REGIONAL #233:   It was another 21st century-heavy draw for this bracket, and I didn’t recognize any great teams at first glance.  In terms of pennant proximity, there was a Braves team a few years past their great run in the 90s, a Rockies squad from two years before their lone flag, and a Red Sox group that was three years from a pennant forward and backward.  There was a White Sox team from a few years back that couldn’t be as terrible as the current version, but I was confident that they would make a quick exit; speaking of exits, there was an Expos squad that was about to exit Montreal, and also a pandemic Angels team that might have interesting low-AB versions of a couple high-profile players.  I was at a loss as to who might win this group, but I guessed that the 2010 version of the Red Sox would best the Braves in the final.  The ELO ratings suggested that I got the two teams in the final correct, but that I picked the wrong one, with the Braves emerging as the top seed.    

First round action

Setting the lineups for the 2021 White Sox jogged my memory of watching this good team quickly get knocked out of the ALDS after winning the AL Central an 93 games, earning them the #3 seed in this bracket.  Jose Abreu received a few votes for MVP after winning that award in the prior pandemic year, and Carlos Rodon (13-5, 2.37) came in 5th in the Cy Young ballots to top a solid rotation, so there were flickers of hope that these guys could beat the Sox jinx and survive a few rounds in this tournament.  Their obstacle was the 78-84 2022 Twins, whose offense tailed off quickly after AL batting champion Luis Arraes, Carlos Correa and an oft-injured Byron Buxton, but Sonny Gray (8-5, 3.08) looked strong enough to give them a chance against anyone.  The Sox jinx rears it’s head early as the second batter in the bottom of the 2nd, Jorge Polanco, finds a HR split on Rodon’s card hidden at 6-11 and converts it for a 1-0 lead, but Sox DH Andrew Vaughn evens the score with a solo shot of his own in the top of the 3rd.  Buxton leads off the bottom of the 4th with a homer to restore the Twins to the lead, while Cesar Hernandez tries to respond for the Sox but misses a HR 1-14 split with a 15 roll and gets stranded at second.  The Sox then lose their best player, Luis Robert, for the regional with an injury in the 6th, and in the bottom of the inning Buxton adds insult with another leadoff homer, and after a Correa single the Sox move to their closer, Liam Hendriks.  Hendriks quickly ends the inning but the Twins hold a 3-1 edge after six, although that is quickly cut to 3-2 as Abreu leads off the 7th with the fifth solo homer of the game.  The sixth comes in the form of Twins PH Kyle Garlick, who spices a leadoff shot in the bottom of the inning, but when the Sox knock a pair of two-out singles in the 8th the Twins summon reliever Jovani Moran, who walks the bases full but then whiffs Abreu to end the threat.  In the bottom of the 8th, Buxton leads off and the Sox foolishly pitch to him; he deposits his third leadoff homer of the game into the stands; Nick Gordon later drives in a run of a fielder’s choice for the first non-solo homer score of the game.  The Twins put in Cole Sands to mop up the 9th and he wraps up the 6-2 win that sends Minnesota to the semis and another Sox playoff team back to the storage drawers in the first round.    

Contrary to my pre-regional guesses, the 2002 Braves had declined little from their great teams of the 90s, winning 101 games and the NL East, and they were the top seed in this group with a deadly heart of the order in MVP vote-getters Gary Sheffield and a pair of Joneses, Chipper and Andrew, along with a killer bullpen and an excellent rotation still fronted by Greg Maddux (16-6, 2.62).  However, the 1991 Red Sox were not a team to be taken lightly, as they went 84-78 to earn the #4 seed in this bracket, and they had Cy Young winner Roger Clemens (18-10, 2.62) on the mound as a great equalizer.  Clemens gets into some trouble, loading the bases in the 4th and 5th, but pitches his way out of both jams, and he settles in while Maddux is his usual self and the game proceeds through nine innings in a scoreless pitcher’s duel.  Clemens does his job in the 10th, and Maddux gets two quick outs in the bottom of the inning, but then #9 hitter Luis Rivera singles, and Wade Boggs adds another to push the winning run into scoring position.  That brings up Jody Reed, who rips a hit down the line, Rivera scores easily, and the Red Sox upset the bracket favorite and will play another day, although they’re fresh out of Cy Young winners to get the start.

By the ELO ranks, this first round matchup was between the two worst teams in the regional, but both could be sleepers as the 2005 Rockies were just two years away from a pennant, and the 2020 Angels, who wielded the unpredictability of the pandemic season.   Like many Colorado squads, this Rockies team had offense, with Todd Helton leading the NL in on-base percentage, but they still lost 95 games due to terrible pitching, with Byun-Hyun Kim (5-12, 4.86) the lone eligible starter with an ERA under five.  On the other hand, the Angels had Mike Trout finish 5th in MVP voting with Anthony Rendon and David Fletcher also receiving votes, but Shohei Ohtani hit .190 and Andrew Heany (4-3, 4.46) led the staff in IP with an uninspiring card.  The Angels take flight in the bottom of the 1st when an error by 3B-4 Garrett Atkins sets up a two-run double from Max Stassi on a missed HR 1-15 split; Stassi then scores on a 2-out single from Albert Pujols that drops in front of RF-4 Brad Hawpe and it looks like it might be a long day for the Rockies.  Colorado gets one back in the 3rd when two straight singles off Heaney’s card set up a sac fly by JD Closser, and in the 4th Atkins atones with a two-out double that scores Helton to make it a one run game.  They continue their comeback in the 5th when Jorge Piedra rips a liner past 1b-4 Pujols for an double that ties the game, but Heaney whiffs Helton with two runners in scoring position to keep things from getting worse.  Tied after five, the Angels go all out on the substitutes for the 6th, including reliever Cam Bedrosian, who comes in to issue a walk to Matt Holliday and then Barmes hits his HR 1-12/DO, misses the split, and 1-14 Holliday is out at the plate.  Atkins then doubles off Bedrosian’s card and the Rockies get their run and take the lead.  However, in the bottom of the 7th 1B-1 Helton drops a grounder and the Rockies seek to preserve their thin margin with reliever Mike DeJean, who quickly ends the threat.  Rockies CF Cory Sullivan leaves the game with a minor injury in the 8th, and in the bottom of the inning Jaret Walsh singles and then RF-4 Piedra misplays a single to put two runners in scoring position with one out and Ohtani up.  In comes the infield and Colorado closer Brian Fuentes to try to save the game.  Ohtani lofts one to CF-2 injury replacement Larry Bigbie, who makes a great play and the runner must hold at third, with now two away.  Up to the plate steps Fletcher, who already has three hits on the day, and he rips a solid double on his own card and the Angels regain the lead.  So it’s now up to Angels closer Mike Mayers against the heart of the Rockies order; Helton knocks a one-out double, Mayers retires another and it’s up to Barmes, who laces a single, 1-12+2 Helton sets sail for home and…..19, he’s out by a mile and the Angels rely on some divine split die intervention to survive and move on.  

With the bracket’s top seed already knocked out, the 89-win 2010 Red Sox now become the regional favorite, armed with a fearsome heart of the lineup led by MVP vote-getting Adrian Beltre, and Clay Buchholz (17-7, 2.33) had his career year to finish 6th in the Cy Young sweepstakes.  The 2004 Expos lost 95 games but the Montreal fans came out to say goodbye to the franchise as it would relocate to Washington the following season; there wasn’t too much to cheer for on the roster, although Livan Hernandez (11-15, 3.60) was a decent option for the first round start.  In the top of the 1st, a Dustin Pedroia double sets up a sac fly from Kevin Youklis and the Red Sox take a lead that is quickly erased by a Jose Vidro solo shot in the bottom of the inning. In the 3rd, Pedroia slams a 2-out solo homer and Beltre follows with a double and scores on a 2-base error by Expos SS-2 Orlando Cabrera.  Pedroia crushes his second homer of the game in the 5th, a 2-run shot, but Hernandez then settles down until he walks two in the top of the 9th and Chad Cordero is summoned from a lackluster bullpen.  He promptly yields an RBI single to Youklis off the pitcher’s card, and Buchholz wraps up a 7-hit performance in the bottom of the 9th to send the Expos packing to Washington and send the Red Sox to the semifinals.

The survivors

Both the 1991 Red Sox and the 2022 Twins upset better-ranked teams in the first round, and although Boston had needed a Cy Young winning Clemens to do so, their second round starter, swingman Joe Hesketh (12-4, 3.29), wasn’t too bad either.  For the Twins, Joe Ryan 13-8, 3.55) had only two complete hits on his card, but both of them involved homers, and their bullpen had already seen some work in round one and could use a rest.  In the top of the 3rd, the Twins load the bases with two our for Byron Buxton, who had hit three homers in the round 1 game; a cautious Hesketh walks him to score a run, and then Carlos Correa rips a double; two runners score and 1+16+2 Buxton heads for home, but the split is a 19 and the inning is over, but the Twins still lead 3-0.   Buxton atones by hitting a double in the 5th, and scoring easily on a Gio Urshela single to extend the lead, and Boston’s dwindling chances don’t look any better when CF Ellis Burks is lost for the remainder of the tournament with an injury to lead off the bottom of the inning.  Hesketh settles down and holds the Twins scoreless through the 9th, but Boston can’t get anything going against Ryan until the bottom of the 9th.  There, with two out, Phil Plantier draws a walk and Carlos Quintana pokes a single, and the Red Sox send Jack Clark out to pinch hit.  Clark rolls the 5-9, the solid HR result on Ryan, and all of a sudden it’s a one run game and the Twins are forced to summon reliever Jovani Moran for the second straight game.  And Moran fans Tom Brunansky to stave off the Red Sox and send the unheralded Twins to the finals with the 4-3 win.   

The previous semifinal eliminated any chance of an all-Red Sox final, but hopes for a regional title were still shining brightly in Boston as the 2010 Red Sox were the better of their two entries, and they were facing a #7 seed in the 2020 Angels.  Fortunately for the Angels, their second starter in terms of IP was also their best starter, Dylan Bundy (6-3, 3.29), although the Red Sox had Jon Lester (19-9, 3.25) who finished 4th in the Cy Young voting, so this was a high quality pitching matchup for a semifinal game.  The dice don’t seem to be going Boston’s was early, as JD Drew leads off the bottom of the 1st by missing his HR 1-10 split with an 11, and he gets stranded while offensive weapon Kevin Youklis is knocked out of the tournament with an injury.  Justin Upton then crushes a 2-run homer over the Green Monster in the 2nd to give the Angels a 2-0 lead, but injury replacement Jed Lowrie contributes an RBI single, Adrian Beltre adds another, and Big Papi David Ortiz lofts a sac fly to give the Red Sox the lead after three innings.  From there, the pitching duel begins to materialize, at least until the top of the 8th when David Fletcher converts a two-out SI 1-8 off Lester’s card, which brings up Mike Trout, who deposits it into the Lansdowne Street netting as the Angels regain the lead.  However, in the bottom of the inning, Beltre raps a base hit, and with two out backup C Jason Varitek rolls his HR 1-7/DO split–which he misses, and 1-12+2 Beltre heads for home representing the tying run.  But again the split die finds the Red Sox annoying, with a 15 roll that has Beltre out by a hair to end the inning.  And that is their last gasp, as Bundy sets them down in order with SS-1 Andrelton Simmons handling the last out of the game to send the Angels to the final with a 4-3 victory that is their second straight come-from-behind win fueled by the consistent cooperation of the split die.

The regional final was an unlikely pairing between the #5 seeded 2022 Twins and the #7 seed 2020 Angels, both fresh off semifinal wins over more highly ranked Red Sox teams.  Given their real life performance, the Angels’ #3 starter, Griffin Canning (2-3, 3.99) was surprisingly good, while the Twins were not as fortunate with Tyler Mahle (6-8, 4.40) having some trouble with the longball.  The Angels strike in the bottom of the 1st with an Anthony Rendon sac fly scoring Mike Trout, but in the top of the 4th the Twins get an RBI triple followed by a 2-run homer, both off Canning’s card, and take a 3-1 lead.  When Canning yields a single and a walk in the 6th, the Angels try to keep things in reach for their typical late inning miracles and give reliever Cam Bedrosian that task.  However, PH Matt Wallner strokes an RBI single to pad the lead, but 2B Jorge Polanco ends the inning with an injury that knocks him out of the game.  However, Mahle doesn’t need him, as he completely recovers from his first inning jitters and dominates the Angels the rest of the way to lock down the 4-1 win and provide the 8th regional win for the Twins, with three of them coming from teams since 2017.

Interesting card of Regional #233:  In playing this regional, I gained a little more insight into the question of how a team with Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani can be so unsuccessful, but perhaps the 2020 pandemic season wasn’t a good one to generalize from.  My assumption had been pretty much that it was those two and a host of minor leaguers, but the pandemic Angels had a pretty good rotation, and although some of the regulars at the bottom of the order couldn’t clear the Mendoza line, there were some quality substitutes, including a 26-year old rookie by the name of Jared Walsh.  Although he qualified as a rookie in 2020, he did see some limited action with the Angels in 2019, where they tried to duplicate their Ohtani magic by using Walsh as a two-way player where he recorded a 1.80 ERA in five relief appearances (although 1.800 WHIP).   For 2020, the Angels went the Babe Ruth route and just let him bat, and lo and behold the result was a card of Ruthian proportions.  In this project, a player must have 100 AB in order to start at the DH, and Walsh fell just short of that threshold, although he played enough in that 60-game season to get a fair amount of support in the Rookie of the Year balloting.  Nonetheless, by tournament rules he had to wait until the 6th inning to get this attractive card into the lineup, and he didn’t do much in his limited opportunities in this regional.  He did go on to have an excellent season in the following year as a full time player, hitting 29 homers and making the All-Star team, and it seemed that the Angels had come up with an important piece to complement their two superstars.  However, as sometimes is the case with 26 year old rookies, he pretty much crashed and burned in succeeding seasons after his fast start and the Angels let him leave as a free agent, and he signed with the Rangers where he's off to a lackluster start this season in Arlington.  

REGIONAL #232:  There was a lot of wrapping up in the draw for this group, as the final team from the 1960s, the final team from the 1970s, and the final team from the 1987 National League all ended up in the bracket; two of those were Dodgers, and the other included Roberto Clemente.  Also included was one of the final teams from Montreal before they flew south, another squad that would combine the idiosyncrasies of Coors and the pandemic, and entries from the Phillies and the Indians that would face each other, with both just a few seasons away from pennants.  I didn’t see a clear favorite in here, as I suspected all of these teams had some weaknesses, but as a total crapshoot I picked the 1987 version of the Dodgers over an unknown-to-me Diamondbacks team in the finals.  The ELO rankings indicated that I put my money on the wrong Dodgers team, as the 1976 Dodgers were a season away from a pennant and were favored to best the Indians in the finals.  

First round action

The 1976 Dodgers won 92 games to finish second behind the Big Red Machine, but they would win the pennant the following season and all the parts were here, with Steve Garvey and Ron Cey receiving MVP votes and Don Sutton (21-10, 3.06) was 3rd in the Cy Young voting.  They were somewhat baffled by the visiting 2020 Rockies, as the Dodgers had never heard of such a team and wondered if they had something to do with the recently released Sylvester Stallone movie, and why their uniforms were purple.  They were also puzzled as to why these Rockies only played 60 games, going 26-34 which was better than their projection; still, Trevor Story got MVP votes and German Marquez (4-6, 3.75) had about as good a card as could be expected from a Coors Field starter.  The Rockies display their punch as Ryan McMahon leads off the top of the 2nd with a long homer, and a flustered Sutton loses control and walks the bases loaded but strands them full to escape trailing only 1-0.  Sutton settles back down and is in control until Garrett Hampson leads off the 9th with a triple, and the Dodgers make the questionable move of summoning knuckleballer Charlie Hough with the runner on third.  But there are no passed balls needed as PH Matt Kemp singles in the run to give Marquez a two-run lead entering the bottom of the 9th.  And he sets the Dodgers down in order to secure the 5-hit shutout as the Rockies win 2-0 send the regional favorite and the last 1970s team to enter the tournament back into the storage drawers from whence they surfaced after a nearly 50 year hibernation.  

With the top seed eliminated, it was time for the #2 seed and the last team of the 1960s to enter the tournament, the 1965 Pirates, to try their hand.  These Pirates won 90 games to finish 3rd in the 10-team NL, with Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell garnering MVP support, as did Vern Law (17-9, 2.16) who received no Cy Young votes–because somebody named Koufax got them all.  The faced the #4 seed 2018 Diamondbacks, who looked a bit better than their 82-80 record with Paul Goldschmidt finishing 6th in the MVP votes and Patrick Corbin (11-7, 3.15) 5th for the Cy Young.  The Pirates open the scoring in the bottom of the 3rd as Bob Bailey doubles, Mazeroski singles him in, and then Bill Virdon laces a triple for a 2-0 Pittsburgh lead.  John Jay triples for the first Dback hit of the game to open the top of the 5th, but Law prevails and strands him at third to maintain the lead.  He continues his domination until the top of the 9th, but then David Peralta leads off with a double and AJ Pollock triples him in to put the tying run at third with one away.  Law gets Nick Ahmed to line out for out number two, and the best PH off a terrible Dback bench steps to the plate in the form of Steven Souza, who rips a game-tying single off Law’s card.  It’s now up to Corbin in the bottom of the 9th, and down goes Stargell and Clendenon for two quick outs, bringing up C Jim Pagliaroni; the roll is a 3-10, HR 1-6/DO, the split is a 6 and the ball scrapes the top of the Forbes Field wall for a walk off two out homer that sends the Pirates to the semifinals with a 3-2 victory.

In picking the 1987 Dodgers to win this bracket, I obviously thought they’d be better than a #7 seed and a 73-89 record, one of the worst records for the franchise that I remember seeing in my lifetime.  Their main weapon was Pedro Guerrero, who got a few MVP votes, and Bob Welch (15-9, 3.22) also got a few for the Cy Young award, but their defense was bad and there wasn’t much of a bullpen.  Time was running out for the 2002 Expos in Montreal, but they were still favored with a better 83-79 record their own Guerrero, Vlad, finishing 4th in the MVP voting and a large presence on the mound in Bartolo Colon (20-8, 2.93) who was a 20 game winner across two teams.  However, Mike Scioscia find and converts Colon’s HR split for a two run shot in the top of the 2nd to provide LA with the early lead, but Michael Barrett and Fernando Tatis each find Welch’s HR split in the bottom of the inning; both miss it, but Barrett does score on Tatis’s knock and it’s 2-1 Dodgers after two.  Colon struggles again in the 4th, allowing an RBI double to Mickey Hatcher off the pitcher’s card and that runner scores on a Scioscia single to pad the Dodger lead, but the Expos get those runs back in the 5th on a sac fly from Troy O’Leary and an RBI single by Jose Vidro.  In the 6th Hatcher adds an RBI single to the LA lead, and a leadoff single in the top of the 7th and the Expos decide it’s time to irrigate Colon, summoning Joey Eischen’s 1.34 ERA from the pen and he retires the side without incident.  In the 8th Barrett misses Welch’s HR split once again, but with two out Brad Wilkerson races home from first and it’s a one-run game entering the 9th.  Eischen quickly dispatches the Dodgers in the top of the inning, while in the bottom of the inning Orlando Cabrera singles, and the A stealer is held allowing Vidro a gbA++ single with two out to put the tying run on third and Vlad the Impaler at the plate.  Lacking a dominating reliever, the Dodgers stick with Welch (unlike Fleetwood Mac) and Vlad rolls a second gbA++, but nobody’s held this time and the Dodgers survive and advance with the 5-4 win.  

The Zoom game of the week featured partisan managers Tall Tactician in charge of the 2001 Phillies, and ColavitoFan once again directing Cleveland in the form of the 2014 Indians, with both of these squads climbing towards pennants but not there yet.  The Indians were the #3 seed in the bracket with a respectable 85-77 record and Cy Young winner Corey Kluber (18-9, 2.44) on the hill, and Michael Brantley came in third in the MVP voting to head the offense.  The Phillies went 86-76 but had a worse ELO ranking; although there were MVP votes for Jimmy Rollins, Bobby Abreu and Scott Rolen, their pitching staff was uninspiring with Randy Wolf (10-11, 3.70) leading the pack.  Wolf runs into trouble in the 2nd as a hit and a walk set up a 2-run double for David Murphy, and he also scores courtesy of a 2-base error by Travis Lee, the first of three Philadelphia errors on the night.  But Wolf settles in and keeps control until he’s replaced by Ricky Bottalico in the 6th and Jose Mesa in the 8th, all of whom keep the Indians at bay until the Phils offense can get untracked.  That doesn’t happen until the 8th, when Rollins doubles in a run, advances to third on a grounder, and with two outs TT gives the “steal” sign to the AA Rollins–and he’s safe with a steal of home, and it’s a one run game.  At this point ColavitoFan visits the mound to chat with his ace Kluber, and the old HAL trick works as Kluber slams the door on the Phils in the 9th and the Indians escape with a 3-2 victory for a trip to the semifinals.

The survivors

Having disposed of the top seed in the regional in the first round, the bottom-seeded 2020 Rockies now faced the #2 seed in the 1965 Pirates, who had been hard-pressed in their first round game.  The Rockies rotation was weirdly adequate for a bad Colorado team, with Antonio Senzatela (5-3, 3.44) a decent #2 option for an eight-seed regardless of pandemic inning restrictions.  Bob Veale (17-12, 2.84) was on the menu for the Pirates, and Donn Clendenon stakes him to a lead with a two-out solo shot in the bottom of the 4th.  In the top of the 7th, Garrett Hampson misses a HR 1-11/TR split with one out, but represents the tying run at third; however, Veale records two straight strikeouts and the Bucs cling to the one run lead.  In the 8th, the Rockies load the bases with one out on a single, a walk, and an error by P-4 Veale, but he atones by once again striking out two in a row to preserve the lead.  In the bottom of the 8th, it’s Bill Mazeroski’s turn to miss a HR 1-13/TR split, but Bill Virdon lofts a fly ball deep enough to score Maz and provide a slight bit of padding for Veale going into the 9th.  It proves unnecessary, as Veale sets the Rockies down in order to wrap up a 6-hit shutout in which he whiffs 16, a dominating performance that sends the Pirates to the finals averaging only two-plus runs and 5-plus hits per game in the first round.  

The favorite in this semifinal was the #3 seeded 2014 Indians, and although they needed their Cy Young winning ace to survive round one, they still had swingman Carlos Carrasco (8-7, 2.55) with a very nice card to serve as starter number two.  However, they faced a bulldog in Orel Hershiser (16-16, 3.05) of the 1987 Dodgers, but Hershiser’s defense lets him down in the bottom of the 4th when 3B-4 Mickey Hatcher butchers a grounder for a two-base error and the runner eventually scores on a Michael Brantley grounder.  Yan Gomes then leads off the bottom of the 4th with a long blast, and then a few batters later Asdrubal Cabrera converts Hershiser’s HR 1-4/flyB split for a two-run shot and Cleveland pushes their lead to 4-0 after five.  Another run scores in the 6th on a Carlos Santana fielder’s choice, and Carrasco keeps cruising until the 9th, when a single and a couple of walks load the bases with one out for Mike Marshall; Marshall can make it a one run game but he rolls the gbA and it’s game over as Carrasco records the 4-hit shutout, striking out nine and propelling his Indians into the finals with a 5-0 win.  

The regional final was played live via Zoom, with ColavitoFan reprising his successful leadership of the #3 seed 2014 Indians while EaglesFly was at the helm of the #2 seeded 1965 Pirates.   These Bucs had one of the deepest starting rotations that had been seen in recent brackets, with swingman Joe Gibbon (4-9, 4.50) just one of a number of good options, while the Indians did not have the same luxury, hoping that Danny Salazar (6-8, 4.25) could last long enough to hand the game to a deep and fully rested bullpen.  However, things start off rough for Salazar as on the first play of the game SS-3 Jose Ramirez, in the game because of his relative glove, commits a two-base error that leads to a Donn Clendenon RBI single.  The Bucs then pour it on in the 2nd, as a 2-run Roberto Clemente double and a Stargell sac fly push the Pittsburgh lead to 4-0, although in the bottom of the inning Carlos Santana rips into a blistering solo (HR, that is) and the gap is narrowed to 4-1.  A Clendenon homer in the 5th makes it 6-1, and Salazar is gone for Bryan Shaw, but he has some issues allowing a Jerry Lynch homer in the 7th that makes it 9-1.  Santana proves that he’s a Hall of Famer (Rock and Roll edition, just down the street from the stadium) with his second solo shot of the night in the bottom of the 7th, and David Murphy adds another in the 8th but Al McBean comes on for the 9th and the Pirates take the 9-3 win and the regional title back to Pittsburgh.  Gibbon allows only 5 hits in 8 innings, three of them solo homers, and whiffs 12 as the Pirates take the bracket with a combination of blistering starting pitching and Clendenon as a one-man wrecking crew.  

Interesting card of Regional #232:   The 1965 Pirates were the regional winners, and they would be the final team to enter this tournament that had originally been released in Basic-only format, although I used the Basic side of the SADV release for their games because the original version, while more aesthetically pleasing to me, included only 20 players.  The comparison is often interesting, particularly when the game company “retcons” certain ratings based on hindsight that are different from the contemporary ratings established at the time.  One such example on the ‘65 Pirates was Bob Bailey, a 3B-3 on the original 1965 set but a 4(e30) in the ‘65 SADV set that was released in 1998.  But a more interesting case is Roberto Clemente, who is immortalized in the 1965 set (as well as others) as having the only -6 outfield arm ever issued by the game company.   Of course, the original Basic 1965 cards did not have outfield arm ratings,because that feature was introduced with the Advanced game in the 1971 set. But a relevant comparison can be found between his original 1971 card, where he was rated with a -5 arm, and his 1971 SADV card (issued in 2007) where he was “upgraded” to the -6.  Clemente died tragically on New Years Eve 1972 in a plane crash while on a humanitarian mission, and a few months later the Baseball Hall of Fame honored him by waiving the eligibility requirements and electing him immediately.  I believe that the Strat game company similarly waived their rating conventions to honor Clemente with the -6 arm rating.  I think the available data support the contention that he certainly had one of the best outfield arms in history, but I’m less confident that he was in a “class of his own”--for example, I’ve seen analyses that suggest that Jesse Barfield might have had a better arm.  In no way do I begrudge Strat’s recognition for Clemente, who was an all-time great, but it’s always been interesting to me to ponder the various factors that go into the assignment of some of Strat’s more subjective ratings.  Dare I speculate that if he’d played for the Yankees, he would have received a -7?

REGIONAL #231:  As I’m getting deeper in the tournament, the remaining teams get more and more recent, and as such this might be the last regional that is balanced between squads from the 20th and 21st centuries.  Both Dodgers entries represented milestones; the 1927 team would be the last team to enter from before the Kennedy administration, and the ‘98 version was the finale for the NL that season.  One of the two Cardinals draws was the main attention-grabber as it was the 2011 pennant winners; other noteworthy squads were the White Sox from two seasons after their “winning ugly” AL West win, and a Tigers team from two seasons after recording one of the worst records of all time.  My guess was that the pennant winning Cards would be the best of the group, and with the bottom part of the bracket looking like a crapshoot I went with the pandemic-year Brewers, as all teams from that season are pretty much a crapshoot.  The ELO rankings predicted the same outcome as I did, and noted that the top two teams in the bracket would be meeting in the first round.  

First round action

The 1985 White Sox went 85-77 and were the #3 seed in this bracket; Harold Baines and Carlton Fisk anchored the lineup and both received MVP votes, while 40 year old Tom Seaver (16-11, 3.17) proved he still had plenty of gas in the tank.  They faced the 2005 Tigers, who lost 91 games which was still better than they had been in the previous few years; they had a pretty potent lineup but their defense and pitching was putrid, with Jeremy Bonderman (14-12, 4.57) the best option on the mound.  In the top of the 1st, an error by Sox 2B-3 Scott Fletcher sets up an RBI single from Dmitri Young, fresh from contributing to a regional title in the previous bracket.  In the 6th, Tigers CF Nook Logan hits an RBI triple into one of the nooks of Old Comiskey and Detroit leads 2-0, and they go wholesale on the defensive replacements in the 6th to try to hang on to that edge.  One of those replacements, Curtis Granderson, knocks an RBI single in the 7th, and while the Sox mount a threat in the bottom of the inning loading the bases with one out, Tim Hulett hits into a DP to kill that rally.  From there, the anemic Sox offense makes Bonderman look like Superman as he finishes out a 6-hit shutout, and the Tigers move along to the semifinals with a 3-0 win and another Chisox team heads straight for the storage drawers without even pausing to muster up a run.

The luck of draw put the top two seeds against each other in the first round, the world champion 2011 Cardinals and the #2 seeded 1998 Dodgers.  The Cards won 90 games and eventually won the NL and the Series, but looking at the team in detail I wasn’t sure how they pulled that off.  Yes, the offense looked pretty good with Albert Pujols finishing 5th in the MVP votes, but the rotation was only okay with Kyle Lohse (14-8, 3.39) at the top and I didn’t remember running across a Series winner that had an all-”4” DP combo.  The Dodgers only went 83-79, but they had some offense of their own, led by Gary Sheffield, and Ramon Martinez (7-3, 2.83) had a dominating card, just sneaking into eligibility with 102 IP.  Back to back to back doubles in the top of the 1st by Trent Hubbard, Gary Sheffield and Raul Mondesi quickly put the Dodgers up 2-0, and Eric Young leads off the 2nd with a single, steals second on C-1 Yadier Molina, and scores on a Hubbard single to extend the lead.  When Charles Johnson adds a solo shot in the 6th to make it 4-0 Dodgers, the Cards realize they’re going to lose with Lohse and try Jason Motte from the pen, and he’s in control until the top of the 9th when an error by 3B-3 David Freese causes Motte to lose his composure, and he ends up walking in an insurance run that proves unnecessary as Martinez closes out a 5-hit shutout to send the pennant-winners packing and propel the Dodger to the semifinals with a 5-0 win.  

This matchup was between two bad teams from different eras.   The 1976 Cardinals lost 90 games, and their leading home run hitter was Hector Cruz with 13 having nobody else in double digits, but they had a deep rotation with John Denny (11-9, 2.52) at the top.  The 93-loss 2011 Orioles had most of their lineup hitting more homers than Cruz, but the starting pitching was frightening with Jeremy Guthrie (9-17, 4.33) being good enough to lose a bunch of games.   The O’s get on the board in the top of the 1st when JJ Hardy slides under the tag to score (1-12+2) on a two-out double from Mark Reynolds, but that lead is very short-lived as leadoff hitter Lou Brock converts a HR split on Guthrie’s card to tie the game immediately.  Ted Simmons then also knocks a solo shot off Guthrie’s card in the 3rd to give St. Louis the lead briefly, but the O’s begin the top of the 4th with four straight singles, the fourth being a 2-run knock by Derrek Lee, and Baltimore is back on top, 3-2.  As the game enters the 6th, Baltimore considers removing Guthrie but given their rotation they hope to preserve their pen somewhat; that doesn’t work out well as Guthrie allows back to back doubles by Willie Crawford and Jerry Mumphrey and the game is tied, with Troy Patton then summoned from the pen and he comes in to punch out PH Mike Tyson to end the inning.  Denny and new O’s reliever Jim Johnson stay the course through the 9th and the game heads to extra innings.  But Denny appears to be spent in the 10th, loading the bases on two singles and a walk and then 3B-4 Cruz boots a grounder to put the Orioles on top.  With the bases still loaded, Cards SS-3 Don Kessinger makes a two-base error for another two runs, and Denny is madder than the Mad Hungarian who relieves him, Al Hrabosky, but Al yields RBI singles to Matt Angle and Nick Markakis.  Johnson then sets the Cards down in the bottom of the 10th as they miss the split on his HR 1/flyB twice and the Orioles move on with the 8-3 win, but with more wear and tear on their bullpen than they would like.

The 1927 Dodgers (actually the Robins at the time) would be the last team from before 1965 to enter the tournament, with all teams from 1911 to 1964 that Strat has printed now having had their chance.  However, they were not a particularly good entry, as they went 65-88, with no power (Babe Herman the only double-digit HR hitter with 14) and some terrible defense, but they did have two Hall of Famers with Max Carey leading off and Dazzy Vance (16-15, 2.70) on the hill.  The 2020 Brewers were relieved to get away from the pandemic and do some time travel back to Ebbets Field; although they finished under .500 at 29-31, they were the #2 seed in the bracket and had some low AB wonders as well as one of their best starters, Brandon Woodruff (3-5, 3.05), mandated to start as their top guy in innings pitched.  Keston Hiura swats a solo homer in the top of the 2nd, and Christian Yelich adds a two-run shot in the 5th to extend the Brewer lead.  A two-base error by Brooklyn 2B-4 Jay Partridge adds to the lead in the 7th, and then in the 8th Yelich pokes his second two-run homer of the game and they head for the streetcars in Flatbush.   From there, Woodruff goes out in style, striking out the side in the 9th to lock down the three-hit shutout as the Brewers cruise to the semis with the 6-0 win.

The survivors

The 1998 Dodgers and the 2005 Tigers were both upset winners in round one, although the Dodgers were the #2 seed in the regional so their presence in the semifinals was not surprising.  The Dodgers had several decent starters to select from, and decided on swingman Brian Bohanon (7-11, 3.67) although really any of them would have been a better option than the Tigers’ Jason Johnson (8-13, 4.54).  However, both pitchers start out strong, with Bohanon carrying a no-hitter into the 5th and the Dodgers unable to find the sweet spots on Johnson’s card.  The Tigers suffer a big loss when SS Carlos Guillen is lost for the tournament to injury in the top of the 6th; when Eric Young leads off the bottom of the inning with a single off Johnson’s card and then steals second, the Tigers try to change the momentum by bringing in Kyle Farnsworth from the pen.  However, he promptly issues a walk and then yields a three-run homer to Gary Sheffield; after getting two outs, Farnsworth injures himself issuing a walk to Bobby Bonilla and it’s Fernando Rodney’s turn to pitch.  He gets the final out, and then in the 8th the Tigers narrow the gap when Brandon Inge triples and scores on a squib single from Curtis Granderson; Placido Polanco then converts a TR 1-2/flyB to score Granderson.  The Dodgers stick with Bohanon for the time being, and it pays off as he whiffs two straight Tigers to strand Polanco and the Dodgers cling to a one-run lead.  Rodney holds off the Dodgers in the 8th, so it’s up to Bohanon to hang on in the 9th, and although he walks the first batter, he then retires three straight to finish out a 4-hitter as the Dodgers head to the finals winning the 3-2 duel, only recording four hits themselves.

The semifinal between the #4 seed 2020 Brewers and the #8 seeded 2011 Orioles particularly seemed to favor the Brewers because their best starting pitcher, Corbin Burnes (4-1, 2.11) was mandated to get the start by virtue of his IP.   Meanwhile, Baltimore had a choice of several not-so-great options and went with Zach Britton (11-11, 4.61) in front of a bullpen depleted in their extra-inning first round win.  But it’s Burnes who starts of rough in the top of the 1st as the leadoff hitter doubles past the 5-rated pitcher and then scores on a missed HR split double from Mark Reynolds for a quick Baltimore lead.  Reynolds takes no chances on a split in the 5th, nailing his solid HR for a solo shot to put the O’s up 2-0, but Britton starts off the bottom of the inning with three straight walks off his card, and then Jedd Gyorko rolls a HR 1-16/flyB split and it comes up 18, scoring one on the sac fly and it’s 2-1 after five.  The Brewers then go to wholesale replacements and one of them, Tyrone Taylor, doubles with 1-14 Orlando Arcia on first, but Arcia is nailed trying to score with a 17.  However, another sub, Luis Urias, singles Taylor home and the score is tied, but in the top of the 8th Matt Wieters singles home 1-12+2 JJ Hardy with two out and Baltimore moves ahead once again, and for the bottom of the inning game 1 winner Jim Johnson is summoned from the pen to try to close things out.  However, the Brewers respond as Gyorko delivers a two-out RBI single to tie things up again heading into the 9th.  Chris Davis leads off the top of the 9th and makes contact for a double, and although Burnes strikes out two in a row and it looks like the runner will be stranded, Nick Markakis finds a TR 1-14/flyB at 4-11 on the pitcher and converts it for the go-ahead run.  So once again it’s up to Johnson, and this time he’s perfect and closes out a 4-3 win that vaults the bottom seed into the regional final.

The regional final looks a bit lopsided as the #2 seeded 1998 Dodgers take on the bottom-ranked 2011 Orioles for the bracket crown.  The Orioles had pulled off two upsets with final-inning heroics, but Jake Arrieta (10-8, 5.05) had a bad combination of issues with walks and gopher balls that promised to make things nerve-wracking for the Baltimore crowd.  Meanwhile, the Dodgers had some decent options, with Chan Ho Park (15-9, 3.71) supported by a fully rested bullpen.  However, Park’s defense lets him down in the 2nd as 3B-5 Bobby Bonilla waves at a single slapped past him, and that runner eventually scores on an error by SS-4 Mark Grudzielanek to put Baltimore up 1-0.  In the top of the 5th, the Dodgers load the bases against Arrieta for Raul Mondesi; he hits a sharp grounder to 3B-4 Chris Davis who can’t quite turn the DP and the game is tied.  However, Derrek Lee crushes a two-out, two-run homer in the 6th to put the pesky O’s back on top, and they decide not to press their luck with Arrieta and bring in their lone decent rested reliever, Troy Patton, to try to preserve the lead.  When Park yields a single to JJ Hardy to begin the bottom of the 8th, the Dodgers bring in closer Jeff Shaw and Adam Jones promptly takes him deep for a 2-run homer and the Camden Yards are rocking.  Armed with a four run lead, the O’s try to preserve Patton and bring in their unreliable closer Kevin Gregg, and although he puts a couple of runners on he escapes the inning to seal the 5-1 win for the underdog Orioles, capping a rare regional win for a bottom seed and the 6th for a Baltimore team.

Interesting card of Regional #231:  The 2020 pandemic-year Strat set had a variety of interesting cards as a result of the low usage that many players had, but this one can’t really be blamed on a miniscule sample as Orlando Arcia was the starting shortstop for the Brewers, and by 2020 standards he had quite a few plate appearances.  Unfortunately, it seemed like an awful lot of them resulted in a double play.  Having played Strat for a long time now, there have been a number of good players who had an uncanny knack of hitting into twin-killings for me; Dave Winfield and Eddie Murray are two who come to mind, to the point where I’d steal second with just about anybody if there were less than two out and one of those guys was at the plate.  However, I think Orlando here takes the cake; his Brewers only played two games in my tournament, but it seemed like there was somebody on first whenever he came up, and I rolled a three column every time.  Arcia did lead the NL in GIDP in 2020, and after getting off to an .091 start in 2021 the Brewers unloaded him to Atlanta, where he has thrived, making the All Star team last season.   I’m sure he was also pleased that he dropped to 25th place in GIDP to stay out of contention for the lead in that dubious category, but in the unlikely event I ever play the 2020 Brewers again…..he’s bunting.     

REGIONAL #230:  This draw proved to be an eclectic one, with one of the last teams from the 1920s included, as well as representatives from the 80s, 90s, 00s, and the pandemic.   There was a pennant winner here in the 2003 Marlins, and there was also a Marlins team from the year following their prior pennant–a team that I remembered being almost immediately disassembled.  There was also another pair in the poker hand, this one from the Orioles, although I didn’t expect big things from either.  In trying to remember what other teams might be competitive, I knew that the White Sox entry was from a ebb between good teams in the early 80s and early 90s, and I doubted that they would survive the Sox jinx; there was a Cardinals team from the year before McGwire’s record setting that was probably pretty good, and a Padres team that had won a pennant a few years earlier.  I suspected that the 1927 Braves would get demolished by this competition, so as far as predictions go I went with the pennant winning Marlins over the Cards in the final.  The ELO ratings portrayed the ‘03 Marlins as the only really good team in the group, picking them over the 1999 version of the Orioles.

First round action

One season after winning the World Series, the 1998 Marlins managed to pull off a collapse not seen since Connie Mack’s A’s, losing 108 games; the squad jettisoned about three quarters of it’s lineup and rotation, and what was left of the latter was gruesome, with Kurt Ojala (2-7, 4.25) the least terrible options.  The 1997 Cardinals were the #3 seed in the bracket even though they only went 73-89, but they looked better on cardstock with a late season acquisition of Mark McGwire, who hit 24 homers in 174 ABs for the Cards, and a strong rotation fronted by a pair of Benes’s, with Andy (10-7, 3.10) getting the nod over his younger brother.  The game is scoreless until the top of the 4th, when Ray Lankford crushes a solo shot to put the Cards ahead, but the Marlins tie it with smallball as Edgar Renteria squibs a single past 1B-2 McGwire, advances on a bunt, and races home on a single from Dave Berg.  The pitchers remain in control until the top of the 9th, when the Cards get two aboard and Royce Clayton doubles to score one, but the stop sign goes up for slow-footed Gary Gaetti with just one out.  The Marlins counter with reliever Matt Mantei and bring the infield in, which works as Gaetti is out at the plate trying to score on a Willie McGee grounder.  Nonetheless, the Cards hold the one run lead entering the bottom of the 9th and it’s up to Benes to close things out, but the first batter Mark Kotsay doubles off the pitcher’s card to put the tying run in scoring position.  Tony Larussa eyes Dennis Eckersley in the pen but all he can see is that solid 5-9 homer, so he sticks with his starter and he strands Kotsay at second for the 2-1 as the Cards squeak into the semifinal with no help whatsoever from Big Mac.

One of the last pre-war teams left in the tournament, the 60-94 1927 Braves had the look of a deadball era squad, with five .300 hitters in the lineup but with their leading home run hitter, the legendary Jack Fournier, barely clearing double digits with 10.  Their pitching was not great either, with Joe Genewich (11-8, 3.83) their top option.  They had to go against the #2 seed in the bracket, the 1999 Orioles, a steroid era team where only one players in the lineup hit fewer homers than Fournier.  Although they only went 78-84, that was six games under their projection, and BJ Surhoff got MVP votes while Mike Mussina (18-7, 3.50) was the Cy Young runner-up.  The O’s get a run in the bottom of the 1st when Will Clark doubles and Albert Belle singles him home; in the 3rd they pile on, starting with a 2-run homer by Brady Anderson and then a sac fly from Belle and a 2-out RBI single from Jeff Conine makes it 5-0.  Genewich then gets injured in the bottom of the 5th, and George Mogridge comes in and retaliates by injuring Belle for 6 games, basically knocking him out of the tournament.  Fournier gets the Braves on the board in the 6th by doubling and eventually scoring on an Eddie Moore sac fly; in the 8th they start going to town on Mussina, and RBI doubles from Jimmie Welsh and Shanty Hogan make it a one run game with Hogan in scoring position on only one out.  The O’s check the pen and see a lot of steroid-era relievers that allow longballs, so they stick with their ace and he gets the final outs so Mussina enters the 9th trying to protect the narrow lead.  The top of the 9th begins with C-1 Charles Johnson dropping a popup to put the tying run aboard, and with two away Dick Burrus singles that runner to 3rd; Doc Farrell then rips a grounder to second, and I had forgotten to bring in a defensive replacement for 2B-4 Delino Deshields, but amazingly Delino scoops it up and tosses to Conine for the final out as the Orioles sneak into the semifinals with the 5-4 win, but without their top HR threat for the remainder of the regional.

The top-seeded 2003 Marlins won 91 games and managed to win the World Series from a wild-card berth, with a lineup boasting four guys getting MVP votes and a deep rotation fronted by Mark Redman (14-9, 3.59).  They faced the 2001 Padres, who were a mediocre 79-83 and unfortunately the two Hall of Famers they could put in the lineup, Tony Gwynn and Rickey Henderson, were both over 40, and their steroid-era rotation meant that swingman Brian Lawrence (5-5, 3.45) was the least likely to need assistance from closer Trevor Hoffman.  The Marins waste no time asserting themselves in the top of the 1st with a three-run homer by Derrek Lee and a solo shot from rookie Miguel Cabrera providing a large lead before most Padres fans were in their seats.  Things don’t go much better in the 2nd, as a two-out two-base error by Padres 3B-4 Phil Nevin gives him two errors for the game and scores two runs.  At this point the Pads see no point to save Hoffman for anything and he ends the inning with his team losing 6-0.  That seems to inspire San Diego somewhat, as Mark Kotsay leads off the bottom of the inning with a homer to get them on the board.  However, the beating continues in the 3rd, with Juan Encarnacion recording a 2-run triple; the Juan-two punch continues as he scores on a Juan Pierre single, and the AA Pierre swipes second and scores on a Mike Lowell single that makes it 10-1.  In the 5th, Luis Castillo drives a triple past Padres RF-4 Bubba Trammell to score two more; he scores on a Lee single and the Marlins then load the bases for Encarnacion, who clears them with a double and it’s now 16-1.  The Padres get a couple of runs in the bottom of the 5th on RBI hits from Ryan Klesko and Ray Lankford, but with the score 16-3 after five the Marlins decide to avoid injuries with some wholesale substitutions, and one of them, Ramon Castro, adds a two-run homer to give Hoffman 12 runs allow in his four innings pitched.  Klesko posts a sac fly in the bottom of the 6th in response, but Castilo cranks out a 2-run single in the 7th to make things even more lopsided.  In the 8th Alex Gonzalez somehow locates a split HR on reliever Jay Witasick’s 3-2 roll, and he converts it with two out for a three-run shot that caps off a remarkable 23-4 win for the Marlins, crushing the previous record (17) for runs scored by a team in the first round of this tournament.

The last game of the first round in the bracket was between two bad teams, the pandemic-year 2020 Orioles and the 1988 White Sox, who were more plagued by my Sox jinx than by viruses.  The Orioles went 25-35 and had a few pandemic-fueled oddities, like the .373 batting average of SS Jose Iglesias and a bevy of dominating relievers, and fortunately for them their best starter was also their most used, so Alex Cobb (2-5, 4.30) would get the start.  Meanwhile, the Sox lost 90 games with few threats in the lineup other than Carlton Fisk, although the rotation was okay with veteran Jerry Reuss (13-9, 3.44) getting the first round start.  In the top of the 1st, Anthony Santander goes deep with a 2-run shot that knocks a few bricks off decaying old Comiskey Park, and after a walk Reuss is injured and knocked out of the game, with Shawn Hillegas coming in to end a bad inning.  The Sox do respond in the bottom of the 1st when Harold Baines doubles and scores on a Fisk single that cuts the deficit to 2-1, but in the 4th the O’s begin the inning with a double and a triple off Hillegas’s card, and then Rio Ruiz hits a 2-run moonshot to make it 5-1 Baltimore.  The Sox respond again in the bottom of the inning with a leadoff homer from Daryl Boston and another run scores on a grounder by Ozzie Guillen, and it’s back to a two run game.  When Baines doubles to lead off the 8th, the Orioles decide to make use of their strong bullpen and Dillon Tate comes in to retire three straight, with all rolls on his card.   By the top of the 9th, Sox closer Bobby Thigpen is burnt for the regional so Jeff Bittiger comes in to yield an RBI single to Ryan Mountcastle to give the O’s additional insurance, but Tate doesn’t need any as he closes out the 6-3 win that sends a second Baltimore team to the semifinals and another Sox team back to the storage drawers.

The survivors

This resembled a traditional elimination tournament semifinal with the #2 seeded 1999 Orioles and the #3 seeded 1997 Cardinals matched up.  Although the O’s were the higher rated team, they had lost their top HR hitter Albert Belle to injury, and the remainder of their rotation looked like victims of the steroid era, with Juan Guzman (5-9, 4.18) hoping to keep the ball in the park.  Meanwhile, the Cards were at full strength and would be pitching their second Benes brother in a row, Alan (9-9, 2.89) as part of a strong rotation.  In the 3rd, the bat of big Mark McGwire comes alive for a long two-run homer and a Cardinals lead, but from there the starters look strong.  However, in the top of the 8th two walks and a squib single load the bases for Cards #9 hitter C Mike Difelice, but Guzman walks him also to drive in a run, and then Delino Deshields, who is in the starting lineup for both teams, triples to break the game open.  Meanwhile, Benes outshines the fine first round performance of his older brother, and completes the 4-hit shutout to send the Cards to the finals with the 6-0 win.  

The world champion 2003 Marlins scored a tournament-record 23 runs in their first round win, and they didn’t think they would need that many to handle the #7 seeded 2020 Orioles, who because of pandemic-year constraints would have to start John Means (2-4, 4.53) who was blessed with two solid and one split HR result on his card.  Meanwhile, the Marlins would have Rookie of the Year Dontrelle Willis (14-6, 3.30) going for them to add to the imbalance.  However, the underdog Orioles threaten in the bottom of the 1st when Rio Ruiz smacks a two-out double and 1-12+2 Jose Iglesias heads for home, but the split die comes up 20 and the inning is over.  Turnabout is fair play, so in the 2nd the Marlins get hit when 1-15 Juan Encarnacion heads for home on a Pudge Rodriguez double but is nailed with the 16 split; Pudge himself does make it home when Marlins 1B-4 Pat Valaika boots a Miguel Cabrera grounder.  When Jeff Conine doubles on a missed HR split, the Marlins are afraid to tempt the split die with the 1-13 Cabrera with only one out, but Means strands the two runners in scoring position to limit the damage to the one unearned run.  In the 3rd, Derrek Lee converts a HR 1-14 split for a 2-run shot, and then Encarnacion goes back to back by finding one of Means’ solid HR results to make it 4-0 Florida.  In the 6th, the O’s immediate go to their killer pen as soon as they are able, with Tanner Scott’s 1.31 ERA taking over, and he holds the Marlins offense at bay, while in the 6th Hanser Alberto converts a HR split on Willis for a solo shot to get the O’s on the board.  And although the Baltimore bullpen allows just one hit and no runs over the last four innings, the Marlins’ starter is what you talkin’ bout Willis as he finishes out the 4-1 win while holding the O’s to seven hits.  

The regional final was also the Zoom game of the week as I led the top seeded 2003 Marlins, who had scored 27 runs in their first two rounds, again TT and the #3 seed 1997 Cardinals, who had allowed only one run in their two games.  These two good clubs both had decent number three starters ready to go, Matt Morris (12-9, 3.19) for the Cards and Josh Beckett (9-8, 3.04) for the Marlins, but it quickly doesn’t look like a pitching duel; the second batter of the game homers in the form of the Cards’ Ray Lankford, and then Juan Encarnacion singles in a run in the bottom of the 1st to make it 1-1.  The Cards unleash a barrage of hits in the top of the 2nd and load the bases for Lankford with two out, and he rips his first of three doubles to clear the bases and when the dust settles it’s 5-1 St. Louis.  But this Marlins team has proven itself capable of scoring, and Miguel Cabrera drives in a run in the 3rd to narrow the gap to 5-2; Royce Clayton knocks one in for the 5th but Encarnacion matches that in the bottom of the inning and after five it’s 6-3.  By now the Marlins have tired of Beckett and closer Ugueth Urbina is summoned, and he yields a 2-run homer to Mark McGwire in the 6th, but Mike Lowell answers again with a three-run shot of his own in the bottom of the inning and the Cards’ lead is cut to 8-6.  But St. Louis continues to rough up Urbina, getting some RBI from John Mabry and Mike Difelice in addition to another 2-run shot from Big Mac, and although Marlins PH Ramon Castro knocks a solo homer in the bottom of the 9th, it’s not enough as Morris scatters 14 hits to record the complete game 12-8 victory and the Cards record their 14th regional win, making them one of the most successful franchises in this tournament.

Interesting card of Regional #230:  Those of you paying close attention may have noticed that creating homebrew Strat cards (basic only, old-school style, thank you) is a long-standing hobby of mine, and one of the challenges faced in creating cards is getting all results to fit into the three columns.  You see, split results and the LOMAX outcome take up four lines each, groundballs, X-chart results each take up two, and injury results add another line; you put enough of those into one column and they just won’t fit.   So, for some players it resembles a game of Tetris trying to get things to come out cleanly, but I have to say that 1997 Mark McGwire does not suffer from that problem.  I think he has more white space on the bottom of his three columns than any Basic card I’ve seen, and by this point in the tournament I’m pretty close to having seen them all.   Big Mac pretty much has the minimum; there is the obligatory LOMAX and injury, and he has to have two grounders to fit his ++ results in somewhere, but other than that, it’s pretty straightforward.  It’s either going to be a walk, a strikeout, or a solid homer, no need to burn up your ink supply on this guy.  Mac was picked up later in this season by the Cards, and as you can see he brought his nutritional supplements with him from Oakland, hitting homers at a torrid pace that he obviously continued into the next season to break Maris’s record.  But this pickup worked nicely for the Cards in this regional, as Mac hit three two-run homers in the three games to help St. Louis capture their 14th regional win in this tournament.

REGIONAL #229:  There were two teams that stood out to me in the draw for this group:  the pennant-winning Astros from the year before last, and a Nationals team that was a few years from their first pennant.  Another that stood out was one of the last entries from the 1970s, a Braves team that was one of two representatives, and there were also two version of the Reds, and I didn’t think that any of the four would be all-time greats.  I thought the Bay Area might produce a dark horse, as there was an A’s team in the declining years of the Moneyball experiment and a Giants team that might have been decent, but my money was on the Astros to best the Nats in the finals.  For a change, the ELO rankings sized up the regional very similarly to my blind guesses, and predicted the same outcome.

First round action

The bracket kicks off with a matchup between two competitive entries, the #2 seeded 2006 A’s and the #4 seed 2011 Braves.   The A’s won the AL West with 93 wins but were denied a pennant in the ALCS; it was a bit jarring to see their primary offensive weapon, Frank Thomas, with “Oakland” printed on his card, but he was good for 39 homers which got him 4th place in the MVP vote, and Barry Zito (16-10, 3.83) was by far the best starter on the staff.  The Braves won 89 games to finish 2nd in the NL East; they had 7 guys in the lineup with double-digit homers and a killer bullpen to support a rotation fronted by Tim Hudson (16-10, 3.22).  In contrast to what he usually does when playing for my White Sox, Thomas makes his presence felt in the bottom of the 1st with a long solo homer for a 1-0 Oakland lead, but the Braves immediately tie it in the 3rd when a Martin Prado double sets up a sac fly from Alex Gonzalez.  Dan Uggla leads off the 6th with a homer to put the Braves ahead, and after two outs Jason Heyward connects off Zito’s card for another, sending the A’s to the pen for closer Huston Street as they feel the game slipping away from them.  Uggla leads off the 8th and again he homers, and in the 9th Chipper Jones connects for Atlanta’s fourth solo homer of the game, while Hudson locks down his former teammates to finish out a 6-hitter as the Braves move on with the 5-1 win.  

It’s a top seed vs bottom seed matchup with two teams from the same season, the world champion 2022 Astros and the cellar-dwelling 2022 Reds.  The Astros were no fluke, winning 106 games and sweeping the ALDS and ALCS, and they had three players in the top 10 in MVP voting in Yordan Alvarez (#3), Jose Altuve (#5), and Justin Verlander (#10), and another three–Alex Bregman, Kyle Tucker, and Framber Valdez–also receiving votes.  Verlander (18-4, 1.75) was the runaway winner of the Cy Young award, and in the unlikely even that he got into trouble there was a killer bullpen ready to help out.  Meanwhile, over in the NL the Reds were losing 100 games and seemed to value quantity over quality as it looked like they gave playing time to half of the city of Cincinnati in an effort to find someone that could hit over .210, and although Hunter Greene (5-13, 4.44) had one heck of a strikeout card it didn’t seem to help him win many games.  The Astros don’t waste any time, as in the top of the 1st Altuve doubles and Alvarez then cracks a 2-run homer for a quick lead.  However, the Reds get it back in the 2nd when a Joey Votto double is followed by a 2-base error from Houston SS-2 Jeremy Pena that scores two, but in the 4th Pena atones with a long solo homer to put the Astros back on top.  In the 5th Yuli Gurriel doubles and Michael Brantley singles him home to stretch the lead, but Jake Fraley makes it a one-run game in the bottom of the 8th with a solo homer and the nervous Astros have activity in the pen but for the time being decide to stick with their ace.   He yields a single to Mike Moustakas in the bottom of the 9th but the Reds can’t take advantage so the Astros barely survive the 4-3 win; Greene wins the strikeout battle over Verlander 13 to 8, but Verlander wins the war.

The 1976 Braves were one of the last remaining teams from the 70s to take their shot in this tournament, and they weren’t a particularly good example as they lost 92 games with limited offense, although they had a couple of good starting pitchers including Andy Messersmith (11-11, 3.04), who had just signed with the Braves after successfully challenging baseball’s reserve clause over the previous winter.   They faced an equally bad 88-loss 2008 Reds team, who had Rookie of the Year runner-up Joey Votto contributing power but only had one good starter in the rotation, Edinson Volquez (17-6, 3.21), who finished 4th in the Rookie of the Year ballots. Things go smoothly for the pitchers until the top of the 4th, when the Braves open with a pair of hits and then Ken Henderson singles in a run; Rowland Office then misses a HR split and the 1-15 Henderson is nailed at the plate for the first out of the inning.  Office scores on a Rod Gilbreath fielder’s choice and the Braves stake Messersmith to a 3-0 lead.  In the 6th, Office continues working with an RBI single that gets under the glove of SS-3 Jeff Keppinger, but in the bottom of the inning Votto finally gets the Reds on the board with a 2-run homer that makes it 4-2 Atlanta.  The Braves respond in the 7th as Jim Wynn cannons an RBI single past 1B-3 Votto, and when Willie Montanez adds a double the Reds finally see no option but to go to Jeremy Affeldt as the best of a bad bullpen; he strands runners on 2nd and 3rd to keep the Reds in the game.  Bad Braves fielding helps the Reds load the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the 8th; PH Jerry Hairston Jr. drives in one on a sac fly, but Messersmith escapes without further damage.  In the top of the 9th, Wynn proves he’s no toy cannon with a long solo homer with two outs to provide insurance, but it’s not needed as Messersmith goes through the Reds 1-2-3 to seal the 6-3 win and the Braves move on.   

For the Zoom game of the week, it was only natural that Natsfan manage a good 2017 Nationals team that won 97 games and the NL East, with half of their lineup getting MVP votes in Anthony Rendon, Bryce Harper, Daniel Murphy and Ryan Zimmerman, and Max Scherzer (16-6, 2.51) winning the Cy Young award with two other Nats starters also receiving votes.  With no other takers I manned the helm of the 2011 Giants, who went 86-76 with a less imposing offense, although Pablo Sandoval got some MVP support and their rotation was excellent with Tim Lincecum (13-14, 2.74) 6th in the Cy Young votes despite posting a losing record.  The matchup had the feel of a pitching duel, but the Nats scored a pair in the bottom of the second with Howie Kendrick and Adam Lind driving in runs, and Michael Taylor added a long solo homer in the 3rd to make it 3-0 Washington.  However, after that Lincecum was dominant, allowing only one hit, and in the 4th the Giant rallied to try to catch up, getting runners on 1st and 3rd with key offensive cog Sandoval at the plate.   However, Sandoval rolls a gbA + injury, and although a run scores it kills the rally and knocks the Giants’ main weapon out of the game.  Scherzer continues to pitch strong, but in the top of the 9th a walk and a double puts the tying run in scoring position with nobody out, and Natfan nervously makes a call to the pen for Sean Dolittle–and he does a lot, squelching the rally to strand both runners and the Nats head to the semifinals with a 3-1 win despite only recording four hits against the Giants’ pitching.

The survivors

For this semifinal the bracket favorite 2022 Astros had the 5th place finisher for the Cy Young, Framber Valdez (17-6, 2.82) available to go, while the 2011 Braves countered with Tommy Hanson, whose few hits on his card tended to go a long way.  Thing start out a little rough for Houston as RF-1 Kyle Tucker makes a two-base error on the first roll of the game, and then a rattled Valdez yields two walks off his card to load the bases for Brian McCann; McCann rolls a HR 1-14 but misses the split for the slam, although all three runners score on the resulting double and McCann scores on a Martin Prado single to stake the Braves to a big lead.  Dan Uggla adds to the lead with a 2-out RBI double in the 4th, although Yordan Alvarez gets that run back with a solo shot in the bottom of the inning to try to get Houston launched.  In the top of the 5th, a single by Alex Gonzalez and a double from Jack Wilson and the Astros have seen enough of Valdez, who did whiff nine in 4+ innings of work, and try Ryne Stanek’s 1.15 ERA to quell the threat.  It makes no difference as Michael Bourn drives in both runners with a sharp single and Atlanta’s lead expands to 7-1.  McCann drives in another run in the 6th with an RBI single, and although the Astros try to make some noise in the 9th and score on a passed ball by C-2 Brian McCann, it is to no avail as the Braves send the top seed back to the drawers with an 8-2 win as Hanson mmmbops the Astros to the tune of six hits allowed with nine strikeouts.

The 1976 Braves were trying to be the second Atlanta squad to pull off a semifinal upset and make it an all-Braves final, but they had their work cut out for them going against a strong 2017 Nationals team and an imposing Stephen Strasburg (15-4, 2.52), third in the Cy Young voting but only second in the rotation.  The Braves would counter with knuckleballer Phil Niekro (17-11, 3.29), who did manage to lead the league in wild pitches although fortunately for him that would not be a factor under Basic rules.  The Nats don’t get a hit until the #9 batter comes up in the bottom of the 3rd, when C Matt Wieters converts a HR 1-6 split for a solo shot, but in the 5th Vic Correll, also the #9 hitter and also the catcher, also hits a solo shot and the game is tied.  But Strasburg gets stronger as the game progresses, and it enters the 9th with the teams still knotted at one apiece.  Strasburg blows through the Braves in the top of the inning, and Niekro quickly dispatches two batter, but with two out Anthony Rendon misses his HR 1-2 split but still ends up as the winning run in scoring position with a double.  Daniel Murphy steps to the plate and singles, and the 1-15+2 Rendon heads home for the win.  The split roll:  17, Rendon slides under the tag of backup catcher Dale Murphy and the Nats head to the finals with a 2-1 win, with Strasburg fanning 10 and the Braves still arguing about the call at the plate.  

The regional final was also the Zoom game of the week as Natsfan reprised his management of the #3 seeded 2017 Nationals while I took the #4 seeded 2011 Braves, since they had cruised through the first two rounds under my solitaire guidance.  Being good teams, they both had deep rotations with the Nats sending out Gio Gonzalez (15-9, 2.96) while the Braves had Jair Jurrgens (13-6, 2.96) on the mound.  Things start out rough for the Braves, as in the bottom of the 1st their SS-2 Alex Gonzales commits a two-base error to lead things off, putting Trea Turner in position to score on a Michael Taylor single and the Nats lead before the Braves can record an out.  Jurgens gets out of the jam and settles down, at least until the next time Taylor is up in the 3rd, as the Nats CF pokes a solo shot to extend their lead to 2-0.  Bryce Harper adds another solo homer in the 6th, and the Braves try Eric O’Flarety in relief but it matters not as Gonzalez is in control; at least until the 8th, when the Braves get runners on 1st and 3rd and Natsfan signals for Matt Albers to quell the threat; he whiffs two in a row and it’s all over but the credits as the Nationals limit the Braves to three hits to win 3-0, capturing their 4th bracket as Washingtonians to join another four regional wins as the Expos. For this Nats team, it was clearly their pitching that carried them, as they only managed 8 runs and 13 hits total across the three games of the regional.

Interesting card of Regional #229:  For this group I followed the nomination offered by a Facebook Strat group member, and will feature the first Strat card of the rookie backup catcher for the 1976 Atlanta Braves:  Dale Murphy.  Brought up at the end of the season for a cup of coffee, Murphy outhit the alternatives at catcher for a bad Braves team but had trouble with baserunners, with 70% of attempted steals against him being successful; this earned him a +1 catchers arm from Strat in one of the first seasons to include such ratings. The following season he began in the minors and his throwing woes continued; ultimately the Braves brought him up at the end of the season to try again, and things behind the plate went even worse.  Shifting him to 1B for the 1979 season worked a bit better, but it was the move to CF in 1980 where everything, both offensively and defensively, began to come together.  He received MVP votes that season, won back-to-back MVPs in ‘82 and ‘83, won back-to-back NL HR titles in ‘84 and ‘85, but it’s a good thing that WTBS provided a chance to showcase his talents, because the Braves were a perennially bad team with Murphy as the main bright spot.  Murphy made only one appearance in the postseason, with the Braves eliminated in the NLCS in 1982.  Perhaps his lack of postseason credentials has played into his lack of success in consideration for the Hall of Fame, where he is one of only four multiple MVP-winners eligible but not enshrined; also hurting his candidacy were the batting statistics of the steroid era which made Murphy’s stats look pedestrian by comparison.   At any rate, he never received more than 23% of the necessary 75% of ballots, and he fell off the ballot in 2013, but he had a career of which any backup catcher should be proud. 

REGIONAL #228:  For the first time in a couple of regionals the draw included some 20th century teams, both of whom turned out to be Orioles.  There was also the second of the recent 2023 season squads to be drawn, this one the Padres who should be appreciably better than the Nationals that did surprisingly well in the previous bracket.  The closest thing to a pennant winner here were the Rays, three years after a pennant, and the ‘87 version of the Orioles who had won the AL four years previously; those teams might have been decent, but I was pretty uncertain about the rest of the entries.  I guessed that those ‘87 Orioles still had enough pitching left to make it to the finals, where I banked on a good performance by last season’s Padres to get them past two Baltimore teams on the way to the regional win.  The ELO rankings thought my pick of the Padres wasn’t bad, but had them going down to an apparently quite good Rays team in the finals.

First round action

The 2011 Rays were the bracket favorite, as the team won 91 games and made a brief postseason appearance as a wild card; they were led by MVP vote getters Evan Longoria and Ben Zobrist, with James Shields (16-12, 2.82) finishing 3rd for the Cy Young.  The 2001 Expos were the bottom seed with 94 losses and were busy looking for real estate in Washington DC, with Vlad Guerrero getting MVP votes as the lone offensive threat and a decent Javier Vazquez (16-11, 3.42) the sole bright spot in the rotation.  In the bottom of the 1st, Expos DH Mark Smith hits a 2-run homer en route to a three run inning that would have been worse if Vlad hadn’t hit into a double play.  They extend their lead to 4-0 in the 3rd when Orlando Cabrera triples and then scores on a single by Jose Vidro, and when the Expos lead off the 6th with two walks the Rays can smell the storage drawers awaiting them, so they call upon closer Kyle Farnsworth and on his first pitch Expos C Michael Barrett is injured for the rest of the tournament and the next two hitters go down meekly.  Meanwhile Vazguez is dominating, but Casey Kotchman leads off the top of the 9th for the Rays by missing Vazguez’s HR split and doubling; two batters later Sean Rodriguez doesn’t miss his own HR split and puts it in the stands to make it a 2-run game.  When PH Justin Ruggiano pokes a single past 1B-3 Lee Stevens to bring up the top of the order with the tying run at the plate, Montreal has to accept that Vazquez has nothing left and Scott Strickland is brought in.  A 6-5 roll follows, homer on Vazquez, but a whiff on Strickland and that’s two away.  Desmond Jennings singles to put the go-ahead run in the batters box in the form of Longoria, but he grounds out harmlessly and the Expos pull off the 1 vs 8 seed upset with the 4-2 win and move on.  

The 2006 Rangers were the third seed in this bracket, and despite an 80-82 record they had a formidable lineup in which everyone had a SLG% greater than .400, with Mark Teixeira and Carlos Lee hitting over 30 homers yet it was Gary Matthews Jr. and Michael Young that received MVP votes.  However, their rotation was a sore spot, with Vincente Padilla (15-10, 4.50) hoping for a lot of run support.  I had thought that the 1987 Orioles might be better than they turned out to be, as they lost 95 games despite having some big names like Cal Ripken, Eddie Murray, and Fred Lynn, plus Mike Boddicker (10-12, 4.18) on the hill.  The Rangers quickly flex their muscle, as in the top of the 1st Lee misses Boddicker’s HR split for a double, but then Teixeira leaves no doubt with a solid blast on his own card for a 2-0 lead.  The O’s look like they’re ready to respond in the bottom of the inning, but 1-12+2 Jim Dwyer is nailed at the plate on a Murray double to kill the rally and end the inning.  Baltimore does make it a one run game on a solo shot from Larry Sheets in the 4th, and meanwhile Boddicker is at his craftiest and shuts down the Rangers.  When Ken Gerhart knocks a one-out single in the 9th, the nervous Rangers bring in closer Akinori Otsuka to preserve the lead, and he retires Sheets and Murray to send the game to the 9th with Texas clinging to the one-run advantage.  In the top of the inning, Lee crushes a Boddicker mistake for a solo shot to provide a little padding for Otsuka, who watches the pad evaporate when Ripken leads off the bottom of the 9th with a homer.  Lynn then singles to put the tying run aboard, followed by an error from SS-3 Michael Young and now the winning run is at 1st with still nobody out.  Ray Knight then rips an RBI single off Otsuki’s card, and the game is tied with the winning run at third–still nobody out.  The infield comes in for Gerhart; SI 1-10, he misses the split for a lineout, one away.  Infield still in for Billy Ripken, it’s a roll on his card for gbA, followed by those little ++s and the ball goes through the infield for the game-winning RBI as the Orioles pull off the come-from-behind, walk-off 4-3 win and Boddicker gets the win with a 6-hitter.  

The second of the most current season teams to participate in the tournament, the 2023 Padres were also the second seed in this regional, as although their record was a mediocre 82-80 that was 10 games under their Pythagorean projection.  They boasted a defense with four 1s and two 2s, a lineup with MVP vote-getters Juan Soto, Ha-Seong Kim and Fernando Tatis Jr., and the NL Cy Young in Blake Snell (14-9, 2.25).  They were matched against the #4 seed in the 1992 Orioles, who had a much better record at 89-73 but that was three wins over their projection; on paper they weren’t quite the match for the Padres in any category, although Brady Anderson got some MVP votes and Mike Mussina (18-5, 2.54) finished 4th in for the Cy Young, setting up a quality pitching matchup.  Soto finds the stands in the bottom of the 1st for a 1-0 Padres lead, which holds up until the top of the 6th when Mike Devereaux singles with two out and pinch runner Mark McLemore (1-16+2) slides under the tag with a 17 split to tie the game.   Briefly, it turns out, as in the bottom of the inning Kim leads off with a walk, steals second, and scores on a Xander Bogaerts base hit.  In the 8th Kim walks again and steals his third base of the game, and scores on a Soto single to provide Snell with an insurance run; Snell gets two quick outs but then walks two to put the go ahead run at the plate, but 2B-1 Kim makes a highlight reel defensive play (a 1 split) for the third out and the Padres move on with the 3-1 win with Snell fanning 10 in a 5-hitter.

For the Zoom game of the week, it would be Eaglesfly directing his hometown 2002 Blue Jays, while ColavitoFan gamely agreed to manage the 2022 Cubs so that I wouldn’t have to watch them do well just to spite me.  The Jays were ELO favorites despite an unimpressive 78-84 record, as the lineup had some pop led by Carlos Delgado, while Roy Halladay (19-7, 2.93) was entering his prime.  On the other hand, the main reaction from the group to the lineup for the 74-88 Cubs was “who are these guys?”, although they had decent defense and a pretty good rotation fronted by former Blue Jay Marcus Strohman (6-7, 3.50).  Both pitchers handle the first pass through the lineups, with Halladay dominating and Strohman repeatedly getting pegged for doubles off his card, but then stranding the runner.  However, in the bottom of the 4th Halladay issues a couple of walks, and then CF-2 Vernon Wells misplays a Christopher Morel single to allow a run to score, and Patrick Wisdom manages to find a flyball B in a column of strikeouts for a sac fly and a two-run Cubs lead.  The Jays continue to mount threats against Strohman but time after time he escapes unscathed, until the game reaches the top of the 9th and after yielding a single ColavitoFan gets nervous about Strohman’s HR result that the Jays had been dancing around all game.  So, with one out and the tying run at the plate one Scott Effross is summoned from the pen, and he immediate induces the double play ball to wrap up the 2-0 shutout as Cubs win, Cubs win, despite a four-hitter from Halladay who is reportedly unhappy about the level of run support he’s been getting from Eaglesfly in this tournament.

The survivors

This semifinal featured two upset winners from round one, with both the 2001 Expos and the 1987 Orioles defeating teams that were far more highly rated.   Now the teams had to come up with something past their #1 starter; for the Orioles that was a pretty good swingman in Dave Schmidt (10-5, 3.77) while the Expos would try Tony Armas Jr. (9-14, 4.03) in the hopes that his dad might bolster their outfield.  The Orioles strike first in the bottom of the 2nd when Terry Kennedy launches a solo shot, and they add a couple more runs in the 3rd on RBI singles from Larry Sheets and Eddie Murray.  The Expos get on the board in the 4th when O’s C-4 Kennedy is charged with a passed ball with a runner on third, but from there both pitchers are in control.  But Expos PH Tim Raines leads off the top of the 9th with a single, and with one out RF-3 Jim Dwyer makes a two-base error to put the tying run in scoring position.  The O’s stick with Schmidt, and he strikes out PH Curtis Pride for the second out to bring up Orlando Cabrera, who already has two hits for the game.  The O’s leaf through their pen but their best reliever is probably already on the mound, so Schmidt delivers to Cabrera, who rips a 2-run single off the pitcher’s card to tie the game.  Schmidt finally gets the third out, Armas sets Baltimore down in order, and we head to extra innings.  Both pitchers get through their last inning of eligibility in the 10th, and so the game now becomes a test of bad bullpens.  For the O’s, it’s another swingman in Mark Williamson, and he gets into trouble quickly with a Geoff Blum single followed by consecutive errors on C-4 Kennedy and 1B-2 Murray that load the bases with one out.  Williamson gets Cabrera to fly out and the runner on third holds, but then Jose Vidro grounds one back to Williamson who drops it for the 3rd Oriole error of the inning and the Expos take a one-run edge into the bottom of the 11th.  In comes reliever Scott Strickland vying for his second straight save of the regional against the heart of the Baltimore order; down goes Sheets and Murray, but with two out Cal Ripken singles to bring up Fred Lynn.  Lynn rolls his 1-7:  HR 1-11/DO, and he misses the split but Ripken (1-14+2) is charging for home with the tying run, and he’s safe. Strickland retires Kennedy, and the game heads to the 12th inning.  Williamson holds serve in the top of the 12th; Strickland whiffs Ray Knight to begin the bottom of the inning to face defensive replacement Ken Gerhart.  And the roll is a 1-9, HR 1-19 and Gerhart doesn’t miss this split for a walk off homer as the Orioles post a wild 5-4 win and head to the finals despite committing 5 errors.

The #2 seeded 2023 Padres were the top remaining team in the semifinal round, and after sending out a Cy Young winner in round one they were able to follow up with a solid Michael Wacha (14-4, 3.22).  The 2022 Cubs may have been the #6 seed but their rotation was better than their record would suggest and Justin Steele (4-7, 3.18) was a decent option as well.  The Padres power to a quick 2-0 lead on a 2-run homer from Gary Sanchez in the top of the 1st, and they eke out another run on a Ha-Seong Kim fielder’s choice in the 5th.  When Kim walks and steals second in the 8th, the Cubs move to Scott Effross out of the pen and he prevents any damage, and when Wacha walks two to begin the bottom of the inning it’s the Padres turn to test their pen in the form of closer Josh Hader and his 1.28 ERA.  He induces a quick DP and a whiff to end that threat as well, and both relievers blow through the 9th meaning that the Padres staff records a three-hit shutout in the 3-0 win to send them to the finals

I accurately predicted this regional final matchup between the 2023 Padres and the 1987 Orioles, which is a whole lot better than I’ve been doing at predicting the NCAA bracket this or any other year.   My picks for this regional were driven by ignorance, as I was not anticipating the O’s being a bad team who managed two walk-off wins to get here, nor did I necessarily think that the Padres would only average three runs a game but get to the finals by only allowing one run in the first two rounds combined.  Next up for the Padres rotation was a decent Seth Lugo (8-7, 3.57) while Baltimore’s John Habyan (6-7, 4.80) was not great but looked like Walter Johnson compared to their other remaining alternatives.  But the Orioles jump to a lead in top of the 3rd as Larry Sheets smacks a three-run homer and Fred Lynn adds an RBI double before the inning ends for a 4-0 lead  However, we play that again Sam as Xander Bogaerts raps a three-run shot in the bottom of the inning and Luis Campusano adds a sac fly and the game is tied heading into the 4th.  In the 5th the Padres take the lead on a squib RBI single by Manny Machado, and another run scores on an error by O’s C-4 Terry Kennedy that makes it 6-4.  Fred Lynn answers by leading off the 6th with a homer that makes it a one run game, and when Ray Knight singles the nervous Padres summon closer Josh Hader early to try to fend off the pesky birds and he strikes out the opposition.  However, in the top of the 7th an error by 3B-1 Machado sets up a Cal Ripken sac fly that ties the game, and the O’s bring in Mark Williamson for good luck to begin the 8th as he’d earned the relief win in the semifinal.  He proves to be lucky as Trent Grisham misses Williamson’s HR 1-10 split and gets stranded at second, and he also holds serve in the 9th to send the game to extra innings–but without Williamson, who has now burnt his eligibility for the regional.  Padres reliever Tom Cosgrove sets the O’s down in order in the top of the 10th, while Baltimore’s Jack O’Connor comes out of the pen and handles SD in the bottom of the inning.  In the top of the 11th Eddie Murray contributes a clutch two-out RBI single that puts the Orioles ahead, so it’s up to O’Connor in the bottom of the frame against the meat of the Padres order.  He starts out badly, waling Juan Soto and Gary Sanchez, and then Machado pokes a single and 1-13 Soto beats the throw home to tie the game, with the regional winning run now in scoring position with one out.  But O’Conner bears down and retires the side and the game heads to the 12th.  New Padres pitcher Joe Musgrove has to watch as a double bounces past LF-3 Soto and then 3B-1 Machado makes his second error of the game, setting up a 2-out Billy Ripken RBI single and the persistent Orioles lead once again.  And once again it’s up to O’Connor to try to close out the win, and once again he walks two but then gets two out and faces Gary Sanchez; he rolls a SI 1-4, the split is a 4 and the bases are loaded for Luis Campusano with two away.  The roll….5-4, HR 1-15, the split is a 6 and it’s game, set, and regional for the Padres on a walk off grand slam, and the dogs at Petco Park are howling about the 11-8 win and the bracket title.

Interesting card of Regional #228:  This card reflects the penultimate season for Tim Raines, who I think tended to be overshadowed during his career by Rickey Henderson so I was pleased to see Raines elected to the Hall of Fame in 2017.  This was an interesting season for Raines as he had not played at all the prior year after having been diagnosed with lupus during the 2019 season, and most felt that the 41 year old Raines was retired.  Although his efforts to sign with a team during 2000 were unsuccessful, he at least was inducted into the Expos Hall of Fame toward the end of the year, and during the ceremony he told the team owner he wanted a chance to play for the Expos once again.  Invited to spring training out of courtesy, he hit over .400 for the spring and made the team, and despite his declining speed and fielding skills, his card reveals that he was still an expert at getting on base.  With the Expos going nowhere, they sold him to the Orioles at the beginning of October which allowed him to join his son, becoming only the second father/son combination in MLB history to play together on the same team, playing four games together before the elder Raines was released at the end of the season.