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.

REGIONAL #227:  For the second bracket in a row, all eight teams are post-2000 entries, and the more recent the team, it seems the less I remember about them.  I knew that the Rockies and the Cardinals were both three years away from a pennant, and having gone to a number of Astros games in 2011 I remembered them as terrible.  There was the first selection from my recently acquired 2023 set, the Nationals, and although I wasn’t certain my recollection was that they weren’t very good either.  Of the remainder, I thought maybe the Mets might have been decent (editorial note:  I totally forgot they won the NL pennant that season), so I blindly guessed that they would make it to the finals where they would be eliminated by the Cardinals, assuming the latter could get by the probably insane offense (albeit terrible pitching) of the Rockies.  The ELO rankings thought my picks weren’t bad, but suggested that I overlooked an Indians team that had the best ranking in the group, which surprised me given that their team from a few years afterward played in the prior regional and was pretty unimpressive (despite winning the bracket); still, the ELO ratings predicted that those Indians would top the Mets in the final.

First round action

This bracket had teams that were either pretty good or pretty bad, and this first round matchup featured two of the bad ones.  The 2023 Nationals were the first team selected from the recently arrived 2023 set, but not exactly a good example as they lost 91 games, and after consultation with obvious expert NatsFan during Friday Night Strat, it was agreed that Josiah Gray (8-13, 3.91) was the only starting pitcher worthy of a uniform, although there were some good-sounding names on the roster, such as Stone Garrett and Carter Kieboom, and Jake Alu was there trying to sneak in as a 4th brother but his spell-checker wasn’t working.  The Nats had nowhere near the offense of the 2004 Rockies, as might be expected when you combine the thin air and the steroid era, but that team lost 94 games despite getting MVP votes for Todd Helton, Jeromy Burnitz and Vinny Castilla, mainly because after Joe Kennedy (9-7, 3.66) the pitching staff was gruesome.   The leadoff hitter in the bottom of the 1st for the Nats, Lane Thomas, swats a triple, but Kennedy bears down and whiffs the next two batters to get to Keibert Ruiz; Ruiz swats a lazy grounder toward 1B-1 Helton, and he unexpectedly muffs it and Thomas crosses the plate for an unearned Washington lead.  Thomas continues his hot hand in the 2nd with a 2-out RBI single, and in the 3rd another 2-out run-scoring single from Dominic Smith makes it 3-0 Nats.  The Rockies get on the board in the 4th with a solo shot from Mark Sweeney, but once again in the bottom of the inning Kennedy can’t get the third out as a two-out RBI single by Joey Meneses extends the Nats lead to 4-1.  Two singles and the second error of the game by Nats SS-3 CJ Abrams (he later claims lens flares blinded him) loads the bases for Burnitz, who rips a grounder that Abrams can’t reach and two runs score.  Up steps Castilla, and he rips a double, Burnitz (1-13) beats the throw home, and the Rockies take the lead–briefly, as in the bottom of the inning Smith leads off with a double and he eventually scores on a squib single from Thomas to tie the game.  Both pitchers recover a bit, but a leadoff single in the 8th chases Gray for Hunter Harvey, who ends the inning uneventfully.  Thomas singles to lead off the bottom of the 8th, his 4th hit of the game, and the Rockies eye their pen and turn away in horror, figuring Kennedy would be better with a dead arm than the disasters waiting in the bullpen.  Garrett singles Thomas to 3rd and with nobody out, Abrams steps to the plate–and it’s the pitcher’s best friend, the dread LOMAX and the Rockies escape disaster with a triple play!  Neither team can score in the 9th, so the game heads to extra frames, and although Kennedy allows a leadoff double to Smith in the bottom of the 10th, he strands the runner and finishes his eligibility with a no decision.  Meanwhile, Harvey is burning his eligibility for the regional in the 11th, and he is dominating as he finishes out four hitless innings; Jamey Wright then comes in for the Rockies and he holds serve so the game moves to the 12th with the Nats handing the ball to Robert Garcia.  The Rockies are pleased to see a new pitch and greet him with a single and then a double that gets past LF-3 Garrett, so the go-ahead run is on third with one out and the infield comes in.  But Garcia whiffs Sweeney and Charles Johnson flies out, and when Nats 2B Luis Garcia is caught stealing for the second time in the game in the bottom of the inning, we move to an uneventful 13th.  However, in the bottom of the 14th, Garcia walks and finally succeeds in stealing second; with two out a squib single from Smith moves him to third and Ildemaro Vargas is at the plate.    It’s a 3-6 roll, a TR/DO split and Garcia trots home without getting caught as Vargas walks it off to seal the 14 inning, 5-4 win for the Nationals.  

The marquee game of the regional was the first round matchup between the two top seeds, the #1 2007 Indians and the #2 2001 Cardinals, and what better to serve as a Zoom game of the week with Cleveland’s own ColativoFan managing an Indians squad for the second week in a row, and Tall Tactician steering the Cards although as a Philadelphian expressing skepticism about having to include JD Drew in his lineup.  These Indians won 96 game and the AL Central, and led 3-1 in the ALCS before dropping three straight to lose out on the pennant; Victor Martinez and Grady Sizemore received MVP votes, as did Cy Young winner CC Sabathia (19-7, 3.21).   The Cardinals won 93 games themselves, making the postseason as a wildcard, and 21 year old Rookie of the Year Albert Pujols finished 4th for MVP, while Matt Morris (22-8, 3.16) came in 3rd in the Cy Young to two high-profile Diamondback starters.  So it seemed like a pitching duel would be in the cards, but the second batter of the game, Jason Michaels, converts his HR split to quickly put the Indians up, 1-0.  The vaunted defense of the Cards looks shaky in the early innings but Morris successfully gets out of some jams until the Indians seem to figure him out in the 5th, with an RBI double from Casey Blake, but Morris escapes a bases-loaded situation without further damage.  Still, a 2-0 lead is looking like plenty as CC stands for cruise control, and he racks up the strikeouts against names like Pujols, McGwire, and Edmonds.  Meanwhile, JD Drew, producing little and tiring of TT’s goading, suddenly develops a 5-game “injury” and he heads back to the card catalogs on his own.  In the top of the 8th Casey is at the bat again, and he lofts a solo shot to provide a little additional padding, but Sabathia seems confident that it won’t be necessary.  CC gets a little overconfident in the bottom of the 9th, when with one out and the bases empty McGwire launches a moon shot that may have cleared the Arch, but it is too little too late and Cleveland continues the winning ways they demonstrated in the previous bracket with a 3-1 win over their biggest obstacle in the regional.  

I distinctly remember going to several games of the 2011 Astros, actually holding allegedly “work meetings” at the Wednesday day games as tickets were quite easy to come by ; the team did remarkably well when we attended despite racking up 106 losses that season.  I remember watching a 21 year old rookie named Jose Altuve, who from the stands look like he was about the size of Eddie Gaedel and I did wonder whether this was some sort of Bill Veeck stunt designed to draw a bunch of walks; but Jose didn’t have a particularly spectacular start and there wasn’t a single walk on his Strat card that season.  The Astros did have Bud Norris (6-11, 3.77) as a competent starter who would face another bad team, the 2016 Reds, who lost 94 games but looked like a much better team.  The Reds had Joey Votto finishing 7th in MVP votes and although they only had three starting pitchers with at least 100 IP, all three had ERAs under four with Anthony DeSclafani (9-5, 3.28) getting the round one assignment.  The Reds lead off the bottom of the 1st with doubles from Sliding Billy Hamilton and Jose Peraza, and Peraza eventually scores on a Scott Schebler sac fly and it’s 2-0 Reds after one.  The Reds lose C Tucker Barnhardt in the 2nd to injury without much to replace him, and in the top of the 3rd the first pitch called by his replacement is deposited in the outfield stands by Jordan Schafer to make it a one run game.  Votto answers with a solo shot of his own in the bottom of the inning, , but the Astros load the bases up in the 4th for the youngster Altuve, who rips a 2-run double to tie the game with nobody out.  Humberto Quintero then strokes a 2-run single and the Astros charge in to the lead.  Not looking done yet, they reload the bases and the Reds decide to de-DeSclafani and hope Raisel Iglesias can get out of the jam, but one more run scores on a fielders choice and it’s now 6-3 Houston.  Things don’t look any better for the Reds when Hamilton slides his way into a seven game injury in the 5th, but they get a walk and a double in the 7th to chase Norris for closer Mark Melancon, who walks Votto to load the bases but whiffs Adam Duvall to end the threat.  Melancon holds off the Reds, and the Astros seek to preserve him for later rounds and let Wilton Lopez close out the 9th to seal the 6-3 win that sends the bracket’s bottom seed to the semifinals.  

The 2015 Mets were the #3 seed in this group according to the ELO ranks, even though they won 90 games and were the NL pennant winner, which totally slipped my mind.  They accomplished that with strong pitching, with Jacob deGrom (14-8, 2.54) finishing 7th in the Cy Young voting in his second season, although both the offense and defense from the starting lineup would improve significantly after the 5th inning once substitutions were allowed, while  Yoenis Cespedes was their top MVP vote getter as a mid-season acquisition with only 230 ABs.  They lost the Series that season to the Royals, but not the 2022 Royals that they would be facing here, as this team lost 97 games, with Brady Singer (10-5, 3.23) perhaps the lone bright spot on the team.  However, the first batter of the game, Juan Uribe, finds and converts Singer’s HR 1-18 split for an immediate lead, although C Travis d-Arnaud ends the inning hitting into a DP while getting injured for six games, leaving the Mets with the terrible Kevin Plawecki for the rest of the tournament.  In the bottom of the 3rd the Royals get three hits against deGrom but fail to score as 1-15 Kyle Isbel is cut down at the plate, and as the game goes on it looks like that may be the deciding roll as both pitcher just get stronger and stronger.  Singer strikes out 5 of the last 6 Mets batters of the game, but deGrom is untouchable, striking out the side in the bottom of the ninth to wrap up a 5-hit shutout, with three of the hits coming from bad Mets fielding.  So the Mets survive with the 1-0 win in which their total offense came on the first roll of the game.  

The survivors

For this semifinal, there was a huge gap in rankings between the bracket favorite 2007 Indians and the 91-loss 2023 Nationals, and that gap was well reflected in the difference between Cleveland’s identity-shifting Fausto Carmona (19-8, 3.06) who finished 4th for the Cy Young, and the Nats’ Jake Irvin (3-7, 4.61), whose bullpen was depleted in a 14-inning first round marathon.  But Carmona/Hernandez doesn’t look sharp as the Nats rap four straight singles, the 4th past RF-4 Trot Nixon to score two runs; Lane Thomas adds a 2-out RBI single but Stone Garrett ends the inning with a whiff and an injury that takes him out of the regional.  Meanwhile, Irvin is in fine form until the bottom of the 6th, when a 2-out rally culminates in a Ryan Garko RBI single; PH Ben Francisco then comes up with the bases loaded, rolls Irvin’s HR 1-3/flyB, but misses the split and the slam, and the Indians still trail by two entering the 7th.  In the 8th, Francisco comes up again with runners on, but this time he comes through with the RBI single and by crikey, no more Irvin as the Nats try Carl Edwards Jr., and he drives thru Grady Sizemore for the final out with Washington clinging to a one run lead entering inning nine.  The Indians also prove to be a nothingburger in the 9th, and the Nationals pull off the 3-2 upset while recording only 6 hits–5 of them in the second inning.  

The 2015 Mets were the top remaining seed in the bracket, although they had now made 27 straight outs without scoring a run; they were hoping that Matt Harvey (13-8, 2.71) could give them another shutout that would mean little offense would be necessary.  Fortunately for him, he would be facing the bottom seed of the bracket, the 2011 Astros, with Wandy Rodriguez (11-11, 3.49) a pretty decent second starter for a 106 loss team.  And it’s the Astros that take the early lead as Carlos Lee finds and converts Harvey’s HR split to lead off the top of the 2nd, and Clint Barmes adds a 2-out RBI squib single in the 3rd and it’s 2-0 Houston.  However, in the bottom of the inning a single and two walks loads the bases with one out for Yoenis Cespedes, and he rips a triple that gives the Mets the lead and he eventually scores on a 2-out Daniel Murphy single.  In the 5th, a double by Lee scores one run but the Astros hold 1-11 Matt Downs at third, and both he and Lee are stranded by Harvey so the Mets cling to the one run lead, at least until Curtis Granderson finds Rodriguez’s solid HR result to lead off the bottom of the inning.  In the 6th the Astros load the bases on three singles, two of them courtesy of bad fielding, but only score one run on a Brian Bogusevic sac fly and once again it’s a one run game.  When Carlos Lee leads off the 7th with his third hit of the game, the Mets begin to realize that these Astros aren’t going quietly and so closer Jeurys Familia is summoned to slam the door and he sets down the Astros in order.  In the bottom of the inning, Cespedes doubles in Granderson to go one homer shy of a cycle, and then David Wright singles him home, defensive replacement Ruben Tejada doubles to score Wright, and Mark Melancon comes in to pitch, only to be greeted by a Michael Conforto double past RF-3 Bogusevic that scores yet another.   That makes it 9-4 Mets after seven, and Familia is removed to save his arm and Tyler Clippard is brought in from a deep bullpen.  Clippard tosses two perfect innings and the Mets subdue the pesky Astros to move on to the finals.

It looked like a lopsided regional final, with the pennant-winning 2015 Mets against the 91-loss 2023 Nationals; the good news for the Nats was that Stone Garrett would be back from the DL for the game, while the Mets were still without the services of the injured C Travis D’Arnaud.  The bad news was that the Mets had Noah Syndergaard (9-7, 3.24) available to start against a much less impressive MacKenzie Gore (7-10, 4.42), and Yoenis Cespedes floats a lead for Noah with a long solo shot in the bottom of the 1st.  That lead quickly sinks as the Nats punch four hard singles in the 3rd that give them a 3-1 lead, and the Mets respond with a run on a Michael Cuddyer fielder’s choice in the 4th but they leave runners in scoring position and still trail by a run.  When backup catcher Kevin Plawicki singles to lead off the bottom of the 7th, the Nats move to Robert Garcia out of the bullpen, but he yields a single and a walk to load the bases for Cespedes with nobody out.  The infield comes in to try to preserve the lead, and Garcia whiffs Cespedes and Luke Duda and then Nats CF-2 Alex Call hauls in a long fly and the Mets again squander a huge opportunity.  In desperation, the Mets bring in closer Jeurys Familia to begin the 8th, and he holds serve until backup Mets 2B Kelly Johnson leads off the bottom of the 9th with a long homer that ties the game and sends Citi Field into pandemonium.  Curtis Granderson follows with a single, and Cespedes hits a very deep fly that sends Granderson to second while a Duda grounder outs him on 3rd as the winning run with two away and backup LF Michael Conforto at the plate.  Garcia delivers, and Conforto wraps it around the foul pole for a walk off homer and a 5-3 win, and the Mets become the first pennant winner in 20 brackets to successfully win their regional.  

Interesting card of Regional #227:  This card represents the performance of the leading MVP vote-getter for the pennant winning Mets, but one who only played in 35% of their games; I’m not certain if there has ever been a lower percentage among position players who were the top MVP candidates on a pennant winner.   Yoenis Cespedes became a bit of a sensation after defecting from Cuba in 2011, where he was an established star; he signed with the A’s and was runner-up for Rookie of the Year in 2012 after a strong season.  He became known for long homers, winning the Home Run Derby twice, and also for a cannon of an arm in the outfield (for you fans of the dark side of the Strat card, he had a -5 arm).  Even so, he ended up getting traded midseason in both 2014 and 2015, arriving with the Mets at the beginning of August, and shortly thereafter the Mets moved into first place and never relinquished it.  Although he had  another MVP-type season for the Mets in 2016, Cespedes’ career was then plagued by injuries and in 2018 he suffered a hip strain in May that put him on the DL; he was reactivated for one game in July, going 2-for-4 with a homer against Yankees on July 20th, but then went back on the DL for the the rest of the year.  Starting the 2019 season on the DL following off-season surgery, he then came out on the short end of an encounter with a wild boar on his property, breaking an ankle and knocking him out for the entire season.   Receiving extended recovery time because of the late start to the 2020 COVID season, he hit a homer in his first game back, giving him a peculiar streak of hitting homers in three consecutive games that stretched over more than two years: May, 2018; on July, 2018; and July, 2020.  However, afterwards he struggled in limited appearances, and he failed to show up for his team's game on August 2nd without giving anyone notice; when the Mets finally tracked down, he said that he had decided to opt out of the season, apparently without telling anyone, and that was the end of his MLB career.

REGIONAL #226:  For the first time in tournament history (I think), it’s 21st Century Strato Man as all eight entries hail from this millennium–a sign that perhaps I might actually have played all of the 2,041 unique Strat teams that I own before the game company releases another season.  I’m afraid the more modern teams tend to be somewhat faceless to me as my seasons of peak Strat activity tended to be in the 1970s and 1980s, so it was going to be a challenge to make predictions about this group–not that I’m correct very often, regardless.  I didn’t recognize any pennant winners (having failed to recognize one in the last bracket), but I did know that the 2001 Mets had won the pennant in the preceding season for that Subway Series, and there were two Cleveland entries that I thought bracketed another pennant winner somewhere in between them.  I wasn’t too sure about the remaining teams, although there was a Giants squad that should include one of the final seasons of the Nameless One, who I imagined would be pretty formidable.  My blind guess was that the Mets would survive a battle of the PEDs against those Giants and then best the 2010 version of the Indians in the finals.  The ELO rankings indicated that my selections were indeed poorly informed, and predicted that the 2008 Blue Jays (about whom I remembered almost nothing) would top the other version of the Indians to take the bracket.

First round action

The 2001 Mets had won a pennant in the preceding year and although they continued to have a decent rotation with Rick Reed (8-6, 3.48) getting the start, the offense aside from MVP vote-getter Mike Piazza was not really up to steroid-era standards.  Speaking of steroids, I was expecting to see an imposing card with no player name on the 2005 Giants, and sure enough it was there, but there was a catch:  it only had 42 ABs and so was not eligible to play until the 6th inning, and it sported an injury roll at 2-7.  Until then, Moises Alou was going to have to provide the offense in support of Noah Lowry (13-13, 3.78), the lone respectable starting pitcher on the staff.  Piazza makes his presence felt immediately with a 2-run blast in the top of the 1st, but from there Lowry settles in.  However, Reed is also sharp, and so when the Mets get a single and a walk in the 6th the Giants bring in Scott Eyre to try to keep the game close and he does so with no damage.  Bonds gets his first at bat as DH in the 6th but grounds out harmlessly, while Tsuyoshi Shinjo converts a HR 1-8 split for a 2-out 2-run shot in the top of the 8th for additional Met life insurance.  It proves to be a necessary policy, as in the bottom of the 9th JT Snow’s sac fly breaks the shutout and then an RBI single by Jason Ellison puts the tying run at the plate in the form of Omar Vizquel.  The Mets eye their bullpen but closer Armando Benitez looks like a disaster waiting to happen, so they stick with Reed, and he yields a single to Vizquel to put the winning run at the plate.  The Mets decide that four hits in the inning is enough and figure than Benitez can’t be much worse, so he comes in to face Edgardo Alfonzo, who is also playing 2B for the Mets.  The SF version rips a grounder to Mets SS-2 Rey Ordonez, who handles it beautifully and the Mets escape with the 4-2 win as Benitez gets the one-pitch save. 

On paper, the best matchup of the first round here was the #2 seeded 2019 Indians against the #3 seed 2005 Twins.  The Indians won 93 games and although they did not reach the post-season, they had MVP vote-getters in Francisco Lindor and Carlos Santana, by far the best guitarist in this tournament.  They also had a solid rotation and although Shane Bieber was a Cy Young contender, the Indians would go with Mike Clevinger (13-4, 2.71) for the first round start.  The 83-79 Twins didn’t have quite the offensive firepower of the Indians but they had a formidable Santana of their own, Johan Santana (16-7, 2.87) who finished 3rd in the Cy Young ballots.  Both pitchers are dominating to begin, but in the top of the 5th Joe Mauer gets a leadoff single, and unusual for a catcher he is a B stealer and is held, and Nick Punto hits the gbA++ to send Mauer to 3rd, where he scores on a Lew Ford single for a 1-0 Twins lead.  The Twins bring in a couple of their supersubs in the 6th, but in the bottom of the inning a Jordan Luplow double puts runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out.  Santana whiffs Santana, but with now two out Jose Ramirez crushes one into the gecko seats of Progressive field for a 3-1 Indians edge.  And that is all Clevinger needs, as he finishes with 15 strikeouts and the Indians progress to the semifinals with the 3-1 win.

The Zoom game of the week featured two partisans managing their own favorite franchises, with ColavitoFan once again representing Cleveland with the 93-loss 2010 Indians while Toronto denizen Eaglesfly would be guiding the 2008 Blue Jays.   The Jays were the bracket favorite with an impressive ELO ranking (although they only went 86-76) and in this game they looked particularly tough with Cy Young runner-up Roy Halladay (20-11, 2.78) on the mound.  ColavitoFan responded with the alleged Fausto Carmona (13-14, 3.77), who was actually Roberto Hernandez indulging in identity theft to sign a contract with the Indians as a 17-year old, when he was actually 20.  Whoever he was, he ran into trouble with the Jays in the bottom of the 1st inning, and RBI singles from Scott Rolen and Alex Rios staked Halladay to a 2-0 lead that had Eaglesfly putting in the defensive replacements and buying tickets for the semifinal.  Indeed, Halladay allowed only a single hit in the first six innings and Skydome participants began paying more attention to the hotel room windows in centerfield than to the game.  However, that all came to an abrupt end in the top of the 7th, as ColavitoFan startings digging into the formidable pile of cardstock that constituted the Cleveland club and he rolled out pinch hitter after pinch hitter.  One of them, Drew Sutton, raps a run-scoring single to make it a one-run game with runners on 1st and 2nd, and the call goes out for PH Carlos Santana, who has had so much success in this tournament that I’ve run out of guitarist jokes.  The Jays trust in their ace Halladay, but Santana’s smooth swing results in a soul sacrifice on behalf of Fausto, a three-run homer that silences the crowd.  ColavitoFan’s neighbor Travis Hafner then drives in another in the 8th, and Carmona looks like a completely different person after the 1st inning to lock down the Jays and propel the Indians to the semis with the 5-2 upset.

A Beltway series between two lackluster representatives, the 2022 Orioles were not the division winner they would become the following season and the 2009 Nationals, who lost 103 games and were wondering if it was too late to go back to Montreal.  The Orioles did finish above .500 at 83-79, and they had some power with virtually the entire lineup in double digit homers, but unfortunately most of them must have been solo shots because they didn’t seem to be able to get on base.  Dean Kremer (8-7, 3.23) was the best of an otherwise mediocre rotation, although a strong pen was there to help out.  The Nationals had Ryan Zimmerman receiving some MVP votes, but their rotation after John Lannan (9-13, 3.88) was largely non-existent.   But it is the Nats who strike first in the bottom of the 1st with a 2-out double from Josh Willingham that scores one, but 1-11+2 Adam Dunn doesn’t get it dunn in the running department as he’s out at the plate to end the inning with it 1-0 Washington.   However, in the 4th back to back RBI doubles from Adley Rutschman and Ryan Mountcastle give Baltimore the lead, and Mountcastle scores on a single by Austin Hays to make it 3-1 O’s.  Ramon Urias adds one of the aforementioned solo shots in the 6th, and a leadoff single in the 8th chases Lannan for Sean Burnett, who contributes a walk before Urias smashes his second homer of the game and the Orioles now lead by six.  From there, Kremer coasts and wraps up a 6-hit complete game in the 7-1 Baltimore win.  

The survivors

After the first round, the 2019 Indians were the highest surviving seed and for good measure they would have Shane Bieber (15-8, 3.28), who was 4th in the Cy Young voting, ready to try to make it an all-Cleveland final.  However, the 2001 Mets also had a solid rotation and Kevin Appier (11-10, 3.57) was a veteran presence on the hill.   Veteran or not, in the bottom of the 1st Francisco Lindor finds and converts Appier’s HR 1-13 split for a 1-0 lead.  The Mets get to the Biebs in the top of the 5th as Matt Lawton pokes a clutch 2-out 2-run double to put New York ahead, and from there both teams threaten but the starters hold on.  However, a leadoff single in the 7th for Desi Relaford and the Indians have Bieber fatigue, so they go with Tyler Clippard, who yields a single on a ++ with Relaford held but then Clippard bears down and kills the rally to keep it a one run game.  The pitcher then take us to the bottom of the 9th, where with one out Appier walks Roberto Perez, who is replaced by a pinch runner;  Oscar Mercado then grounds one to 2B-2 Edgardo Alphonso for what looks like a sure double play, but Alphonso boots it and the tying run is now in scoring position and the winning run is at first.  The Mets stick with Appier for one more batter, and that proves ill-advised as Jason Kipnis rolls that HR 1-13 split on Appier–but misses it.  The pinch runner scores on the resulting double, and 1-16 Mercado sets sail for home as the winning run.  The roll is a 14, and the Indians head to the finals with the walk-off 3-2 win despite only recording three hits in the game.  

After an upset win over the bracket favorite in round one, it was now the 2010 Indians’ responsibility to pull off another upset in order to secure an all-Cleveland final.  The obstacle would be the 2022 Orioles, whose rotation dropped off abruptly to Tyler Wells (7-7, 4.25) although the Indians were no more enthusiastic about starting Mitch Talbot (10-13, 4.41).  In the bottom of the 2nd Ramon Urias continues his torrid hitting in the regional with a solo homer to provide the O’s with the lead, but in the top of the 3rd Luis Valbuena responses by finding the solid HR result on Wells and it’s 1-1.  The tie is short-lived as in the bottom of the inning SS-2 Asdrubal Cabrera commits a two-base error that sets up an RBI double by Gunnar Henderson and Baltimore regains the lead.  In the 5th, Travis Hafner misses Wells’ split HR result and Shin-Soo Choo chooses a bad time to roll a 20 trying to score from 1st on the resulting double.  The Orioles make it worse with a 2-run homer from Ryan Mountcastle in the bottom of the inning, and in desperation the Indians try Chris Perez and his 1.71 ERA to try to stay in the game.  He holds the line, and a leadoff double by Cabrera in the 8th chases Wells for the O’s own C. Perez, this one Cionel with a 1.40 ERA, but he issues a single and a walk to load the bases with still nobody out.  Perez then whiffs Hafner and LaPorta to bring up Michael Brantley, who converts a split single off Perez’s card and the lead is cut to 4-2, but Jayson Nix flies out to end the rally.  The game heads to the top of the 9th, and Carlos Santana leads off with a pinch hit single, and Drew Sutton follows with a pinch-hit home run that ties the game, as the Indians pinch-hitters continue the magic they displayed in round one.  Cionel then allows two straight singles, and with the infield in Trevor Crowe steals second to put runners on 2nd and 3rd, and still nobody is out.  Choo walks to load the bases, and Hafner converts that split single on Perez and the Indians take the lead.  A sac fly from Brantley adds an insurance run, and Chris Perez will try to hang onto that two run lead in the bottom of the 9th, although it will burn him for the regional.  And he does, mowing the bottom of the O’s lineup down in order and it’s time to set the Cuyahoga on fire as the Indians take the come from behind 6-4 win to face their later selves in the final.  

The finals will keep the regional title in the Tribe as the #2 seeded 2019 Indians and the #7 seeded 2010 Indians face off, with little in common other than a very good guitarist on the roster.  But they also shared persistence, with both teams having come from behind in all their victories to reach this final.  After these close games, both squads had depleted bullpens, meaning the advantage of the 2019’s Trevor Bauer (9-8, 3.79) over 2010’s Justin Masterson (6-13, 4.70) looked particularly large.  Masterson issues four walks in the top of the 2nd, but almost gets out of the inning anyway due to a DP, but Jake Bauers records the first hit of the game for a 2-out 2-run single to put the favorites ahead.  Jose Ramirez adds to the lead with a squib RBI single in the 3rd, but the 2010’s get on the board with a 2-out run scoring double from Michael Brantley in the bottom of the 4th that makes it 3-1.  In the 6th Jayson Nix misses Bauer’s HR 1-17 split with a roll of 19, but the resulting triple makes it a one run game and with the tying run on 3rd with two out the 2010’s roll out their PH extraordinaire, Drew Sutton, but Bauer whiffs him and the 2019’s cling to a one run lead.  Francisco Lindor immediately extends it by leading off the 7th with a long bomb, but in the bottom of the inning PH Carlos Santana and Asrdubal Cabrera start off with back to back doubles and the 2019s opt for Aaron Civale out of the pen; he promptly yields a single and then a 2-run Matt Laporta double and suddenly the underdogs are on top.  Armed with a lead, Masterson is then masterful and the unheralded 2010 Indians pull off their third consecutive comeback win, besting their compatriots 5-4 to take the regional crown. 

Interesting card of Regional #226:  This is the rather singular card of one Glenn Williams–singular in that, well, there are a lot of singles on it, but also in that it was the only Strat card that Mr. Williams’ ever received.  You see, these 40 at-bats were the entirety of his MLB career, meaning that his career batting average of .425 far outdistances the .344 lifetime mark of that other Williams guy.  In fact, this Williams holds the post-1900 major league records for the most at-bats, and most hits, in a career in which the batter hit .400 or better.  One of the few Australian major-leaguers, he made his debut for the Twins on June 7th as a 28 year old rookie and went on a tear.   On June 28th he went 1 for 2 with a walk against the Royals, but two days later he injured his shoulder, and as it didn’t heal the decision was made to have surgery in September.  Unfortunately, he never regained his hitting form in the minors and never played another major league game, although he did have some successful appearances for the Australian national team in international play.  In this endless tournament, Williams was only to enter the game after the 5th as a low-AB wonder, and he did his part going 2 for 2, not surprisingly both singles, but it wasn’t enough as his Twins quickly headed back to the card catalog drawers with a first round loss.

REGIONAL #225:  The tournament is sort of running out of entries from before the nineties, and this bracket was a prime example with most of them 21st century teams; this was also the first time I’d run my team selector program after revising it to include 2023, although at the time they had been shipped but had not arrived.  However, there was no need to wait on Fedex as none of these current teams were picked, although the 2022 Dbacks, who would be the NL pennant winners in that following set, were there, as was a Jeter-era Yankees team that had won the AL three years before and would do so again three years later.  Other teams that might have some potential could be an Indians team at the beginning of a good decade for them, and the later of the two Detroit entries might be competitive; I had a feeling that the rest of the field didn’t look very promising.  Given the sad history of the Jeter Yankees in this tournament, I doubted they would go all the way and I picked the Dbacks to beat them in the finals.  The ELO ratings didn’t care about jinxes and portrayed the Yankees as the best team in baseball that season; they picked them over a seemingly mediocre Dbacks team in the finals but tapped the earlier of the two Tigers teams as the major competition for the Yanks in a potential semifinal game.  

First round action

The 2022 Diamondbacks were a far cry from the team that won the NL the next season, losing 88 games with an offense that had difficulty getting on base, but one of the things they did have in common was a strong performance by Zac Gallen (12-4, 2.54) who finished 5th in the Cy Young votes.  Facing Gallen did not bode well for a bad 99-loss 2009 Pirates team who had rookie Andrew McCutchen as their only bright spot, with Ross Ohlendorf (11-10, 3.92) at the top of a rotation that got steadily worse.  The Dbacks get a run in the bottom of the 1st on doubles from Josh Rojas and Corbin Carroll, but Brandon Moss ties it in the top of the 5th with a two-out RBI single.   The game stays knotted until the bottom of the 7th, when Alek Thomas leads off by wrapping a homer around the foul pole, and after a 2-out single by Rojas the Pirates summon reliever Steven Jackson, who is greeted with a long homer by defensive replacement Emmanuel Rivera, and the Dbacks continue to pound Jackson until he manages to end the inning with Arizona holding a four run lead.  From there, Gallen can cruise as he wraps up a four-hitter in which he fans 11 and the Dbacks head to the semis with the 5-1 win.  

This first round game involved an evenly-matched pairing of two of the worst-ranked teams in baseball history, the 2018 Tigers and the 2005 Royals.  The Tigers lost 98 games but still managed to finish 3rd in an apparently terrible AL Central, with a team that didn’t have much power or ability to get on base, a hit or miss defense, and Matt Boyd (9-13, 4.39) atop a lackluster rotation.   The Royals lost 106 games, and although they might have been able to get on base slightly better than the Tigers, they also had little pop, bad defense, and a miserable rotation with Runelyvs Hernandez (8-14, 5.52) somehow better than a terrible year from 21 year old Zack Greinke.  The Tigers defense falls apart in the bottom of the 3rd, with an error from SS-1 Jose Iglesias and a three-base error by RF-4 Nick Castellanos, followed by a wild pitch, all set up a five run inning with Emil Brown contributing a 2-run double to the onslaught.  A leadoff single to begin the 6th and the Tigers decide to try Alex Wilson out of the pen, and he mows down the Royals; the Tigers take heart and load the bases to score a run on an error by KC’s 3B-3 Mark Teahen, but aging Miggy Cabrera whiffs to end the threat and in the process is injured for the remainder of the regional.  Wilson continues to be perfect until two out in the 8th, when Terrence Long finds Wilson’s solid 4-5 HR result for a solo shot to provide some additional insurance. That looks like it may be necessary, as Castellanos shoots a 9th inning two out double past LF-3 Long for a run and there are now two runners in scoring position, but a faltering Hernandez manages to get the third out and the Royals hang on for a 6-2 and a trip to the semifinals. 

For the Zoom game of the week, it was ColavitoFan once again manning the helm of a Cleveland squad, this one the 77-85 1990 Indians, who were clearly not the team they would become later in the decade.  Bud Black (13-11, 3.57) was decent enough at the top of the rotation, but he had the challenge of facing the bracket favorite in the 2006 Yankees, who won 97 games and the AL East, with the Tall Tactician seeing if his tactics could surmount the poor showing of the Jeter-era pinstripers in this tournament thus far.  Speaking of Jeter, he was the runner-up for the AL MVP, and teammates ARod, Jason Giambi and Robinson Cano also received votes, while Mike Mussina (15-7, 3.51) would get the round one start over a Cy Young runner-up, demonstrating the depth of the rotation.  The Indians get in trouble in the top of the 2nd with two walks and an error loading the bases for Johnny Damon, who earns his free agent dollars with a bases-clearing double and the Yanks move out to a formidable lead.  And although ColavitoFan is rocking it on the trivia questions, he isn’t rolling it on the dice, hitting the holes in his players’ best columns and missing splits so consistently you’d think I was rolling the die (which in fact I was).  Coupled with Mussina looking strong and a 9th inning courtesy call from Mariano Rivera, the Indians go down with only three hits and no runs to their name, and despite a solid showing from Black the Yankees move on in their quest for their first Jeter-era regional win with a 3-0 shutout victory.

From memory I had assumed that the 2006 Tigers would be bad, as I knew that they had been epically terrible in the prior few seasons and in fact had lost 91 games in ‘05.  However, it entirely slipped my mind that they actually won 95 games and the AL pennant in ‘06, with MVP votes for Carlos Guillen and Magglio Ordonez as well as Rookie of the Year Justin Verlander (17-9, 3.63), who was also 7th in the Cy Young ballots.  I had also guessed that the 1985 Rangers might have been slightly better than a 99-loss team with a limited offense and a rotation with nothing aside from Charlie Hough (14-16, 3.31).  The two starters prove to be the star of the show; Verlander allows two hits in the first two innings and then the Rangers can’t touch him for the rest of the nine, and Hough allows four singles but the Tigers eliminate all four through double play balls, so after nine innings the two teams are still knotted in a scoreless tie.  The Rangers finally break the ice in the top of the 10th when Detroit 1B-3 Sean Casey commits a two-base error that turns into a run on a Don Slaught double, but Slaught is cut down at the plate for the third out and the game heads to the bottom of the 10th with Hough three outs away from the semifinals.  Carlos Guillen leads off with a walk and he steals second, fearing the DP ball; he takes third with two out on a flyball A from PH Brent Clevlen, so the tying run is 90 feet away with the game up to Ordonez.  Hough throws a wicked knuckler, Ordonez pops out, and the Rangers pull off a 1-0 upset in a game with only four hits for each team and no earned runs allowed. 

The survivors

The 2022 Diamondbacks may not have been the same team that won the pennant the following year, but they felt they had a smooth path to the finals with Merrill Kelly (13-8, 3.37) sporting a nice card and facing a bad #7 seed in the 2005 Royals and DJ Carrasco (6-8, 4.79), who perhaps should have stuck to spinning records.  But it’s Mike Sweeney who starts things off for the Royals with a solo shot in the bottom of the 1st, but they miss a chance to extend their lead in the 5th when 1-14+2 Mark Teahen is cut down for the 3rd out while trying to score on a Ruben Gotay double.  Meanwhile, Carrasco keeps the beat going but falters in the 6th, allowing a two-out RBI single to Daulton Varsho that ties the game, and the Royals summon closer Mike MacDougal and he successfully strands the tying run on third.  However, he is not so fortunate in the 7th as Ketel Marte swats a sac fly that gives the Dbacks a 2-1 lead.  In the bottom of the inning, the Royals bring in LF-4 Matt Stairs for his bat, which doesn’t amount to anything for KC but it does for the Dbacks in the 8th as a 2-run triple bounces by Stairs to pad the Arizona lead.  However, in the bottom of the inning David Dejesus lands an RBI double off Kelly’s card, and the next batter Aaron Guiel misses Kelly’s HR split for a double that makes it a one-run game, and the Dbacks send for Kyle Nelson out of a bad bullpen.  He retires two in a row to send the game to the 9th, but in the bottom of the 9th Nelson walks the first two batters and then yields a single to Teahen, but 1-10 John Buck is nailed at the plate trying to tie the game.  Now with one out and runners on 2nd and 3rd, Nelson whiffs Angel Berroa to bring up PH Denny Hocking off a terrible KC bench.  Hocking does his job and draws a walk to load the bases for Dejesus, while the Dbacks look for anybody in the bullpen with better control than Nelson, but to no avail.  So Nelson delivers to Dejesus and sure enough, it’s a walk on Nelson’s card and the game is tied.  Now it’s to Guiel for the win, and Nelson blows it by him and the game heads to extra innings.  The first batter of the 10th, new DH Stone Garrett crushes one into the fountains to chase MacDougal for Ambiorix Burgos, who may sound like some sort of medication but successfully treats the symptoms as he ends the inning without further damage.  But Nelson regains his composure in the bottom of the 10th to retire three straight and the Diamondbacks fend off the pesky Royals with a 5-4 win to earn a berth in the finals. 

This was a seemingly lopsided semifinal matchup with the 97-win 2006 Yankees facing the 99-loss 1985 Rangers, and to underscore the imbalance the Yanks had the Cy Young runner up, Chien Ming Wang (19-6, 3.63) going against a mediocre Mike Mason (8-15, 4.83) for Texas.  But, it’s the Rangers who strike first in the bottom of the 1st, with Gary Ward stroking an RBI double off Wang’s card.  However, Mason’s wildness loads the bases in the top of the 3rd, and Robinson Cano ties the game with a sac fly and then Jason Giambi clears the remaining bases with a double and New York moves out to a 3-1 lead.  They add to it in the 5th when Jeter actually contributes with a 2-run double, and then ARod singles him home and the Yanks have a comfortable edge.  Giambi adds a solo homer in the 7th that would have been for more if Jeter hadn’t been caught stealing; in the 8th they get a scare when Jorge Posada rolls his injury, but he’s okay and stays in the game.  However, two batters later Johnny Damon rolls HIS injury, and this time the split die isn’t so kind with a 19 and Damon is gone for the tournament.  The Rangers get a run in the bottom of the inning on a Larry Parrish sac fly, but the Yankees batter Texas reliever Greg Harris in the top of the 9th with a two-run single from Jeter and then, after he’s caught stealing once again, defensive replacement Andy Phillips slaps a solo homer.  From there Wang is on cruise control and the Yankees head to the finals with a 10-2 win, although their defense takes a significant hit with CF Damon out of the picture.  

The final was a matchup that both I and the ELO rankings predicted, the top seeded 2006 Yankees with Derek Jeter attempting to lead the team to their first regional win under his captaincy, against the 2022 Diamondbacks who were playing like they could maybe win the pennant in their next season.   Both teams were experiencing a big dropoff in their starting pitching; the Yanks would go with 42-year old Randy Johnson (17-11, 5.00) but had a fully rested pen ready to bail him out at the first sign of trouble, while the Dbacks’ Zach Davies (2-5, 4.09) was a big step down from their other Zac.  The first batter of the game, Josh Rojas, hits a ball to LF-4 Hideki Matsui who is only in the game due to the injury to Johnny Damon, and Matsui watches it go by for a double.  The Big Unit then bears down and strands Rojas at second, and then in the bottom of the 3rd Davies issues three walks to load the bases with one out and Jeter at the plate, with a chance to lead the way.  But the roll is on the pitcher’s card, a 6-9…wait, that’s a solid HR and Jeter trots around the bases with a grand slam and the Bronx goes wild.  Davies then walks three straight to begin the 4th and when Melky Cabrera’s fielders’ choice brings in another Yankee run, the Dbacks can pull Davies (who allowed only one hit) for the equally wild Caleb Smith and he retires the side without further damage.  In the 8th, Jeter singles for only the second NY hit of the game, both by him, but the AA stealer is caught stealing second making him 0 for 3 in that department in this regional.  But it doesn’t matter as the creaky Unit doesn’t allow a hit after the 4th inning and the Yankees cruise to their first Jeter-era regional title with Johnson’s five hit, 5-0 shutout.  The regional win is the Yanks’ 11th, although only the second from the past 25 years.

Interesting card of Regional #225:  If you roll on this guy’s card, you can be pretty certain that one of two things is going to happen.  I’ve shuffled through a lot of bad cards in the 1,800 teams that have played in the tournament to this point, but I can’t remember another where, beginning with the 1-2 roll and working your way down, you’d need to check 26 results before you came to one that wasn’t a strikeout.  Not to be confused with the guy who played in the Incredible Hulk TV show, Brian Bixler played four seasons in the majors, although I’m not exactly certain why–this card represented the best year of his career in batting average and OPS, and at least according to Strat it wasn’t his glove that kept him around.  However, Bixler can’t be blamed for the immediate exit of his Pirates from the regional, as he didn’t make an appearance–not even as a pinch-runner, a role he served in his first real life home game as a rookie where he failed to break for home on a squeeze play that ultimately cost the Pirates the game. 

REGIONAL #224:  This bracket saw one of the final teams of the 1970s enter the tournament, along with a group that had no real standouts.  There was a Red Sox team that was likely strong that was within a couple of years of a title, Rays and Angels teams several years after one, and a White Sox squad that should have a big season from the Big Hurt.  There were also a couple of entries from the Reds that I suspected weren’t world beaters, and if it weren’t for my jinx I thought the White Sox might have a shot in this group.  However, I’d been down this road before, so I figured that it would be some Sox of a different color who would prevail, and I predicted Boston would beat Tampa in the finals.  The ELO ratings forecast the same result, but it also highlighted the first round game between the Red Sox and Angels as the game to watch, pairing two of the top 200 teams of all time.

First round action

The 1994 Padres were 47-70 when the strike was declared to relieve them of their misery.  This was one of the worst fielding teams I could remember, with 6 of the 8 starters rated a “4” at their primary position, but they had few good pitchers such as Joey Hamilton (9-6, 2.98) and then there was Tony Gwynn’s .394 batting average, which earned him 7th place in the MVP votes.  The 1998 Reds only looked good by comparison, as they went 77-85 with a more balanced lineup featuring a very good keystone combo of Barry Larkin and Bret Boone, with Pete Harnisch (14-7, 3.14) as a solid round one starter.  The Reds start out hot in the bottom of the 1st with three straight singles, the last by Willie Greene driving in one, and Dmitri Young adds a sac fly to stake Cincinnati to a 2-0 lead.  Phil Plantier responds for the Padres by leading off the top of the 2nd with a homer and later Bip Roberts adds an RBI double to tie the game, but another Young sac fly makes it 3-2 Reds after three.  In the 5th, Roberts walks and steals second but he’s tossed out trying to score (1-17) on a Craig Shipley single, but in the 6th Luis Lopez rips a single past Reds 3B-4 Greene and the game is tied once again.  The Reds move ahead again in the bottom of the 7th on a 2-run homer by Reggie Sanders, and the Padres turn to Trevor Hoffman to try to keep them in the game.  Meanwhile Harnisch is holding his own, but when he walks the leadoff hitter in the top of the 9th the Reds summon Danny Graves to try to close things out against the top of the Padres order.  Graves issues another walk but gets Shipley to hit into a double play, bringing up Gwynn as the Padres last hope.  And Gwynn comes through magnificently, a 1-4 for a solid homer and once again the game is tied; the Padres shaky defense holds in the bottom of the 9th and we head to extra innings.  In the 10th, Derek Bell singles off Graves’ card, steals second, and scores when Lopez also finds a single off the pitcher, and the Padres take a one-run lead to the bottom of the 10th.  They stick with Hoffman, even though it will burn him for the regional, and he blows through the heart of the Reds order as the Padres persist for a 6-5 upset and a trip to the semifinal.

The top two teams in the regional match up in this marquee first round game, with the 2016 Red Sox and the 2009 Angels each sporting ELO ratings among the top 200 of all time.  The Red Sox won 93 games and the AL East with a lineup loaded with weapons, with Mookie Betts 2nd and David Ortiz 6th in the MVP votes, and Rick Porcello (2204, 3.15) capturing the AL Cy Young award. The Angels won 97 games and the AL West, but didn’t look quite as flashy to me  although nearly all of the lineup had SLG% over .400 and OBP over .350.  Kendrys Morales, Chone Figgins, and Bobby Abreu all got MVP votes that season, while Jered Weaver (16-8, 3.75) fronted a decent but not dominating rotation.  In the bottom of the 1st the Angels take a lead when Macer Izturis triples and scores on a Morales sac fly, but in the 3rd Morales is cut down (1-11+2) trying to score on a Torii Hunter single.  That play seems to wake up the Red Sox, as Xander Bogaerts converts their first hit of the game to lead off the 4th on a SI 1-5 split, and then Ortiz launches a 2-run homer for a Boston lead.  Betts follows with a walk and a stolen base, and he scores on a Hanley Ramirez single and the Red Sox now lead 3-1.  Both pitchers then settle in, but in the 8th Morales gets another chance to score from second on a two-out Hunter single and this time he makes it and it’s a one run game with the tying run aboard.  The Red Sox summon wild closer Craig Kimbrel and he gets the final out to send the game to the 9th with Boston clinging to the narrow lead.  They can’t provide any insurance for Kimbrel, so it’s all on him in the bottom of the 9th and although he issues a leadoff walk, Vlad Guerrero hits into a DP and Abreu whiffs and the Red Sox move on with a 3-2 win even though Weaver held them to only three hits.  

The 2014 Rays were the #3 seed in this bracket by the ELO ratings, although they only won 77 games with a largely punchless offense; their main strength was a solid pitching staff with Alex Cobb (10-9, 2.87) a strong option as a game one starter.   They faced the oldest team in the group, the 74-win 1976 Giants, who were equally punchless although they were Counting on John Montefusco (16-14, 2.85) to keep them in the game.  That doesn’t look like it’s going to happen when the first three Rays batters reach on a hit, a walk, and an error to load the bases, and then Evan Longoria smacks a 2-run single.  Although David Dejesus then hits into a DP, that scores another and Tampa Bay leads 3-0 before the elder statement Giants can bat.  However, when they do, they respond nicely as Bobby Murcer singles to score Larry Herndon from second, and later RF-1 Kevin Kiermaier does the unthinkable and commits a 2-base error with the bases loaded and the game is quickly tied.  Herndon’s speed again pays off in the 2nd as he beats the throw home (1-16+2 with a 17 roll) on a 2-out Gary Matthews single and the Giants now take the lead.  A 2-base error by Rays SS-4 Yunel Escobar sets up an RBI single from Gary Thomasson in the 5th to pad the Giants lead, but in the 6th Longoria responds with a 2-run homer and things are tied once again.  The Giants lose SS Chris Speier to a tournament-ending injury in the bottom of the 6th, and replacement SS-3 Johnnie Lemaster boots the first ball of the 7th but the Count is not flustered and he quickly dispatches the Rays to cover for the mistake.  In the bottom of the inning, Matthews rips a one-out triple into the corner, and the Rays decide it’s time for reliever Jake McGee and his 1.89 ERA to try to prevent Matthews from scoring.  It matters not, because the next roll is on Murcer’s card and it’s a base hit for a Giants lead.   Darrell Evans then somehow singles off McGee’s formidable card and Ken Reitz gets on courtesy of an error by 2B-2 Ben Zobrist, the Rays’ fourth error of the game.   McGee is clearly unsettled and he walks Dave Rader for another run to bring up weak hitting (.210) injury replacement Lemaster–who promptly singles in another two runs and when the fog clears at Candlestick the scoreboard reads 9-5 Giants after seven innings.  Sarge Matthews orders a 2-run homer in the 8th to make it even uglier, and Montefusco finishes on cruise control as the Giants coast to an 11-5 win.

Faced with the challenge of surmounting the jinx facing my favorite teams, the 1997 White Sox were a mediocre 80-81 team that had some firepower led by Frank Thomas, who finished 3rd in the MVP votes, but there were a lot of big hurts in their rotation, with Wilson Alvarez (13-11, 3.48) miles better than other options.  Nonetheless, they were big ELO favorites over the 97-loss 2003 Reds, who were fortunate that Strat provided a card for Jose Guillen as they traded their best hitter in midseason; the Reds’ rotation was dreadful with Paul Wilson (8-10, 4.64) the lone eligible starter with an ERA under five.  The Reds get three hits and a walk in the top of the 1st but only score once on an RBI single from Aaron Boone, although the Sox tie it up in the 3rd when the terrible Chris Snopek scores on a wild pitch that gets past Reds C-3 Jason Larue.  In the 5th the Reds load the bases in a two out rally to bring up DH Adam Dunn; he whiffs, swinging so hard he injures himself and he’s Dunn for the tournament.  Both pitchers hang on until the 8th, when Alvarez walks Larue the bullpen is considered but I elect to let Alvarez pitch to Sean Casey, who promptly rolls Alvarez’s HR 1-8/flyB split and convert it for a two run blast.  Roberto Hernandez comes in to close the barn door after the horses have left, and the Reds decide not to repeat that mistake as after Robin Ventura doubles in the bottom of the inning they summon Scott Sullivan and he douses the fire.  The game moves to the bottom of the 9th with the Reds up by two, but the Big Hurt doubles, Mike Cameron walks, and then PH Maggio Ordonez loads the bases with one out when aging SS-3 Barry Larkin drops his grounder.  PH Norberto Martin hits the infamous nine hole in his best column, but it’s a sac fly and there are two out with the Sox still down by a run.  Up comes the third Sox PH in a row, Greg Norton, and it’s on his card but he whiffs and another Chisox team heads to the storage drawers as the Reds move on with the 3-2 win.  

The survivors

This semifinal appeared to involve a lopsided matchup between the top seeded 2016 Red Sox and the #7 seeded 1994 Padres, with the Red Sox going with Steven Wright (13-6, 3.33) while the Padres had Andy Benes (6-14, 3.86) with a better card than his record indicated.  Both pitchers start out strong; in the bottom of the 5th Hanley Ramirez misses a HR 1-16 split and gets stranded at second as Boston squanders a prime opportunity.  But the Padres can’t get used to Steven Wright’s deadpan delivery and the game heads to the bottom of the 9th in a scoreless tie and Benes tossing a four hitter.  He gets one out to bring up David Ortiz, and Big Papi rolls on Benes’ card–for a HR 1-17; he converts the split for a walk off solo shot and the Red Sox win 1-0 for their second straight one-run squeaker in which they’ve averaged four hits a game. 

The #6 seed 1976 Giants and #8 seeded 2003 Reds were both underdog winners in the first round that were seeking to make an underdog appearance in the finals.  The two teams were bad in different ways, with the Giants having little pop in the lineup while the Reds pitching was gruesome, with swingman John Riedling (2-3, 4.90) not good but miles better than the other eligible alternatives.  The Giants countered with Ed Halicki (12-14, 3.63) but this didn’t look like it would resemble the low-scoring nature of the other semifinal, although both teams were short-handed due to injuries to Adam Dunn of the Reds and Chris Speier of the Giants.   The Reds put up three runs in the bottom of the 2nd on a 2-run triple from D’angelo Jimenez and an RBI single by Sean Casey, but from there neither team can muster much offense.  Finally the Giants wake up in the 8th with a two-out RBI double from Gary Thomasson, and when defensive replacement 2B-2 Juan Castro boots the next ball the Reds summon Felix Heredia from the pen and he gets Darrell Evans for the third out.   Heredia then blows through the bottom of the Giants order in the 9th, striking out PH Derrel Thomas for the final out and the bottom seeded Reds earn a trip to the finals with the 3-1 win.

It’s David vs Goliath as the top seeded 2016 Red Sox are big favorites over the #8 seed 2003 Reds, and the plight of the underdogs wasn’t helped any by an injury to slugger Adam Dunn and a back end of the rotation involving a start for Danny Graves (4-15, 5.33).   Meanwhile, Boston had workhorse David Price (17-9, 3.99) available along with a fully rested bullpen and a healthy lineup, and they take a quick lead when Xander Bogaerts finds and converts a split homer on Graves for a solo blast in the top of the 1st\.  However, the Reds didn’t make it this far without knowing how to respond, and Ken Griffey Jr does just that with a two-out two-run double in the bottom of the inning to put the Reds up 2-1.  Travis Shaw knocks his own two-out RBI double in the top of the 2nd, also off Graves’ card, and the game is knotted up and promises to be a dogfight.  In the 4th Sandy Leon knocks a sac fly for a Boston lead, and then a few batters later Dustin Pedroia knocks a two-out double with the bases loaded and suddenly the Red Sox have a commanding 6-2 lead.  A solo shot by Jason Larue in the bottom of the inning narrows the lead some, but Boston immediately gets the run back in the top of the 5th on an RBI single by Leon against Reds reliever Felix Heredia.  Sean Casey responds in the bottom of the inning with a leadoff homer off Price’s card, but again the Red Sox retaliate with a 2-run single by Mookie Betts, an RBI triple from Jackie Bradley, and a run-scoring single from Leon and the relentless Red Sox offense has built an 11-4 lead.  The Reds get a solo shot from Jose Guillen in the 8th, but Boston defensive replacement Chris Young launches a 2-run homer in the top of the 9th against the 4th Reds pitcher, Scott Williamson, and leave no doubt that they are the best team in the regional with a crushing 13-5 victory for their 9th bracket title, and the second for 21st century Red Sox teams.

Interesting card of Regional #224:   Tournament rules stipulate that starting pitchers must have at least 100 IP to be in the bracket rotation, and among the roughly 1,800 different starting pitchers that I’ve sent out to the mound in this project, I’m not sure that I’ve seen one with worse control than one John D’Acquisto.  After a very promising beginning in 1974 when Sporting News named him NL Rookie of the Year, he experienced elbow pain in 1975 and it seemed to cost him his ability to throw strikes.  He had midseason surgery and this 1976 card documents that the operation didn’t seem to help his control much, so the Giants pawned him off on the Cardinals in the offseason but he didn’t improve any in ‘77, so they sent him to the Padres.  In sunny San Diego he finally regained some measure of control and was able to become one of the better pitchers in baseball with an apostrophe in his last name.  This, of course, is one of the original ‘76 die-cut cards with the classic card patterns, but I don’t think those walks could be very well hidden in any pattern; for you card counters, he has 39 walk chances out of 108 possible on his card, more than 36% of his results.  I do not envy the strict replayers out there who have to give D’Acquisto his requisite 19 starts for the Giants, as I find walks off my pitcher’s card to be extremely frustrating.