REGIONAL #197:  The very first draw in this group was the Phillies team that immediately followed their infamous 1964 collapse in the pennant race–but I wasn’t certain whether that collapse continued into the following year.  Another team that caught my eye was a White Sox entry from shortly after they had been shortchanged by the players strike a few years prior when they had been one of the best teams in baseball;  I felt that they should still be competitive if they could surmount the Sox jinx.  Other teams that seemed to have some potential were various National League draws from the Dodgers, Reds and Giants, while I didn’t expect much from what I guessed were down years for the Yankees and another Phillies team, while there was a post-expansion Angels team that had initially been surprisingly decent but I guess had crashed back to reality.  Although I thought the Sox team should have a chance if anyone other than I was rolling for them, I suspected that they wouldn’t get past the Dodgers and I guessed that the Dodgers would then go on to best the Giants in a rivalry-fueled finals.   The ELO ranks indicated that I had vastly overestimated both of those teams, picking what looked to be a good Reds team to best the Sox in the finals.

First round action

Two teams from the Sixties collide in this first round game.  The 1965 Phillies had pulled a nosedive at the end of the previous season to blow a pennant, and their 85-76 record this season was only good for 6th place in the NL, but there was talent on the roster in the form of Dick Allen, Johnny Callison, and Wes Covington, and Hall of Famer Jim Bunning (19-9, 2.60) posted one of his best seasons.  They faced the 91-loss 1963 Angels, who were just a few years into their existence, and aside from Leon Wagner there wasn’t much offense although their rotation was solid with Ken McBride (13-12, 3.26) sporting a fine card.  McBride takes a no-hitter into the top of the 6th but Bobby Wine rolls Ken’s HR split; although he misses the split, the resulting double rattles McBride who issues two walks and then, with two away, he grooves one to Callison who whallops a grand slam, only the second hit of the game for the Phils.  Allen then ends the inning by getting knocked out of the game with an injury, although he’s expected back for the semifinals should the Phils hold on.  The Angels respond with a run in the bottom of the inning on a Jim Fregosi RBI single, but Alex Johnson answers with a 2-run homer in the 7th that chases McBride for Art Fowler, and Callison adds his second homer of the game in the 8th to pad things further.  That is plenty for Bunning, who ends with a six-hit 7-1 victory, in which the Phils only managed 5 hits themselves, but three of them left the yard.

The 1995 Reds were the bracket favorite according to the ELO ranks, and I had forgotten that they went 85-59 in a strike-shortened season but lost the NLCS to finish as league runner-ups.  They had three .500+ SLG% guys in the heart of the lineup, an all “1” DP combo in Barry Larkin and Bret Boone, and a career year from Pete Schourek (18-7, 3.22), who finished second in the Cy Young votes.  I had unwisely predicted that they would lose to the 1995 Giants, who lost 94 games and had little going for them other than Matt Williams and a still-slim Barry Bonds, who finished 5th in the MVP votes; their rotation was putrid, with Kirk Rueter (6-8, 3.97) the only approximation of decent.  The Reds score in the top of the 1st courtesy of the Giants’ all “3” DP combo, with a 2-base error by SS-3 Rich Aurelia followed by a sharp single past 2b-3 Steve Scarsone gifting the run.  Aurelia commits his second 2-base error of the game in the 3rd, allowing one run to score and setting up a 2-run single by Benito Santiago, and after Hal Morris adds a sac fly the Reds hold a 5-0 and the Giants are still looking for their first hit.  That does come in the bottom of the inning from Aurelia, who figures he might as well try to contribute with his bat since his glove doesn’t work, and the Giants do get a run on a Rich Wilkins fielder’s choice.  But Reggie Sanders leads off the 5th with a colossal homer, and in the 6th Giants 1B-4 Mark Carreon can’t track down his wayward ball for a 2-base error that sets up a Boone RBI double.  Receiving no fielding support whatsoever, Rueter then begs to be taken out of the game, and closer Rod Beck takes his turn.  He gets to watch 3b-2 Williams drop yet another grounder that leads to yet another run, although in the bottom of the 8th Reds 3b-2 Jeff Branson returns the favor with an error that sets up a 2-run homer from Williams.  Boone responds with a two out RBI single in the top of the 9th, and a tiring Schourek manages to hang on to preserve the pen and earn the 9-3 win.  

The 1994 Phillies went 54-61 in that strike season but underperformed their Pythagorean projection by quite a bit and seemed better than their record, although the limited innings made for a shallow rotation fronted by a good Bobby Munoz (7-5, 2.67).   My blind selection to take the bracket, the 2007 Dodgers, had a better 82-80 record but a slightly worse ELO ranking than the Phils; they had a group of solid hitters like Russell Martin, Andre Ethier and Jeff Kent, and Brad Penny (16-4, 3.03) came in 3rd in the Cy Young votes although I felt he might have been a bit undercarded.  Things start out auspiciously as on the first roll of the game Dodger LF-3 Luis Gonzales commits a 2-base error, and on the second roll I’m charged with a wild pitch as I lose control of the dice and one ends up plunking into my coffee.  But Penny survives the inning with no damage or stains, and the Phils end their half of the second with SS Kevin Stocker getting knocked out of the game with an injury.  That turns the position into SS-4 Kim Batiste, and when he can’t turn a DP in the 3rd the Dodgers take a 1-0 lead.  However, it also allows the Phils to bring in their supersub Randy Ready, and his double in the 5th sets up a 2-run single from Mickey Morandini that puts Philadelphia in front.  A walk and a single to begin the top of the 6th and the Dodgers don’t like the way things are going, and they move to closer Takashi Saito to try to head off disaster; he proves remarkably efficient as he makes one pitch to Mariano Duncan, who promptly hits into a triple play.  However, the Ready/Morandini combo strikes again in the 7th as Ready’s single is followed by a triple from Morandini; then a walk to Darren Daulton leads to a 2-out, 2-run triple from Lenny Dysktra, the man with no reputation to libel, and the Phils lead by four.  The Phils now hope Munoz can close it out and save the pen, but a leadoff single by Pierre in the bottom of the inning, a walk to Martin, and then James Loney puts it into the pavilions in Chavez Ravine and very quickly it’s a one run game with nobody out and the Phils bring in their closer, Doug Jones.  But errors by 1b-3 John Kruk and LF-4 Pete Incaviglia and another run comes in, and the game is tied after seven.  With Saito at the end of his rope, the Dodgers move to Jonathan Broxton to begin the 9th, and he’s salvaged by some split rolls as a single to Kent is followed by a HR 1-13/DO on Luis Gonzalez; he misses the split with an 18, and not learning my lesson, I send Kent 1-10 home to try to win the game…no dice, it’s a 14 and Kent is nailed.  Now with two out and Gonzalez still in scoring position, Matt Kemp steps up to pinch hit, but he grounds out and it's off to extra innings.  The first batter in the top of the 10th is Incaviglia, and he takes no split chances with a solid homer and the Phils lead.  With Jones at his limit, the Phils bring in Heathcliff Slocum to try to close, and he goes 1-2-3 and the Phils escape with the see-saw, extra-inning 6-5 win, while the Dodgers return to storage cursing the split die.  

The 1996 White Sox won 85 games to finish 2nd in the AL Central; on the plus side of their ledger they had some hitters in Frank Thomas, Harold Baines and Robin Ventura, and Alex Fernandez (16-10, 3.45) earned some Cy Young votes as their best starter by far, but on the downside they had some defensive holes and the Sox jinx to overcome.  On the bright side, they faced the 1990 Yankees, who according to ELO ratings were the second-worst Yankee team of all time, losing 95 games with illustrious names like Bye Bye Balboni, Bamm Bamm Meulens, and the not-quite-two-sport Deion Sanders, while Tim Leary (9-19, 4.11) was hoping the whole season was just a bad LSD trip.  Of course, combine the Sox jinx with the tendency for teams that I make fun of to retaliate, and Steve Sax leads off the bottom of the 1st with a homer off Fernandez’s card to give the Yankees a quick lead.  Baines then leads off the top of the 2nd with a homer on Leary’s tab, and it’s looking like a lively afternoon in the Bronx is forthcoming.  But then both teams lapse into a race to see who can leave the most runners in scoring position; for example, bottom of the 5th sees Sax reach first on an error by C-1 Ron Karkovice, but then Kark throws out Sax trying to steal for the second time of the game.  Roberto Kelly follows by missing a HR 1-16/TR split and then gets stranded on third, so after five the game is still knotted at one apiece.   The starters are now settling in, but when Leary walks the leadoff hitter in the top of the 8th the Yanks decide Lee Guetterman is their best shot to win this game, but Baines finds and converts Guetterman’s HR split for a 2-run homer and a Sox lead.  A leadoff single in the bottom of the inning and the Sox try their closer, Roberto Hernandez, and his first pitch is a two-run homer by Matt Nokes and the game is tied heading into the 9th.  The Sox leave runners on 1st and 3rd in the top of the 9th, and Hernandez dispatches the Yanks so we head to extra frames.  The Sox go down in order in the top of the 10th, while in the bottom of the inning Nokes draws a leadoff walk and Neon Deion gets into the game as a pinch-runner.   But Mel Hall misses a SI 1-19 split and the rest of the Yanks are dispatched and we head to the 11th, with both closers looking at their last inning of eligibility for the regional.  Guetterman does his job in the top of the 11th, while the Sox decide to try to save some of Hernandez and try Tony Castillo, who gets one out but then promptly has his HR 1-12/TR hit by Sax–who misses the split and the infield comes in with the winning run 90 feet away with one out.  Castillo whiffs Roberto Kelly and Jesse Barfield flies out to shallow left and the game heads to the 12th, with Dave Eiland taking the mound for New York.  Tony Phillips greets him with a leadoff double, and then 3b-4 Jim Leyritz boots a Dave Martinez grounder and Frank Thomas rips an RBI single; it looks like a big inning for the Sox but Ventura immediately lines into a triple play and the Sox take just a one run edge into the bottom of the inning.  That edge lasts two batters, as backup catcher Rick Cerone finds and converts Castillo’s homer to tie the game and send the game to the 13th.  The Sox strand Ray Durham at 2nd in the top of the inning; in the bottom of the frame, Castillo gets two quick outs, but then allows two consecutive doubles off his own card to Sax and Kelly and the Yanks walk it off in the 13th and head to the semifinals with a sloppy 5-4 win.  

The survivors

The top-seeded 1995 Reds faced the #4 seed 1965 Phillies in this semifinal matchup, with the Phils’ Chris Short (18-11, 2.82) matched against the solid but walk-prone Dave Burba (10-4, 3.97) for the Reds.  The Reds benefit from the split gods in the bottom of the 3rd when #9 hitter Darren Lewis converts a HR 1-4 off Short’s card, but Short settles down although Burba is in fine form with great control.  When Clay Daltrymple knocks a leadoff single in the 8th for the Phils, the Reds eye their pen but don’t like what they see; the Phils try to go smallball on Burba bringing in Aldolfo Phillips to pinch run and Bobby Wine sacrifices him into scoring position with one out and the top of the order up.  Burba records two quick outs to strand Phillips, but in the 9th he falters, allowing a couple of hits including an RBI single to Dr. Strangeglove Dick Stuart that ties the game, and Short takes care of business to send things to extra innings.  Things cave in on Burba in the top of the 10th, with a leadoff single followed by consecutive errors from 3B-2 Jeff Branson and C-3 Benito Santiago, loading the bases for the heart of the order with nobody out, but they are limited to one run on a Dick Allen sac fly, still enough to send Short into the bottom of the 10th with a lead in his last inning of eligibility.   But Branson tries to atone for his error with a leadoff double, and after an out Lewis squibs a single that sends Branson to 3rd.  Torn between holding the A stealing Lewis and having the infield in, the Phils bring them in and Lewis responds by stealing second to keep the Reds out of the double play.  With the infield still in, Barry Larkin grounds out and Reggie Sanders whiffs and the Phils pull off the extra-inning 2-1 upset as the Reds leave both the tying and winning runs in scoring position. 

The 1994 Phillies were seeking to make it an all-Philly Phinal and they were favored to do so against the bottom-seeded 1990 Yankees who seemed to have taken advantage of a jinx to get into the semifinals.  With innings limitations from the season-ending strike, the Phils only starting option was Danny Jackson (14-6, 3.26), still comparing favorably to the Yanks’ Mike Witt (5-9, 4.00), the best of numerous mediocre choices for New York, and both bullpens had been stretched in the first round so both teams wanted their starters to go deep in the game.  The Yanks luck seems to be holding as with two out in the bottom of the 1st and a man on, Phils LF-4 Pete Incaviglia manages to make a three-base error out of a Kevin Maas flyball to give NY the lead.  A two-out RBI single from Mickey Morandini ties the game in the top of the 3rd, but the Yanks respond in the bottom of the inning as Steve Sax singles, steals second, and then scores on a Roberto Kelly base hit to regain the lead.  Jackson then settles in but when Kelly leads off the 8th with a single and stolen base, the Phils move to Heathcliff Slocum and he staves off any threat, so we head to the 9th and New York goes wholesale on the defensive replacements to try to hold on to their one run lead.  Witt gets two quick outs but then supersub Randy Ready strokes a single and Billy Hatcher comes in to pinch run; Witt then walks Kevin Stocker to put the tying run in scoring position.  But Witt whiffs Morandini and Yankee Stadium erupts as the unlikely Bombers head to the finals with the 2-1 win.  

The #8 seeded 1990 Yankees were an unlikely entrant in the regional final, rated as the second worst team in the history of the Bronx, but they had advanced further than most of the legendary teams to have worn the pinstripes.  They faced the #4 seed 1965 Phillies, who themselves had something to prove having choked away the NL pennant in the previous season.   The Phils’ starting pitching was holding up well with Ray Culp (14-10, 3.22) as a solid third starter, while the Yankees had a consistent if mediocre rotation and Chuck Cary (6-12, 4.10) was better than some I’d seen in the finals.  However, he begins the top of the 1st by yielding two straight singles, and then Johnny Callison sends both runners home with a triple; the Yanks bring the infield in and Wes Covington shoots a single past the drawn-in third baseman and the Phils lead 3-0 before New York swings a bat.  In the bottom of the 4th, Mel Hall records a triple of his own and he scores on a Jim Leyritz sac fly, and then Don Mattingly doubles past LF-4 Alex Johnson and he scores on a single by Alvaro Espinoza and suddenly it’s a one-run game.  But in the 6th, the Phils stage a two run rally when Covington walks, Johnson singles with the snail-like Covington holding at second, but he can walk home when Dr. Strangeglove Dick Stuart launches one past the monuments at Yankee Stadium for a three-run blow.  The Yanks respond in the bottom of the inning with a Mattingly triple that scores Hall and Espinoza singles him home, and for the first time in the regional the Phils start to examine their bullpen for solutions.  They decide to stick with Culp for a while, and he escapes the inning but the Phils lead is now narrowed to two.  However, in the top of the 9th Cary issues two walks and then 3B-4 Leyritz throws a relay into the dugout for a two base error and the Phillies add a run to their lead without the benefit of a hit.  That leaves Culp needing three outs in the bottom of the 9th; he gets two quick ones but then walks Barfield and he drops a Kevin Maas grounder, so Matt Nokes steps to the plate as the tying run.  Nokes hits a sharp grounder to first, but instead of 1b-5 Dr. Strangeglove it’s 1b-3 Ruben Amaro, and he fields it cleanly to close out the 7-4 win and provide the Phillies with the 8th regional win for the franchise, the only one currently between the years 1938 and 2005.  The Phils thus atone for their 1964 collapse with essentially the same team, courtesy of a strong rotation and timely hitting from Callison and Stuart.

Interesting card of Regional #197:  Here we have another low at-bat, high average wonder who kind of flies under the radar despite that rather gaudy .480 on-base percentage.  I’ve mentioned before that players with high batting averages who also draw a lot of walks tend to have trouble reaching their actual averages, and I think this card is a bit of an example as to me it doesn’t look quite Ready to produce a .381 average.  But that’s not Randy’s fault; he had a 13 year career in the majors and not once did he garner enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title, so somebody needs to bat this card 502 times to give him his shot.  He produced this card in the penultimate year of his career at age 35; he had a similar number of appearances in his rookie season at age 23, but unfortunately back in 1983 there were only 20 cards plus four additional players per team, and Strat decided the world wasn’t Ready for a low AB card with a .405 batting average and a 1.164 OPS.  Well, if you follow this feature with any regularity, you know that I’m always Ready to correct such oversights with my own homebrews, and thus I present the impressive bookends to a part-time career.

REGIONAL #196:  After some high-profile draws in the last batch, this bracket was much less eye-catching.  There was a Cardinals team that had won a pennant in the prior season that I suspected was still pretty good, and a Marlins team that had won a flag two years before that I was pretty sure had been totally gutted.  Also included were entries from the Mets and the Tigers that each were three years past a Series appearance, and a 90s Yankees team four years before they started a pennant streak of their own.  The remaining squads I guessed would have some good players but also notable weaknesses; for my prediction, I went with the Cardinals over the Mets in the finals.  The ELO rankings (which to my consternation seem to have been discontinued this season by the fivethirtyeight website that I use) indicated that I picked two of the worst teams in the bracket, and chose two of the “other” teams that I dismissed, the Angels and Dbacks, to meet in the finals with the Dbacks being a slight favorite for the top seed.

First round action

I had picked the 2007 Cardinals to win this bracket on the basis of being the defending NL pennant winners, but they limped to a 78-84 record with Albert Pujols (9th in MVP voting) being the only player to brag about, and Adam Wainwright (14-12, 3.70) topping a rotation that got steadily worse from there.  They were marked ELO underdogs to the 88-win 1996 Expos, who had far more options for their first round starter, settling on Jeff Fassero (15-11, 3.30) who received some Cy Young votes that season.  Pujols makes his presence known in the bottom of the 1st, missing a HR split but David Eckstein barely beats the throw to score on the resulting double, but the Expos tie it in the top of the 2nd when Moises Alou scores on a Shane Andrews grounder.  From there, both starters are locked in, and nobody can mount a threat until Mike Lansing doubles to lead off the top of the 8th, and the Cards summon Troy Percival and his 1.80 ERA from their strong bullpen.  However, he issues a walk and a single to FP Santangelo and the fleet Lansing races home to give the Expos a lead.  Andrews then adds some insurance in the top of the 9th with a 2-run homer, and Fassero closes out a 6-hitter as the Expos move on with the 4-1 win.  

The 2015 Angels graded out as the #2 seed in the bracket, winning 85 games and having MVP runner-up Mike Trout and Albert Pujols surrounded by a bunch of slow guys who couldn’t get on base; however, their rotation was pretty solid with Garrett Richards (15-12, 3.65) at the front of it.  The 1992 Yankees proved to be worse than I had imagined, a 76-86 team with few guys who could field and no real dominating hitters, although Melido Perez (13-16, 2.87) was at least able to find the ballpark, unlike his brother.  The Yanks begin the bottom of the 1st with three straight singles courtesy of the Angels pitching and defense; the fourth batter is the DH Mel Hall, who rolls the 6-12 and Richards is injured and likely done for the tournament, although his performance to that point suggested that he wouldn’t be missed much.  Jose Alvarez replaces him and induces a DP ball that ends the inning and limits the damage to just one run, and Pujols makes it known that it will take more than that with a towering 2-run homer in the top of the 3rd to put the Angels on top.  In the bottom of the 4th, a Charlie Hayes sac fly and an RBI double from young Bernie Williams re-establishes the New York lead, and the Angels move to their closer Huston Street to begin the 5th.  The Yankees are determined to stick with Perez, who is tossing a 3-hitter through seven innings, but with two out in the 8th he falls apart and a double from Erick Aybar ties the game, so closer Steve Farr and his 1.56 ERA come in to try to prevent further damage.  Trevor Gott takes the mound for the Angels in the bottom of the 8th, and he does his job but so does Farr and the game heads for extra innings.  Farr blows through the Angels in the top of the 10th, but in the bottom of the frame Gott’s defense fails him; an error by SS-2 Aybar, a single that gets past 2B-4 Johnny Giavotella, and a walk loads up the bases with two outs for Mel Hall.  It’s a grounder to Giavotella, he drops it, Williams trots home and the Yankees head to the semifinals with an extra-inning 4-3 win on a walk-off error.

The ELO rankings had this as a pretty even matchup between two teams in decline but that were nonetheless still decent.  The 2016 Tigers won 86 games with an all “1” DP combo, five hitters with over 20 homers, and Miguel Cabrera getting MVP votes, and Justin Verlander (16-9, 3.04) was a force to be reckoned with, finishing 2nd in the Cy Young ballots.  This was nicely mirrored by the 2005 Marlins, who won 83 games with a strong 1&2 DP combo, two guys crushing 33 homers which included none other than Miguel Cabrera, who was 5th in the MVP votes, and on the mound was another Cy Young runner-up, Dontrelle Willis (22-10, 3.63).  Miggy South starts the scoring with an RBI double in the bottom of the 1st, and Juan Encarnacion follows by converting a TR 1-2/flyB to drive in Cabrera and the Marlins have a two run lead after one.  Verlander then settles in and holds off the Marlins, but like Gary Coleman, the Tigers can’t figure out what Willis is talkinbout, and he closes out a 3-hitter, striking out Cabrera North to wrap up the 2-0 shutout.

Although the pairings in each bracket are random, in this first round game it turned out that the #1 seed 2017 Diamondbacks were paired with the #8 seed, the 2003 Mets.  The Dbacks won 93 games and made a brief postseason appearance as a wild card; they could hit, as the lowest SLG% in their starting lineup was .442 and they had a strong rotation fronted by Zack Greinke (17-7, 3.20), 4th for the Cy Young, but they had some fielding issues with an all “4” DP combo.   But the Mets had more issues, losing 95 games, with three Hall of Famers on the team who were all well past their prime and Al Leiter (15-9, 3.99) as a serviceable starter who deserved better.  Things start ugly for the Mets when David Peralta leads off the game with a homer, but the Mets show some pluck by quickly tying it in the bottom of the inning on a 2-out Ty Wigginton RBI single.  Jake Lamb is not silent in the top of the 2nd with a run-scoring double, and that is followed by a long homer from Yasmany Tomas, and when Paul Goldschmidt bounces a flyball off the head of LF-4 Cliff Floyd for a 2-base error to score another run, the Mets extinguish Leiter and try Mike Stanton, figuring things can’t go too much worse.  But in the 3rd, AJ Pollock finds Stanton’s solid HR result for a solo shot to dig the hole deeper, and in the 6th Mets closer Armando Benitez comes in only to allow a 2-run single to Goldschmidt and the Dbacks start moving to the defensive replacements while the Shea faithful start moving to the traffic jam on the BQE.  And they don’t miss anything as Greinke closes out a 5-hitter and the Diamondbacks advance easily with the 8-1 win.  

The survivors

The #7 seed 1992 Yankees had already knocked off the second seed in the regional, but that extra-inning win depleted their bullpen and now they faced the #3 seeded 1996 Expos in the semifinal.  The Expos felt pretty good about sending out Pedro Martinez (13-10, 3.70) against the Yanks “best” option, Scott Kamieniecki (6-14, 4.36), as getting hits off Scott was much easier than spelling his name.  The Expos score in the top of the 1st isn’t really his fault, as his SS-4 Randy Velarde throws a relay into the dugout for a 2-base error that scores a run, and FP Santangelo makes it 2-0 Expos in the 2nd with an RBI single.  Pat Kelly leads off the bottom of the 5th with a homer that makes it a one run game, and the Yanks decide to go to Sam Militello out of the pen to start the 6th, feeling that they’ve gotten their money’s worth out of Kamieniecki.  However, the first batter to face Militello, Moises Alou, finds and converts the pitcher’s HR split to raise questions about that decision.  Meanwhile, Martinez is shaky but effective, not recording a hitless inning until the 7th and no 1-2-3 innings until the 9th, but he proves to be an escape artist and the Expos escape with a 3-1 win that sends them to the finals.  

The 2017 Diamondbacks were the regional’s top seed, and they had little problem cruising through round one so they would have a rested pen in support of Robbie Ray (15-5, 2.89), who might not need it as he got some Cy Young support.  However, their semifinal opponents, the 2005 Marlins, had overcome a top-flight pitcher in the opening game and Josh Beckett (15-8, 3.38) had a solid card of his own.  The Marlins strike in the top of the 1st as Miguel Cabrera, rested up after pulling double duty in the first round, pokes an RBI single to score Luis Castillo.  In the 2nd, the Dbacks lose their only outfielder that can actually catch the ball, AJ Pollock, to injury, but Ray is cruising until Juan Encarnacion finds Ray’s solid HR result to begin the 7th inning, and the Dbacks then summon unhittable Jimmie Sherfy from the pen.  Although he does his job, there’s nothing else he can do as Beckett and the Marlins record their second straight shutout with a 4-hit 2-0 gem and the Florida men head to the finals.

For the regional final, it was the #3 seeded 1996 Expos and swingman Ugueth Urbina (10-5, 3.71) against the #5 seed 2005 Marlins, who had already pulled off two straight upsets with two straight shutouts, and AJ Burnett (12-12, 3.44) seemed capable of possibly extending that streak.  The Marlins draw first blood in the bottom of the 1st when a run comes in as Carlos Delgado hits into a DP (after making a 2-base error in the top of the inning), and things don’t look any better for the Expos when Moises Alou has a tournament-ending injury to end the top of the 3rd.  In the 5th, the Marlins get back to back doubles from the bottom of their order in Mike Lowell and Juan Pierre to provide a little insurance, and a leadoff double in the bottom of the 7th makes the Expos pull Urbina for closer Mel Rojas, but he gets pounded for 5 hits and the Floridians lead by six when the dust settles.  However, Henry Rodriquez ends the Marlins scoreless streak at 25 innings when he blasts a 3-run shot in the top of the 8th and the Expos try to send a signal that they aren’t done yet, but they are; Burnett closes out a six-hitter and the Marlins take the regional with the 6-3 win, with their starting rotation sharing bracket MVP honors as they only allow the opposition to score any runs in 1 of 27 innings.  This is only the second regional win for a Marlins team, with the other (the 2013 team) coming 132 brackets ago. 

Interesting card of Regional #196:  I think it’s safe to say that Strat-o-matic has never printed a pitcher’s card with a lower ERA than this one, the card of a 25 year old rookie named James Sherfy.  It seemed to me that Jimmie never really got much of a chance in the majors, seeing limited action in three more seasons, but he ended with pretty good career marks, like a 3.28 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, and averaging a strikeout per inning–surely some team could use a reliever like that.  At any rate, he can take some solace in knowing that he has the lowest ERA Strat card in print history, but is he the only one?  I’m not certain, but I haven’t run across another in the 1,568 different teams I’ve now played with cards and dice.  It’s also noteworthy that his ERA is printed as 0.00 with the leading zero, while in recent years I’ve tended to see pitchers with sub-1.00 marks having the lead numeral left off, such as .69, but not this one.  At any rate, it’s an imposing card but he couldn’t keep his regional-favorite squad from getting knocked out in the semifinals of this tournament.

REGIONAL #195:  After a couple of brackets without a decent team among them, this draw pulled two high-profile pennant winners, the record setting ‘98 Yankees and the infamous Bill Buckner Red Sox, and the two old rivals could face off in a semifinal game in the lower half of the bracket.   The upper half included some 90s teams that should have steroid-powered offenses, as well as a later Yankee team that lacked the firepower of the other Bronx entry in the regional.  The favorite to me seemed to be the formidable ‘98 version of the Yanks, but there was the question as to whether the Red Sox might save Roger Clemens for a possible semifinal showdown, which might even the odds.  Still, I guessed an all Yankee final, with the ‘98s spelling the apocalypse for the 2012 version.  The ELO rankings aligned with my prediction, tapping the ‘98 Yanks as the 5th best team of all time, while indicating that the 2012 Yanks may not have won the pennant but were still the best team in baseball that season.

First round action

The 2012 Yankees won 95 games and the AL East, and were ranked by the ELO ratings as the best team in baseball that season despite getting swept by the Tigers in the ALCS.  Looking at the rotation, you could see how they could struggle in a short series as the rotation was good but not great, with CC Sabathia (15-6, 3.38) a solid first round starter.  They had reason to be concerned about their opponents, the 1997 Rockies, who only went 83-79 despite having a remarkable offense with three guys in excess of 40 homers, including NL MVP Larry Walker; however, their pitching staff had too much Coors and Pedro Astacio (12-10, 4.14) wasn’t great but looked like Walter Johnson compared to the rest of the rotation.  The power begins with the weakest hitter in the Rockies lineup, Kirt Manwaring, leading off the 3rd by converting Sabathia’s HR result, and they load the bases in the 5th with a 2-out rally but Sabathia strikes out Andres Galarraga to prevent any damage.  However, a leadoff single by Ellis Burks in the 6th and the Yankees seek to take advantage of their deep bullpen, putting in David Robertson, who records three straight outs–two of them hits on Sabathia.  He holds off the Rockies while in the bottom of the 7th Robinson Cano converts Astacio’s HR split to tie the game; the Rockies survey their bullpen and it’s all gasoline to throw on the fire, so Astacio is left to get out of his own jam and he escapes the 7th without further incident.  The Yanks move to Clay Rapada in the 8th, sensing a possible extra inning game, and he tosses two hitless innings but Astacio also hangs tough and indeed the game is still tied 1-1 after nine.  The Yanks summon Mariano Rivera to begin the 10th, and he is immediately knocked out of the game on an injury while retiring DH Quinton McCracken, so the game is handed to Rafael Soriano, and he walks Walt Weiss and then allows a 450 foot blast to Walker, and the game is now Astacio’s to lose in his last inning of eligibility.   Astacio gets one out, but then allows a tape measure blast to Mark Teixeira and the Yankees pull within one.  Eric Chavez draws a walk, with Eduardo Nunez coming in to pinch run representing the tying run.  ARod then misses a split double, but the single moves Nunez to 3rd and the infield comes in, and Steve Pearce is called upon to pinch hit for Russell Martin.  Pearce hits a grounder and Nunez has to hold at third, with ARod heading to 2nd as the winning run and Ichiro at the plate with two out and the game on the line.  The roll:  1-8, TR 1-6/DO, and Nunez and ARod dash across the plate as Ichiro contributes the walk-off double and the Yanks pull off a gritty come-from-behind 4-3 win as Astacio just can’t get the final out.

In a regional packed with quality teams, this first round game was the only one lacking in high profile squads.  The 1995 Cubs were not a bad team, going 73-71 in a strike shortened season with Sammy Sosa and Mark Grace leading the offense and Jaime Navarro (14-6, 3.28) had his best season.  The 1998 Diamondbacks lost 97 games although being in the peak of the steroid era, most of the team could hit homers and Omar Daal (8-12, 2.88) had a nice card for that season.   The Cubs get a run in the bottom of the 2nd when Sosa scores on a Scott Bullett fielder’s choice.  Meanwhile, the Dbacks are squandering opportunities left and right; they end the inning in the 1st by unsuccessfully sending a 1-16 runner to third, and then in the 3rd they are gunshy of taking the extra base on three straight singles, and they manage to score no runs after loading the bases with no outs.  In the bottom of the inning, Luis Gonzalez singles in a run but 1-17 Rey Sanchez is nailed trying to make it two; however, after Sosa is walked the split die decides to giveth to Mark Parent, who converts a HR 1-5/flyB on Daal’s card for a three run shot and a big Cubs lead.  In the 5th, 1-15+2 Devon White is nailed trying to score to end the inning, and the Dbacks announce that they are filing a protest against the split die with tournament officials.  Arizona leaves the bases loaded once again in the 7th, and a leadoff single by Cubs supersub Todd Haney prompts the Dbacks to summon their closer, Gregg Olson, but he gives up an RBI single to Parent and the Cubs extend their lead.  Navarro loses his chance for a sloppy shutout when White hits a sac fly in the top of the 9th, but he finishes out the game despite allowing 12 hits as the Cubs cruise to the 6-1 win.

The 1998 Yankees won 114 games in the regular season and another 11 in the postseason, including the four required to be World Series champions, and they are often mentioned in lists of the greatest teams of all time.  All nine starters were in double digits in homers, all nine were above .350 in OBP, and the rotation was replete with strong options, with David Wells (18-4, 3.49), 3rd in the Cy Young voting, getting the start.  By comparison, the 76-86 2012 Padres only had two players in the lineup that reached either of those thresholds, and their rotation lacked both quality and quantity, with Clayton Richard (14-14, 3.99) sporting a card that was not as good as his record might suggest.  The Yanks waste no time, with Darryl Strawberry recording a long 3-run homer in the top of the 1st, but then they start to fall into a pattern of inning-ending DPs.  They they lose Derek Jeter to a minor injury in the top of the 8th, and the Yanks are fortunate to have Wells out there taking care of business, as he closes out a 3-hit shutout and the Yankees take the 3-0 win in which they only record five hits of their own–three of them in the first inning. 

For the Zoom game of the week, the Tall Tactician proves himself as a die-hard Phan by volunteering to direct the terrible 1989 Phillies against the pennant-winning but ill-fated 1986 Red Sox, managed by StratFan Rick on behalf of his New Englander wife.   The Red Sox won 95 games and, facing a possible semifinal matchup against one of the best teams of all time, they elect to save Roger Clemens for that game and go with the perfectly capable Bruce Hurst (13-8, 2.99) in the first round.  For the Phillies, who lost 95 games to finish last in the NL East, the obvious selection was Ken Howell (12-12, 3.44), with 39 year old Mike Schmidt rooting the team on from the bench.  The Red Sox immediately set up a pattern that would persist through much of the game, loading the bases in the 1st inning but failing to produce a run, and first blood is drawn by the Phils’ Dwayne Murphy, who put a solo shot over the Green Monster in the top of the 2nd for a 1-0 lead.   Tommy Herr makes it 2-0 in the 3rd by converting an RBI triple, but he’s stranded at third and Howell continues to compensate for bad Philadelphia fielding by pitching his way out of jams, with Boston’s Rich Gedman a particular culprit in leaving runners in scoring position.  However, the Bosox finally break through against Howell in the bottom of the 7th with a couple of RBI hits from Jim Rice and Dwight Evans that tie the game, while in the meantime Philadelphia is losing two thirds of the outfield to injury with Von Hayes going down early in the game and Murphy going down later, leaving the Philly bench sorely depleted.  Boston flirts with a rally in the 9th, but again Howell manages to get out of the jam and the game heads to extra innings with both starters still looking strong; both toss hitless innings in the 10th to close out their eligibility and it’s time for the closers, Calvin Schiraldi for Boston and Roger McDowell for the Phils.  They both contribute two more hitless innings, and as the game heads to the 13th Rick moves to a shaky Steve Crawford, who survives to send things to the bottom of the inning with Philadelphia’s Jeff Parrett now taking over for McDowell.  But Parrett has some trouble finding the strike zone, issuing a couple of walks and a grounder advances the runners to 2nd and 3rd with two out and Wade Boggs at the plate.   TT eyes Boggs .357 average and decides to issue the intentional walk to Wade Boggs to load the bases for cleanup hitter Rice, who knocks one into the gap and the Red Sox walk off with a hard-fought 3-2 win and, as it turned out, a highly anticipated semifinal against their arch-rivals.

The survivors

The #2 seeded 2012 Yankees had to mount a furious extra-inning comeback to reach this semifinal, needing to make use of nearly their entire bullpen in doing so, while the #5 seed 1995 Cubs easily disposed of the weakest team in the bracket with no need for relief.  That meant that the Yanks would need a strong outing from Hiroki Kuroda (16-11, 3.32) while the Cubs felt pretty good about Frank Castillo (11-10, 3.21) despite their underdog status.  It looks like the wind is blowing in at Wrigley, because in the top of the 1st Nick Swisher misses a HR 1-17/DO off Castillo’s card, although he scores (1-11+2) on a 2-out single by Mark Teixiera to give the Yanks the early lead.  Sure enough, Brian McRae then leads off the bottom of the 1st by missing a HR 1-15/DO on Kuroda’s card; the 1-17 McRae is then cut down trying to score on a Luis Gonzalez single and it’s not looking like a day to trust the split die.  In the bottom of the 4th, Mark Parent leads off with a double off Kuroda’s card, and then Shawon Dunston also misses that HR 1-15 split on the pitcher’s card but Parent trots home to tie the game.  The split die kills a Cubs rally in the 6th when AA Sammy Sosa is caught stealing, and a leadoff single by ARod in the 7th sends the Cubs to the pen for Larry Casian and his 1.93 ERA.  However, he allows a walk and a base hit; the Yankees don’t trust the split die and hold 1-12 ARod at third, loading the bases with nobody out and the Cubs bring the infield in to try to preserve the tie.  Jeter pops out, Swisher whiffs, and then Robinson Cano flies out harmlessly and the Cubs escape unscathed.  Not liking the direction the game is taking, the Yanks no longer wish to bank on the split die to escape Kuroda’s gopher ball problems, so they bring in Mariano Rivera, back from an injury that knocked him out of a brief appearance in round one.  The Cubs counter with their supersub Todd Haney, who misses a HR 1-11/DO split; Rey Sanchez then singles and the Cubs hold Haney at 3rd, setting up runners at the corners with nobody out and the infield comes in.  A groundout sends Sanchez to 2nd, and then Luis Gonzalez delivers a clutch single that scores Haney, but of course Sanchez is nailed at the plate, but the Cubs take a one run lead into the 8th.  Rivera retires the side quietly in the bottom of the 8th in which Dunston is knocked out of the tournament with an injury, and the Cubs seek to preserve Casian and insert their dangerous closer Randy Myers to finish things out.  Myers retires Russell Martin but then walks Ichiro, and the Yanks agonize about attempting to steal with the A-stealer Suzuki who has already been caught once this game, but DP machine Jeter is at the plate.  So Ichiro goes, and he’s safe, putting the tying run in scoring position with one out for the Captain, who has a dismal record in this tournament.  Sure enough, he grounds out (with a ++, causing some second-guessing on the steal) and the game rests on the shoulders of Brett Gardner and his .417 OBP.  He rolls on his card, but it’s a strikeout, and the Cubs pull off the 2-1 upset to earn a trip to the semifinals against a pennant-winner of some sort.

It had been almost 40 regionals (#158) since two pennant winners faced off in the tournament, and this time it involved a semifinal between two notorious teams, the powerhouse 1998 Yankees against the ill-fated 1986 Red Sox. Boston had saved Roger Clemens (24-4, 2.49), the Cy Young winner and the league MVP, in anticipation of this matchup, while David Cone (20-7, 3.55) was no slouch either, having finished 4th in the Cy Young votes to an older Clemens, and the Yanks would have Derek Jeter back from his round one injury.  Clemens starts off shaky, issuing two walks off his card (which one has one such result on it) and then Darryl Strawberry knocks a run-scoring single also off Clemens’ card; Paul O’Neill knocks another RBI single off his own card and the Red Sox are fortunate to escape further damage with an inning-ending DP from Tino Martinez.  The Yanks threaten again in the 2nd but Jeter whiffs with runners at the corners to end the inning, and Rich Gedman atones for his performance in the first round with a clutch two-out single that scores Jim Rice in the bottom of the inning to make it a one-run game.  A Wade Boggs fielder’s choice in the 3rd scores Spike Owen from third, but Cone retires Don Baylor with the bases loaded to end the inning with the score tied.  Clemens then settles in to being Clemens, and when Cone allows a leadoff single to Jim Rice in the bottom of the 6th the Yankees waste no time in heading to the bullpen for Graeme Lloyd with his 1.67 ERA.  But it doesn’t matter who was pitching, as Dwight Evans hits his HR 1-15/DO split, but misses it, and the Sox put up the stop sign for Rice and New York brings the infield in with nobody out.  Once again, that doesn’t matter as Don Baylor converts a DO 1/SI** to score both runners and Boston leads 4-2.  Clemens blows through three straight Yanks in the top of the 7th, including supersub PH Shane Spencer, who rolls one of the two results in his two column that isn’t a home run.  With the Yanks due in the top of the 8th, Boston looks nervously on its bench for a defensive replacement at first base, but in fact there aren’t any, and Jeter kills a rally by hitting into a DP, and the game heads to the 9th with the Fenway crowd roaring its approval.  Clemens retires Strawberry on a deep fly, but O’Neill singles to put the tying run at the plate.  Up comes Tino Martinez–whiff; Jorge Posada–whiff, and Fenway erupts as the Bosox eliminate the hated Yankees 4-2 on a Clemens 5-hitter and they head to the bracket final.

In this final between the 1986 Red Sox and the 1995 Cubs, it had been a long time since either franchise had won the Series and one can only imagine the whining emerging from the two fanbases over who was more deserving of the regional title.  The Red Sox would be going with Oil Can Boyd (16-10, 3.78) and their bullpen was rested but shallow; the Cubs had Jim Bullinger (12-8, 4.14) and an injured shortstop that conveniently allowed them to have supersub Todd Haney in the starting lineup.  The Red Sox immediately wonder if they need to change their Oil as Boyd allows six singles in the first two innings, including RBI pokes from Haney and Brian McRae, and the Cubs establish a lead against a Red Sox team that has had trouble scoring runs in previous games.  They show how to do it when Jim Rice leads off the bottom of the 2nd with a blast over the Monster, and then later in the inning a two-out triple by Dave Henderson ties the game.  In the top of the 4th a 2-out double by Mark Grace scores McRae, but 1-12+2 Haney is out at the plate to limit the Cubs lead to one.  A two-run homer by Mark Parent in the top of the 5th and the Oil Can is deemed to be hazardous waste and Calvin Schiraldi comes in to try to salvage the game for Boston but the Cubs rap another three hits against him, including an RBI single from Rey Sanchez, and Chicago now leads 6-2.   Boston threatens in the bottom of the inning but ex-Cub Bill Buckner hits into his second rally-killing DP of the game, and the Cubs make it a rout in the 8th with a long 2-run homer from Grace.  Steve Crawford comes in for Boston in the 9th and the Cubs show him no more mercy than previous Sox pitchers, tallying four hits and two more runs, and although Don Baylor knocks a solo homer in the bottom of the 9th, it’s far too late and the Cubs use 22 hits to record a 10-3 victory and their 9th regional win, joining the ‘96 team to form a mini-dynasty of mediocre Cubs teams that nonetheless had what it took to capture their bracket.

Interesting card of Regional #195:  This group was loaded with potential candidates for this feature.  How about Roger Clemens, who won the Cy Young and the MVP in the same season?   Or maybe a different MVP in Larry Walker?  Then there’s Padres reliever Tom Layne, with only a 5-11 walk marring an otherwise flawless card, or .411 hitting Todd Haney who helped propel his Cubs to the finals.  All were worthy of consideration, but none can live up to one of the most ridiculous Strat offerings in cardstock history.  This Nameless One represents the season of one Shane Spencer, a 26-year old rookie on one of the winningest teams in baseball history, who in 27 games racked up a 1.321 OPS that proved to be nearly double that of any of his remaining six years in the bigs.  He also came through for the Yanks in the postseason, hitting a couple of homers in the ALDS and going 1 for 3 in the Series, but in this tournament he managed to avoid all those homer results and his highly touted team failed to get past the semifinals.  It’s interesting that two of the most infamous cards in the history of Strat, this one and Rudy Pemberton’s, did not have the player names on them.  Throw in one of Barry Bonds’ later cards, and I’m guessing you could assemble a pretty fair Strat team composed entirely of “players not to be named”!

REGIONAL #194:  There weren’t any teams that jumped out at me when drawing this batch of teams; I was probably most familiar with the White Sox who had a little run of unsuccessful post-season appearances around then, so I thought they might have a shot in against this competition, and I suspected that the 2017 Brewers would have some power hitters if they weren’t suspended for PEDs at the time.  I also vaguely remembered the post-Johnny Bench Reds as being competitive, and I was guessing that the Rays, Marlins, Tigers, and Pirates entries in this group would all be pretty bad.  I ultimately decided that the Brewers would take advantage of the Sox jinx to make the finals, where they would run out of pitchers and lose to the Reds for the bracket crown.  The ELO ranks picked those Brewers to top the Padres in a group without a single team ranked in the top 1000, and recognized that the post-season run for the Sox actually began the next season, with them being terrible in 2019.

First round action

The 86-76 2017 Brewers were the ELO favorites in this group, and my recollection of them was pretty accurate–nearly all of the lineup with double digit homers, fairly bad with the glove, but their pitching was better than I anticipated with Chase Anderson (12-4, 2.74) with a strong year and some good arms in the pen.  They faced the #7 seeded 2001 Rays, only a few years after their creation during expansion; that expansion team had reached the finals of Regional #191, but this version had virtually no overlap with that team.   If anything, they looked even worse, losing 100 games with limited offense and terrible fielding to support a dreadful rotation, with Tanyon Sturtze (11-12, 4.42) seeming to be the top option.  However, these Rays also show signs of grit, as they load the bases in the 2nd and Brent Abernathy clears them with a double on a missed grand slam HR split.  The Brewers have a chance to respond in the bottom of the 4th as they load the bases with nobody out, but they can only convert one run on a Manny Pina sac fly.  Greg Vaughn extends the Rays lead with a 2-run homer in the top of the 6th that chases Chase for Brewers closer Cory Knebel, but solo shots in the bottom of the inning from Travis Shaw and Pina send Sturtze to the showers and Victor Zambrano comes in to get the third out after a few fielding misadventures.  In the 7th, Eric Thames misses Zambrano’s HR 1-15/TR split but drives in a run and then scores on a Shaw sac fly and the game is tied.  Knebel seems to find his groove, striking out the side in the top of the 8th, while the Rays no longer trust Zambrano and move to Travis Phelps in the bottom of the inning.  That doesn’t work as planned, as Keon Braxton crushes his first pitch into the roaring stands at Miller Park and the Brewers lead for the first time in the game.  Orlando Arcia later adds an RBI single, and the Brewers take a two run lead into the 9th with a slew of defensive replacements entering the game and Josh Hader coming in to close things out.  He burns through the bottom of the Rays order and the Brewers survive and advance with a come from behind 7-5 victory.

The 2015 Marlins lost 91 games, but they had an all “1” DP combo and Giancarlo Stanton hit a lot of homers in not very many ABs; however, they had almost no options at starting pitcher after Tom Koehler (11-14, 4.08) and it was about time for 41-year old Ichiro to retire.  The 72-89 2019 White Sox lost fewer games but had a worse ELO rating at season’s end; they had a heart of the lineup with four guys over .500 SLG% and Lucas Giolito (13-9, 3.41) finished 6th in the Cy Young voting, but they had some holes in their defense and few options after Giolito in the rotation.  The Marlins put together a two-out rally in the top of the 3rd with RBI singles from JT Realmuto and Martin Prado, but Yoan Moncada narrows the score to 2-1 with a leadoff homer in the 4th.  Then, Ryan Cordell also leads off the 5th by converting the same homer on Koehler’s card and the score is tied.  Not trusting Koehler to keep the Sox in check, Miami brings in Kyle Barraclough, whose card contains no HR result, nor any hit results of any kind for that matter, but a lot of walks.  He allows only one walk and no hits while striking out four in his two innings, and he hands the ball over to Marlins closer AJ Ramos in the bottom of the 8th with the score still tied.  Ramos creates a stir by giving up a single and two walks, all off his card, in the bottom of the 9th, but he strikes out Moncado for the third out to send the game to extra innings.  Giolito is perfect in his last inning of eligibility in the 10th, while Miami moves to reliever Carter Capps and his 1.16 ERA to begin the bottom of the inning.  He whiffs Eloy Jimenez to begin the inning, and looks to do the same to Jose Abreu, but Abreu catches hold of it to send it deep in the outfield seats, the scoreboard at Sponsor of the Week Park explodes with joy, and the Sox move to the semifinals defying the jinx with an extra-inning, come from behind 3-2 win.  

This first round matchup paired two teams with nearly identical ELO ratings, both of them terrible.  The 1984 Reds lost 92 games, with Dave Parker leading the team in homers with 16 and Mario Soto (18-7, 3.53) allowing nearly twice that many, although he led the NL in complete games and finished 6th in the Cy Young ballots.  Given the season from which they came, it wasn’t surprising that their opponent, the 97-loss 1998 Tigers, had about half their team exceed Parker’s homer total, but their pitching staff including Brian Moehler (14-13, 3.90) also bore the imprint of the steroid era.   And sure enough, in the top of the 1st leadoff hitter Gary Redus finds Moehler’s solid HR result for a very quick lead, but in the bottom of the inning Damion Easley retaliates by finding Soto’s own solid HR roll, and then with two out Bobby Higginson locates Soto’s split homer result, misses it, but Tony Clark beats the throw home on the resulting double and after an inning Detroit leads 2-1, with all damage self-inflicted by pitchers.  However, both pitchers then settle in, and despite threats nobody can score until the bottom of the 7th, when Brian Hunter singles, steals second, and scores when Luis Gonzalez converts a split double on Soto’s card.  Now armed with a two run lead, the Tigers decide to stick with Moehler, and although he allows a double to Ron Oester off his card in the 9th, Moehler strands him to finish out a nicely pitched 3-1 win to send Detroit to the semifinals.

The 1992 Padres were the #2 seed in the bracket according to the ELO ratings, but only because of the weakness of the group as they barely cleared .500 with an 82-80 record.  Their main weapons were Gary Sheffield and Fred McGriff, and Andy Benes (13-14, 3.35) was marginally the best of a middling rotation.  However, the Padres looked like a dynasty compared to their opposition, the 100-loss 2022 Pirates, who tried to make up in quantity what they lacked in quality, as they had 44 players carded for the season, but none of those cards were very good.  JT Brubaker (3-12) drew the short straw and had to pitch, and he begins the game in interesting fashion, allowing a double and a walk off his card to face Sheffield, who cooperates by hitting into a triple play.  Sheffield comes up again in the 3rd with two aboard, but this time he laces a double that scores both runners and the Padres lead 2-0.  San Diego then loses C Benito Santiago to a minor injury in the 4th, although they get another run from a squib RBI single by Tony Gwynn.  In the 5th, injury replacement Dan Walters picks up an RBI single and then another hit sets up a three run homer by devilish Tim Teufel off Brubaker’s card, and the latter is pulled for Luis Ortiz, but yet another run comes in on an error by 2B-3 Kevin Newman.  From there on out Benes is on cruise control, and he finished up a 6-hit shutout as the Padres easily dispose of the Pirates 8-0 and move on.  

The survivors

The bracket’s #1 seed, the 2017 Brewers, faced another fairly recent team in the semifinals, the 2019 White Sox who were seeded 6th with 89 losses.   One typical difference between high and low seeds, the depth of the starting rotation, looked to apply here as the Brewers could select Jimmy Nelson (12-6, 3.49) as one of three remaining Milwaukee starters who were better than the Sox’ Ivan Nova (11-12, 4.72).   Nova starts off in control, but in the top of the 3rd Orlando Arcia’s fielder’s choice brings in a Brewer run, and an RBI single by Manny Pina in the 4th extends their lead to 2-0.  Eloy Jimenez quickly erases that lead in the bottom of the inning with a 2-run shot, but Nelson recovers by striking out three in a row and the game is tied heading into the 5th.  A walk and a double in the bottom of the 5th brings up the dangerous Tim Anderson with one out, and the Brewers bring in the infield and elect to pitch to Anderson, who promptly sets off the exploding scoreboard with a 3-run blast and the Sox now hold the lead.  With a fully rested pen and the lead, Nova is on a short leash for the Sox and when he allows a base hit off his card in the 7th, the Sox turn the game over to Evan Marshall, and he escapes the inning despite some fielding mishaps.  Brewer C-3 Pina makes his second error of the game in the bottom of the inning, which sets up an RBI single from Anderson, chasing Nelson for Josh Hader who records a strikeout and then turns a nifty DP himself to do his job but the Sox lead is up to four.  Eric Thames leads off the 8th with a long homer that cuts it to three, but Marshall shakes it off and tosses a perfect 9th as the Sox eliminate the bracket favorite and pull off the 6-3 upset.

Now the top remaining seed in the bracket, the 1992 Padres decided to go with spot starter Frank Seminara (9-4, 3.68) against #5 seeded 1998 Tigers and Justin Thompson (11-15, 4.05), with both teams sporting fully rested bullpens in case of emergency.  The Padres load the bases in the bottom of the 3rd on two walks and an error by 3b-2 Joe Randa, but only manage to get one run out of it on a Tony Gwynn fielder’s choice to record the first run on no hits.  A leadoff single in the top of the 7th by Bob Higginson makes the Padres eye their bullpen, but they discover that their closer Randy Myers managed to record 38 saves with a lousy card, so they hang with Seminara and he survives the inning unscathed.  However, another leadoff single by the Tigers in the 8th and they move to Larry Anderson, but he allows a single that sends the tying runner to 3rd.  The infield comes in and Juan Encarnacion hits a grounder, but the runner is nailed at home and there’s one out.  Anderson then strikes out Tony Clark, but Higginson finds a single on Anderson’s card and the game is tied.  However, leading off the bottom of the inning is Tim Teufel, who for the second time in the game rolls his HR 1-14 split, and this time he converts it to put the Padres back in front.  The Tigers pull Thompson, who has only allowed 3 hits, for Doug Brocail, but he yields a double to Tony Fernandez and a single to Gwynn and the Padres now lead by two heading into the 9th.  PH Frank Catalanotto makes it a little interesting by converting a SI 1-4 in the 9th, but that’s all the Tigers can muster against Mr. Anderson and the Padres head to the finals with the 3-1 win.  

The bracket finals paired the #2 seeded 1992 Padres and Craig Lefferts (13-9, 3.69) against the #6 seed 2019 White Sox, who had no options aside from Reynoldo Lopez (10-15, 5.38).  The Sox hand Lopez a lead by pummeling Lefferts in the top of the 1st, with RBI singles from Jose Abreu and James McCann that stake the upstart Sox to a 3-0 lead.  Tim Anderson adds an RBI double in the 2nd, but the Padres get that run back in the bottom of the inning on a sac fly from Benito Santiago, recovered from his first round injury.  A long solo shot by Gary Sheffield in the bottom of the 4th narrows the Chicago lead to two, but Jerald Clark (1-10+2) is cut down trying to score on a Kurt Stillwell double in the 5th to cut off a rally.  Although Lefferts has settled down with three hitless innings, a leadoff single in the 7th and San Diego summons Rich Rodriguez, and he quickly snuffs out the threat.  Lopez is on a short leash but he persists until allowing a 2-out single in the bottom of the 7th, and fearing his gopher ball the Sox insert Aaron Bummer, who has no such results and he quickly ends the inning with the lead intact.  He holds court until the Sox pull him in the 9th to preserve his eligibility, and Jimmy Cordero comes in to earn the save and propel the Sox to the 4-2 win and an unlikely regional title, the second by a bad Sox team in the past four brackets–suggesting that the White Sox jinx only applies to the (unfortunately uncommon) good Sox teams.

Interesting card of Regional #194:  Although his team made it to the regional final, Phil Stephenson’s card wasn’t good enough to allow him to see action on a mediocre team.  No, what makes Stephenson interesting to me is that as my homebrew card may demonstrate, he was one of the greatest college baseball players of all time; he held 13 individual NCAA records at the conclusion of his career at Wichita State and he still holds the NCAA career records for hits, runs, total bases, stolen bases, and walks.  Those of you that have explored my blog where I record the results of this tournament may have noted an earlier project of mine, where I ran a league of all-time great college teams, and Phil’s 1982 Shockers (the winningest team in NCAA history with 73) blew the competition out of the water.  However, in real life they lost the final game of the College World Series to Miami, with Stephenson on the short end of one of the most infamous plays in college baseball history, the “Grand Illusion”.  The Hurricanes decided to combat the aggressiveness of the Shockers (who still hold the NCAA record for team stolen bases) with an elaborately designed hidden ball play that involved the entire Miami team, even the batgirls, pretending to try to locate a wild pickoff throw attempting to nail Stephenson on first.  With half of the Miami infield chasing an imaginary ball down the right field line, Stephenson takes off for second, the Miami pitcher takes the ball from his glove and throws to the shortstop covering second, and Stephenson was out easily. The Wichita State rally was over, Miami’s 4-3 lead held up, and the Hurricanes won the championship.