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.
No comments:
Post a Comment