REGIONAL #202:  This draw was an intriguing mix of teams from different eras, and although no pennant winners were represented, some were close, like the ‘54 Dodgers who won the NL in the prior two seasons and would do so again in the subsequent two.  There was also a Mets team developing towards their famous championship team in the 80s, and a couple of squads with some famous sluggers like Sammy Sosa and Dale Murphy.  It seems like all of these teams could contend, including a pandemic year Jays team where you never know what you might get in some of those odd cards.  I thought the Jays might represent a tough first round challenge for the ‘54 Dodgers, but I guessed that the Bums would get past them and best the boys from Queens in the finals.  The ELO rankings indicated that I had overlooked the 1985 Yankees, rated as a powerhouse, with the Bronx Bombers favored to take the bracket over a more modern Dodgers squad in the finals.

First round action

The Zoom game of the week matched Toronto-area resident Roy at the wheel of the 2020 Blue Jays, while StratFan Rick directed the 1954 Dodgers.  Those Bums won 92 games, but their second place finish broke what would have been a string of five consecutive pennants; even so, all the big names were there:  Pee Wee, the Duke, Gil, number 42, the Reading Rifle, and “Oisk” Carl Erskine (18-15, 4.15) on the mound.  However, the Jays did make the pandemic postseason as a wild card, albeit with a 32-28 record; they had some nice exemplars of the small-sample oddities that characterized that season, with Teoscar Hernandez sporting a card of Ruthian proportions, and they were fortunate that their highest IP pitcher, Hyun-Jin Ryu (5-2, 2.69) was by far their best starter.  The Jays welcome Brooklyn to the 21st century in the bottom of the 1st with a massive 2-run homer from Hernandez, but the Dodgers are undaunted and Gil Hodges responds with a tape measure blast of his own in the top of the 2nd.  Then, in the 3rd Jackie Robinson wraps one barely around the foul pole for another 2-run shot and the Dodgers take a 3-2 lead and look to Erskine to hang on to it.  He does so until the 5th, when Lourdes Gurriel finds Erskine’s solid 5-9 HR result for a solo poke that ties the game, and then in the 6th Bo Bichette, who has been leaving runners in scoring position to that point, rolls Erskine’s 5-8 which results in a double that scores two and the cardboard cutouts at Buffalo’s Sahlen Field (the Jays temporary pandemic home) sway excitedly to the piped-in crowd noise.  Now things are up to Ryu, and despite an imposing bullpen Roy is determined to stick with his ace, who is periodically bedeviled by some dismal fielding at key positions.  Nonetheless, Ryu holds on and the Jays pull off the 5-3 upset to survive and move to the semifinals.  

I was surprised that the 1985 Yankees were the top ELO seed in this bracket, but they did win 97 games behind AL MVP Don Mattingly, Rickey Henderson, and Dave Winfield, and 20 game winner Ron Guidry (22-6, 3.27) was the runner-up in the Cy Young votes.  On the other hand, the 1999 Cubs had one primary weapon, Sammy Sosa’s 63 homers, and their rotation suffered from the steroid era blues with Jon Lieber (10-11, 4.07) the best they had to offer.  The Yanks grab the lead in the top of the 3rd on consecutive two-out RBI singles from Mattingly and Winfield, but a tape measure solo shot from Henry Rodriguez in the bottom of the 4th makes it a one-run game.  A one-out triple by Henderson in the top of the 8th and the Cubs bring in the infield and reliever Rick Aguilera, but Mattingly rolls the gbA++ and the single through the infield provides some insurance for the Yanks.  They add another in the top of the 9th with a 2-out solo shot from Mike Pagliarulo, and Guidry keeps providing the lightning to finish out a 4-hitter as the Yanks wrap up the 4-1 win.  

A couple of NL near-contemporaries face off in this first round matchup of the 1984 Mets and the 1983 Braves.  The #4 seeded Braves won 88 games to finish 2nd in the NL West, and they had NL MVP Dale Murphy anchoring the lineup; Craig McMurtry (15-9, 3.08) would get the start while Pascual Perez was trying to find Shea Stadium.  The Mets won 90 games and finished 2nd in the NL East, but for some reason had an ELO rating that was a fair amount worse than that of the Braves.  They were still a few seasons away from their infamous championship squad, but they had Rookie of the Year and Cy Young runner-up Doc Gooden (17-9, 2.60) with a dominating card.  In the top of the 1st, Murphy wins the first round of the marquee matchup with a hard single that sets up a run-scoring fielder’s choice from Bob Horner, but the bad boys from Queens tie it in the bottom of the inning on a Darryl Strawberry RBI single.  However, in his next AB in the 3rd Strawberry is hurt and the Mets don’t have much in the way of a replacement.  In a show of support, Keith Hernandez demonstrates his knowledge of Strat with a 3-4 roll for a two out 2-run homer in the 5th and a 3-1 lead, and now the Braves have to try to make up a deficit against the imposing Gooden, who seems to have settled down after some rookie jitters.  After a leadoff single in the bottom of the 7th, the Braves think their best chances lie with fat tub of goo reliever Terry Forster, and he does the job.  Gooden continues to cruise entering the 9th, and he retires Murphy and Horner for two quick outs, but then DH Bob Watson gets hold of one that clears the wall and it’s a one run game.  That brings up Chris Chambliss, who hits a sharp grounder to 2b-3 Wally Backman but he makes a nice play and the Mets hang on for the 3-2 win with Gooden allowing 5 hits while striking out 8.

The 2002 Dodgers had a nice ELO rating and won 92 games, but that was only good for 3rd in the NL West that season.   Shawn Green, who hit the only MLB foul ball that I have (although my son actually caught it), was their big bat, coming in 5th in the MVP votes and Odalis Perez (15-10, 3.00) was pretty good in a season that was tough on pitchers.   The 77-85 2010 Brewers weren’t terrible, as they had 5 guys in the lineup with 20+ homers, but their rotation dropped off quickly after Yovani Gallardo (14-7, 3.84).   The Brewers start off quickly, with back to back RBI doubles from Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder in the top of the 1st, but Mark Grudzielanek makes me type his name with a sac fly in the bottom of the 2nd, and after an error by 1B-3 Fielder, Dave Roberts contributes an RBI single to tie the game.   More sloppy Brewer fielding in the 3rd, this time by 3B-4 Casey McGehee, sets up a run-scoring grounder and a 2-run single from Grudzie, and the Dodgers move to a 5-2 lead.  Things don’t look any more promising for the Brewers as Braun is knocked out of the game with an injury in the top of the 6th, and when Paul LoDuca leads off the bottom of the inning with a double Gallardo is pulled in favor of closer John Axford, who then walks the bases full but manages to escape with no damage.   However, he is not as fortunate in the 7th, as Adrian Beltre and LoDuca contribute RBI singles before Axford wakes up and records three straight strikeouts.  Injury replacement Joe Inglett tries to make it interesting by finding and converting Perez’s HR split for a solo shot in the 9th, but that’s as far as the rally goes as the Dodgers wrap up the 7-3 and head to the semifinals.

The survivors

Having already dispatched the bracket’s second seed, the 2020 Blue Jays now faced the top seeded 1985 Yankees, although they were fortunate in that the second highest season IP total in the rotation was also their second best starter, Taijuan Walker (4-3, 2.70).  Without the pandemic constraints, the Yankees had more flexibility in their rotation and opted for swingman Dennis Rasmussen (3-5, 3.98) for the start.  The Jays start fast, with one run scoring on a DP ball out of Vlad Guerrero Jr. and a second on a mammoth solo shot from Teoscar Hernandez, but 1B Rowdy Tellez ends the inning with an injury that knocks him out of the game.  Cavan Biggio leads off the 3rd by finding and converting Rasmussen’s HR split to add to the lead, and after two outs Hernandez hits another moon shot to make it Jays 4, Yanks 0, but New York gets those runs back in the bottom of the inning on a 2-out 2-run double from Dave Winfield.  An error by Yankee SS-3 Bobby Meacham followed by a pinch hit single from Alejandro Kirk and Rasmussen is pulled for Dave Righetti, who allows an RBI single to Randall Grichuk but Rags is bailed out when Meacham turns a nice DP.   Meanwhile, Walker is cruising until the bottom of the 9th, when Don Baylor records only the second NY hit of the game in the form of a monstrous leadoff HR and the Jays summon Thomas Hatch from the pen.  Mike Pagliarulo singles past emergency 1B-5 Lourdes Gurriel, and with two out PH Ron Hassey comes to the plate as the tying run.  But Hatch strikes him out and the Jays pull off a second consecutive upset to head to the finals with the 5-3 victory.  

The rowdy 1984 Mets did what their infamous 1986 team could not–survive round one of this tournament, and now they faced the 2002 Dodgers with vengeance on their mind because a different Dodger squad shut out those ‘86 guys back in Regional #41.  The Mets would still be without injured Darryl Strawberry but Ron Darling (12-9, 3.81) was a nice second starter, as he’d face off against another good one in the Dodgers’ Hideo Nomo (16-6, 3,39).   In the top of the 2nd the Mets get a clutch 2-out RBI single from injury replacement Danny Heep, and they extend their lead in the 3rd when George Foster crushes a 2-run homer.  Nomo issues a couple of walks in the 5th and both score on consecutive 2-out RBI singles by Hubie Brooks and Kelvin Chapman, and the Mets are starting to run away with it while the Dodgers are still trying to record their first hit.  That hit finally comes in the 7th with a leadoff double by Dave Hansen, and Eric Karros singles him in with two away to get the Dodgers on the board.  A leadoff single in the 8th by Mike Fitzgerald and the Dodgers summon closer Eric Gagne to keep their faint hopes alive, but a walk, a Gagne error, and a bases-loaded walk to Keith Hernandez just digs the hole deeper.  However, the Dodgers recover the run on a Dave Roberts sac fly in the bottom of the inning, so the game enters the 9th with the Mets still sporting a comfortable four run lead.   Although Jesse Orosco is warming up in both bullpens at the same time, Darling doesn’t need the assistance as he closes out a four-hitter and pushes the Mets to the final with a 6-2 win.  

The regional final matches the #5 seed 1984 Mets against the #6 seeded 2020 Blue Jays.  The pandemic Jays had been fortunate that their two best starters were also their two highest-inning starters, which greatly assisted them in reaching the finals, but that luck had run out as Robbie Ray (2-5, 6.62) was up next, and he combined terrible control with bad gopher ball issues.  Meanwhile, the Mets were able to go with Walt Terrell (11-12, 3.52), who unlike our nickname for him back in the day wasn’t Walt Terrible this season, and they would also get Darryl Strawberry back after receiving ample medication for his “injury” in the first round.  But the Jays continue their run of scoring in the first inning of every game in the bracket, with Bo Bichette bouncing an RBI double past LF-4 George Foster in the top of the 1st.  Undaunted, the Mets draw two walks from the errant Ray and then Strawberry converts a HR 1-3 split for a 3-run shot and the lead.  In the 5th, Foster contributes with a sac fly that is set up when Keith Hernandez converts a SI* 1/lo 2-20 split located at 4-12 on Ray’s card, a result that should occur about once a century or the length of this tournament, whichever is shorter.  When Kelvin Chapman pushes a single past SS-4 Bichette in the bottom of the 6th, the Jays yank Ray for Jordan Romano’s 1.23 ERA, but that doesn’t work out as Bichette then commits a 2-base error and then Wally Backman finds Romano’s HR split, pretty much the only hit on his card, and it’s another 3-run blast and the Mets are running away with it.  Chapman converts his own HR split for a solo shot in the 8th that provides additional padding, but in the top of the 9th Rowdy Tellez whacks a solo blast of his own that throws Terrell off his game, as he issues a single and two walks to load the bases.  Randall Grichuk then pokes an RBI single and with the top of the order coming up, the Mets turn to Jesse Orosco as Terrell is completely out of gas.  Cavan Biggio greets him with a 2-run double off a missed HR split and now the tying run is at the plate with only one out.  CF-2 Mookie Wilson makes a nice play on a Bichette flyball, and although a run scores there are now two out.  Vlad Guerrero Jr. steps in, rips a hard grounder to replacement SS-3 Rafael Santana, but Santana makes the throw from his knees and the Mets survive with an 8-6 win and they record the 7th regional win for the franchise–and the first from the infamous 80s teams.  

Interesting card of Regional #202:  This bracket had a bunch of nice cards, including a career year from Gil Hodges, a Ruthian card from pandemic-year Teoscar Hernandez, a low-AB wonder in 2002 Mike Kinkade, and a couple of 80s MVPs from a couple of DMs, Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy.  But none of those cards led their teams to the regional title, so ultimately I decided that this time the Doctor was in, with a card that earned him Rookie of the Year and also runner-up in the Cy Young voting to Rick Sutcliffe, who only won because of a gaudy 16-1 record with the Cubs after having had a mediocre 15 starts with the Indians.  But given a choice between the two for one game, I’d go with Gooden’s card, as he led the league in strikeouts, fewest hits/9, fewest HR/9, most strikeouts/9, and WHIP–all at the tender age of 19.  Remarkably, he was even better the following season, but instant fame in the nation’s largest media market coupled with a host of teammates with various addictions of their own began to catch up with him, and he began a long struggle with alcoholism and substance abuse that saw him spend repeated stints in rehab.  Gooden merits consideration in the “what if” category in baseball–he finished 58th in career strikeouts with a respectable 2,294, but if he’d managed to continue the pace that he set during his first three seasons for the remainder of his career, he would have more than doubled the total of the record holder, Nolan Ryan.