REGIONAL #186:   In this draw, it seemed to me that almost any of the teams could compete for the regional.  There were two Expos entries, one from the year just before they were notoriously shortchanged by the season-ending strike.  There were the Rays right after their pandemic pennant, who I remembered as having been somewhat disappointing, and a Red Sox team a few seasons before they were finally able to overcome the Curse of the Babe.  There were the Tigers two seasons after an AL pennant, and the Marlins three years after an NL crown, although for that franchise it might as well have been a century given how quickly they tended to be disassembled, so I suspected that they might be the worst of this bunch.  Throw in an Angels team three years before their first pennant and an A’s team about to enter the Moneyball era, and picking a winner seemed like a crapshoot.  I decided to go with the ‘93 version of the Expos, although their first round matchup with the Red Sox might lead to a quick exit; I went with the Tigers in the top half of the bracket but figured their rotation would decline by the time they reached the finals.  The season-ending ELO score for the 2021 Rays far outpaced the rest of the teams and suggested that despite their ALDS loss, they were hardly a disappointment; those rankings suggested that they would get their revenge against the Red Sox, the franchise that beat them in that series, in the finals here.

First round action

The 2008 Tigers lost 88 games and finished last in the AL Central, which might have been the result of having a team comprised largely of DHs; Armando Galarraga (13-7, 3.73) had a nice WHIP but had troubles with the gopher ball, with nearly twice as many HR chances on his card as Andres Galarraga, the first baseman on the opposing 1986 Expos.  The Expos were ELO underdogs to the Tigers, but I wasn’t so sure as Montreal went 78-83 with Tim Raines and a career year from Hubie Brooks leading the offense, and Floyd Youmans (13-12, 3.53) headed a solid rotation.  However, the Tigers flex their muscle in the top of the 1st as Miguel Cabrera misses a HR split but Carlos Guillen races home on the resulting double, and Maggio Ordonez singles in Miggy to make it 2-0 Detroit.  They get another run in the 3rd when Youmans’ wildness loads the bases and then Miggy scores on a wild pitch, but the Expos get the run back in the bottom of the inning on a Tim Wallach sac fly.  Expos DH Wallace Johnson finds and converts Galarraga’s 5-7 HR 1-5/flyB split to lead off the bottom of the 4th, and then both Mike Fitzgerald and Raines convert Galarraga’s 6-7 DO 1-10/flyB to tie the game, although Andre Dawson misses that 5-7 HR split to end the inning.  Entering the 6th, the Tigers summon a bevy of replacements and when Youmans issues his 8th walk to one of them leading off the inning, Floyd is sent to the dark side of the moon and Bob McClure gets the ball.  However, the Expos learn that there are worse things than a walk, as McClure allows a double, a 2-run single to Guillen, and a 2-run homer to Ordonez and suddenly it’s 7-3 Tigers.  Johnson leads off the bottom of the inning by missing that 5-7 HR split, but Mike Fitzgerald follows with a 6-5 roll that leaves no doubt, a solid HR result and the Tigers need to disArmando although their pen is terrible but Freddy Dolsi manages to end the inning without further damage.  The Expos load the bases in the 8th and score a run when Tigers SS-2 Ramon Santiago turns a DP ball into a single, but then Dawson grounds into a DP to kill the rally, so it’s a two run game heading into the 9th.  The Expos get the tying run aboard in the bottom of the 9th, but Dolsi manages to hold on in his last inning of eligibility for the regional and the Tigers advance with a 7-5 victory.

In a first round Battle for Florida, the regional top seed 2021 Rays were big favorites over the 2007 Marlins.   The Rays won 100 games and the AL East, and boasted three 30+ HR bats, solid defense, and a deep bullpen, although Shane McClanahan’s (10-6, 3.43) card didn’t look quite as good as his stats.  However, the 91-loss Marlins looked to have a puncher’s chance, with eight guys in the lineup with SLG% over .450, but their starting pitching was atrocious, with Dontrelle Willis (10-15, 5.17) representing one of the worst round one starters I’d seen in quite a while.  The Jays get on the board with back to back doubles from Wander Franco and Joey Wendle to lead off the bottom of the 2nd, and later in the inning a sac fly from Randy Arozarena precedes a 3-run homer by Brandon Lowe and it’s 5-0 Tampa after two.  A couple of Rays baserunners in the 3rd and Willis is gone for Lee Gardner, who comes in and promptly allows an RBI single to Arozarena and then a 3-run shot to Ji-man Choi and it’s looking like a blowout.  The Marlins get a run on a squib RBI single from Josh Willingham in the 4th, and then McClanahan is victimized by errors from 3B-2 Wendle and 1B-2 Choi in the 8th to provide the Marlins with another.  But Choi atones in the bottom of the inning with his second homer of the game, and a tiring McClanahan hangs on in the 9th to cement the 11-2 complete game win, striking out 12 Marlins in the process.  

The 1993 Expos had virtually no overlap with the 1986 team that had been eliminated earlier in the regional, as this version won 94 games to finish second in the NL East boasting lots of team speed, Larry Walker coming into this own, and an impressive if somewhat walk-prone card from starter Jeff Fassero (12-5, 2.29).  Fassero and his Expos teammate Mike Lansing were also on the opposing team, the 85-win 2000 Red Sox, but the start for Boston was going to Pedro Martinez (18-6, 1.74), the Cy Young winner and by himself sufficient to make the Red Sox the slight ELO favorite here.  True to form, Fassero walks three batters in the bottom of the 1st but somehow escapes with no damage.  In the bottom of the 4th, Brian Daubach leads off by adding injury (for four games) to insult (he doesn’t have his name on his card), and the Expos come alive in the 6th with a 3-run homer from Marquis Grissom that renders Fenway Park eerily quiet.  Fassero is dominating until the 8th, when an RBI single gets under the glove of SS-4 Wil Cordero and with nobody out and two aboard les Expos summon a supercard of their own in closer John Wetteland.  But the Red Sox get another run on a Jason Varitek fielder’s choice and the game enters the 9th with Montreal clinging to the one-run lead.  Martinez holds serve in the top of the inning and it comes down to Wetteland vs. the top of the Boston order in the bottom of the 9th.  He whiffs Trot Nixon, but Carl Everett singles (missing a TR 1-10 with an 11) and he advances to third on a Garciaparra hit.  The infield comes in for Dante Bichette, who hits a gbA but there is no DP as Nomar heads to second, representing the winning run with two away and injury replacement Israel Alcantara at the plate.  Wetteland delivers; it’s a 1-5, single on Alcantara, Everett scores and Garciaparra, 1-16 with two out, is waved home, the split is a 3 and the Red Sox walk off a come from behind 4-3 win, Martinez getting the win allowing only 5 hits while striking out 13.  The Red Sox themselves only manage 7 hits, with five of them coming in the last two innings.

The 1997 A’s featured the final season of the Bash Brothers, with McGwire dealt to the Cards mid-season but sporting a formidable card nonetheless.  However, it wasn’t enough to keep the A’s from losing 97 games, mainly because of a laughably bad starting rotation with swingman Mike Oquist (4-6, 5.02) actually looking better than all other options.   The 1999 Angels were from a few years later, and they lost 92 games but had at least one okay starting pitcher:  Chuck Finley (12-11, 4.43), a guy with eight previous starts in this tournament, going 4-4 in those opportunities.  However, Finley falls apart in the top of the 2nd, allowing 3 hits and 4 walks and the A’s put up a 4-0 early lead.  The A’s do lose SS Rafael Bournigal to injury in the 4th, and in the 6th RF Matt Stairs goes down for 7 games and the A’s are looking for potential replacements in the stands in case they run out of players.  The Angels get two singles to start off the bottom of the 8th and the A’s eye their bullpen, but there is only one non-terrible option there and Oakland figures they will likely be needed in later rounds, so they give the ball back to Oquist and he responds by striking out the side to end the threat.  He then sets Anaheim down in order in the 9th and completes the 7-hit shutout to propel the A’s to the semifinals; Finley has another hard luck outing as he allows only four hits, but they were bunched with several walks and his tournament record drops under .500.

The survivors

This semifinal paired the top-seeded 2021 Rays against the #4 seed 2008 Tigers, who had a pretty decent ELO ranking for a last place team.  Furthermore, Detroit had Justin Verlander (11-17, 4.84) who, while not having the kind of year he’d have later in his career, still looked better than the Rays’ Ryan Yarbrough (9-7, 5.11).  But it’s the Rays who get first strike in the 2nd, as an error by Tigers C-3 Brandon Inge sets up a squib RBI single by Kevin Kiermaier to make it 1-0, and Choi is Ji-Man for the Rays leading off the 3rd with a homer to extend the lead.  However, Verlander seems to regain his composure and when Yarbrough allows runners on 1st and 3rd in the 6th with one away, the Rays decide to take advantage of their deep pen and summon Tyler Glasnow, who whiffs Gary Sheffield and Inge to eradicate the threat.  In the bottom of the inning, the Rays get back to back doubles from Mike Zunino and Nelson Cruz, both off Verlander’s card, and Wander Franco then singles in Cruz and the Tigers are regretting having burned their only decent reliever in round one.  Although Verlander again recovers, the Rays bring in Drew Rasmussen for the final two innings and he completes the 4-hit shutout as the Rays use only a small part of their dominating relief corps in wrapping up the 4-0 win and the trip to the regional final.

The Zoom game of the week was the semifinal matching the 2000 Red Sox, managed by StratFan Rick, and the 1997 A’s, reluctantly guided by nacster who had reservations about their beyond terrible pitching staff, to say nothing about injuries benching two of their regulars.  Although Boston’s Rolando Arrojo (10-11, 5.63) was not one to instill confidence in Red Sox fans, he still looked better than the A’s Dave Telghelder (4-6, 6.06), with both having serious issues with the gopher ball.  Things start out quietly enough, but the Red Sox start finding Telghelder’s numerous weaknesses in the 3rd, with Dante Bichette and Nomar Garciaparra driving in runs to stake Boston to a 2-0 lead.    In the 4th Troy O’Leary and the underpowered Manny Alexander deliver solo shots to extend the margin, and nac pulls the plug on Telghelder in the 5th after he allows his requisite fifth run, but the bullpen is not the answer and the hits keep coming.  Alexander, who had four homers during the entire 2000 season, hits his second solo shot of the game in the 7th, but the A’s finally strike back in the bottom of the inning with a solo shot by McGwire that actually comes off the card of Arrojo, but Jose Canseco then suffers a tournament-ending injury to become the third Oakland player to head to the infirmary.  When Big Mac takes Arrojo downtown a second time in the bottom of the 9th, the Red Sox opt to summon closer Derek Lowe, who wraps up the comfortable 8-3 victory to send the Red Sox into the finals.

The regional final matched the top seed in the 2021 Rays against the #2 seeded 2000 Red Sox, just as the ELO rankings had predicted.   For the top two teams in the group, neither had a #3 starter that merited much enthusiasm, as the Rays Josh Fleming (10-8, 5.09) and Boston’s Jeff Fassero (8-8, 4.78) were both hoping to survive long enough the reach more capable bullpens.  The Rays lose Ji-Man Choi, who had been a major force in first two rounds, to injury in the top of the 1st, but in the 3rd the Rays get RBI singles from Arozarena and injury replacement Yandy Diaz, and then Brandon Lowe brings both of them home with a three-run blast that sends Fassero to the showers after only 1+ innings pitched.  Rich Garces ends the inning, but Tampa has a commanding 5-0 lead until the bottom of the inning, when the Red Sox show why they’re in the final by rapping five hits, with Troy O’Leary and Manny Alexander driving in runs before Dante Bichette rips a two out, two run single with the bases loaded to make it a one-run game.  The Rays respond with another run in the 3rd on a two-out RBI single by Manuel Margot, but when Nomar leads off the bottom of the inning with a homer, the Rays yank Fleming for Ryan Thompson who retires the side without incident.  So it’s now up to the bullpens as neither starter could go beyond two innings, and the Rays find a couple of hits on Garces in the 4th and score on a Nelson Cruz RBI single and a run-scoring error by Red Sox injury replacement 1B-4 Alcantara.  However, in the bottom of the 5th Carl Everett leads off with a homer and after a Nomar walk, Alcantara atones with a 2–run homer and the game is knotted at eight apiece.  In the top of the 7th, a dropped grounder by 3B-3 Manny Alexander allows a Rays run to score, and Boston reliever Rod Beck ends the inning by getting injured for the rest of the tournament.  So Red Sox closer Derek Lowe comes in for the 8th, and he’s shelled for four hits by the relentless Tampa offense and the Rays add three runs to their lead.  Then, in the 9th Mike Zunino and Nelson Cruz lead off the inning with back to back homers; two hits later, .206 hitting defensive replacement Brett Phillips raps a 3-run shot and Lowe exits after allowing 9 hits and 8 runs in one inning pitched.  Rheal Cormier comes in and allows solo shots to Arozarena and Brandon Lowe, his second blast of the game, and Red Sox fans are streaming out to try to catch the next T home.  JP Feyereisen then sets Boston down quietly in the bottom of the 9th and the Rays take the regional with a crushing 19-8 win, completing a 3-game run in which they scored 34 runs.  This is the 3rd regional win for the relatively young franchise, joining 2010 and 2017; the dominating offense and stifling bullpen of this version suggests that despite their suspect starting pitching, they may continue to be a threat in later rounds.  

Interesting card of Regional #186: My first National League Strat cards that I acquired as a kid was the 1968 season, and of course Bob Gibson’s card is forever etched in my memory as the pinnacle of pitching accomplishment.  However, I have to say that this performance, which barely was victorious in the first round in this regional, rivals Gibby’s.  Although Gibson’s 1.12 ERA was a mark for the ages, he did it in a season where the league average was ERA 2.99.  On the other hand, Pedro’s 1.74 ERA in 2000 was put together at the height of the steroid era, with a league average of 4.91; that’s 35% of the league mean, even better than Gibson’s 37%, and his opponents’ on-base percentage (.213) was the lowest in 100 years.  I don’t usually include the back sides of the card in this feature because this tournament is all-Basic and I find the SADV versions in particular to be cluttered and not aesthetically pleasing; however, I’ll make an exception here (although you’ll have to turn your monitor sideways to read it) as this one is pretty nice-looking–especially against lefties.