SUPER-REGIONAL CC:   From this group of 64 teams, the lone pennant-winner from the four that began the tournament was the 2015 Mets, and they would have a difficult road in front of them to continue past this super-regional.  Some big names stood in their way, such as Clemente, Jeter and ARod, McGwire, Juan Soto, and a dominating Nationals rotation.  Given the struggles of the Jeter-era Yankees in this tournament, I figured the Mets would get past them into the finals, where I guessed that they would meet a tough Nationals pitcher of some sort, and my hunch was that the Nats would prevail.  The ELO ranking for the Mets wasn’t particularly good, and they indicated that the Yankees would beat them as well as the Nats in round six to move on.  However, my skepticism about the Yanks of that era continues and I’d be comfortable gambling that it would not be them.

Round four action

For a Friday Night Strat matchup, noted Tribe partisan ColavitoFan would manage the unlikely regional winner 2010 Indians with their 93 losses against brother Chuck and the 2006 Yankees, who won 97 games and the AL East.  The Yanks had suffered some dings during their regional run, and although Hideki Matsui was now back from injury, Johnny Damon would be on the DL for the foreseeable future.  At the end of their rotation the Yanks had Jaret Wright (11-7, 4.49) although a fully rested Mariano Rivera was ready to step in if needed; meanwhile, the Indians had to go with Jake Westbrook (6-7, 4.65), and things went south for him quickly with a 2-run homer from Alex Rodriguez in the top of the 3rd.  The beatings continue in the 4th, and a two-run double for Jason Giambi and a Robinson Cano RBI single chases Westbrook for Carlos Carrasco.  Unfortunately that doesn’t slow down the Yanks, as ARod adds another 2-run homer in the 6th and then after a 7-run 8th the remaining Cleveland fans stream for the exits.  However, what does seem work against the Yanks is the injury bug, as Matsui is injured once again, this time probably for the duration of the tournament, and in the 8th it’s Wright who lands wrong, injured for seven games and forcing the Yanks to dip into their pen.  That provides an opportunity for Shin-Soo Choo and Travis Hafner to drive in a couple of token runs in the 8th, and Chuck resorts to bunting with everyone in the 9th to avoid further injuries as the Yanks can coast to a 15-2 win but they’ll be seriously shorthanded in the outfield as they move forward.

The 2015 Mets won 90 games and managed to pull off two upsets in the playoffs to win the National League pennant before falling four games to one in the World Series.  They had survived their regional but lost catcher Travis D’Arnaud for several games to injury, and they faced a big dropoff in moving to their #4 starter Jon Niese (9-10, 4.13).  Their opponents in round four were the 82-80 2023 Padres and spot starter Nick Martinez (6-4, 3.43); the Padres had dramatically underperformed their Pythagorean win total of 92 and had demonstrated their potential with a strong run through their regional.  And they take no time in asserting themselves here, with a 2-run homer by Gary Sanchez in the bottom of the 1st giving them a quick lead and then another 2-run shot by Fernando Tatis Jr. in the 2nd extending that margin.  An RBI single from Curtis Granderson in the 3rd gets the Mets on the board, but Sanchez retaliates with a solo shot in the bottom of the inning and San Diego leads 5-1 after three.  Tatis adds a run-scoring triple in the 5th, and other than a long solo homer by the formidable Yoenis Cespedes in the 6th, the Mets have no answers to Martinez, who closes out a 5-hitter and the Padres move on with a workmanlike 6-2 win.

One more Friday Night Strat matchup sees Tall Tactician in charge of the 2017 Nationals, who won the NL East with 97 wins and blew through their regional on the strength of three very good starting pitchers.  Unfortunately, #4 in the rotation, Tanner Roark (13-11, 4.67) is nowhere near in the same class as those three, providing a bit of an equalizer against the 73-win 1997 Cardinals and Todd Stottlemyre (12-9, 3.88) with EaglesFly in the manager’s seat and brother Chuck rolling the dice.  The Nats begin the top of the 1st with a leadoff triple by Trea Turner, but Stottlemyre fans three in a row to strand him; however, Todd gets rapped for back-to-back solo homers from Adam Lind and Howie Kendrick in the 2nd and Washington takes the lead.  That lead is cut in half by a solo blast from Ray Lankford in the 3rd, and Lankford repeats the performance in the 6th and it’s a tie ballgame since Stottlemyre hasn’t allowed another hit since the Kendrick blast in the 2nd.  TT relieves the erratic Roark in the 6th with Matt Albers; he does the job but he’s already taxed from heavy use in the regional and closer Sean Doolittle comes in to begin the 8th charged with keeping the Cards at bay.  But a single, a Mark McGwire walk, and a grounder put runners on 2nd and 3rd with two out and John Mabry steps to the plate; he finds a clean single on Doolittle’card, one run is in, McGwire lumbers in to make it two, and that was all Stottlemyre needs as he finishes out a nifty 4-hitter and the Cards pull off the 4-2 upset to stay alive for another round, sending the last surviving representative of the Expos/Nationals franchise back to the card catalogs.

Another Friday Night Strat matchup pits ColavitoFan and the 90-win 1965 Pirates against brother Chuck and the 93-loss 2011 Orioles, one of those teams that made one wonder how they got this far.  The pitching matchup at the bottom of the rotation was as lopsided as might be expected, with the Pirates Bob Friend (8-12, 3.24) a quality option as compared to the O’s Alfredo Simon (4-9, 4.94) wielding a card with numerous extra-base landmines.  The Bucs find some of those quickly, with Donn Clendenon driving in Willie Stargell with a triple in the bottom of the 1st; Stargell then adds an RBI triple of his own in the 3rd and he scores to push the lead to 3-0 for Pittsburgh after three.  A JJ Hardy solo homer in the 4th gets Baltimore into the game, but another Stargell triple in the 5th and a Jim Pagliaroni sac fly and it’s 5-1 Pirates.   Matt Wieters pokes a solo shot in the 7th to narrow the lead, and a leadoff double in the top of the 8th and ColavitoFan heads to the bullpen for Don Schwall, who gets one out before surrendering a two-run homer to Hardy and suddenly it’s a one run game.  Having seen enough of Schwall, the Pirates move to their closer Al McBean, and all hell breaks loose.  Before he’s done with the inning, McBean stocks the bases for a 3-run homer from Wieters to give the O’s the lead, and then McBean yields another three run shot to Adam Jones in the 9th before he’s sent to cold storage in favor of young Wilbur Wood.  But by this time it’s far too late as Baltimore scores nine runs in the final two innings to provide reliever Jim Johnson with the 11-5 comeback win and the O’s unlikely run continues.

The survivors:  round five

The story of this round five matchup promised to be the offensive might of the 2006 Yankees, who had put up 15 runs in their previous game, against Cy Young winner Blake Snell (14-9, 2.25) and the 2023 Padres; Mike Mussina (15-7, 3.51) would be going for the AL East-winning Yanks.  The Padres give Snell a lead in the bottom of the first on an RBI double from Xander Bogaerts, and although Derek Jeter ties it in the top of the 3rd with a run scoring single, in the bottom of the inning Gary Sanchez picks up where he left off in round four with a 3-run homer.  In the 4th, it’s Juan Soto’s turn for a 3-run blast and Mussina is gone for Mariano Rivera, but not even the HOF closer can stem the tide as a bases loaded triple by Fernando Tatis Jr. in the 6th, and Soto and Manny Machado add RBI pokes to the total and the Yankees start packing for the long flight back to New York.  Snell coasts with the big lead, and the Padres cruise to a 12-1 rout to earn a berth in the super-regional finals.  

Somehow two mediocrities had won four in a row to survive for this round five matchup, and although he had rolled the dice for both of these teams in the previous round, brother Chuck was put in charge of the 1997 Cardinals.  The 89-loss Cards were slight favorites over a 93-loss 2011 Orioles team that had to face Andy Benes (10-7, 3.10) with the MLB loss leader, Jeremy Guthrie (9-17, 4.43).  Although Guthrie starts the game off in trouble repeatedly, he shows a knack for getting out of jams, but when he loads the bases in the top of the 5th with nobody out, a sac fly by Gary Gaetti puts a number on the scoreboard for a St. Louis lead.  Guthrie gives way to reliever Troy Patton in the 6th, and he does the job until pinch hitter Micah Franklin crushes a solo homer in the top of the 9th to give Benes some insurance, but it’s not really needed as Benes finishes out a 2-0 shutout, fanning nine while allowing seven hits–two of them involving me converting a SI* 1-2 split.  Alas, that seemed to be the extent of my dice-rolling luck and the clock strikes midnight on the O’s Cinderella run.

Super-regional final

The super-regional final paired two unheralded teams, the 2023 Padres and the 1997 Cardinals, with the second of two Benes brothers going for the Cards in the form of Alan Benes (9-9, 2.89) against Michael Wacha (14-4, 3.22) for San Diego.  The Padres start the scoring in the top of the 3rd with a solo homer by Jake Cronenworth, and in the 6th a two-run single by Juan Soto gives them a 3-0 lead, with Wacha in control.  However, in the bottom of the 7th an error by Soto sets up a pinch-hit RBI single by low-AB wonder Micah Franklin, and in the 8th a Ron Gant double makes it a one-run game heading into the 9th.  TJ Mathews gets the assignment to try to keep the game close for the Cards, but that doesn’t go according to plan as Cronenworth and Trent Grisham tag him for two more runs, while Padre closer Josh Hader and his 1.28 ERA come in to slam the door on the Cards and secure the 5-2 victory for the Padres.  The super-regional win sends the Pads into the final field of 32 for the tournament, a feat that supports the contention that the 92 Pythagorean wins for this team are more representative of their potential than the 82 wins that they actually achieved under manager Bob Melvin.

Interesting card of Super-Regional CC:  The 1997 Cardinals reached the sixth round of this tournament before falling in the super-regional final.  They had powered through Regional #230 on the bat of Mark McGwire, who had been traded to the Cards at the end of July and had hit 24 homers in just 174 ABs to produce a monster card that was featured in that regional write-up.  However, McGwire’s went suddenly silent in the super-regional, and they only reached the final courtesy largely because of this guy, a low-AB wonder who accordingly was only allowed to enter any game after five innings had been completed.  So, getting one or two at-bats as a replacement DH, Franklin stepped up and powered the 89-loss Cardinals to a shot at the final field of 32, a shot that fell just short.  Although not quite McGwire-caliber, Franklin’s card is one that anybody would be happy to send up as a pinch-hitter with the game on the line.  Thing is, this is not just Franklin’s career year–it is his entire career!  That is correct; his entire career consisted of these 34 at-bats; he never made an appearance in the majors before this season, and never made another.  Franklin was 25 years old in this 1997 season, and I am baffled as to why no other team was willing to take a flyer on him, particularly in the AL where he seemed well suited to DH.  I mean, in 1998 the Rays and the Tigers managed to lose 97+ games with DHs that both had seasons producing a negative WAR–if I was their GM, I would have been on the phone to try to get Franklin for the MLB minimum, how could it have gone worse?  But sadly he never got that shot, later spending some time playing in Japan and Korea before retiring to some coaching assignments in the minors.  I still have my old-school Hall of Fame series cards in Basic with the best season on one side and the card for the player’s career stats on the other; it may be some consolation for Franklin to know that his career stats SOM card–in other words, this one–ranks up there with the best of those HOFers.

SUPER-REGIONAL BB:  This group of regional winners was mainly made up of two franchises with three entries each:  three different Red Sox teams from three different decades, and three different Oakland teams from the relatively recent past.  The remaining two squads also looked competitive, involving a Reds team from the year following their most recent pennant, and a Mariners team that should be sporting some names like ARod, Griffey Jr., and Randy Johnson.  My hunch was that the most recent of the Red Sox teams would prevail in the finals against those Mariners; the ELO ratings agreed that 2016 Boston would take the finals, but predicted an all-Red Sox finals with 1999 making the 6th round as well.

Round four action

The 1996 Mariners were an 85 win team that were coming into their own, and they had proved their mettle in Regional #217 with two extra inning wins and a one-run victory in the regional final.  They would be taking on the 1999 Red Sox, who won 94 games and fell just short of a pennant in the ALCS that season; the Sox would send out knuckleballer Tim Wakefield (6-11, 5.08) against Seattle’s Bob Wolcott (7-10, 5.73) in a rather shaky-looking pitching matchup.  Sure enough, the scoring starts in the bottom of the 1st with an RBI single from Brian Daubach putting Boston up 1-0, but The M’s respond with RBI knocks from Edgar Martinez and Ken Griffey Jr. in the 3rd and Seattle leads.  Dan Wilson adds a solo homer in the 6th and they erupt in the 7th with a two-run ARod homer and a solo shot from Griffey and it’s 7-1 Seattle.  However, the Red Sox get to Wolcott in the bottom of the inning and by the time he’s pulled, the lead has narrowed to 7-4; Nomar Garciaparra adds a run-scoring double in the 8th and it’s a two-run game heading into the 9th.  A Jay Buhner insurance homer in the top of the 9th proves important as Jeff Frye singles in a run in the bottom of the 9th but Tim Davis comes in and records the final out as Seattle survives and advances with the 8-6 win.

The 1991 Reds fell from a Series championship the preceding year to a 74-88 record, but they had marched through Regional #219 behind timely hitting from a solid lineup; on the mound would be Randy Myers (6-13, 3.55) in his lone year serving as a starting pitcher.  The Billy Beane-led 2005 A’s flipped that record around at 88-74, with Moneyball paying off with a pitching staff that allowed an average of one run per game in their regional; Dan Haren ((14-12, 3.73) would get the responsibility of keeping that trend going.  The A’s help him out by battering Myers in the bottom of the 1st, with 4 hits off the pitcher’s card that include a 2-run single from Dan Johnson and another RBI single by Mark Kotsay for a 3-0 lead.   The A’s load the bases again in the 2nd, but this time come away with just a sac fly from Johnson that nonetheless extends the lead.  The Reds strike back in the 3rd with two out, back to back doubles by Hal Morris and Barry Larkin, and when rookie RF-3 Nick Swisher misplays a Chris Sabo single Larkin scores, narrowing the gap to 4-2.  In the 4th, a 2-base error by Swisher sets up an RBI double from Jeff Reed that makes it a one-run game, and multiple highlight reel plays by Reds SS-1 Larkin bail out a wild Myers to keep the A’s in range.  With the margin razor thin, a single in the top of the 6th provokes the A’s to summon closer Huston Street, but that doesn’t work as Bill Doran singles to send the tying run to third.  The A’s opt to play for the double play, and that also doesn’t work as Carmelo Martinez knocks a slow grounder and the only play is the force at second, allowing the tying run to cross the plate.  Meanwhile, the Reds are nervous about Myers but their top two relievers are burnt from the regional, and they opt to stick with Myers, who takes the tie into the bottom of the 9th and holds serve to send the game into extra frames.  New A’s reliever Octavio Dotel issues a walk to Hal Morris to lead off the 10th, and then Larkin pushes a single past the first baseman holding Morris to put the go ahead run on third.  In comes the infield; Dotel then whiffs Sabo but walks Paul O’Neill and the bases are loaded.  Up steps PH Chris Jones, infamous for a walk-off grand slam a few super-regionals ago.  Sure enough, it’s a 6-5, HR 1-19 on Dotel; even I can convert that split, and it’s a go-ahead grand slam for Jones and the Reds.  Myers has one more inning in him, and it’s 1-2-3, whiffing PH Bobby Kielty for the final out and the Reds come from down 4-0 to take the 8-4 win and will move on.  

I recruited brother Chuck to play a zoom game so that he could have the experience of managing Ted Williams on the 1959 Red Sox for this round four game, but we discovered that perhaps I wasn’t doing him any favors because Williams had his worst season, and two of their other starters, RF Jackie Jensen and SS Don Buddin, were out with injuries suffered in the regional.  He did have Bill Monboquette (7-7, 4.14) available as his #4 starter, who was a bit better than my options with the 2021 A’s, where I eventually opted for a homer-prone James Kaprielian (8-5, 4.07) in the hopes of reaching a rested and deep bullpen.  But it was the A’s Matt Chapman who finds a pitcher HR result first, a solo shot in the top of the 2nd that puts the A’s up 1-0.  However, in the bottom of the inning Kaprielian can’t get anyone out, loading up the bases for Bob Costas’s favorite Strat player Gary Geiger, and Geiger strokes a 2-run single followed by a Pumpsie Green sac fly that makes it 3-1 Red Sox.   The A’s strike back in the 3rd with a Tony Kemp RBI double to make it a one-run game, but the Splendid Splinter strikes back in the bottom of the inning with a 2-run single and Kaprielian is gone.  The A’s pen then holds Boston at bay, and although Kemp hits into a run-scoring double play to narrow the gap to 5-3 in the 5th, subsequent threats are foiled and Geiger adds insurance with a two run homer in the 8th.  The A’s mount a rally in the 9th and Mike Fornieles is summoned from the pen to put out the fire, which he does, and the Red Sox move on with a 7-3 victory; Buddin will be back for their round five game but the more important Jensen will remain sidelined for the foreseeable future.  

Fresh off a viewing of Moneyball, brother Chuck seized the opportunity to direct the pre-movie 1999 A's, who were a solid 87-win team, while I would manage the 2016 Red Sox, who won 93 games and the AL East.  As usual with a round four matchup, the teams were at the ugly end of their rotations, with Chuck gambling on Kenny Rogers (5-3, 4.30) while Boston’s Eduardo Rodriguez (3-7, 4.71) was hardly a sure bet either.  John Jaha gets the A’s off to a quick lead with an RBI double in the top of the 1st, but the Red Sox keep pace with a Mookie Betts single that ties it in the bottom of the inning.   However, Rodriguez runs into trouble in the top of the third, with Eric Chavez cracking a two-run triple in the 3rd, and from there it’s just knowing when to hold ‘em for Rogers as the A’s add a few more unnecessary insurance tallies courtesy of Randy Velarde and Ben Grieve.   Meanwhile, Rogers deals a 7-hit complete game and the A’s cruise to round five with the 5-1 victory.

The survivors:  round five

Given that Chuck had won previously with both contestants in this round five game, he got dibs and went with the 1999 A’s and Tim Hudson (11-2, 3.23), leaving me with the 1959 Red Sox and a rather pedestrian (and thus far unproductive) Ted Williams in support of Ike Delock (11-6, 2.95).  The A’s flex their superior offense in the bottom of the third with RBI hits from Jason Giambi and Matt Stairs, but that pales in comparison to their demonstration in the 4th, where five runs are plated including a three-run double from Stairs that makes it 7-0.  A John Jaha solo homer in the 6th adds to the damage, and although Sammy White gets Boston on the board in the 7th with an RBI single, Stairs responds in the 8th with a hit that drives in his 5th and 6th RBI of the game and the A’s crush the Red Sox by a 10-1 margin to earn a shot at the final field of 32.   

Brother Chuck had a big success with ARod and the 1996 Mariners in round four, and now they were facing an underdog 1991 Reds team that was still missing Eric Davis due to an injury suffered in the regional.  However, Jose Rijo (15-6, 2.54), who had finished 4th in Cy Young voting and had tossed a three-hit shutout in round one of the tournament, was back on the mound for the Reds, hoping to be the great equalizer against the durable Jamie Moyer (6-2, 3.31) for Seattle.  Unfortunately for the M’s, the duration for Moyer proves to be quite short, as the Reds pound him for six runs in the bottom of the 1st, including a Glenn Braggs three-run homer, and Moyer exits after 2/3rds of an inning.  In comes Randy Johnson, but he’s racked for RBI hits from Paul O’Neill and Bill Doran in the 2nd and Cincinnati leads 8-0 after two.  The Mariners don’t get their second hit of the game until the 7th, an inning after defensive replacement Mariano Duncan hits a three-run shot for the Reds off Mike Jackson, and the dice aren’t cooperating for Chuck this time around as Rijo finishes with his second 3-hit shutout of the tournament, sending the overachieving Reds to the super-regional final with the blowout 11-0 win. 

Super-regional finals

The super-regional finals featured two teams that had blown out tough opponents in round five.  The 1991 Reds were playing more like the pennant-winning version from their prior season than their mediocre actual record would suggest; they would send out Tom Browning (14-14, 4.18) for the final matched against Omar Olivares (15-11, 4.16) and the 1999 A’s.  Both teams were at full strength and had fully rested bullpens, and when Hal Morris hits the first pitch of the game for a solid homer in the top of the 1st, it looks like those pens might be needed.  It doesn’t take long for the A’s to respond, with Randy Velarde ripping a 2-run double in the bottom of the 2nd and in the next inning it’s RBI singles from Mike McFarlane and Eric Chavez giving the A’s a 4-1 lead.  Carmelo Martinez narrows the gap a bit in the 4th with a sac fly, but from there Olivares just gets stronger, allowing only two hits over the final five innings of the game, while solo homers from John Jaha and Miguel Tejada push the game out of reach.  Thus, it’s the pre-Moneyball A’s that move on to the final field of 32 with a 6-2 win, relegating the Nasty Boys to the storage drawers and earning a shot at the tournament title–if they can win five more games in a row.

Interesting card of Super-Regional BB:  The fact that this Strat card is unremarkable is what makes it remarkable; it represents what was by far the worst season in the career of the Splendid Splinter.  It’s far from a terrible card, what with a very nice .372 on-base percentage and a .419 slugging percentage that wasn’t bad at all.  Those combine for a .791 OPS in a season where the league average was .707, underscoring that Williams was still a better than average offensive weapon. In fact, he was elected to the All-Star team and received votes for MVP.  But in his 19 seasons in the majors, 1959 was the only one in which he failed to have an OPS over 1.000–a truly remarkable accomplishment.  In ‘59, he experienced neck issues during spring training, often wearing a neck brace trying to overcome it.  Most people expected him to retire, and his MVP votes may have been intended to honor the end of a great career, but Williams didn’t want to end on that note.  He asked to play one more season but insisted on a 30% pay cut because of his “poor” 1959, and he finished out with a 1960 season posting a 1.096 OPS and famously homering in his final at-bat in the majors.  Was there ever a better pure hitter than him?

 

SUPER-REGIONAL AA:  Five pennant winners had begun this group of 64, but remarkably none of the five survived the first round.  Nonetheless, a number of promising clubs made it through their regionals, including a pandemic White Sox team that made the post-season with the league MVP of that abridged year, a couple of Mariners teams from around the time of their record-setting club, a Tigers team from a few seasons after their great 1984 run, and entries from the Cards, Rangers and Cubs that seemed to be in the midst of good runs, certainly in the first three rounds.  Trying to pick a winner here without reviewing their performance to this point felt like a crapshoot; I thought that between the jinx and the pandemic restrictions the Sox had no chance, so I guessed it would be a 21st century finals with the Cardinals against the more recent Mariners team, and I gave the edge to the Cards strictly on a whim.  The ELO ratings were less whimsical, as they weren’t subject to my memory limitations, and they predicted those Mariners would best the Tigers in a close matchup and represent this group in the final field of 32. 

Round four action

Because brother Chuck had a hot hand with the Cubs lately, I figured I’d recruit him to guide the 1992 Cubs while I would roll the dice on behalf of the 1995 Mariners, who would be favored on paper as they won the AL West with a 79-66 record in that strike year.  Both teams were at the bottom of their rotation, with both the Cubs’ Shawn Boskie (5-11, 5.01) and Seattle’s Bob Wells (4-3, 5.75) forced into action by the innings limitations of their teams’ rotations.  A couple of walks by Wells in the top of the 2nd sets up a sac fly by Joe Girardi and a two out RBI single from Jose Vizcaino, and then in the third Ryne Sandberg and Andre Dawson start the inning with back-to-back homers; Wells fails to get anyone out in the inning giving up a 2-run triple to Steve Buechele and an RBI single from Girardi and it’s now 7-0 Cubs.  Edgar Martinez gets the Mariners on the board, driving in a run on a single in the bottom of the inning, but Girardi continues his RBI run with a 2-run double in the 5th against the Mariners bullpen and the 9-1 lead looks insurmountable.   That is, until Boskie falls apart in the bottom of the 7th; he remains in as the Cubs try to rest their pen with the big lead, but the hits keep coming; Joey Cora and Mike Blowers both drive in a pair, and Jay Buhner and Dan Wilson add to the total for a 6-run inning and suddenly it’s a 2-run game.  With no faith remaining in Boskie, Chuck has to summon Bob Scanlan from the bullpen, even though this will burn him for the near future; Scanlan does the job to earn his second straight save and the Cubs hold off the M’s for a 9-7 win and a welcome return to the top of their starting rotation. 

The 2003 Mariners were a 93-win team slowly losing pieces of the record-setting M’s of a few years earlier, but they were still dangerous although #4 starter Freddy Garcia (12-14, 4.51) did not have one of his better seasons.  The 78-84 2017 Rangers largely had a two outcome offense, whiff or homer, but had enough of the latter to power their way through their regional, and they were hoping trade acquisition Miguel Gonzalez (8-13, 4.62) would keep things close enough to allow that trend to continue.   The Mariners get on the board in the top of the first on an Edgar Martinez RBI single, but the Rangers pull even in the 4th courtesy of a Nomar Mazara double.  Dan Wilson drives in a run in the 5th that puts Seattle back in the lead, but Garcia gets in trouble in the bottom of the 6th, loading the bases for Adrian Beltre, who response with a grand slam for an instant Texas lead.  A solo homer by Mike Cameron in the 7th narrows the gap to two, but Mike Napoli responds in the 8th with a solo shot of his own and the Rangers again power their way past superior opposition with the 6-3 win.

Although my Sox jinx meant that I had yet to win a game against brother Chuck while managing the south siders, I nevertheless recruited him to direct the 2018 Cardinals against my 2020 White Sox.  Although it was the weird pandemic season, those Sox were a playoff team, missing the division title by one game and sporting the AL MVP in Jose Abreu.  Furthermore, my mandatory #4 starter, Dane Dunning (2-0, 3.97), was a solid pitcher who looked at least as good as the Cards’ John Gant (7-6, 3.47).   I was pleased to see the Sox come racing out of the gate with a string of hits off their own card, with Eloy Jimenez driving in a run on the day after he had been released in real life, and later a 3-run homer by one of the few survivors from that team, Luis Robert Jr., make it 4-0 Sox after half an inning.  However, they give one back when 1B-3 Abreu fails to stop a throw to first, allowing a runner that Paul Dejong ultimately drives in.  But then the Cards are done against Dunning; Jimenez adds an RBI single in the 5th while Tim Anderson drives in another in the 7th while not getting into any fights, and the Sox overcome the jinx with a strong 6-1 win behind Dunning’s 5-hitter.

The 98-win AL East winning 1987 Tigers were a team that belonged in the super-regionals of this project, while the 99-loss 2008 Padres, not so much.  I decided to zoom in brother Chuck to roll for the bracket-favorite Tigers to negate my tendency to jinx any good team, and he opted to start swingman Eric King (6-9, 4.89).  I had no option at all for the Padres, since they had traded away half their rotation in mid-season, and so Josh Banks (3-6, 4.75) had to start as the highest-inning card, which wasn’t a promising sign.  Neither was the tendency for Chuck to roll hits on Banks’ card in the top of the 1st, with RBI singles from Matt Nokes and Kirk Gibson staking the Tigers to a quick 2-0 lead.  However, in the bottom of the inning the Padres served notice that they would not go down without a fight, as a dropped popup by C-4 Nokes sets up a run-scoring single from Scott Hairston, who had provided much of the San Diego offense in their regional.  But Lou Whitaker triples in a run in the 4th to make it 3-1 Detroit, and Kirk Gibson homers to lead off the 6th and limps around the bases to further pad the lead, so I summon closer Trevor Hoffman from the pen.  He does reasonably well but Chuck finds his hits in the 8th, with Chet Lemon driving in a run, and meanwhile King is cruising until the bottom of the 9th, when he loads the bases with nobody out to put the tying run at the plate.  At that point the Tigers move to Doyle Alexander, put into a relief role due to his lack of innings, and he promptly induces a double play from Kevin Kouzmanoff that scores one but kills the rally, and the Tigers move on to round five with a 5-2 win as the clock strikes midnight on another Cinderella.

The survivors:  round five

As with most round 5 matchups, this one between the 1992 Cubs and the 2017 Rangers featured a return to the top of the rotations, and this was big news for the Cubs with Hall of Famer Greg Maddux (20-11, 2.18) having a Cy Young-winning season.  The Rangers would start Yu Darvish (6-9, 4.01) before trading him to the Dodgers, but they got their last measure out of him, as he tosses six shutout innings before he gets into some trouble.  The Texas bullpen bails him out and the shutout continues, but the problem is that Maddux is virtually unhittable and after nine innings the game is still locked in a scoreless tie.  Maddux goes out for the 10th and delivers a perfect inning to wrap up a 2-hit performance, but the Cubs can’t score either and the game heads to the 11th, where Joe Girardi finally raps an RBI double off the Rangers’ fifth pitcher, Matt Bush; Chuck McElroy then comes in for the bottom of the inning to dispatch Texas and send the Cubs to the super-regional final winning the 1-0 duel.

With brother Chuck visiting, as a good host I figured I should give him the opportunity to eliminate another one of my White Sox teams in a round five game, so I had him manage the 1987 Tigers against the pandemic 2020 White Sox, with both teams back to the top slot in their rotation with Detroit’s Frank Tanana (15-10, 3.91) against the top IP arm on the Sox, Lucas Giolito (4-3, 3.48).  Unfortunately, Chuck’s first roll for the Tigers in the bottom of the 1st was Giolito’s 6-5 split HR result, and he converts the split for a leadoff homer for Lou Whitaker.  Giolito quickly recovers and strikes out two of the next three batters to end the inning, and from there on out he is dominating, striking out 10 while only allowing 5 hits and no runs for the rest of the game.  The problem was, Tanana was better:  he holds the Sox to four hits and shuts them out for a 1-0 win with the entire offense provided by the first batter of the first inning.  The Tigers thus move on to the super-regional final, and the pandemic Sox’ only consolation is the reception at the airport by their cardboard cutout fans on their way back to the storage drawers.

Super-regional finals

The super-regional final has the 1992 Cubs trying to continue the recent successes of the franchise in these finals; they would have Mike Morgan (16-8, 2.55) against the 1987 Tigers with the redoubtable Jack Morris (18-11, 3.38), who received some Cy Young votes, on the mound.  Back to back RBI doubles by Andre Dawson and Steve Buechele in the top of the 1st give the Cubs a 2-0 lead and it looks like their success will continue; however, despite a strong record, Morgan simply cannot get the Tigers out in the bottom of the first.  Matt Nokes rips a two-run double and then Darrell Evans singles him home; a walk then sets up a three run homer by limping Kirk Gibson and Morgan leaves the game allowing six runs without retiring a single batter.  In desperation the Cubs summon closer Bob Scanlan and he does a fine job for four innings, holding the Tigers at bay while the tandem of Dawson and Buechele provide two more runs in the third to bring the Cubs within two.  However, Morris then takes control and solo homers from Evans and Chet Lemon add unneeded insurance and the Tigers move on to the final field of 32 with the 8-4 victory.

Interesting card of Super-Regional AA:  In 1987, the Tigers were locked in a tight divisional race with the Blue Jays, and needed some pitching help as the bottom of their rotation was getting lit up.  So, they made a trade in mid-August with the Braves, getting this guy in return for a young and rather unheralded 22nd round draft pick by the name of John Smoltz.  Although that Smoltz guy went on to have some success, Alexander held up his end of the bargain, as in only six weeks he put together a performance that earned him 4th place in the Cy Young voting and 13th place for AL MVP.  In this project, starting pitchers are required to have at least 100 innings to be eligible (unless there are none remaining, as may happen in pandemic or strike years).  As a result, Alexander was relegated to relief duty, which was not a bad thing because the Tiger bullpen was quite shallow; in the six games in a row the Tigers have won, he made three appearances totaling five innings, allowing no hits or runs and recording two holds and one save.  Perhaps the real-life Tigers should have considered that strategy, as for them he lost both of his ALCS starts as the Tigers were beaten by the underdog Twins, and his overall postseason record was 0-5, 8.38 in 6 starts with four different teams.  But here as a reliever, he was a big part in getting his Tigers to the final field of 32; it’s hard to find a hit on his card, and not just because of the ill-advised blue-on-blue print scheme that Strat abandoned after one season.