SUPER-REGIONAL M:   Of the five pennant winners that began the tournament in this group of 64, only one had managed to put together three wins in a row to reach this level.  Even so, this batch looked like a group of very competitive teams, although there was a Reds team that didn’t really seem to belong here.  There would be old school greats like the Babe and Willie Mays rubbing shoulders with more modern stars like Jimmy Rollins and Kris Bryant.  I thought the upper half of this division was extremely tough, and although I was pulling for the older squads, I suspected that the Cubs from the season following their historic championship would make the finals just to spite me; I predicted that they would get their comeuppance from a Phillies team from an era that had been uncannily successful in this tournament.  The ELO ratings didn’t account for the tendency for the Cubs to torment me, and predicted Babe’s Yankees would top the Phils to move on to the final 32.

Round four action

Two strong teams from very different eras meet as the 92-60 1934 Yankees of Ruth and Gehrig face off against the 92-70 2017 Cubs, a year after they had broken the curse of the billy goat.  The Yankees had serious injury problems, with their top two 2B both out and a rotation thrown into chaos by a 10-game DL trip for Red Ruffing, so their defense would be dismal behind an already hittable Jimmie DeShong (6-7, 4.11).  On the other hand, the Cubs would be at full strength with C Wilson Contreras returning from injury and a deep and rested bullpen available to support an already capable Jake Arrieta (14-10, 3.53) as the #4 starter.  In the 3rd, Earle Combs doubles past CF-3 Jon Jay to drive in a run and Gehrig adds another with a sac fly, but the Yanks leave the bases loaded and fail to improve upon the 2-0 lead.  However, the Cubs get a setback when LF Ian Happ hits into a DP to end the bottom of the inning, and gets injured for 8 games in the process, meaning he’s gone for the tournament.  Of course, the dice gods can’t permit the Cubs to be disadvantaged, so immediately in the 5th Ruth gets hurt, he’s out for 6 games, and it’s farewell to the Sultan of Swat most likely for the remainder of the project, although George Selkirk takes out some of the sting with an RBI single for a 3-0 lead.  The inevitable Cubs comeback begins in the 6th with a 2-run double by Contreras, and when Ben Chapman leads off the 7th with a single, the North Siders yank Arrieta and the largely unhittable Carl Edwards Jr. comes in, but he issues a walk and then Bill Dickey drives an RBI single to provide an insurance run.   Edwards then holds the Yanks, and the Cubs get the tying runs aboard in the bottom of the 9th with two out, courtesy of a walk and a Jay single, and then a Javier Baez base hit scores one and Jay is at second with imposing Kris Bryant at the plate.  And yes, predictably he singles, 1-14+2 Jay races home to tie the game and Baez takes third to put the game winner 90 feet away for injury replacement Albert Almora.  And yes, he rolls the 4th straight single with 2 outs and the Cubs walk it off scoring three runs with two out in the bottom of the 9th for a 5-4 win, proving that the dice just love to have the Cubs torture me while any decent White Sox teams were eliminated in the first round.

The Zoom game of the week features two strong squads, with Toronto’s own Eaglesfly at the helm of the 89-win, AL East winning 1989 Blue Jays, with me rolling the dice on his “behalf”, while the Friday Night Strat College of Coaches would guide the 90-win 1964 Giants and brother Chuck would provide his dice-rolling skills on their behalf.   The Jays send out Mike Flanagan (8-10, 3.93) , while after some debate the College settles on Ron Herbel (9-9, 3.07) as their #4 starter.  And, it appears that the College chose unwisely, as Herbel fails to record a single out, with five straight hits punctuated by an intentional walk to load the bases for Junior Felix, who looks more senior in swatting a grand slam and Herbel exits after allowing 6 runs for an infinite ERA.  The College then opts for one of the other starter alternatives, Bob Bolin, and it looks like they should have gone with him to start with as he retires the side without further damage.   Tom Haller drives in a run in the bottom of the 1st and the long comeback trail begins, and while Bolin holds off the Jays Haller nails a three-run homer in his next at-bat, and Orlando Cepeda singles in a run in the 4th and suddenly we’re looking at a one-run game and Eaglesfly yanks an ineffective Flanagan as he’s confident in the Jays strong pen, with Duane Ward coming in to end any further threat.  The Giants move to veteran Billy Pierce in the 6th and he continues to take advantage of my terrible dicework, but Ward holds the fort until a single in the bottom of the 8th is a cue to move to dominating Toronto closer Tom Henke.  And….that doesn’t go well, as Cepeda doubles in the tying run to bring up NL home run leader Willie Mays; Chuck rolls right in the midst of a fat group of homer results and it’s a 2-run shot for the Giants first lead of the game.  That’s it for Henke, but the horse has left the barn and Jim Duffalo sets down the Jays in the 9th as the Giants complete a remarkable comeback for an 8-6 win, and a return to the top of the rotation for round five.

The 2008 Phillies were the only pennant winner still surviving in this super-regional, as they won 92 games and the World Series over the Rays.  However, they had been hit by the injury bug in winning Regional #101, losing star 2B Chase Utley for the entire duration of this super-regional and in the regional final an early injury to SP Brett Myers had taxed the bullpen, meaning that a hittable Joe Blanton (9-12, 4.69) needed to put in some useful innings.  Still, they had to be considered as favorites over the 1941 Pirates, but these Pirates had outscored their opposition 21-3 in their regional, and those three complete game wins meant that they could use their best reliever, Dutch Dietz (7-2, 2.34) in his spot starter role here.  But in the top of the 1st Dutch watches his LF-4 Maurice Robays turn a Shane Victorino liner into a double, and then Jayson Werth smacks a hard single to bring the runner home.  A rattled Dietz then grooves one to Ryan Howard who puts it over the Forbes wall for a rapid 3-0 Philly lead.  However, the injury bug hits the Phils again as Werth is lost until the super-regional final, and when LF-4 Pat Burrell misplays an Elbie Fletcher single to allow a run to score in the bottom of the inning, it feels like the momentum is shifting.  Although Dietz holds the Phils hitless for 4 straight innings, Jimmy Rollins leads off the 6th with a walk, steals 2nd against the strong arm of C-1 Al Lopez, and then scores on a Victorino to add to the Phils lead.  Lopez then throws AA Victorino out trying to steal to end the threat, and when the Pirates begin the bottom of the inning with a walk and a single, the Phils opt to try the deeper recesses of their bullpen and try JC Romero, and despite a walk that loads the bases Romero strands all runners to sustain the 4-1 lead entering the 7th.  Victorino then blows the game open with a 3-run homer in the top of the 7th, although yet another injury, this one to DH Greg Dobbs, hits the beleaguered Phils in the 8th.  Armed with a six run lead, the Phils send out mop-up reliever Tom Gordon to begin the bottom of the 8th, and he is helped when Pedro Feliz leads off the 9th with an insurance homer.  From there, Gordon closes out the 8-1 win without incident and the Phils advance to round five, but with a third of their starting lineup injured.  

Two contemporary teams meet in this round four game, although pretty different in their rankings.  The 2017 Cardinals were a decent 83-79 team that underperformed their Pythagorean prediction, and they had knocked off two stronger teams in Regional #103 on their way here.  The good news for the Cards was that DH Matt Carpenter was back from an injury suffered in the regional semifinals; the bad news was that uninspiring #4 starter Mike Leake (7-12, 4.21) did not have their best relief pitcher available after a crucial stint in the regional final.  Still, they should be favored over the 95-loss 2018 Reds, who managed to win their regional as the #8 seed, but in the process had lost their starting SS and 3B to injury for the remainder of the tournament.  Also, befitting a 95-loss team, their #4 starter options were gruesome, with Anthony DeSclafani (7-8, 4.98) hoping to make it five innings to turn things over to a fully rested bullpen.  This one had the makings of a high-scoring affair, and that seems confirmed when the first hitter of the game, Kolten Wong, hits a solid HR result on DeSclafani, and three hits later Jose Martinez drives in a run to make it 2-0.   Tommy Pham finds and converts DeSclafani’s split HR result to lead off the 3rd, but the Reds starter manages to get through five innings without further damage and they move to David Hernandez in the 6th to try to keep within reach.  However, in the 7th Dexter Fowler drops a 2-run single in front of LF-4 Jesse Winker to add to the Cards lead, and the Reds don’t get on the board until Scott Schebler leads off the bottom of the 9th with a long homer.  Joey Votto then misses a HR split, but he scores anyway when Dilson Herrera follows with a tape measure shot and suddenly it’s a 2-run game with nobody out, and the Cards find that their lead is Leake-ing away.  They bring in Samuel Tuivailala to try to get the save, and he slams the door on the Reds retiring three in a row to preserve a 5-3 win for the Cards that didn’t come without a scare.  

The survivors:  round five

This round five matchup features two squads that had posted dramatic come-from-behind wins in round four against very strong opponents, and it was back to the top of the rotation for both teams.  That meant that the 1964 Giants would have Hall of Famer Juan Marichal (21-8, 2.48) on the mound against Jose Quintana (11-11, 4.15) of the 2017 Cubs in a freezing but sold out Candlestick Park.  The Giants get off to a rough start when in the 3rd C-3 Tom Haller commits the second error of the game for SF and that runner scores on a Javier Baez single; the Cubs plate another on an Anthony Rizzo sac fly and Chicago moves out to a 2-0 lead.  However, the Cubs return the bad fielding favors with an error from 2B-3 Ben Zobrist that scores one in the bottom of the inning, and then 3B-3 Kris Bryant drops another run-scoring grounder in the 4th and the game is tied.  In the 5th, Baez gets only the second hit against Marichal, both by him, and this one is a long solo blast to put the Cubs up once again, but Tom Haller does the same in the 7th and when Willie McCovey doubles on a missed HR 1-14 split that would have been back to backs, Quintana gives way to Wade Davis who hits the hole in Harvey Kuenn’s best column to end the inning, but the game is tied heading into the 8th.  After Davis gets Willie Mays to hit into a double play in the bottom of the 9th, the Cubs bring in Justin Wilson to record the last out and the game heads to extra innings: the second start in a row Marichal has headed into the 10th inning.  As he did in round one, Marichal does his job in inning 10, completing his eligibility with only two hits allowed and nine strikeouts. However, the Giants can’t score in the bottom of the inning and their heavy use of the bullpen in round four now haunts them as Jim Duffalo comes out and holds serve in the 11th.  In the bottom of the inning, offensive replacement Jim Davenport walks with one out and Jesus Alou singles him to third, so Wilson now must face the heart of the Giants order with the winning run 90 feet away.  The infield comes in for Orlando Cepeda, who responds with a gbA to put the runners on 2nd and 3rd, Mays up, two away.  For a team to advance in this project, their stars need to come through in the clutch, and Mays does so, ripping a single for the walk-off 4-3 win that pushes the Giants into the super-regional final.

With injuries to 2B Chase Utley, RF Jayson Werth and DH Greg Dobbs, the 2008 Phillies had to look on the bright side as they returned to the top of their rotation for Cole Hamels (14-10, 3.09) and closer Brad Lidge was fully rested if needed for extended service.  Still, the 2017 Cardinals also had their top starter, Carlos Martinez (12-11, 3.64) on the mound who had tossed a 2-hit shutout in round one, and they were completely healthy behind him.  Martinez strikes out the side in the top of the 1st to the delight of the Busch Stadium faithful, while the Cards look like Lady Luck is on their side as Paul DeJong rips a gbA++ RBI single thanks to the held Tommy Pham, and although the roll is also an injury, the 3 split keeps DeJong in the game.  Jose Martinez then converts a SI* 1-6 for another run, and although Hamels finally ends the frame by turning a DP himself, the Cards lead 2-0 after an inning.  However, replacement DH Matt Stairs ends the Martinez streak of strikeouts at four with a single, and then Pedro Feliz discovers that Martinez sports a juicy 6-5 HR result that he converts to tie the game. Then, in the 3rd it’s Ryan Howard’s turn as he crushes a long 2-run blast to put the Phils ahead, and when Pat Burrell leads off the 6th with a double and scores on a base hit by Stairs the Cards yank Martinez for Tyler Lyons, but he’s not the answer either as Geoff Jenkins adds an RBI single and Lyons loads the bases up for a 2-run single from Shane Victorino as the Phils take an imposing 8-2 lead.  With nothing to lose, the Cards bring in closer Trevor Rosenthal to begin the 7th, but Burrell greets him with a triple and he trots home on a Stairs single to pad the lead further.  Fortune finally smiles on the Phils as Burrell rolls an injury in the 8th, but the 2 split means he’s able to stay in the game, although the Phils feel they should wrap the remainder of their lineup in foam padding to keep them healthy.  Hamels shows some signs of tiring in the 8th, as Pham doubles in a run but Hamels strands three runners to end the inning still in command.  He proves that convincingly by striking out the side in the bottom of the 9th to finish with 11 Ks in the 9-3 win that sends the Phils to the super-regional finals, where they will be rejoined by Werth and Dobbs in their quest to make the final round of 32.  

Super-regional final:  round six

The super-regional final was also the Zoom game of the week, with Philadelphian Tall Tactician assuming the reins of the 2008 Phillies and the 1964 Giants helmed by ColavitoFan, who had led the College of Coaches that gave the Giants their come from behind victory in round four.  It was 25-year old Gaylord Perry (12-11, 2.75) on the mound for the Giants, while the Phillies went with the other end of the age spectrum in 45-year old Jamie Moyer (16-7, 3.71), and the Philly faithful were happy that Jayson Werth and Greg Dobbs were back from injury, although MVP vote-getter 2B Chase Utley would still be on the DL for a few more games.  Even so, the returning Phils make their presence felt quickly, with Werth and Dobbs taking advantage of an error by lead-gloved 3B-4 Jim Ray Hart to drive in runs that stake their team to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 4th.  Meanwhile, Moyer seems to have discovered the fountain of youth, but in the 7th Jesus Alou finds Moyer’s HR split for a solo shot that makes it a one run game.  However, Perry allows a hit and a walk to begin the bottom of the 7th, and ColavitoFan decides Perry has run out of Vaseline, but the Giants bullpen has been severely depleted in their previous come-from behind wins.  So, in a controversial move CF summons a startled Ron Herbel, who had started round four but got nobody out while allowing six runs.  Herbel, given a chance to redeem himself, does anything but:  between more Giant errors and Phils hits, Herbel once again fails to record a single out, allowing both of Perry’s runs to score and adding two more tallies of his own, and he’s yanked for Bob Shaw.  Shaw promptly grooves one to Ryan Howard, who has done nothing before this point other than strike out, and Howard finally makes contact for a 3-run shot to cap a 6-run inning.  Herbel thus amasses the impressive numbers of 0 innings pitched, 10 runs allowed, which would have to be the worse ERA in the tournament if it were possible to calculate it.  Shane Victorino adds an RBI double in the 8th, and Chad Durbin holds off the Giants in relief of Moyer as the Phils take the easy 9-1 win, as four errors help send the Giants back into storage.  The Phils thus move on to the final group of 32, needing just two more wins to get Utley back at 2B in time for the Elite Eight.

Interesting card of Super-Regional M:  This all-time great carried his team to the super-regional final, but ultimately he couldn’t do it alone, and some terrible fielding and pitching by a few of his teammates doomed the Giants after five straight wins.   The 1964 Mays didn’t get featured when they won the regional, so I figured I’d make up for it here, with the added bonus of having an opportunity to compare the ORIGINAL ‘64 Mays with the more modern presentation.  Given the 40-some odd years of tweaking the Strat formulas that likely occurred between the printing of these two cards, the similarity is pretty striking–although as usual I prefer the old card look to the newer one.  As for 1964, despite leading the NL in homers, SLG%, and OPS, Mays only finished 6th in the MVP voting, perhaps because of his teams’ 4th place finish despite being only three games off the pennant.  One interesting footnote to this season is that these Giants were rife with tension resulting from racist comments offered by their manager, Alvin Dark, during the season–comments that obviously did not sit well with a team stacked with black and Latin players.  By all reports, Mays played a critical role in attempting to mediate the relationship between the manager and the players, but it’s hard to imagine that these issues did not impact the team in the midst of a tight pennant run.  Dark was ultimately fired on the last day of the season, and under new manager Herman Franks Mays won his 2nd and final MVP award the following season–although the Giants still fell short in the pennant race, this time by two games. 

SUPER-REGIONAL L:  Although seven pennant winners had begun this round of 64, they went a combined 5-7 and not a single one won their regional.  Nonetheless, the surviving squads here were a solid bunch, with the sole mediocre team, the 1977 Angels, having triumphed in a regional that included three of those seven pennant winners, so they were hardly afraid of being underdogs.  However, I doubted that they would be able to sustain their success against high quality opponents; my guess was that a modern Yankees team would best a 70s Orioles team to go on to the final field of 32.   The ELO rankings predicted the same result in the finals, which would be an interesting matchup of modern power hitting vs. the great rotation of the O’s from those years.  Even so, I was also looking forward to seeing how the two pre-war entries from the Tigers would fare against some tough modern competition. 

Round four action

Two Orioles teams from very different eras must face off in round four to see which one will represent the franchise going forward in the tournament.   The 1975 Orioles won 90 games courtesy of a strong rotation, and Doyle Alexander (8-8, 3.05) was about as good a #4 starter as you could ask for.  The 2013 Orioles won 85 but were built very differently, riding Chris Davis’s 53 homers but Wei-Yin Chen (7-7, 4.07) had an unnerving tendency to allow extra base hits.  That tendency becomes obvious in the bottom of the 1st as Lee May converts Chen’s hefty HR split for a 2-run lead, and in the bottom of the 5th it’s elderly Brooks Robinson taking advantage of that result for another 2-run homer.  However, an error by 1B-4 May sets up a 3-run blast by Davis in the top of the 6th and suddenly it’s a ballgame, so the 2013’s pull Chen and give it to Darren O’Day to keep it close.  The 75’s get men on 2nd and 3rd with two out in the bottom of the 7th but O’Day whiffs Don Baylor to keep the 2013’s hope alive, which turns out to be key when Matt Wieters homers to lead off the 8th.  A following single by Brian Roberts and it’s the 75’s turn to go to the bullpen, and Dyar Miller comes in and retires three straight and the game is tied heading into the 9th.  Miller gets into trouble immediately in the top of the 9th with a walk followed by an Adam Jones double; 1-12 Danny Valencia is held at 3rd and the infield comes in with nobody out.  But Manny Machado lofts a sac fly and the 2013s take the lead for the first time heading into the bottom of the 9th; with nobody else decent in the pen, O’Day will be burnt for the super-regional but it’s his game to save.  Veteran Tommy Davis comes up to pinch hit but he fails to convert a HR 1-2/flyB, and that’s one out.  But PH Al Bumbry draws a walk and another PH Doug Decinces follows with a single–but the 1-17 Bumbry is cut down trying for 3rd with a 19 split roll.  Jim Northrup then grounds one to 2B-2 Roberts, who fields it cleanly and the 2013’s pull off a come-from-behind 5-4 win, despite only recording five hits.

In the Zoom game of the week, Jonathan would lead his hometown 2012 Nationals who had powered through Regional #92 despite a rash of injuries, and although SS Ian Desmond would be returning to the lineup for this round four game, C Kurt Suzuki was still unavailable, meaning that #4 starter Ross Detwiler (10-8, 3.40) would have an unfamiliar batterymate.   Still, they had a manageable opponent in the 88-loss 1977 Angels, who rode two very good starting pitchers through their regional, but Ken Brett (7-10, 4.25) looked far more generous with the hits.   And Brett shows his generosity quickly, allowing four hits in the bottom of the 2nd to set up a Ryan Zimmerman sac fly and a two-run homer by Danny Espinoza provide a 3-0 Nats lead.  The Angels retaliate in the top of the 3rd when Bobby Bonds walks, steals second, and scores on a Don Baylor single, but Zimmerman launches a solo shot in the 4th to make it 4-1, and as manager of the Angels I am itching to get Brett off the mound as soon as rules permit.  That happens in the 6th, and Mike Barlow does somewhat better although Zimmerman slams his second solo shot of the game in the 8th.  In the meantime, Jonathan calls upon Craig Stammen and Drew Storen to preserve the lead, and they do so–however, not everything is roses in the capital as SS Desmond and 2B Espinoza both go down with 7 game injuries, meaning that the Nats must try to manage the remainder of the tournament without their very strong double play combination.   Still, they get by the Angels, who can put together only six hits as Washington cruises to the 5-1 win and advance, battered and bruised, to round five.

After a few recent rough outings managing some Indians regional winners, ColavitoFan was willing to forego a Zoom game with the 2000 Indians, letting me roll for the 90-game winners who had an all-1 infield; if there are other teams that had this, there aren’t many.   However, he did submit a recommendation to use Steve Woodward (4-10, 5.85) as the #4 starter, preferably as briefly as possible.  The 75-79 1941 Tigers would call upon Schoolboy Rowe (8-6, 4.14) and hope that their all-4 DP combo could stop a few balls from getting through the infield.  The Tigers show their stuff in the bottom of the 1st, leading off with two straight singles that set up a Bruce Campbell sac fly; Pinky Higgins then misses Woodward’s HR split but a run still scores on the resulting double.  After a walk, Birdie Tebbetts doesn’t mess around with splits and finds Woodard’s solid HR result for a 3-run shot, and it’s to the bullpen for Paul Shuey as Woodard lasts two-thirds of an inning.  The Indians start to dig out of the hole with a Manny Ramirez RBI single in the 3rd, and Jim Thome adds a solo shot in the 8th to gain a little more ground.  But although Shuey and Justin Speier hold the Tigers hitless in 7+ innings of relief, the damage is done as Rowe scatters 11 hits and Detroit moves on with the 5-2 win.

Two regional winners from 90+ years apart face off in this round four game, testing the mettle of their #4 option in their rotations.  The 2019 Yankees won 103 games but fell short in the ALCS; they were the top ranked team in this super-regional, having made it through Regional #96 with heavy support from a deep bullpen, but they might need those bullpen arms with a very hittable JA Happ (12-8, 4.91) on the mound.  The 1927 Tigers went 82-71 and didn’t use a single bullpen inning in winning their regional, probably because their bullpen was largely useless, but Ownie Carroll (10-6, 3.98) looked like he might need some help himself.  He gets some in the top of the 1st from .398 hitter Harry Heilmann, who nails a solo homer in the house of the Babe, but the pinstripers respond immediately with an error by 3B-3 Jack Warner setting up a sac fly from Aaron Judge and a 2-run triple by Gleyber Torres for a 3-1 Yankee lead after one.  However, in the 3rd Heilmann adds a sac fly, and then a two-out rally erupts with RBI singles by Jackie Taverner, Heinie Manush, and a 2-run single from Warner give the Tigers a lead and the Yankees an excuse to pull the hapless Happ, with an unhittable Luis Severino coming in for long relief.  But he walks the bases loaded and Johnny Neun singles for another two runs, and when the dust clears the Tigers now lead 8-3.  Judge responds with a solo shot in the bottom of the inning, and you get the sense that this game is a long way from over.  An RBI single from Warner and a run-scoring double by Larry Woodall and the Tigers hit double digits in the 4th inning, but a Yankee run scores on a fielder’s choice in the 5th to narrow the gap to 10-5, although Torres ends the inning by getting injured.  However, in the 6th Carroll walks the first three batters of the inning, then allows a run-scoring single to Mike Tauchman and a fielder's choice from Brett Gardner scores another.  Another walk loads the bases again and a Gio Ushela sac fly makes it now a two-run game.  Seeking to keep the momentum, New York turns it over to Adam Ottavino and his 1.90 ERA to begin the 7th, and he holds off the Tigers while in the 8th an error by Detroit SS-1 Taverner leads to a Gio Urshela sac fly and it’s a one run game entering the 9th.  Ottavino holds, and although Carroll walks PH Cameron Maybin to put the tying run aboard, Carroll gets a DP ball out of DJ Lemahieu and the Tigers hold on for the 10-9 upset, sending the powerful Yankees back to the card catalogs.  

The survivors:  round five

The 2012 Nationals remain alive despite having a third of their starting lineup injured, including both halves of their very good DP combo; the good news was that their ace Gio Gonzalez (21-8, 2.89), who came in third in the Cy Young ballots, would be on the mound.  On the other side of the Beltway, the 2013 Orioles would be sending out Scott Feldman (12-12, 3.86) who was decent but not in the hunt for any pitching awards.  However, it’s Gonzalez who starts off terribly, not recording an out until after RBI doubles from Nick Markakis and Danny Valencia, and even that out comes from 1-12 Chris Davis getting thrown out at home.  JJ Hardy adds an RBI single and the O’s lead 3-0 before the Nats can swing a bat.  Things get worse in the 2nd when injury replacement 2B-2 Steve Lombardozzi drops a Markakis grounder to allow another run, but in the bottom of the inning Adam Laroche converts Feldmans’s HR split to make it 4-1 Baltimore.  The Nats get a run on the fielder’s choice in the 3rd to cut the lead to two, and Gonzalez begins pitching like an ace.   The Nats threaten with two baserunners in the 7th, and Baltimore looks at their pen but their best reliever is burnt and the alternatives aren’t encouraging, so Feldman is left in but he surrenders an RBI single to Tyler Moore and it’s a one-run game entering the 8th.  However, a triple by Matt Wieters gives the Orioles an insurance run in the top of the 9th, which proves fortuitous as Bryce Harper crushes a solo shot in the bottom of the 9th to draw back within one.  Injury replacement Jhonatan Braxton then rips a double to put the tying run in scoring position with one out, and again the O’s look at the pen but opt to stick with Feldman.  He’s bailed out with a fine play by 2B-2 Brian Roberts for the second out, but up comes Tyler Moore, who’s gonna make it on his own with a 6-5 roll, converting the HR split for a walk-off 6-5 win to send the battered Nats to the super-regional finals.  

A distinctly feline aura surrounds the round five matchup between the 1927 Tigers and the 1941 Tigers, with the sole commonality between the two squads being the Mechanical Man, Charlie Gehringer, manning second base.  Both were back to the top of the rotation, with 27’s Earl Whitehill (16-14, 3.36) and 41’s Al Benton (15-6, 2.96) sporting nice cards, so a pitching duel might be in order.  But it doesn’t take long for the 27’s to get on the board, as a 2-run homer by Bob Fothergill in the bottom of the 1st stakes Whitehill to a 2-0 lead.  However, he walks the first three batters of the 4th inning, then allows a Frank Croucher single for one run and then walks the elder Gehringer for another; after recording two outs he then issues his 5th walks of the inning to Pat Mullin to score another, and then Bruce Campbell strokes a 2-run single when he finally get a ball over the plate and the 41’s take a 5-2 lead.  They then put together a 2-out rally in the 8th and get an RBI single from defensive replacement Tuck Stainback, and things look bleak for the 27’s going into the bottom of the 9th down by four and having only one hit since the 1st inning.  However, with two outs they refuse to go down, and score a run on a Jackie Tavener double that was a missed HR split that would have put the game within one.  A walk loads the bases, and PH Marty McManus delivers a single that makes it a two-run game, and the winning run is now at the plate in the form of Lu Blue.  The 41’s don’t have anyone better in the pen than Benton, so they stick with their ace and Blue lofts a fly towards the best fielder on the 41’s, LF-1 Barney McCoskey, and he makes it look easy as the 27’s leave the bases full and the ‘41 Tigers move on by holding on for the 6-4 win.  

Super-regional final:  round six

The tattered remnants of the 2012 Nationals somehow limp into the super-regional finals despite having suffered four injuries for a total of 18 games in their five previous tournament wins.  Although they would still be missing both halves of their DP combo, starting C Kurt Suzuki would be back from the DL, which upgraded their defense but downgraded the offense provided by his replacement; Stephen Strasburg (15-6, 3.16) would be on the mound for the Nats.  They faced a healthy 1941 Tigers team who had somehow managed five straight convincing wins without benefit of any defense or bullpen, but sporting the best nicknames in the bracket.  After his round five walkoff homer, everyone in DC wants to marry Tyler Moore, and he keeps it up with an RBI single under the glove of aged 2B-4 Charlie Gehringer for a Washington lead in the top of the 3rd.  Michael Morse then drives in Moore with a single past 3B-3 Pinky Higgins, and a passed ball by C-2 Birdie Tebbetts allows another run to score as the Tiger nicknames prove better than their gloves.  The Tigers do respond in the bottom of the inning with a 2-out rally to load the bases and a walk to Bruce Campbell scores a run, but they leave the bases jammed and it’s 3-1 Nats after three.  When the Tigers begin the bottom of the 6th with two straight hits, Strasburg is relieved by Craig Stammen, who gets a DP ball out of Higgins but a run does score to cut the Nationals’ lead to one.  The Tigers defense holds in the top of the 7th with two straight successful plays from 4-rated infielders, and in the bottom of the inning Stammen walks the bases loaded with two away, but Rudy York whiffs to end an inning with three men on for the second time in the game.  Drew Storen comes on in the 8th to try to wrap up the game for the Nats, but he promptly commits a 2-base error to put the tying run in scoring position, and Detroit sends out HOF PH Hank Greenberg.  Storen gets him out as Greenberg avoids injury with a 4 split roll, but then Gehringer walks and offensive replacement C Jhonatan Solono drops a popup and the bases are loaded for Rip Radcliff–who pops out and Washington clings to the one-run lead entering the 9th.  Bridges holds in the top of the 9th, so the game rests on Storen’s arm, but singles by York and Tebbetts put the tying run in scoring position and the winning run at 1st, although with no replacements on the bench the Tigers can’t pinch run for the slow York.   That makes it up to Higgins, but it’s on Storen’s card for a lazy fly ball and the injury-riddled Nationals continue their improbable run, with the 3-2 victory sending them to the round of 32.  Note that if they can keep it up and make the Final Four–they will get their DP combo back!

Interesting card of Super-Regional L:   The 1927 Tigers made it through five rounds of this tournament, and it was in no small part due to the efforts of this Hall of Famer.  It is because of players like Harry Heilmann that I am disappointed that the game company seemingly refuses to print any new pre-WWII seasons, because I think that there are so many greats in that golden era of baseball that fly under the radar of contemporary fans.  Obviously, Strat is banking on a nostalgic desire to play with the players we remember from our youth, with endless reprints or reimaginings of seasons from the 1970s and 80s, but as someone who’s been playing the game since that time, what really captured my imagination even back then were the old-timers, guys like Heilmann who died before I was born.  Strat was how I learned about them, and to this day I can remember the lineup of the 1927 Yankees or 1934 Cardinals better than I can any contemporary teams, even the one that I pull for (the 2024 White Sox?  Give me a break).  But greats like Heilmann fade into obscurity, despite feats like batting .400 and winning batting titles every other season throughout the 1920s.  Come on, Strat, throw us history lovers a bone–how about a new prewar season like 1939, or 1929, or  ‘21 or ‘22, or maybe even a centennial edition of 1925?