REGIONAL #181:  This group had a couple of twofers in the Phillies and the Royals, with each having an entry that came a couple of years after successful pennant runs by those teams.  There was also a Mets team that would capture a flag in a few seasons, and representatives from the Rangers, Reds, and Angels that I guessed weren’t terrible but weren’t contenders, either.  I picked the 2013 version of the Phils to take it all, as their squads from that vintage have been killer in this tournament (regional wins from 2005, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2014), perhaps the most successful run for any franchise here; I picked them over the Mets in the finals.  The ELO rankings apparently weren’t impressed by the Phils run in my tournament, giving them a chance in the lower half of the bracket only because all four teams were mediocre, but picking the Mets over the Reds for the regional banner.

First round action

The 88-win 1998 Mets were the top seed in the bracket and the only decent entry according to the ELO ranks; they had a solid lineup with big years from Mike Piazza and John Olerud, and Al Leiter (17-6, 2.47) was 6th in the Cy Young voting as the anchor of the rotation.  Although the seeding draws in my tournament are random, in this bracket it worked out in the traditional manner that the top seeded Mets would face the bottom seeded 2019 Royals, who lost 103 games but managed not to finish last in their division, probably thanks solely to AL home run leader Jorge Soler; Brad Keller (7-14, 4.19) was their best option on the mound.  The Mets waste little time in demonstrating their superiority, batting around in the top of the 1st with a 2-run homer from Piazza and a triple from Olerud leading an onslaught that provides a 6-0 cushion before Leiter can throw a pitch.  Edgardo Alfonzo then leads off the 5th with a homer that triggers another onslaught, including a Rey Ordonez triple, and the Mets push out to a 10-0 lead.  However, the Royals come alive in the bottom of the inning and respond with four runs of their own as Leiter loads up the bases with nobody out and a couple of walks and an Adalberto Mondesi single narrow the gap to 10-4.  With the offense showing signs of life, the Royals figure that they may as well move to their closer to begin the 6th, but Ian Kennedy is greeted rudely and a Butch Huskey homer makes it twelve runs for the Mets.  From there Kennedy is flawless, but so is Leiter and the Mets coast to a 12-4 win and a trip to the semifinals.

The 1995 Rangers went 74-70 in that strike-shortened season, which was good enough to earn the #2 seed in this regional of mediocrities; they had some bashers in Juan Gone, Mickey Tettleton and Dean Palmer, while starting Kenny Rogers (17-7, 3.38) wasn’t much of a gamble.  The 2000 Phillies lost 97 games, and aside from notorious Strat-player Doug Glanville their main weapons were Scott Rolen and Bobby Abreu, with swingman Bruce Chen (7-4, 3.29) the best option among a bad rotation.  Chen gets off to a dubious start in the bottom of the 1st, allowing a leadoff homer to Otis Nixon (0 HR in 589 AB) and then Mark McLemore goes back to back with the same roll on Chen’s card (and I use a dice tower, folks).  The Phils put up a run in the 4th as Mike Lieberthal singles in Rolen, but Ron Gant is knocked out of the game with an injury and Glanville grounds into a double play to kill the rally.  Not to be outdone, Pudge Rodriguez also hits Chen’s 4-5 for a third homer, a 2-run shot and the Rangers lead 4-1.  Mickey Morandini leads off the top of the 5th by getting injured for 7 games, and the Phils can do little against Rogers until the top of the 9th, when Pat Burrell scores on a Rogers wild pitch.  But young Jimmy Rollins comes up to pinch hit and Rogers retires him for the final out, with the Rangers advancing with the 4-2 victory.  Chen finishes allowing only six hits, but three of them were homers off his card.

With one Phils team already eliminated, it was now up to the 2013 Phillies to carry the banner, and also they could complete a trifecta as they had two previous regional winners from 2012 and 2014.  However, this version lost 89 games and had an elderly core of the lineup, although 34-year old Cliff Lee (14-8, 2.87) was still effective enough to finish 6th in the Cy Young voting in his next to last season.  He would face a lineup from the 80-82 2006 Reds that boasted seven guys with double digit HRs, paced by Adam Dunn’s 40, and Bronson Arroyo (14-11, 3.29) actually got one vote for MVP.  But Ryan Howard leads off the bottom of the 2nd with a long blast, and Darin Ruf then goes back to back signaling a Ruf night for Arroyo.  The next batter realizes the worst fears of Reds 1B-3 Scott Hatteberg by hitting a grounder to him, which he drops and Jimmy Rollins drives him in with a 2-out double to make it 3-0 Phils after two.  In the top of the 3rd, the Reds strike back with doubles from Edwin Encarnacion and Royce Clayton to put Cincinnati on the board; Hatteberg then misses a HR 1-14 split but the resulting double makes it a one-run game.  In the 4th, Ken Griffey Jr. also misses Lee’s HR 1-14 split and Rich Aurelia (1-12) is nailed trying to score so the Phils hang on, but Encarnacion begins the 5th by finally converting that 1-14 split and it’s a tie game and the Phils are itching to get Lee out of there.  Thus, Jake Diekman is brought in to begin the 6th, as his 5-5 roll is a strikeout, and he does his job, becoming the pitcher of record when Howard hits his second solo homer in the bottom of the inning.  In the 7th, Reds LF-4 Dunn boots a 2-base error and the Reds eye their bullpen but recoil in horror; Arroyo then gives up a double off his card to Carlos Ruiz and their hole becomes deeper.  The Phils call on Antonio Bastardo in the 8th to close things out, and he does so, preserving the 5-3 win for the Phils who win despite only recording five hits–three of them solo homers.  

The 1976 Angels went 76-86, with a dreadful offense that had a fading Bobby Bonds lead the team in homers with 10; however, Frank Tanana (19-10, 2.43) was 3rd in the Cy Young votes to earn the round one start over teammate Nolan Ryan.  The Angels drew a closely ELO matched first round opponent in the 1997 Royals, who lost 94 games but courtesy of the steroid era had four guys with over 20 homers and had a capable Kevin Appier (9-13, 3.40) on the mound.  Tanana has a rough second inning as Yamil Benitez knocks an RBI double, and then Tanana drops a Mike MacFarlane grounder to score a second run; he recovers to record two outs but then Jose Offerman lines a sharp single to score Benitez and the meager Angels lineup now has to overcome a 3-0 deficit.  The hole gets deeper when Dean Palmer puts a two-out pitch into the fountains for a solo shot in the 3rd, and then in the 4th Tanana walks the first two batters with Offerman then finding Tanana’s solid 4-4 homer, and Frank’s day is done; Gary Ross comes in to rack up three straight outs, one of them on a 4-4.  However, in the 5th Benitez finds and converts Ross’s HR 1-7 split for a solo shot and in the 6th the Royals go into wholesale defensive substitution mode.  In the 7th Palmer launches his second homer of the game, a 2-run shot that puts the Royals in double digits.  The Angels can do nothing against Appier who takes a one-hitter into the 9th; California does then knock out consecutive singles but Appier strands them for a 3-hit shutout and the Royals move on with a 10-0 laugher. 

The survivors

When it came to starting pitching for the semifinal between the top two seeds in the regional, the 1998 Mets drew a blank–a blank space where the name Rick Reed (16-11, 3.48) would have appeared if he’d been represented by the MLBPA.  Nameless or not, he still had a better card than that of the 1995 Rangers Roger Pavlik (10-10, 4.37).  Pavlik starts out wild but escapes jams until the 3rd inning, when Brian McRae hits an RBI double and John Olerud adds a 2-out 2-run single to provide the Mets with a lead.  They get another run in the 4th set up by Texas CF-2 Otis Nixon misplaying a single by Jermaine Allensworth, and although Olerud knocks a solo HR in the 5th, the Mets lose their own CF McRae for a 5 game injury that dampens the celebration.   In the 7th the Mets look on in horror as Mike Piazza is injured, but the split roll is a 1 and he stays in the game to the relief of his teammates.  They ponder pulling Piazza for a defensive replacement in the bottom of the inning, but Reed suddenly falls apart, loading the bases with nobody out for Pudge Rodriguez and then giving up a solid homer on Reed’s card, and it’s a one run game and Turk Wendell is summoned from the pen.  Pavlik holds serve but allows a walk and a hit in the top of the 9th, and the Rangers turn to Ed Vosberg to try to keep it close.  Vosberg whiffs Tony Phillips, but injury replacement and .190 hitter Rick Becker finds and converts Vosberg’s HR 1-7/flyB for a three run blast, and the Mets now pinch hit for Piazza just to be safe.  Armed with a four run lead, the Mets save Wendell and bring in their rather terrible closer, John Franco, to close things out in the bottom of the 9th and that doesn’t go well–two hits and a walk load the bases with nobody out, and after getting a strikeout Otis Nixon nails a 2-run single and promptly steals second to put the tying run in scoring position.  The Mets have witnessed enough of Franco and try Dennis Cook, who gets Mark McLemore to ground out and it’s all up to Dean Palmer.  Cook delivers, it’s a 1-9, solid HR on Palmer and it’s an amazing come from behind 9-8 win for the Rangers on the walkoff 3-run shot.  Although Cook gets the official loss, Franco deserves recognition for his 109.09 ERA in his brief appearance. 

The second semifinal was the Zoom game of the week as Philly Phan TT took charge of the 2013 Phillies in an effort to push them to a regional win; with no natural advocate on the Zoom call, the 1997 Royals would be managed by the Nacster simply because he was replaying the ‘97 season.  However, he soon discovered that he had forgotten how bad their pitching staff was, and there was much trepidation in sending out Jose Rosado (9-12, 4.69) to face the better-looking card of Cole Hamels (8-14, 3.60).   The Royals do jump to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st without recording a hit, courtesy of a two-base error by Phils SS-2 Jimmy Rollins, but the worries about Rosado appear merited when the Phils respond with back to back homers in the top of the 2nd by Ryan Howard and Darin Ruf, the latter on a converted HR 1/flyB split.  Another 2-base error by Rollins in the 6th sets up an RBI single by Jay Bell that ties the game, only the second hit of the game for the Royals, but Domonic Brown puts the Phils back on top in the 7th with the third solo homer for the Phils.  Meanwhile, Nacster is impugning Jeff King’s desire to play baseball, but it’s no wonder King is unenthusiastic as he rips two doubles but the “B” stealer King is thrown out both times trying to steal third on Carlos Ruiz.  Down by a run in the bottom of the 7th, Nacster empties the bench in search of the right combination and he comes up with it in the form of PH Jed Hansen, who rolls a 1-2 SI** that drives in the tying run, but by the end of the inning official scorer Fgabs is pulling for anybody that can prevent the game from going to extra innings as there is no blank space left on the scoresheet, particularly on the Royals side.  Rosado seems to get the gopher balls out of his system in the late innings, and it comes down to the bottom of the 9th, with TT eyeing Jonathan Papelbon but electing to stay with Hamels.  Cole gets one out but PH Jon Nunnally singles; Papelbon is ready but Hamels insists on pitching to Jose Offerman, and Offerman promptly drives a double into the gap off Hamels’ card.  The 1-14 Nunnally rounds third, Nacster is wildly motioning him home, and he’s safe–the Royals head to the finals with the 4-3 walkoff win.  Rosado records the complete game win with a 5-hitter--three of them solo homers; that pattern of 5 hits, 3 solo homers exactly duplicates the Phils' offense in their round one win, but this time it wasn't good enough.

It was the #2 seed 1995 Rangers against the #6 seeded 1997 Royals in a regional final between two near-contemporaries, and both teams shared the problem that their number three starters were pretty terrible.  For the Rangers, it would be Bob Tewksbury (8-7, 4.58) against Jim Pittsley (5-8, 5.46) for KC, an alarming option but one chosen by Nacster, whose unconventional approach to managing the Royals got them to the finals, so who I am to argue?  The Royals tweak Tewk in the bottom of the 1st, with a remarkable four SOLID doubles off Tewksbury’s card (Damon, Davis, Palmer and Benitez) for a 3-0 lead.  Jermaine Dye adds a solo homer in the 2nd, but the Rangers get that run back in the 3rd as Juan Gonzalez doubles in Mark McLemore on a missed HR split to make it 4-1.  In the 4th, Jay Bell rips a 2-run single through a drawn in infield and Tewksbury is gone for Roger McDowell, who settles things down.  Meanwhile, Pittsley is in fine form but in the 8th the Rangers mount a 2-out rally and load the bases for Mickey Tettleton, so the Royals bring in Randy Veres as their only decent bullpen option, who records the out with no damage.  Veres then shuts down the Rangers in order in the 9th and the Royals close out the 6-1 win to notch their 7th regional win, and their first for a squad from the 90s.  The Royals take the banner despite having one of the poorer pitching staffs for a regional winner in recent memory, but the combination of a lineup with multiple weapons and some atypically strong pitching performances was enough to push them into the winner’s circle.

Interesting card of Regional #181:  The Mendoza Line was established to designate just how bad a hitter that a good-fielding shortstop could be and still keep a full-time job; I wonder what the comparable threshold would be to indicate just how bad a fielder that a good-hitting catcher could be and remain a regular.   Whatever the line, it’s pretty obvious that Mike Piazza was well over the threshold.  I remember when he first came up, he had cards unlike any catcher we’d ever seen before, setting the MLB record for most home runs by a rookie catcher (35) in 1993 and winning Rookie of the Year despite some misgivings about his fielding.  This 1998 season was rather disruptive for him, as he was traded from the Dodgers to the Marlins to the Mets over the course of the season, and for the first time in his then six-year career he didn’t finish in the top 10 in the MVP voting with this card, coming in 14th despite posting some pretty decent numbers (but a +2 arm).  Piazza never got a break in his defensive ratings from Strat, although some have argued that he was greatly underrated in that department:  he was supposedly among the best in keeping the ball in front of him, one of the best pitch framers of all time, and SABR points out that he was the regular catcher for 11 pitching staffs over his career, with all but one of those staffs finishing in the top five in earned run average.