REGIONAL #180:  I didn’t recognize any pennant winners in this group, but in the prior season the 1920 Reds had won the Series under questionable circumstances, although as a remnant of the deadball era they would have their work cut out for them in trying to outscore more modern offenses.There were two different Blue Jays squads, and Toronto teams had recently put together some nice runs in the tournament so they couldn’t be counted out.   One noteworthy selection that popped out of my randomizer program was the 2022 White Sox, who were still in transit from Glen Head when they were chosen; as for the team, it was generally viewed as a disappointment but could still be a dark horse.  There were also Rockies and Brewers teams that probably had more bats than arms, and a Cards team that might have some remnants of their great teams of the 80s.  Other than the A’s, without doing further research I couldn’t really rule out anybody except maybe the A’s, and so I quasi-randomly picked the Cards over the ‘83 Jays in the finals.  Upon looking up the ELO rankings they indicated that the Reds could take the regional even without gambler interference, and like me saw the ‘83 Jays as runner-up.

First round action

I was surprised to discover that the 1948 A’s were the number #3 seed in this bracket, going 84-70; they had little power and their pitching wasn’t much to write home about, but they did have a knack for getting on base, so they could hopefully put up some runs to support Dick Fowler (15-8, 3.78).  They faced the first (and poorer) of two Toronto teams in the regional, the 76-86 2017 Blue Jays, who weren’t that good at getting on base but had good up-the-middle defense and some power from Josh Donaldson and Justin Smoak, with Marcus Strohman (13-9, 3.09) getting the round one start.  True to form, the A’s begin the bottom of the 1st with three straight hits, two of them doubles, and they jump to a quick 2-0 lead.  Eddie Joost leads off the 4th to extend the A’s lead; in the 5th Ezequiel Carrera misses Fowler’s HR split and it looks like Fowler will escape the inning, but Smoak delivers a two-out two-run double that pulls the Rockies within one.  The A’s cause is not helped when leadoff man Elmer Valo is knocked out of the game with an injury in the bottom of the 5th, but in the 6th Rockies replacement RF-3 Teoscar Hernandez misplays an Eddie Joost single, and a squib hit by Barney McCoskey chases Strohman for reliever Ryan Tepera who wiggles out of the jam with no damage.  Sensing the tide turning, the Jays begin a 2-out rally in the 7th with a walk and three straight singles to tie the game; with the bases now loaded, the A’s look at their pen and see no hope there, so leave Fowler in to face low-AB wonder Hernandez and his .602 SLG%.  And you could see it coming from a mile away; 1-6, HR 1-11, a split of 10 and it’s a grand slam for Hernandez and an instant sizable lead for the Jays.  With a lead and a deep pen, the Jays preserve Tepara and bring in Danny Barnes to begin the 8th, and he delivers two hitless innings as the Jays lock down a trip to the semis with a 7-3 win.  

The 1920 Reds were 82-71 after “defeating” the Black Sox in the Series the year before, and they were ELO favorites for the regional but I couldn’t see it–although elsewhere the Babe was changing the game, it hadn’t reached the Reds as their leading HR hitting had the grand total of 4, and their pitching staff led by Dolf Luque (13-9, 2.51) was decent but hardly overwhelming.  They faced the 1991 Cardinals, the team I had blindly picked to win the bracket, but setting their lineup made me wonder if I had mistakenly pulled out the 1911 Cardinals, as they had no power (Todd Zeile with 11 HR tops on the team), but plenty of speed and defense to support spot starter Jose Deleon (5-9, 2.71).  With two bad offenses, the game is locked in a scoreless tie through five innings, but in the top of the 6th Zeile leads off with a single, advances to second on a groundout by Pedro Guerrero, and then scores when P-3 Luque fields a grounder and throws it into the dugout for a 2-base error.  In the 8th, Zeile leads off by missing his HR split for a double, and then Luque drops another grounder to put men on 1st and 3rd; Tom Pagnozzi responds with a sharp single to score Zeile and Luque unravels, with Ray Lankford and Ozzie Smith knocking in runs before he can get out number three.  A Guererro RBI triple in the top of the 9th adds more insurance, which looks necessary when 3B-3  Zeile makes an error in the bottom of the 9th and the Reds rattle off a series of squib hits that include RBI singles from Greasy Neale and Larry Kopf, and suddenly it’s bases loaded with two out and pinch hitter Charlie See representing the winning run at home plate.  Lee Smith is warmed up in the pen, but the Cards decide to let Deleon try to get the final out; See doubles to score two, and the tying run is now 90 feet away and the winning run is on 2nd, so it’s time for Smith.  Lee comes in, blows three fastballs past Pat Duncan, and the Cards hang on to a 5-4 win as the Reds’ comeback falls just short.

The Zoom game of the week saw genuine Canadian Eaglesfly Roy reprise his service as manager of the Blue Jay, which had led to a regional win for them in the previous bracket.  This time it would be the 1983 Blue Jays, a solid 89-win team that once again would have Dave Stieb (17-12, 3.04) on the mound in the first round.  Roy would face Fgabs managing the 89-loss 2002 Rockies, with Fgabs having no dog in this fight but sporting an attachment to Larry Walker; for the Rockies, Denny Stark (11-4, 4.00) appeared to be the best option although most fans would have preferred his brother Tony to get the start.  Things start off a bit rough for the Jays in the bottom of the 1st when Walker hits a double and then SS-2 Alfredo Griffin throws a Todd Helton grounder into the dugout to score Walker.  The Jays quickly respond in the top of the 2nd when Cliff Johnson launches a solo shot into the thin air at Coors, but the Rockies’ unheralded catcher Gary Bennett bounces a Stieb curveball off the top of the wall to push Colorado back into a 2-1 lead.  However, once again the Jays waste no time retaliating, knocking five hits in the top of the 3rd that include 2-run homers from Damaso Garcia and Johnson, his second of the game, and from there Stieb gets serious, allowing only three more hits in the game.  Garcia knocks in his 3rd RBI of the game in the top of the 9th against Rockies closer Jose Jimenez to provide unneeded insurance, as Stieb closes out the 5-hitter and the Jays move on with a 6-2 win.

The 2022 White Sox arrived just in time for their entry into the tournament as an underperforming 81-81 team that drove manager Tony Larussa into permanent retirement, but I had little attachment to this squad which might help them with my enduring Sox jinx.  Their lineup couldn’t get on base well or play much defense, although Dylan Cease (14-8, 2.20) was the Cy Young runner-up with a formidable card that should keep the Sox in any game.  I found that my guess of good bats/no arms was pretty accurate about the 80-82 2009 Brewers, with Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder providing plenty of pop but after a solid Yovani Gallardo (13-12, 3.73), the rotation would involve killing time waiting for Trevor Hoffman out of the pen.  It’s a rough start for Cease as Sox RF-4 Gavin Sheets lets a bases loaded single drop in front of him to score two runs, and another comes in when C-4 Yasmani Grandal drops a popup and it’s quickly 3-0 Milwaukee.  The Brewers show some defensive lapses of their own in the 3rd, when 2B-3 Felipe Lopez drops a grounder and then LF-4 Braun turns a Luis Robert flyball into a triple.  Robert scores when Brewer 3B-5 Casey McGehee waves at a Jose Abreu grounder as it goes by him, and Abreu himself comes home when Sheets misses a HR 1-16 split but ties the game with his double.  The Sox then push into the lead on a solo homer from Eloy Jimenez in the bottom of the 5th, and so when the 6th comes they immediately begin to try to upgrade their terrible defense.  However, there is no defense against the blast that Prince Fielder unleashes to begin the 7th and the game is tied, and in the 8th Cease ceases to throw strikes, loading the bases for a 2-out single by McGehee that scores two for a Milwaukee lead.  In the 9th, Sox second string catcher Seby Zavala misses Gallardo’s HR 1-16, the second time the Sox have done so, but he scores when Robert also doubles off Gallardo’s card, and the Brewers, wanting to preserve Hoffman, summon Claudio Vargas and his 1.74 ERA to try to record the final out and save the game.  He delivers to Jimenez, it’s a 2-5 roll, HR 1-18, and the split die is a “1” and the Sox walk it off with two out in the bottom of the 9th for the 7-6 win in which there were four lead changes.  

The survivors

The first semifinal would be another test of Toronto magic, as the franchise had gone 13-1 since Regional #169 in a stretch that included three bracket wins, and the 2017 Blue Jays were one of two Jays squads to make the semifinals here.  This version would send JA Happ (10-11, 3.53)  against the 1991 Cardinals, who had survived round one by the skin of their teeth and were counting on Ken Hill (11-10, 3.57) to allow Lee Smith to rest up.  Ozzie Smith manufactures a run in the bottom of the 3rd with a single, a stolen base, and a dash home on a single from Felix Jose, and that lead holds up until the 6th when Justin Smoak finds and converts Hill’s HR result for a solo shot that ties the game.  Ray Lankford responds in the bottom of the inning with a 2-out RBI triple, and then he scores on a passed ball by C-2 Russell Martin and the Cards move out to a two run lead.  Martin is then injured to lead off the 7th, and when Ozzie leads off the bottom of the inning with a single and a steal, the Jays bring in Ryan Tepara, who strands Smith at third to keep the Jays in the game.  Toronto’s Ezequiel Carerra records a single in the 8th and the Cards start warming up Lee Smith, but decide to let Hill finish out the inning–but Josh Donaldson puts a crimp in that plan with a colossal 2-run blast that ties the game.  A walk to Smoak and that’s one Hill too far, and Smith comes in to get out number three.  In the top of the 9th, PH Teoscar Hernandez pokes a single that falls in front of RF-4 Felix Jose, and Ryan Goins follows that by missing a HR 1-4 split but Hernandez (1-14) scores on the resulting double and the Jays magic is in full flow.  Darwin Barney follows with a single and the Jays press their luck but Goins (1-12) is nailed trying to score, but the Jays take a one run lead into the bottom of the 9th with closer Roberto Osuna in to close things out.  Gerald Perry leads off with a single and he steals second, but the Jays turn on the magic machine and the Cards miss SI 1-15 and SI 1-10 and the game is over, with Toronto guaranteed at least one spot in the finals with the come from behind 4-3 win.  Tepara wins his second straight game in relief but is now burned for the regional final.  

In the second Zoom game of the regional, this semifinal matched Roy from Ontario as the mastermind behind the 1983 Blue Jays against me from Chicago, attempting to overcome my Sox jinx with the contemporary 2022 White Sox, who managed a come from behind walk off win in the first round.  Roy seemed nervous about starting Jim Clancy (15-11, 3.91) who looked pretty good to me, while for the Sox I had Michael Kopech (5-9, 3.54) who barely qualified to start as he battled injuries for much of the year.  Clancy did look worrisome in the bottom of the 1st, with three Sox hits setting up two sac flies from Eloy Jimenez and Andrew Vaughn and the South Siders jump out to a quick 2-0 lead.  That lasts until the top of the 3rd, when a hit and an error by absolutely useless Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal sets up a 3-run moonshot by Jesse Barfield and the Jays take the lead.  The Sox tie it back up in the bottom of the inning courtesy of a Vaughn RBI single, but from there the atrocious Chicago outfield defense kicks in with double after double getting past them.  Add in a 2-run homer by Damaso Garcia in the 5th and Barfield’s second homer of the game in the 6th, and from there the Jays coast while Clancy asserts control to finish out a 9-3 win that propels the Jays to an all-Toronto final.  This assures the Jays of their second straight regional win, but they will also lose for the first time since the finals of Regional #169 with the franchise having won 13 games in a row since then.  

In the all-Toronto final, it was the #2 seeded 1983 Blue Jays against the #6 seed 2017 Blue Jays, with the underdog 2017s also having an injured catcher and a taxed bullpen that might be needed to support the less than stellar Joe Biagini (3-13, 5.34).  After extensive consultation with the Zoom committee, the 1983s would go with Luis Leal (13-12, 4.31) to the consternation of the mastermind who had guided the team to the finals.  And Roy looks prescient as Leal allows a 2-run triple off his card to Justin Smoak in the top of the 1st, and Smoak scores when a Leal pitch gets past Ernie Whitt and the favored 83s find themselves down three before they can bat.  A sac fly by Jose Bautista stretches the lead to 4-0 in the 3rd, and the 83s suffer more misfortune when Lloyd Moseby goes down with a serious injury in the 4th.  They finally manufacture a run in the 5th when Dave Collins walks, steals second and scores on a single from Jesse Barfield; Ernie Whitt then doubles in a run and suddenly the 83s have the tying run on 2nd with two away, but Biagini manages to retire injury replacement Barry Bonnell and it’s a 4-2 game after five. In the 7th, Josh Donaldson records the first hit off Leal in four innings, but unfortunately for the 83s it lands in the stands for a solo shot; however, Damaso Garcia responds by leading off the bottom of the inning with a homer off Biagini’s split and after a Cliff Johnson walk, the 2017s turn to their bullpen as they have throughout the regional, bringing in the stingy Dominic Leone.  But Leone walks Barfield and after a groundout, Whitt delivers a 2-run double and the game is tied heading into the 8th.  The 83’s 1B-2 Willie Upshaw kills an attempt at a rally by the 2017s in the top of the 9th with a nifty DP, and Leone survives dropping a grounder by Barfield in the bottom of the inning and fittingly, the game heads to extra frames.  Leal is in his last inning of eligibility in the 10th, but he can’t finish it as he gets injured for the second out and has to leave the game, so Jim Acker has to come in to pitch to supersub Teoscar Hernandez and gets him out.  In the 11th, Leone is toast and the 2017s summon their closer Roberto Osuna, who sets the heart of the 83 order down in order to head to the 12th.  Kevin Pillar leads off the top of the inning missing a HR 1-8 split with a 9, but he’s on 2nd with a double and Donaldson rips a single off Acker’s card that scores Pillar.  Another hard single by Smoak and the 83s turn in desperation to Roy Lee Jackson with nobody out and runners on 1st and 3rd; they bring the infield in for injury replacement catcher Raffy Lopez, who rolls a GBA+++injury for an RBI single and a stint on the DL.  Steve Pearce then lofts a flyball that RF-2 Barfield plays into a 2-base error, Hernandez adds a sac fly and Darwin Barney throws in an RBI single and when the Smoak clears the 2017s are taking a four run lead into the bottom of the 12th.  Aaron Loup enters the game to preserve Osuna and he sets the 83s down in order and the 2017 Jays pull off the extra inning upset, working a 9-5 win that gives Toronto four regional wins in the last eight brackets.   This version of the Jays certainly played better here than their 86 losses in real life, with an all “2” infield, a 1 in CF, big bats in Donaldson and Smoak, a supersub in Hernandez and a deep pen that recorded the decision in all three regional games.  

Interesting card of Regional #180:  The 2017 Jays won the regional with three late-inning comebacks, and although their strong bullpen deserves much of the credit, it did help that under tournament rules this guy was available for duty beginning in the 6th inning.  In 2017, the Astros sent a 24 year old Hernandez to Toronto in a midseason trade for a struggling Francisco Liriano, and while Liriano did little for Houston, Hernandez had a strong showing in the late season service represented by this card.  Although small sample cards like this are typically not representative, this one suggested that Hernandez was a guy with good power who would strike out a lot, and that’s pretty much what he’s turned out to be.  Although he got MVP votes for the Jays in 2020 and 2021, they recently sent him off to the Mariners in another deal for a couple of players; I wonder if this one will work out as well for the Jays as the one that brought him to Toronto.