REGIONAL #190:  There wasn’t a single team in this draw that stood out to me.  Any squads that had won pennants had done so several years previously, and so I had a feeling that most of these franchises were in serious phases of decline.  Probably the most recent was a Giants team three seasons after the Earthquake Series, and having little other insights I went ahead and picked them in the finals over a Phillies team that I thought was perhaps building towards being pretty good, as their teams from the 2000s have been practically unstoppable in this tournament.  The ELO rankings indicated that my picks were laughably bad, involving the two worst teams in the bracket, and instead pointed to a pretty strong Angels team besting the Braves for the crown.  However, given the frequency of upsets in this tournament, I still felt pretty good about my chances.

First round action      

The 1997 Phillies lost 94 games and their main redeeming feature was that Curt Schilling (17-11, 2.97) finished 4th in the Cy Young balloting while trying to figure out a way out of town.  They were underdogs against the 2006 Mariners, a 78-84 team that had weapons in the lineup like Ichiro, Richie Sexson, Raul Ibanez, and Adrian Beltre but had nothing in the rotation, with Gil Meche (11-8, 4.48) the best of that mess.  Things start out painfully in the top of the 1st for the Seattle defense as Meche drops a grounder from the leadoff hitter Morandini, and then a single gets past CF-2 Willie Bloomquist that sets up a sac fly by Mike Lieberthal and a 1-0 Phils lead.  They get more in the 3rd, with a two-out double from their no-name RF (Tony Barron) extending the lead to 3-0.   In the 7th the Phils get a runner in scoring position and the M’s move to closer JJ Putz, and he eradicates the threat, while the Phillies bring in replacements to shore up their horrific outfield defense.  Seattle does get a run in the bottom of the 8th on a sac fly from PH Mike Morse, but the Phils get insurance from their nameless one Barron, who hits a two out bases-loaded single that scores two.  That leaves it in Schilling’s hands, and he closes out the 5-1 win to send the Phillies to the semifinals, but dreading what may come next in the rotation.

The 2005 Angels were the top ranked ELO team in the group; unbelievably, I had forgotten that it was the 95-win AL West winning Angels that the White Sox defeated in the ALCS to give the Sox their first pennant that I was old enough to remember.  They had Vlad Guerrero finishing 3rd in the MVP voting, and portly Bartolo Colon (21-8, 3.48) winning the Cy Young, making them considerable favorites over the #6 seeded 1992 Mets.  The Mets lost 90 games while overpaying Bobby Bonilla and a bunch of elder statesmen, but they did have David Cone (13-7, 2.88), at least until they traded him to Toronto in midseason.  An RBI single from Kevin Bass in the top of the 2nd begins the scoring, putting the Mets up, and then in the 4th Colon makes a series of mistakes.  First, he commits a 2-base error on a Bonilla grounder, then he walks Eddie Murray, and finally he grooves one to Bass for a 3-run shot and now it’s Mets 4, Angels 0.  The Angels then get their first hit of the game in the bottom of the 4th, but it’s a triple from Adam Kennedy and he trots home on a Guerrero double that makes it 4-1.  When Colon walks the first batter in the 6th, the Angels don’t mess around and they bring in their 45-save closer Francisco Rodriguez, who quickly dispatches the Mets.  However, in the 7th FRod gets a little wild, and Dave Magadan delivers a 2-out squib RBI single that adds some padding to Cone’s lead.   But in the bottom of the 8th it’s Cone’s turn to get wild, and he walks the bases loaded with two out so the Mets turn to their closer, John Franco.  He delivers to Benjie Molina, it’s a 3-5, HR 1-8, and Molina rolls the 6 for the grand slam and suddenly the game is tied entering the 9th.  It’s FRod’s last inning of eligibility for the regional, and he appropriately walks Chico Walker to lead off the inning.  Next batter, Todd Hundley, rolls the 6-5, HR 1-13/fly B, and it’s another 6 on the split die and it’s another Mets lead.  So now, the question is whether Franco can actually close out the game in the bottom of the 9th.  He allows a triple to Darin Erstad, but then bears down and strands him and the Mets persist and wrap up the 7-5 win that sends the bracket favorite back into storage. 

After the previous first round game, the 2010 Braves were now the top remaining seed in the regional, with credentials like winning 91 games and making the postseason only to lose in the NLDS.  They had a solid rotation with Tim Hudson (17-9, 2.83) at the top, as he finished 4th in the Cy Young ballots.  I had blindly picked their opponent, the 1992 Giants, to take the bracket but after setting their lineup I noted that their offense after Will Clark was lackluster, although swingman Bill Swift (10-4, 2.08) looked like a decent counter to Hudson.  However, he Swiftly gets into trouble as the Braves leadoff batter in the top of the 1st, Jason Heyward, clears the fence for a quick Atlanta lead that could have been larger had not DH Brooks Conrad (1-13+2) been cut down at home for the third out.  From there, both pitchers rip off four straight hitless innings, but in the top of the 6th Giants 3B-2 Matt Williams throws a grounder into the dugout on what would have been out three, and Martin Prado follows with a 2-run homer to extend the Braves lead.  A walk, a converted SI 1-4, and then a three-run blast from Derrek Lee and Swift has got to go, so Jeff Brantley comes in to record the final out but the damage is done.  The Giants begin to show some fight in the bottom of the inning, loading the bases to set up a 2-RBI single from Cory Snyder and the score narrows to 6-2 Braves.  But Chipper Jones adds an RBI single in the top of the 7th and Hudson finishes out a 3-hitter as the Braves triumph, 7-2.  They will play their semifinal game without the services of injured CF Nate McLouth, which results in an upgrade both offensively and defensively at the position.

The last game of round one involved a matchup between two teams from the same season and the same league.  Of the two, the 1993 Rangers had the much better record, going 86-76 with a blistering heart of the order led by Juan Gonzalez, who led the league in homers and finished 4th in MVP balloting.   Their rotation was decent as well, with Kevin Brown (15-12, 3.59) as a worthy first round starter.  On the other hand, the 1993 Brewers dragged to a 69-93 record, relying primarily on Greg Vaughn for offense (certainly not defense), and their rotation was nothing to brag about either, with Cal Eldred (16-16, 4.01) not too bad if he could keep the ball in the park.  Brown escapes a jam in the 2nd when Bill Spiers hits into a bases-loaded double play, and in the top of the 3rd Brewers C-4 Dave Nilsson drops a two-out popup that sets up a 2-run homer by Gonzalez and a Rangers lead.  The Brewers strike back in the bottom of the 5th, as Yount hits a 2-run double and then scores on a Darryl Hamilton base hit and the Brewers edge ahead, 3-2.  However, in the 7th the Rangers put together a 2-out rally when David Hulse singles, and the AA stealer swipes second and scores on a Gary Redus hit to tie the game.  The Brewers send out Jesse Orosco to begin the 8th, not trusting Eldred’s longball propensity, and he holds serve but so does Brown and the game heads to extra innings.  In the top of the 10th Juan Gone hits his second homer of the game, a solo shot that barely clears his 1-10 split, and in his last inning of eligibility Brown sets the Brewers down in order to lock down the 4-3 win.  Brown completes the 6-hit win in which he held Milwaukee hitless for the final five innings.

The survivors

One of these two 90-loss teams was going to make it to the regional finals, with the 1992 Mets sending out a capable Sid Fernandez (14-11, 2.73) while the 1997 Phillies felt that their best shot would be with swingman Garrett Stephenson (8-6, 3.15) with all other eligible starters sporting ERAs north of five.  Fernandez loses control in the top of the 2nd and loads the bases with two out, and then Kevin Stocker converts a DO 1-9/flyB on Sid’s card, which scores two but 1-14 Kevin Jordan is nailed at the plate for the third out.  Nonetheless, the wildness continues in the 3rd as Fernandez again walks the bases loaded, this time with nobody out, and then it’s Rico Brogna’s turn to hit the double; two runs score but the Phils put up the stop sign on the third baserunner.  That works out as Midre Cummings singles with two out to score both runners and the Phils hold a commanding 6-0 lead.  A leadoff triple to begin the top of the 6th and Fernandez is finally pulled, with Bret Saberhagen getting some work, but Mickey Morandini immediately doubles on a missed HR split from Saberhagen’s card and the Mets hole gets even deeper.  They do finally break the ice in the bottom of the 6th with a 2-run homer from Daryl Boston, so when Saberhagen allows a couple of hits in the 8th the Mets move to closer John Franco who ends the inning with no damage.  Meanwhile, Stephenson is cruising until Howard Johnson pokes a solo shot with two out in the bottom of the 9th, but that’s the last gasp for the Mets as Stephenson wraps up a 5-hitter and the Phils head to the finals with a 7-3 win, and no remaining passable starting pitching to speak of.

The top remaining seeds face off in the second semifinal with the #2 seed 2010 Braves against the #3 seeded 1993 Rangers, with the winner being big favorites to capture the regional.  It would be the Braves’ Tommy Hanson (10-11, 3.33) and Texas’ Roger Pavlik (12-6, 3.41) as the matchup, but Jason Heyward gives Pavlik a case of the moody blues when he finds and converts Pavlik’s HR split for a solo shot and a quick Braves lead in the top of the 1st.  Pavlik issues two walks in the 5th to bring up Heyward again, who again rolls the same result but this time misses the split, and to make matters worse 1-15 Gregor Blanco is nailed trying to score with a 17 split.  In the bottom of the 7th, the Rangers make some noise with a single and a walk, and with two out the Braves would like to see Hanson close out the inning so they let him pitch to Gary Redus, who smacks an RBI single off Hanson’s card and puts the tying run on 3rd.  The Braves now bring in Billy Wagner to face the very dangerous Juan Gonzalez with the game on the line, and it’s strike Juan, two, three as Gonzo whiffs and the Braves cling to a one-run lead.  Wagner takes that lead into the bottom of the 9th, and gets two outs but walks two in the process; the Braves now must decide whether to pull Wagner to preserve him for the final or burn him in getting the last out.  They decide to risk it and bring in Jonny Venters, who has control issues of his own, but it pays off as he strikes out Redus and the Braves survive a 2-1 game in which they only manage 5 hits, with the ones that counted all coming off Pavlik’s 5-5 result.

The finals looked like a lopsided matchup with the #2 seeded 2010 Braves as big favorites over the #8 seed 1997 Phillies, but playing as the underdogs was not new to these Phils.  However, they did have the disadvantage of starting the rather dreadful Matt Beech (4-9, 5.07) against the Braves’ solid Kris Medlen (6-2, 3.68) which did not seem to help their odds any.  And for the third game in a row, Jason Heyward busts a solo homer in the first inning off the pitcher’s card, Chipper Jones follows that with a triple past Phils CF-4 Midre Cummings, and then Brooks Conrad doubles Chipper home and the Braves lead 2-0 after one.  To further the deja vu all over again, Heyward comes up in the 2nd with two on, hits the split HR on Beech, misses it as he had done in his second AB of the semifinal, and again a 1-15 runner, Nate McLouth, is cut down trying to score, although this time the lead runner did cross the plate and the Braves now lead 3-0.  However, these Phils are fighters and they put up two in the top of the 4th when an error by Braves 2B-2 Martin Prado opens the door, but the Braves get one back in the 5th when Alex Gonzalez misses a HR split but still records an RBI on the resulting double.  The Phils pull Beech for Mike Grace to begin the 6th, but he yields an RBI triple to CF replacement Gregor Blanco, who then scores on a Heyward sac fly and it’s 6-2 Braves.  Heyward adds a single in the 8th to notch his 4th RBI of the game and Medlen sets the Phils down in the 9th to earn the complete game 7-2 win and the Braves capture their 7th regional title, with this team being the most contemporary one to do so.  Jason Heyward gets regional MVP honors, swatting a homer in the first inning of all three games and ending the bracket with three homers and seven RBI.

Interesting card of Regional #190:  In previous installments, I’ve featured a couple of cards that represented amazing swan songs–Ted Williams, Sandy Koufax, and some less-than-willing final cards such as Barry Bonds or Shoeless Joe.  But here is another one that perhaps ranks up there with them.  In September 2008, Wagner underwent Tommy John surgery and only pitched 16 innings in 2009, and it looked like his career might be over.  Still, the Braves approached him for the 2010 season and, having been a Braves fan as a kid, he signed but informed them that he would be retiring after the season regardless of the outcome.  And the Braves had to be quite happy with their one season–making a total of 71 appearances, Wagner would post the lowest ERA (lowest of his career) with 37 saves, as well as making his seventh, and final, All-Star appearance.  His final outing was Williams-esque, as he struck out the last four batters he faced to wrap up a 16-year career that included 422 saves (sixth all-time, second-highest among LHP).  Named on 68.1% of ballots in the 2023 Hall of Fame voting in his 8th try, it will be interesting to see if he can clear the hurdle in the next few years.