SUPER-REGIONAL P:   There was only one pennant winner that had begun this bracket of 64, and it had been eliminated in the regional final and did not reach the super-regional level.  However, there were two Canadian teams and two Giants teams represented in this group of regional winners, as well as some rare regional wins by franchises like the Rays, Brewers, and an unlikely White Sox team.   Both of the Giants squads were very close to some classic championship teams, and I guessed that the Polo Grounds would host the finals because both of those teams would be in it.  The ELO ranking agreed, suggesting that they were the only two deserving squads with the rest of the group getting through their regionals with smoke and mirrors.

Round four action

For one of the Zoom games of the week, it was Canadian choice with Canada’s own Eaglesfly having to select between the 1976 Expos and the 2005 Blue Jays.  Apparently having a thing for the underdog, he selected the 107-loss Expos, who had somehow managed to win Regional #121 as a bottom seed, but now were stuck with the bottom of the rotation in the form of Don Carrithers (6-12, 4.44).   That left ColavitoFan to helm the 80-82 Jays, with the equally unimpressive Dave Bush (5-11, 4.49) due for his turn on the mound.  And Bush is looking shrubbery in the early going, allowing a solo homer to Ellis Valentine in the top of the 1st with a Barry Foote sac fly and a 2-run single for Bombo Rivera making it 4-0 Expos after two innings. When Larry Parrish adds a solo homer in the top of the 3rd, the good news for Toronto is that Bush can be removed, with Jason Frasor coming in to prevent further damage.  Perhaps buoyed by the pitching upgrade, the Jays offense comes alive in the bottom of the inning, reeling off 7 hits and 5 runs against Carrithers with the biggest blow being a 2-run double from Vernon Wells; the game is now tied and it’s in the hands and arms of the respective bullpens.  The Expos show the mettle that led to their unlikely run and retake the lead on an RBI single by DH Jose Morales, but Montreal reliever Joe Kerrigan gets into trouble in the 6th, loading the bases and #9 hitter Gregg Zaun pokes a 2-run hit that pushes the Jays into the lead for the first time in the game.  From there, it’s a showcase for Toronto reliever Scott Schoeneweis, who tosses two and a third hitless innings to end the Cinderella run for the Expos and propel the Jays deeper into the project with the come-from-behind 7-6 win.

Although the 1960 Giants only managed a 79-75 record, the pieces were in place for what would be a dominating pennant winner two seasons later, and StratFan Rick was ready to send some of his favorites out against my 70-83 1927 White Sox, who had survived my Sox jinx mainly due to weak opposition in their regional.  The round four matchup meant we were at the bottom of the rotation, and while Billy O’Dell (8-13, 3.19) looked solid to me as the Giants #4 starter, Hall of Famer Red Faber (4-7, 4.54) was 38 years old and had the worst season of his career.  Orlando Cepeda finds one of the numerous singles on Faber’s card for an RBI in the top of the 3rd, but Faber manages to get out of later jams and eventually the Sox offense figures out O’Dell as a Bibb Falk solo homer and a Harry McCurdy RBI single in the bottom of the 6th give the pesky Sox a 2-1 lead.  Thus the Comiskey Park crowd gets a brief thrill before the Giants erupt in top of the 7th with Cedepa, Felipe Alou, and Willie Mays battering Faber for four runs and a 5-2 lead.  In the 8th, a two-run homer by Jim Davenport hammers the final nail in the Sox coffin to seal the 7-2 Giants win; the 1927 Sox fans trudge home, consoling themselves with the knowledge that none of them will live long enough to bear witness to the futility of the 2024 team.

The 2017 Rays had a middling 80-82 record and after defeating the top seed in Regional #125, they had a relatively easy path to the super-regional; Jake Odorizzi (10-8, 4.14) was not a bad #4 starter if he could keep the ball in the park.  On the other side, the 94-loss 2003 Brewers won their regional as a #8 seed, downing two very good teams in the process; Wayne Franklin (10-13, 5.50) would try to keep that streak alive, with a card that shared the gopher ball problems of his counterpart.  It takes two batters before Logan Morrison finds one of Franklin’s HR results for a solo shot in the top of the 1st, and then Franklin loads up the bases in the 4th for a double by Evan Longoria, although C Wilson Ramos is out at the plate trying for a third run.  They get that and more when Franklin walks the bases loaded again only to yield a 2-run single to Kevin Kiermaier, and that’s it for Franklin as closer Dan Kolb is summoned in desperation, just in time to deliver a three-run homer to Morrison.  Now down 8-0, the Milwaukee fans focus their attention on the beer vendors, perhaps missing the Brewers first hit of the in the 6th inning by Royce Clayton, but it amounts to nothing.  They do push across a run in the 8th on a Brady Clark single, but the Rays get that back in the 9th on a Colby Rasmus RBI double.  Odorizzi then retires the Brewers in order in the 9th to finish up a 4-hitter and the Rays march on with an easy 9-1 win.

This round four game looked like a fairly balanced matchup between two decent teams.   The 1953 Giants were one season away from a historic season, but with Willie Mays in the military the team only assembled a 70-84 record that was nine games worse than their Pythagorean project.   The 1930 Pirates went 80-74 but their projection was six games worse and they had a somewhat worse ELO rating than the Giants, so it was hard to pick a favorite between these two.  One tiebreaker was that the #4 pitcher in a 1930 rotation had to be pretty bad, and Glenn Spencer (8-9, 5.40) was no exception, while Larry Jansen (11-16, 4.14) was not a terrible option for the Giants although his gopher ball was a worry.   The game starts quickly for the Bucs as two Waners get on base for a Pie Trayner 3-run homer in the top of the 1st, but Giant 2B Davey Williams leads off the bottom of the inning by converting Spencer’s HR split, Bobby Hofman adds an RBI single, Monte Irvin contributes a run-scoring sac fly, and then Bobby Thomson fires a shot heard round the Polo Grounds for a 2-run blast and the Giants lead is 5-2 after just one inning.  Little Poison Lloyd Waner provides an RBI single in the 2nd but is deprived of a second tally when 1-14 Denny Sothern is cut down trying to take the extra base, and it’s a one run game after two.  Traynor then leads off the 3rd with a triple and he scores on a George Grantham single that ties it up, and when Gus Suhr follows with a single the Giants give up on Jansen and try Marv Grissom from the pen, but Dick Bartell’’s sac fly provides Pittsburgh with the go-ahead run.  A Whitey Lockman single and a Wes Westrum double from missing Spencer’s HR split puts two runners in scoring position with nobody out, and the Pirates look at their pen and recoil in horror, instead bringing the infield in and hoping for the best.  A walk loads the bases but Spencer induces consecutive grounders that nail the runner at the plate and he escapes with the lead still intact.  Traynor singles to lead off the 5th, leaving him a double short of a cycle, but he ends up stranded at 3rd; in the bottom of the inning Hofman gets knocked out of the game with an injury, and 1-16 Thomson is nailed trying to score so the Pirates cling to the lead after five.  Back to back doubles by Sothern and Rollie Helmsley provide an insurance run for the Pirates in the 6th, but when Don Mueller cracks a double past LF-3 Adam Comorosky in the bottom of the inning, Pittsburgh brings in their only non-dreadful reliever, Steve Swetonic, and he escapes the inning when 1-11+2 Mueller is out at home trying to score on a Dusty Rhodes single.  Traynor flies out to lead off the 7th, making his cycle unlikely, and in the 8th Hank Thompson rips an RBI single to make it a one-run game entering the 9th.  Paul Waner gets hurt in the top of the 9th to the chagrin of the Pirates fans; it’s a minor injury but he has to leave the game which downgrades RF from a 1 to a 4.  In response, Grantham converts a TR 1-2 on Hoyt Wilhelm’s card to provide a little padding for Swetonic entering the bottom of the 9th.  He gets Dark and Thomson for two quick outs but then walks Lockman to bring up Westrum as the tying run, but Swetonic whiffs him to send the Pirates to round five with the hard-fought 8-6 win.  

The survivors:  round five

The Zoom game of the week was an international grudge match with Canadian manager Eaglesfly and the 2005 Blue Jays against StratFan’s 1960 Giants that he had previously led to victory over my White Sox in round four.  Being a round five game, it was back to the top of the rotation and a strong matchup between the Jays’ Hall of Famer Roy Halladay (12-4, 2.41) and SF’s Mike McCormick (15-12, 2.70), the NL ERA leader; however, the Giant were having to make do after losing RF Willie Kirkland to injury for the tournament in the previous round.  Regardless, they came out swinging against Halladay, repeatedly rolling on one of the few extra base outcomes on his card to rack up six hits and three runs in the first two innings of play, and the Jays start making calls to Philadelphia to see if they’d be interested in a trade.  Felipe Alou adds a double in the bottom of the 4th for his second RBI of the game to make it 4-0 Giants, and McCormick is reaping the Jays lineup until the 6th when Shea Hillenbrand raps a 2-run single to cut the lead in half.  Toronto continues to fight back with an RBI double from Aaron Hill in the 7th and it’s a one-run game. A mound conference with McCormick convinces the Giants to stick with him, and he proves his mettle by shutting down the Jays the rest of the way as the Giants hang on for a 4-3 win and a trip to the super-regional final.  

Although middling teams on paper, the 2017 Rays and the 1930 Pirates had each survived an entire pass through their rotation and it was now back to the top, but neither Chris Archer (10-12, 4.07) for the Rays or Larry French (17-18, 4.36) were dominating starters, and both bullpens were seriously stretched.  The Rays strike in the top of the 3rd as Logan Morrison converts a 2-run triple off French’s card and Colby Rasmus drives him in with a pitcher-card single; Corey Dickerson then rolls on his own card for a long 2-run homer, and although it appears that French is fried there is nobody in the pen that is remotely as good and so he’s staying put despite the 5-0 deficit.  The Bucs make a game of it in the 4th as Adam Comorosky converts a HR split off Archer’s card for a 3-run shot, but Morrison leads off the 5th with his third homer in two games and Steven Souza adds another solo shot later in the inning to restore a comfortable lead.  Pie Traynor cuts the margin to three with a sac fly in the bottom of the 5th, but Rays PH Lucas Duda crushes a 2-run shot in the 6th as Tampa refuses to allow the Pirates to gain any ground.  Pittsburgh refuses to go quietly and Gus Suhr adds a 2-out RBI single in the 8th, but their hopes wane as the two Waners contribute a DP ball and a strikeout to end the bottom of the 9th and the Rays move on with a 9-5 win and an appearance in the super-regional final.

Super-regional final

The super-regional finals would be taking place over Zoom as a Friday Night Strat featured game, and Tall Tactician elected to manage the 2017 Rays, whose powerful lineup had averaged 8.8 runs a game in their previous five outings; Alex Cobb (12-10, 3.66) was hoping for similar levels of run support in this appearance.  Meanwhile, StratFan would be directing the 1960 Giants for the third time in this bracket, but not only had he lost RF Willie Kirkland to injury for the tournament, he was also faced with a lingering injury to his #2 starter Sam Jones that had occurred back in Regional #123.  Fortunately, under tournament rules there are no usage restrictions when an injury replacement must be made, meaning that 22 year old rookie Juan Marichal (6-2, 2.66) would be pressed into service.  Both pitchers start off in fine form, but in the bottom of the 4th Colby Rasmus and Corey Dickerson manage back to back doubles that are good for a 1-0 Tampa lead.  The Giants can only manage one hit against Cobb for the first six innings, but in the 7th it’s Willie Mays and Bob Schmidt with solo homers that provide SF with a 2-1 edge that lasts for one inning until Wilson Ramos’s own solo shot ties it up entering the 9th inning.   Now, in orchestrating the Zoom game, I keep asking TT if he’s interested in the status of the Rays bullpen, but he’s convinced that Alex is the best Cobb since Ty…at least until one away in the top of the 9th, when Orlando Cepeda finds and converts Cobb’s HR split for a solo shot that’s good for a one-run lead entering the bottom of the 9th.  Meanwhile, StratFan has the ultimate confidence in his promising young starter, and Marichal responds with a perfect bottom of the 9th to give StratFan his third straight victory with the Giants in this super-regional, a 3-2 win that is good for the bracket crown and a berth in the final field of 32 in the tournament. 

Interesting card of Super-Regional P:  Under tournament rules, starting pitchers must have at least 100 IP to take a spot in the rotation, unless there are not four such pitchers carded for the team (in which case the SP with the most innings must pitch).  However, another tournament rule is that any usage restrictions do not apply when an injured player must be replaced.  Thus, as a result, this 22 year old rookie wouldn’t get a shot until the #2 starter in the Giants rotation, Sam Jones, went down for seven games in his round two start.  Marichal’s limited innings were no fault of his own; he wasn’t called up for his major league debut until July 19th of 1960, when he was called upon for a start against the Phillies–he did pretty well, throwing a complete game shutout while allowing only one hit (a pinch-hit single to Clay Dalrymple in the eighth inning) while walking one and striking out 12.   Four days later he four-hit the eventual World Series champion Pirates for a 3-1 win, and in his third starting he outpitched Warren Spahn for 10 innings to earn a 3-2 victory.  Not a bad beginning to a Hall of Fame career, although it was a career that never saw him win a Cy Young award despite arguably being the best right handed pitcher of the 1960s.   Perhaps he hurt his case in 1965 when he was not on the mound, but in the batter’s box; after two consecutive brushback pitches from Sandy Koufax, when Dodger catcher John Roseboro buzzed a throwback past Marichal’s head, Juan turned around and began beating Roseboro with the bat, opening a gash on the catcher’s skull that resulted in Marichal’s ejection and the largest fine in NL history up to that point.  Fortunately for all involved, this tournament is an all-DH project and so in his start in the super-regional final, Marichal never was allowed to wield any lumber, allowing him to keep his cool and lead his team to the final round of 32 with a 5-hit complete game.