips a grounder back to P-4 Miceli, but he makes a brilliant stab and tosses out the runner to seal the regional for the Padres with a wild 13-9 win, a game that saw nine homers hit between the two teams.  This is only the third regional win for the Padres franchise, with both previous winners coming from the 1970s.

Interesting card of Regional #166:  This bracket had a bunch of great cards; there were two MVPs in the group in Jeff Bagwell and Frank Thomas, the regional-winning Padres had Greg Vaughn with 50 homers and Trevor Hoffman with 53 saves, and entries from Johnny Mize, Jose Canseco, and Rod Carew all merited consideration.  However, this selection was less about this card (although it’s from the lovely die-cut era of aesthetically pleasing hit distributions) and more about the cards that might have been.  This is the card of 25-year old Lyman Bostock, who was emerging as one of the best all-around players of the era before tragedy struck.  On Sept. 24, 1978, after a visiting game against the White Sox, Bostock went to see his uncle, who lived in Gary, Indiana, and was riding in his uncle’s car along with two women who were old friends of the Bostock family.  However, the estranged husband of one of the women drove up to their car and after an argument the husband, apparently in an unwarranted jealous rage, fired a shotgun into the car, striking Bostock in the head; he was rushed to the hospital but died early the following morning.  Long time Strat players may remember the “Lyman Bostock Memorial Tournament” that was held for several years, founded as I remember by a Strat-playing police officer from Gary.  As far as I know, Bostock was the first player to die midseason since I began playing Strat and even now, digging out the ‘76 Twins for this regional almost 45 years later, I still feel the sense of loss.

 

REGIONAL #165:  This was an eclectic mix of ballclubs, half each from the 20th and 21st centuries, and none of which seemed to be candidates for greatness.  In terms of proximity to pennants, there was a Braves team from several years after their great late 90’s squads, and an Indians team from several years before their run in the mid-90s, but I doubted that either had much in common with those pennant-winners.  For most of the others, I had the sense that they could be okay–the ‘89 Astros and the ‘87 Indians I thought had been competitive, the 2017 Twins might have some power, the prior year version of the 2018 Mariners had recently been in a regional final (and lost), and I remembered the Phillies of the later 70s being good, although ‘73 might be a bit too early for them.  The only thing I was confident about was that my White Sox, 1941 edition, wouldn’t be going anywhere.  Having to pick someone, I went with the Indians over the Mariners in the finals.  The ELO rankings indicated that my pick was laughable as the Indians ranked as the worst team in the group.  Instead, those ranks went with the Braves over the Twins in a matchup of rather middling teams.  

First round action

The 2018 Mariners seemed pretty familiar because the 2017 version had reached the finals of Regional #160, and this squad seemed to have some potential as well as they won 89 games with Nelson Cruz leading the offense and James Paxton (11-6, 3.76) heading a shallow rotation backed by a strong pen.  As I had suspected, the 1973 Phillies were a few years from being decent, as they lost 91 games with 23 year old Mike Schmidt hitting an unpromising .196 and Steve Carlton losing 20 games, so they went instead with Ken Brett (13-9, 3.44) on the mound.  The Phils draw first blood when Mike Anderson leads off the 2nd by converting a TR 1/SI 2-20 split and then scoring on a Willie Montanez single.  Both pitchers then take control and things are quiet until the 8th, when Montanez drops a grounder and Denard Span converts a squib single to put two on with one out and Cruz at the plate–but he hits it to SS-1 Larry Bowa, it’s a DP and Brett escapes the inning.  Sensing a need for additional insurance, in the bottom of the inning Bill Robinson launches a 2-out solo shot that chases Paxton for relief monster Edwin Diaz, who fans Luzinski and we head to the top of the 9th with the Mariners down two and Brett expecting no help from a bad Phillies bullpen.  Although Mike Zunino manages a two out single, he goes nowhere and Brett closes out the 6-hit shutout as the Phillies pull off the 2-0 upset, even though they only manage six hits themselves.

The 1941 White Sox ranked better according to ELO than I had assumed, but upon inspection they were a rather typical mediocre team from the Old Comiskey days, going 77-77 having Taffy Wright leading the punchless team with 10 HR, but a solid pitching rotation fronted by Thornton Lee (22-11, 2.37) who led the AL in ERA and came in 4th in the MVP voting.  They were slight ELO underdogs to the 84-78 2007 Braves but the matchup looked far more lopsided to me, as the top-seeded Braves had 8 of their 9 starters with more homers than the Sox leader and also had John Smoltz (14-8, 3.11) back into the rotation to finish 6th in the Cy Young vote.  Things are quiet until the top of the 4th inning, when Sox “cleanup” hitter Billy Knickerbocker and his 7 HR leads off by converting his HR 1-6 split, and then two batters later Dario Lodigiani converts Smoltz’s HR 1-9 split for a two run shot and the punchless Sox are riding the longball to a 3-0 lead.  However, in the 5th 2B-3 Knickerbocker makes his second error of the game, a two-out miscue that allows Brian McCann to score and the Sox lead narrows.  The Sox are feeling good until the top of the 9th, when Lodigiani leads off with a 7-game injury with all replacement options terrible.  The Sox then look to their ace Lee to hold serve in the bottom of the 9th, which he does, closing out the 3-hitter to seal the 3-1 win, but they head to the semis with an offense that was already the worst in the AL that will be even worse moving forward in the tournament.

From memory, I had figured the 86-win 1989 Astros to be a typical Astrodome team with pitching, speed, and not much power, and that was pretty accurate, although several of the players had batting averages less than I expected (Craig Biggio an A stealing catcher but hitting .257, 2B-2 Bill Doran at .219).  However, they did have Mike Scott (20-10, 3.10) scuffing his way to 2nd place in the Cy Young voting.  That was enough to make them solid favorites over an 87-loss 2009 Padres team, who had an extremely shallow rotation with Kevin Correia (12-11, 3.91) the sole decent option and a lackluster offense aside from Adrian Gonzalez, whose .958 OPS landed him in 12th place for MVP honors.  Things start quickly for the Astros as Biggio hits a single that CF-3 Scott Hairston can’t reach, and then Gerald Young follows by converting a split HR off Correia and it’s 2-0 Astros before the Padres can lift a bat.  It gets worse for SD in the 2nd as Correia fuels a 2-out rally for Houston by loading the bases, and then delivers the same HR split to Kevin Bass, who clears the wall at Petco Park for a grand slam, and the Padres in desperation turn to their closer Heath Bell down by six runs.  That seems to buoy the spirits of the Padres, who rake Scott over the coals in the bottom of the inning, with four extra base hits that include a 2-run homer from Will Venable and a 2-out, 3-run blast from Gonzalez, and when the dust settles the Padres now lead 7-6, after only two innings.  A one-out double from Kevin Kouzmanoff in the 3rd convinces the Astros that Scott doesn’t have it today, and Larry Anderson comes in to quickly end the threat, keeping the deficit still at one run.  In the top of the 4th, Bell walks Young with two out and Young steals second and scores on a Bass double to tie the game, and in the 5th Glenn Wilson misses his HR 1-12 split but scores from second racing home on a Ken Caminiti single and Houston moves back on top.  In the 6th Bell walks two and he’s burnt for the regional, so wondercard Mike Adams comes in with two outs and Doran on 2nd.  Glenn Davis delivers a single, 1-17 Doran heads for home and….18, he’s out and inning over.  In the bottom of the 6th, Houston pulls Andersen, who has been lights out, to try to preserve him for a possible appearance in the finals and turn to Dave Smith, who ends the inning without damage despite a threat caused by terrible fielding from SS-4 Rafael Ramirez.  Smith faces a 2-out rally in the 7th as Kouzmanoff doubles and then heads for home on a Nick Hundley single, but he’s cut down (1-12) to end the inning.  In the bottom of the 8th, the Padres get runners on 1st and 3rd with two out, but Smith gets Gonzalez to ground out and the Astros enter the 9th clinging to the one-run lead.  Adams makes short work of Houston in the top of the 9th, so it’s up to Smith to preserve that lead.  A leadoff grounder to SS-4 Ramirez and it’s Houston, we have a problem in the form of a 2-base error, and when LF-2 Terry Puhl can’t get to a Kouzmanoff single the game is tied.  Smith then walks Hundley, pushing Kouzmanoff into scoring position, but then records the second out to face #9 hitter David Eckstein.  The Padres eye their pinch hitters, but decide they need Eckstein’s glove in extra innings and they let him bat.  He responds by ripping a single into the gap, Kouzmanoff scores, and San Diego moves on with a come from behind, walk off 9-8 win.

Although my blind selection of the #8 ELO seeded 1987 Indians looked ugly upon further review that revealed that they lost 101 games, I wasn’t too concerned given that the underdog had won all three prior first round games in the regional.  Furthermore, they had a pretty potent lineup with Brook Jacoby, Joe Carter, and Cory Snyder all with 30+ homers, but they would need to score runs to offset a terrible pitching staff with a bad Tom Candiotti (7-18, 4.78) at the top of the rotation.  Outscoring their opponents, the 2017 Twins, might not be easy as 8 of the 9 Twins batters had double digit homers themselves; Minnesota won 85 games to make a wild card appearance in the postseason, and they had Ervin Santana (16-8, 3.28), 7th in Cy Young standings, on the mound.  The top of the 2nd is eventful for the Indians, as Joe Carter leads off with a colossal blast to provide a lead, but C Chris Bando ends the inning by grounding into a DP and in the process getting injured for the rest of the tournament.  The Twins respond in the bottom of the inning with Max Kepler nailing Candiotti’s solid HR result for a 2-run shot to move ahead, and they add two more in the 3rd on an Eddie Rosario RBI triple and he scores on a single from Eduardo Escobar.  An RBI single for Brian Dozier in the bottom of the 6th and Candiotti is pulled for John Farrell, who promptly delivers a 3-run homer to Rosario and Twins fans start placing their orders for semifinal tickets.  Meanwhile, Santana just gets stronger as he goes along, and he closes out a 3-hitter to lead the Twins to the easy 8-1 win.

The survivors

According to the ELO ranks, neither the 1973 Phillies nor the 1941 White Sox should have made it to the semifinals, but they both got strong pitching performances in the first round to get them here.  The Sox found themselves as the top-seeded surviving team, but having to play injury replacement 3B-4 Bob Kennedy and his .206 average weakened an offense that was already the league’s worst.  And, even though both teams had Hall of Fame pitchers ready to start, both were bypassed as Ted Lyons sat in favor of swingman Buck Ross (3-9, 3.69) for the Sox, while on the advice of multiple Phils fans it was Wayne Twitchell (13-9, 2.50) over 20-game loser Steve Carlton for the Phils.  In the 3rd, the Phils knock three straight singles, with the last one by Denny Doyle putting them up 1-0, but after that both pitchers settle in for a duel.  Finally, in the 8th Greg Luzinski, off all people, hits a 2-out triple and Mike Anderson singles him home to provide Twitchell with a little padding.  He takes that lead into the bottom of the 9th, when the Sox lead off by converting two straight SI* 1-10 rolls and the Phils have Mac Scarce warming up in the pen, but give Twitchell a chance to get out of his jam.  Mike Tresh pops out to bring up .190 hitting 3B Skeeter Webb with no remaining third basemen on the roster, so there will be no pinch hitter.  The hitless wonders try small ball and have Webb bunt, but it’s a bad one and the lead runner is out so that brings up two out with the tying run on 1st and top of the order in old aches and pains, HOFer Luke Appling.  Sox fans feel the pains as Appling grounds out and the Phils are booked for an unlikely trip to the finals with their second straight 2-0 win, with Twitchell scattering 8 hits in his shutout.

The #3 seeded 2017 Twins were now the top remaining seed left in the bracket, and they had a fully rested bullpen ready to support Jose Berrios (14-8, 3.89) if he should falter.  That was certainly not the case for the 2017 Padres, who took a come from behind thriller in round one by burning up their pen, and Clayton Richard (9-5, 4.41) was not the kind of starter to instill confidence.  Sure enough, Richard walks three in the bottom of the 1st, and although one is eliminated via the DP, Eduardo Escobar drives in the other two with a 2-out triple and the Twins move out front quickly.  In the 2nd, Brian Dozier converts a TR 1 split and scores on an Eddie Rosario double that makes it 3-0 Minnesota, and in the 4th a two base error by Padres CF-3 Tony Gwynn Jr. sets up a Joe Mauer 2-run single to extend the lead further.  In the top of the 5th, the Padres finally show the fight that got them this far, with an RBI double from Evarth Cabrera and a 2-run single by David Eckstein, although SD leaves the bases loaded and the Twins still lead by two.  Escobar knocks a 2-out solo shot in the bottom of the inning for some additional insurance, and when Byron Buxton nails a homer to lead off the 6th that’s it for Richard, with Luke Gregerson coming in to prevent further damage.  But Berrios holds serve until the 9th, when the Padres show the same resistance they displayed in the first round.  Nick Hundley doubles, and with two out PH Oscar Salazar drives him in with a single; Berrios walks Gwynn and now the tying run is at the plate.  At this point the Twins bring in closer Brandon Kintzler to pitch to Chase Headley, and it’s a soft liner to Mauer and the Twins stave off the Padres for the 7-4 win and a trip to the finals, seeking the second straight regional win for the franchise. 

The #3 seeded 2017 Twins were a postseason team, while the #6 seed 1973 Phillies lost 91 games, so at first glance the regional final looked a bit uneven, but the Phillies had yet to be scored upon in the regional and the Twins had the easiest path to the finals by facing the two worst teams in the bracket.  Both teams were getting into the more uncomfortable parts of their rotation; the Twins were hoping Kyle Gibson (12-10, 5.07) would be able to get it to their deep but not very good bullpen, while the Phils were finally sending out their Hall of Famer Steve Carlton (13-20, 3.90), who had a rough season as a follow-up to an insane 1972.  Jorge Polanco leads off the bottom of the 3rd with a homer for the Twins, marking the first run that had been scored against the Phils in the regional, and in the 4th Eduardo Escobar adds a 3-run shot as the Twins move out to a 4-0 lead.  Lefty loses control in the 5th after recording two outs, issuing three walks, the last a bases-load pass to Escobar, and when he again allows two baserunners with two out in the 6th he’s gone for Mac Scarce, who retires the side with no further damage.  However, it’s also runs that are scarce for the Phils, and Gibson wraps up a 6-hit shutout as the Twins win 5-0 to capture their second regional in a row.  The Twins elect 3B Eduardo Escobar as their regional MVP with two homers and 8 RBI in the three games, leading an offense that outscored the opposition 20 to 5.  

Interesting card of Regional #165:  I find it jarring when I look at a Strat pitcher’s card and don’t see a numeral to the left of the decimal point in their listed ERA.  However, I’d feel even worse if I were playing against the 2009 Padres and while I was putting together a rally, my opponent pulled out this card in relief.  Although hardly a household name, Adams had a nice if rather unheralded 10-year career as a relief pitcher, with a career 2.41 ERA and 1.045 WHIP in 407 innings.  After serving the Padres for a few seasons as one of the best setup men in baseball, they traded Adams midseason in 2011 to the Rangers, and Texas got their money’s worth as Adams won two games in relief in the postseason, one in the ALCS and one in the Series.  This all brings up another way in which I prefer the Basic game–I’ve never liked the “closer rating” rule.  Adams never saved more than one game with any team in any season, and as such Strat’s closer rule would essentially penalize him for being inserted in a save situation.  However, the guy was effective in plenty of clutch relief situations, including in the World Series–are we to believe that he would suddenly become incapable of pitching at the end of games?  I always resonated with the Strat marketing line of “You are the manager!” in their advertising copy; perhaps Bud Black wanted Heath Bell to be the closer in 2009, but this Bud’s not for me–screw the SADV gimmicks, if I’m the manager I’m going with this card with the game on the line.