REGIONAL #114:  This regional included a collection of teams that I suspected would be decent--not great, not terrible, but fair to okay and pretty evenly matched.  No pennant winners, and only one team within a year of doing so, but that was the 2019 Rays and I had the feeling they were a different team in the weird 2020 season.   There were two Mariners teams trying to give Seattle their first regional win, and two Tigers teams trying to give Detroit their first win since Regional #95.  After correctly picking the outcome of the previous regional, I was really at a loss in guessing on this one, but I took a flyer on the 1988 Tigers over the 1994 Mariners in the finals.  The ELO ranks didn’t suggest that my Tigers pick was delusional, but they did remember (which I didn’t) that the Rays were a post-season team in 2019 and ranked them over the oldest team in the bracket, the 1950 Cards, in the finals.

First round action

The 1994 Mariners only went 49-63 but had a monster year from Ken Griffey Jr., and although the strike-shortened season left gaping holes in their starting rotation, at the top of it was a fireballing Randy Johnson, who could give them a shot against any first round opponent.   That opponent was the 2006 Marlins, a 78-84 team that had an infield that could hit, although almost nobody on the team could play defense worth a damn.   Things get ugly quick for Marlins’ starter Scott Olsen, as Jay Buhner and Tino Martinez take him deep in the top of the 1st to push the Mariners out to a 3-0 lead, but a 2-run blast from Florida’s Wes Helms in the bottom of the inning narrows the gap quickly.   Then, in the 2nd Johnson issues three walks, allows a couple of RBI singles, and Dan Wilson throws in a bases-loaded passed ball and the Marlins now have a 5-3 lead.  However, the Mariners tie it up in the 3rd on a Reggie Jefferson solo shot and a Felix Fermin triple, and the smattering of fans in Dolphins Stadium are figuring that they’ll need to stay to the end of this one to see who wins.   Things stay quiet until the 6th, when Fermin is cut down at the plate to end the inning trying to score on an Edgar Martinez double, but the Marlins get payback in the bottom of the inning with Mike Jacobs out trying to score on a Hanley Ramirez single, so the score is still tied.   Rich Amaral breaks the deadlock in the 8th by finding Olsen’s HR result for a solo shot that gives the Mariners a 6-5 lead, although Joe Borowski comes in to relieve and prevents further incidents.  It thus comes down to Johnson in the 9th; he records a strikeout, then has Miggy Cabrera miss a 6-12 roll TR 1-10/flyB split.  Wes Helms then finds a triple result on his own card, and the tying run is 90 feet away and the winning run at the plate in the form of Josh Willingham….but Josh grounds out and the Mariners survive to play another day with the 6-5 victory, one in which Griffey Jr. goes 0 for 5.

In setting the lineup for the 60-84 1995 Tigers, I hoped for their sake that the ‘88 team that would play later in the regional was better, because the ‘95s didn’t look so hot.  Lou Whitaker had some unexpected pop, but he could no longer play 2b adequately and was relegated to DH duties, Alan Trammell was a backup, but David Wells had a good year and would start the game.   Their opponent, the 1950 Cardinals, had a much better ELO ranking, but aside from Stan Musial they looked like the .500ish (78-75) team that they were.   The Cards rap out three singles against Wells in the top of the 1st, the last being an RBI poke from Enos Slaughter, to jump to a 1-0 lead, and extend it in the 6th when Musial finds Wells’ HR result for a 2-run shot and it's 3-0.  Meanwhile, the Tigers are struggling to gain a foothold against Cards’ starter Howie Pollet, and when Wells allows two baserunners in the 7th the Tigers turn to closer Mike Henneman for help, which he provides by getting the DP ball from Schoendienst to end the inning.   The Tigers then get two baserunners on in the bottom of the 7th and summon elder statesman Kirk Gibson to pinch hit, to see if he can recapture his past glories in that role, but he pops out to the catcher for the second out.  However, the next batter, another PH in the form of Todd Steverson, doubles to score both runners and the Cards lead is cut to 3-2.  The Cards strike back as the 8th inning begins with back to back doubles from Chuck Diering and Musial, and the game goes into the bottom of the 9th with Pollet trying to hang on to that 4-2 lead.  Cecil Fielder leads off with a long single, then Pollet records two outs.  Trammell comes in and delivers a pinch hit single, so now Steverson is back up to bat representing the winning run.  He sends a towering fly to deepest center field, but Diering hauls it in and the Cards move on to the semis with a 4-2 victory on Pollet’s 6-hitter.

The 90-loss 2000 Astros were a typical steroid era team, with 5 guys in the lineup smacking over .500 SLG%, but little defense and only one starting pitcher with an ERA under 5.00, that being Scott Elarton who was getting the first round start.   They still looked better than the 2010 Mariners, who lost 101 games and had only one guy in the lineup who had a SLG% above .400--but they had Felix Hernandez on the mound, who managed to win the AL Cy Young Award while pitching for a 100 loss team.   Mariners SS Josh Wilson finds Elarton’s solid HR result in the 2nd to give Seattle a 2-0 lead, and the Astros don’t get their first hit off Hernandez until the 4th from Daryle Ward, but that drives in Caminiti who had reached courtesy of a Jose Lopez error.  Both pitchers are on lockdown from there out, but when Elarton issues a walk in the 8th the Astros bring in Joe Slusarski to keep things within reach, and he retires the side without incident.  That makes it Hernandez’s job to nail down the win in the top of the 9th, and he puts the Astros down in order, fanning Meluskey to end the game with a 4-hitter and a 2-1 victory.  The Mariners themselves only get 6 hits and commit 3 errors, numbers that will need to improve in the semifinal when they won’t have a Cy Young winner on the mound for them.

The ELO ranks pegged this game as the marquee matchup of the first round, with the two best rated teams in the regional facing off.   The 2019 Rays won 96 games, good for a wild-card appearance in the postseason; they were the ELO regional favorites, sporting a lineup in which all nine batters had double-digit HR totals, and Charlie Morton on the mound came in 3rd in the Cy Young voting.  Like the Rays, the 88-win 1988 Tigers also finished 2nd in the AL East, doing so with solid defense and a veteran rotation backed by a strong bullpen.  However, the Tigers elect to go with swingman Jeff Robinson as their best option against the favored Rays, and Detroit spots Robinson a quick 2-0 lead courtesy of a Fred Lynn triple in the top of the 1st.  The Rays get some of that back in the bottom of the inning on a Matt Nokes error and an Austin Meadows sac fly that makes it 2-1.  Nokes does atone for his mistake in his next at-bat, crushing a 2-run homer, and an RBI single from Luis Salazar in the 4th chases Morton, who allowed 10 hits in his 3+ innings, as Colin Poche inherits the 5-1 deficit.  However, in the 6th Robinson walks two and then Yandy Diaz launches a homer that cuts the margin to 5-4, and a subsequent Eric Sogard double sends Robinson to the showers, with Eric King coming in to try to hold the lead.  He immediately yields a single to d’Arnaud off the pitcher card, but Sogard is cut down at the plate trying to tie the game and the Tigers escape the inning still holding a slim lead.  When King issues two straight walks to start the 7th, the Tigers have seen enough and as they had done previously in this regional, summon their closer Mike Henneman, who records two straight popouts.  However, then Nokes drops a third popup, and with the bases now loaded Diaz drives in two with a double and the Rays take the lead for the first time.  The Rays bring in four defensive replacements in the 9th and send spot starter Tyler Glasnow out (with his 1.78 ERA but only eligible to relieve with just 61 IP) as their 4th pitcher to try to lock it down against the top of the Tigers order.  A two out Salazar single gives Detroit faint hope, but Lynn strikes out for the final out and the Rays escape with a 6-5 come from behind victory.

The survivors

With Randy Johnson spent, the 1994 Mariners had very little talent left in their rotation, and facing a big favorite in the 1950 Cardinals they had to hope that Griffey Jr. would be a much bigger factor than he proved to be in the first round.   The Cards certainly look to have an advantage in sending Max Lanier to the mound against Seattle’s 4-10 Chris Bosio, but Griffey announces his presence with a long 2-run homer in the top of the 1st.  The Cards are struggling to find a way to score, and in the 5th they try some smallball, with Marion singling, sacrificing him to 2nd, and then Chuck Diering comes through with a single, but Marion is cut down at the plate to end the inning.  The M’s then put up another run when Enos Slaughter can’t get to a Tino Martinez liner, and Buhner scores to make it 3-0, and Seattle is now ready to go to their bullpen at the slightest sign of faltering from Bosio.  Those signs don’t appear until the bottom of the 9th, when Bosio walks the first two batters, so closer Bobby Ayala is summoned--but Ayala walks one to load the bases, records a whiff, and then Red Schoendienst rips a long single that scores two.  Ayala fans Diering, but now has to face Musial with runners on 1st and 3rd.  Musial hits a grounder to Edgar Martinez, who muffs it and the game is tied and will head to extra innings.  The Cards have to turn to their non-existent bullpen in the 11th, but Erv Dusak retires the Mariners, and in the bottom of the inning new Seattle reliever Jeff Nelson allows a Musial triple with one out.   The infield comes in for Enos Slaughter, who nails one deep to RF, and although Buhner grabs it Musial races in to give the Cards the 4-3 come from behind win and a berth in the regional final.  

The semifinal between the 2019 Rays and the 2010 Mariners had the makings of a lopsided affair with a 96-win team against a 101-loss squad, although both teams had a little added incentive in that neither franchise had ever won a regional before.   The starters were Ryan Yarbrough for the Rays and Jason Vargas for Seattle, and Vargas gets off to a rough start by allowing a HR on his card to Tampa leadoff hitter Tommy Pham, with cleanup hitter Brandon Lowe adding another solo shot (off Lowe’s card this time) and the Rays lead 2-0 after one.  In the 3rd, Pham comes up for his second AB and nails Vargas’s HR result again to make it 4-0; the Mariners threaten in the 5th as a Jose Lopez double puts runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out, but Yarbrough strands them to keep Seattle off the board.   However, they do put up some numbers in the 6th on a Russell Branyan RBI double and a Franklin Gutierrez single that makes it 4-2.  In the 8th Branyan singles and the Rays look at their pen, but it was seriously taxed in their 1st round win and they decide to stick with Yarbrough to preserve their relievers, but that proves to be a mistake as Gutierrez nails Yarbrough’s HR result to tie the game 4-4. A Lowe double in the bottom of the inning chases Vargas for Seattle closer David Aardsma, who ends the inning with no damage.  Neither team can break the stalemate in regulation, so we head to extra innings, with Yarbrough finally yielding to Tyler Glasnow to face the top of the Mariners order in the 10th, where Chone Figgins starts off with a single and a stolen base, but Seattle can do nothing further to bring him home.  Aardsma then starts the bottom of the inning by fanning Pham, walks Ji-man Choi, and Austin Meadows pops out to the catcher.   That leaves it to .231 hitter Joey Wendle, in the game as a pinch runner and defensive replacement for Lowe; however, Wendle finds Aardsma’s 5-5 HR 1-15 split, rolls a 2, and it’s a walk off 6-4 win that vaults the Rays into the finals and provides a chance for their first regional win.   Meanwhile, the Mariners’ chances for their first win are dashed by two extra-inning losses in the semifinals.

Yonny Chirinos, you have mail

As predicted accurately by the ELO rankings (and certainly not by me), the regional finals feature a 2019 Rays team that made the postseason and are trying to earn the first such title for the fledgling franchise, and a 1950 Cardinals team trying to win their 6th regional.  Although separated by almost 70 years, the two starting pitchers (Harry Brecheen for the Cards, Yonny Chirinos for the Rays) were pretty similar, with both having good control but a propensity to allow the longball a bit too much for comfort.  And it takes exactly two Cardinal batters for Chuck Diering to find Chirinos’s solid 6-5 HR result for a quick St. Louis lead, which expands to 3-0 in the 2nd when Del Rice also finds that same HR result.  In further deja vu news, Diering again finds the 6-5 in the top of the 5th for a solo shot, and the Rays have seen enough of Chirinos, whose mistakes have put them in a 4-0 hole after five, and try Nick Anderson.   Finally, in the 7th Rays SS Willy Adames finds Brecheen’s solid 6-4 HR result and the score is narrowed to 4-2, with the Cards having little in the bullpen if Brecheen falters further.  But Brecheen is solid until he allows a 2-out triple to Kevin Kiermaier in the 9th, but the sure handed Schoendienst then handles a Pham grounder to clinch the regional for the Cardinals, sustaining the legacy of the great Cards teams of the 1940s and torpedoing one of the Rays' best hopes for their first franchise win.

Interesting card of Regional #114:  Okay, so maybe I’ve been living under a rock for a few years, but when I was digging deep into the bullpen of the 2019 Rays I was initially mystified when I ran across this guy.   At a quick glance, this card doesn’t seem all that unusual, but wait a second--this guy was second on the Rays staff in Games Started, but he only has the “relief” role on his card, meaning that in this tournament, he can’t start because I take those pitcher role assignments kind of literally.  On the other hand, he ALSO can’t start in this tournament because he needs at least 100 IP to be an option as a starting pitcher, and he’s only got 56 IP despite having 27 starts!   Yes, this is a prime example of the “opener” concept, for which the Rays of 2018-2019 were really the primary innovators.  Now, on the Advanced side of the card, Stanek is rated as a relief(1)/starter(1), which describes his role better than the Basic relief-only card, but I guess I had never really noticed before how Strat handled this prior to playing the Rays.  It seems that the pennant-winning 2020 Rays had pretty much abandoned the use of an “opener”, but while it lasted it certainly created a challenge for representing Stanek in the Basic game.  

REGIONAL #113:  I was excited to have my draw for this regional finally pull a 2020 team as an entrant, particularly an NL squad, as I was curious as to how a team from that weird season would fare given tournament rules around IP/AB restrictions, but with that obstacle potentially offset by the enhanced possibility of low usage wonders that could be situationally useful.   That 2020 team, the Nationals, was one of five teams that was within 1 or 2 years of a pennant, and with a couple more squads that I felt were probably contenders as well, I thought that just about anybody aside from the ‘57 Senators could take this bracket.  However, tradition required that I hazard an ill-informed guess, so I went with the Phillies over the Nationals in the finals, as the Phillies from around that vintage had been quite successful in this tournament.   I was surprised to discover that the ELO rankings agreed with me, ranking the Phillies as the best team in baseball that season and among the 100 best teams of all time.

First round action

The 1988 Reds won 87 games to finish 2nd in the NL West, and they might have done better if manager Pete Rose hadn’t been suspended for 30 days for shoving an umpire, a suspension during which they played under .500 ball.  Aside from Eric Davis, the offense wasn’t much to write about but they had an excellent bullpen and a rotation fronted by Danny Jackson, who won 23 games and was the Cy Young Award runner-up.   They faced the 1958 Dodgers, who were in their first year in Los Angeles and would win the NL the next season.  However, they were 71-83 in 1958 and finished next to last in the NL, being in transition with stars like Erskine, Hodges, Snider and Furillo fading and others like Koufax and Drysdale not yet in their prime.  Still, it was the Dodgers who struck first in the 1st, grabbing a 1-0 lead courtesy of two consecutive poor fielding plays by Barry Larkin (a two base error and a single-2).   Meanwhile, Dodgers starter Johnny Podres is almost untouchable until the 7th, when two consecutive two-out singles makes LA search their bullpen, but seeing no better options stick with the tiring Podres, who retires PH Ron Oester to end the threat.  Sensing his pitcher in need of support, John Roseboro leads off the bottom of the 7th by clouting one over the netting at the Colosseum, and the Reds yank Jackson for Rob Dibble, who gets out of the inning without further damage but the Dodgers still lead 2-0 with two innings to go.  In the 8th, the Reds get a run on a Kal Daniels RBI single, but Larkin gets caught stealing and the Dodgers hold onto a slim lead, and Podres sets the Reds down in order in the 9th to seal the 2-1 victory.

According to the ELO ranks, the first round matchup between the 55-99 1957 Senators and the 102-win 2011 Phillies was one of the most lopsided in the history of the tournament, with the Phillies listed as one of the 100 best teams in baseball history, and the Senators ranked as one of the 100 worst.   The Phillies won the NL East with a strong rotation, tight defense, and a lineup with 7 players in double digits in homers; the Senators, well, they had Roy Sievers, whose 42 homers led the AL, and little else.  The Phillies score on Nats starter Camilo Pascual in the 2nd when Ryan Howard (1-10) puffs home safely on a Jimmy Rollins single, which is followed by a Carlos Ruiz double that scores another but Rollins (1-16) gets nailed at the plate--Howard then offered Rollins some baserunning tips and the Phils lead 2-0.  In the 5th, Hunter Pence singles off Pascual and Howard doubles him home, and with the great Phils defense operating flawlessly behind starter Cole Hamels, a three run lead is looking pretty formidable.  Pence adds a two-out, two-run double in the 6th, but the Senators finally respond in the 7th when Sievers leads off with a big fly, and Herb Plews contributes a two-out RBI double of his own to narrow the gap to 5-2, and the fans at Citizens Bank Park are wondering if they should withdraw their money.   They get even more worried when in the 8th Sievers hits his second HR of the game, a two-out two-run shot, and Hamels heads to the showers in favor of closer Ryan Madsen--whose card I personally think isn’t as good as his stats suggest it should be.  Regardless of what I think, Madsen does his job and the Phils survive a scare to notch a 5-4 win and a trip to the semifinals.  The Nats may have had little besides Roy Sievers, but that was almost enough.

The matchup between the 2013 Yankees and the 2020 Nationals was the featured first round game of the regional, according to the rankings, as both were in the top 1000 teams, but both teams had their issues.  The Yankees won 85 games and featured a long list of good players reaching the end of their careers at the same time, with the result being uglier than their record--Joe Girardi must have earned his paycheck as their Pythagorean projection suggested that they should have been a sub-.500 team.  The Nationals were following up on 2019 WS champs, but in the pandemic year only went 26-34, equating to a 90-loss year in a regular season.  The tournament usage rules present a challenge for the 2020 teams, as they have a fixed rotation (starters in descending order of IP) and typically few DH options, particularly the NL teams.  However, these pandemic teams also tend to have some low usage wondercards that may come in handy in the 6th inning plus, and the Nats had a couple of those, so things could balance out.  Washington was fortunate in that their top IP starter was Max Scherzer, who was facing off against the Yanks’ Hiroki Kuroda.  New York grabs a run in the top of the 1st when Gardner scores on a Robinson Cano DP ball, and add another in the 4th when Alfonso Soriano drives in Ichiro with an RBI single.  However, in the bottom of the inning the Nats’ big basher, Juan Soto, crushes one with one aboard and the game is tied 2-2.  Cano leads off the 7th with a monster blast of his own to give the Yankees the lead, and they start warming up their strong bullpen, so when Yan Gomes doubles with one out in the bottom of the inning, NY relieves Kuroda with David Robertson.  The Nationals respond with one of their low AB wonders as a PH, Andrew Stevenson, and he laces a single (off the only complete hit on Robertson’s card, no less) to score Gomes and tie the game, and in the bottom of the 8th Soto launches a two-out solo moonshot to give the Nats their first lead.  When Brett Gardner leads off the top of the 9th with a single, Washington looks to their bullpen, and I discover that their closer has a 6.10 ERA and two solid HR results on his card, so Scherzer remains in, but then Ichiro doubles and the tying run is on 3rd and the go-ahead on 2nd.   I grit my teeth and summon Tanner Rainey, who also has two complete HR results on his card, but a ton of strikeouts as well, which is what’s needed.   Cano grounds out with the runners holding as the infield is in; Soriano whiffs, and the game is up to a 37-year-old ARod.  The roll:  SI* 1, lineout 2-20, and the split is a 9.  The Yankees go back into storage, and the first pandemic team gets a come-from-behind 4-3 win.

The first round game between the 84-78 2019 Cubs and the 73-81 1951 Phillies appeared to feature two “okay” teams with different strength, with the Cubs sporting some Wrigley-fueled offense and the Phillies having solid defense and 21-game winner Robin Roberts, who was in the midst of a 7-year stretch of receiving MVP votes.   The Phils take a 1-0 lead in the 2nd courtesy of a two-base error by Cubs LF-4 Kyle Schwarber on an Andy Seminick flyball, although Seminick is later cut down at the plate trying to score on a two-out single by Waitkus.  Bill Nicholson adds an RBI single in the 3rd to make it 2-0, and Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks is struggling.  When Seminick singles in a run in the 6th to make it 3-0, the Cubs bring in reliever Rowan Wick to try to keep the game from getting away from them, and although Wick issues a couple of walks, he escapes further damage when Schwarber actually makes a tough fielding play.  That seems to inspire Cubs SS Javier Baez, who then leads off the top of the 7th with a round tripper, but Phils 3B Willie Jones responds by leading off with a HR in the bottom of the inning and the score is now 4-1 Phils with two innings remaining.  However, in the 8th, an error by Phils SS-2 Granny Hamner opens the door for disaster, and Schwarber bulls through it with a 3-run homer that ties the game.  The Cubs then begin the 9th with two straight singles and the Phils finally pull a tiring Roberts for Andy Hansen, but Kris Bryant greets him with a double and the Cubs head into the bottom of the 9th with their first lead of the game, ahead 5-4.  Cubs management eyes the card of their leader in saves, Craig Kimbrel, and with its FOUR solid HR results decide maybe they would try Steve Cishek instead.  Cishek issues two straight walks but then gets Dick Sisler to ground into a DP, and so it’s up to PH Mel Clark with the tying run on 3rd.  The result--CATCH X, Wilson Contreras drops the popup, and the game is tied and we head to extra innings.  The teams then trade blown opportunities, as Cishek walks the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th but the Phils can’t score, and then Jason Heyward misses a HR 1-16 split and gets stranded at 2nd in the 12th.  In the 13th the Phils have to dig deeper into their shallow bullpen and try Niles Jordan, but Schwarber finds Jordan’s HR result for his second blast of the game, and it’s 6-5 Cubs with Tyler Chatwood coming in to try to notch the save.  He gets two quick outs, but then he commits the Cubs’ 5th error of the game to put the tying run on 1st.  However, he gets a popout from Seminick and the Cubs manage a 6-5 extra inning win--meaning that all of the first round games in this regional were one-run affairs.

The survivors

The 1958 Dodgers were the elder statesmen of the remaining four teams in the regional, as the others played at least 50 years after the recently relocated Bums.  Although young versions of Koufax and Drysdale were available, LA opted to start swingman Stan Williams against the 2011 Phillies and Roy Halladay, runner-up for the NL Cy Young Award.  The Phils go through the bottom of the 1st with mixed blessings, scoring a run when LA SS-3 Don Zimmer throws a ball into the Dodger dugout, but the inning ends with Chase Utley injured, with a split roll of 20 putting him out in perpetuity.  Zimmer atones for his miscue in the 5th with a two-out double, and then he races home on a Jim Gilliam single to tie the game.  Williams immediately gives the lead back to the Phils by allowing a single and walking three, while also striking out three, but the casualties mount for the Phils as their DH John Mayberry Jr. gets injured for two games.  Even so, Halladay is cruising, and he takes his one-run lead into the 9th and gets two quick outs.  However, Roseboro singles and that brings up Dodger veteran Gil Hodges as the potential go-ahead run, but Hodges pops out and the battered Phils head to the finals with a 2-1 win, the 5th straight one-run game of the regional.  The Phils only manage three hits against Williams, but he issues 8 walks to provide the Phils with their chances.    

The disadvantages of a pandemic-shortened season caught up with the 2020 Nationals in the semifinals, because without any 100 IP starters, under tournament rules they were compelled to start Patrick Corbin and his 4.66 ERA with the second most IP on the staff.  The 2019 Cubs had a much better option with Yu Darvish, but they also had a seriously depleted bullpen after their 13-inning win in the first round.   And it’s Darvish who gets roughed up in the top of the 1st, as the Nationals explode for 4 runs, keyed by an Adam Eaton triple, and things could have been worse as Yan Gomes missed a TR 1-16/FlyB split that would have added more damage.  Juan Soto hits his third homer of the regional in the 2nd to make the score 6-0, and now all Corbin has to do is be suitably mediocre to finish things out.   A Kris Bryant solo shot in the 4th makes it 6-1, and in his next AB Bryant adds a 2-run blast and it’s now Nats 6, Bryant 3.  When the Cubs start off the 7th with two straight singles, Washington goes to the bullpen, which has some truly frightening options, and selects Kyle Finnegan to try to nail things down.  Finnegan allows an RBI single to Willson Contreras, but is bailed out when Contreras is nailed at the plate trying to score on a Baez single, so the score is 6-4 heading into the 8th.  After his early issues, Darvish has been lights out, allowing only one hit since the 2nd inning, but when the Nats get two men on in the 9th the Cubs bring in Tyler Chatwood to try to keep it close.  That goes awry, as Chatwood issues two straight walks and a long Soto single, and the Nats take a 9-4 lead going into the bottom of the 9th, where they turn to Ben Braymer, who issued 5 walks in his 7 IP.  Braymer does walk one, but that threat ends with a DP and the Nationals head to the finals with a 9-4 win.  

The regional final featured the tournament’s first pandemic-year team in the 2020 Nationals against an injury riddled 2011 Phillies squad that had the opportunity to continue an era of tournament dominance for the franchise, with this being potentially their 5th regional win in the decade from 2005 to 2014.  Although they had no injuries, the pandemic impact on the Nats was evident as they were forced to start Anibal Sanchez and his 6.62 ERA against 17-game winner Cliff Lee and his 2.40 ERA.  However, it’s Lee who meets with disaster in the 1st inning, giving up two straight singles off his card to lead off the inning, and then being taken deep by Juan Soto for a 3-run shot, Soto’s 4th HR of the regional.  Trea Turner then goes back to back, and the Phils are down 4-0 after one and trying to figure out how they can come back while missing important cogs in their offense.  The answer comes quickly in the top of the 2nd, as Sanchez issues three straight walks and then Shane Victorino finds Sanchez’s solid 5-9 HR result for a grand slam, and then Ryan Howard goes back to back (this time on Howard’s own card) and suddenly the Phillies lead 5-4, with a lot of game left to go.  Not to be outdone, Soto leads off the 3rd with his 5th blast of the tournament and the game is tied.  In the 5th, replacement DH Domonic Brown smacks a 2-run HR to put the Phils back on top, and the Nats have seen far too much of Sanchez, and bring in Kyle Finnegan, who gives them two innings without further damage.  Tanner Rainey adds two more perfect innings for Washington, but in the 9th Ben Braymer walks the bases loaded and then walks in a run, and the Phils now lead 8-5 heading into the bottom of the 9th.  Yan Gomes then leads off with a HR to make it 8-6, and Philadelphia pulls the tiring Lee for Ryan Madsen, who recorded the save in the first round.  Madsen allows a single to .353-hitting PH Jake Noll, but he goes nowhere as the Phillies lock down the win and the regional title.  The 2011 Phillies thus join the 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2014 squads as regional winners, with the 5 titles in a 10 year span representing a dynasty unequalled in this tournament.   Juan Soto is the regional MVP in a losing effort, contributing 5 HR and 11 RBI to almost single-handedly push the Nats to the brink of the title.

Interesting card of Regional #113:  His team didn’t make it past the semifinals, and he never put in an appearance, but this Craig Kimbrel card raises an issue regarding different ways that people play Strat.   As may be obvious from this project, I am clearly a “what-if” kind of Strat player, devising impossible scenarios with teams from 1911 facing teams from 2011.  However, many of my friends, and I’m sure many people on this forum, are strict “replayers”, using as-played lineups and keeping usage to exact levels in the interest of realism.  Even so, in focusing on “realism” it is important to remember that unlike the managers in the real world, we Strat managers know exactly how these players did over the course of the season.  So this is where Kimbrel comes in--he was the Cubs primary closer in 2019, leading the team in saves with a paltry 13.  Having him as the closer in 2019 made perfect sense--he had recorded 8 straight seasons with more than 30 saves, and an All-Star in 7 of those seasons.   However, with the benefit of hindsight, if I really wanted to win games with the 2019 Cubs, I just couldn’t bring myself to use this card in a save situation; it is a disaster waiting to happen, perhaps the most wretched card I’ve seen for a team’s go-to reliever.  Yikes.

REGIONAL #112:  In looking at the teams pulled for this regional, only one really jumped out at me:  the 1953 Indians, one year removed from the epic ‘54 team that won Regional #30.   There was another Indians team, a couple of Blue Jays entries, and the Mariners would have another opportunity to win their first regional, but I was sticking with the ‘53 Indians as my choice, which would give that franchise their 12th regional if it happened.  Not remembering a whole lot about most of the teams in the bottom of the bracket, I guessed the 2002 A’s would be their opponents in the finals.  Although I recalled that there were some good Oakland teams in those years that kept losing to the Yankees in the playoffs, I was surprised to discover that the ELO rankings put those A’s among the best teams of all time, and the rankings also suggested that my selected Indians would have a battle on their hands in the first round against the ‘87 Jays.

First round action:

The 76-86 2015 Mariners were not a great team, but they had a strong bullpen, some big boppers in the lineup, and 18-game winner Felix Hernandez anchoring the rotation.  They looked great next to the 102-loss 1985 Indians, who had one of the worst starting rotations I had run across: it seemed that Vern Ruhle and his 2-10 record was probably their best option.  However, it’s the Indians who jump to the lead in the bottom of the 1st when a 2-out Austin Jackson error opens the door for Joe Carter, who deposits a Hernandez pitch into the deep recesses of the Mistake by the Lake and it is 2-0 Cleveland.  The Indians add three more runs in the 2nd on RBI doubles from Jerry Willard and Brett Butler, but Hernandez finally starts throwing some outs and Nelson Cruz finds Ruhle's solid 5-5 HR result in the 5th to cut the Cleveland lead to 5-2.  When Kyle Seager leads off the 6th with another 5-5 roll, the Indians look frantically through their bullpen but decide that the alternatives are even worse than Ruhle, so they stick with him, but in the 7th the Mariners batter Ruhle for three more runs (two on a Cruz RBI single) and take a 6-5 lead.  When Hernandez allows only his 4th hit of the game in the 8th, the Mariners aren’t taking any chances and turn to Carson Smith out of the pen, who quickly induces a DP ball from Carter to end the inning.   Smith shuts down the Indians in order in the 9th and earns the save in the 6-5 Seattle victory that was closer than it should have been, courtesy of three key Mariner errors.

The Big Bear mauls the Jays

Setting the lineup for the 96-win 1987 Blue Jays convinced me that they were a very good team with solid pitching, hitting, and defense; despite only being runner-up in the AL East; when you have to choose between Willie Upshaw, Cecil Fielder, and Fred McGriff at 1b, you’ve obviously got a team with some good options.  However, the ELO ranks had them almost perfectly matched with the 92-win 1953 Indians, another runner-up in the AL.  The Indians didn’t have quite the long-ball power of the Jays, but their legendary starting rotation suggested that this team could go far in the tournament, as did their 1948 and 1954 brethren.  The pitching matchup of 17-game winner Jimmy Key against 18-game winner Mike Garcia was one of the best in recent regionals, so this promised to be a hard-fought battle.  It was the Indians with the first display of power, as Al Rosen crushed a solo shot in the bottom of the 1st to give the Tribe an early lead.  Both pitchers are in control until the 6th, but when Key allows two baserunners to start the inning (one on a Nelson Liriano error, who had been brought in for his defense replacing Garth Iorg) and Rosen at the plate, the Jays go immediately to their closer Tom Henke to try to stay in the game, who does his job and the score remains 1-0 Cleveland after 6.  The Jays get runners on 1st and 3rd with one out in the 7th on a walk and a Rosen error, but Garcia induces the DP ball from PH Rance Mulliniks to end the inning, and in the bottom of the frame Hegan slaps an RBI single past Liriano and the Indians up their lead to 3-0.  Larry Doby provides another insurance run in the 8th on an RBI single off new Jays reliever Mark Eichhorn, which is more than Garcia needs as he quiets the heart of the Jays order in the 9th to wrap up a CG 3-hitter, a 4-0 victory, and a date with Seattle in the semis.

With one Toronto team already eliminated from the regional, it was up to the 2003 Blue Jays to carry the fortunes of the franchise, and they were solid ELO favorites over a bad 64-89 1948 Reds team.  Still, the pitching matchup was a good one, with Cy Young Award winner Roy Halladay (RIP) against 17-game winner Johnny Vander Meer, who got MVP votes for his strong performance on a bad team 10 years after his double-no-hit outings pushed him into baseball history.   The Jays assert themselves early, loading the bases in the bottom of the 1st but are only able to convert one run on a Greg Myers sac fly.  Vander Meer then walks three straight to begin the 2nd inning, and the Jays turn that into two runs to lead 3-0, which seems like it should be adequate the way Halladay is pitching.  Another couple of walks and a Chris Woodward RBI single make it 4-0 in the 3rd, but Halladay seems to catch the wildness bug from Vander Meer and walks the bases loaded in the 5th--escaping unscathed with some timely strikeouts.  The Jays go early to defensive replacements in the 6th, nervous about their porous defense, but the Reds can’t do anything against Halladay until the 8th, when Ray Lamanno finds Halladay’ HR result to make it 4-1, which is how it ends as Halladay finishes out the 3-hitter.   Vander Meer only allows 4 hits himself, but he sunk his chances by issuing 8 walks, seven in the first three innings.  

The 2002 A’s won 103 games and the AL West, and although I thought their ELO ranking as the 57th best team of all time was a bit generous after seeing some of their defensive holes, they were starting Cy Young Award winner Barry Zito supported by a potent offense.  This made them big favorites over the 1959 Cubs, who won 74 games thanks largely to an MVP Award-winning season from Ernie Banks, although 16-game winner Glen Hobbie was a respectable #1 starter to send against Zito.  John Mabry puts the A’s up in the top of the 1st with an RBI single off Hobbie; in the 3rd Miguel Tejada doubles and then the Cubs Walt Moryn turns a Jermaine Dye flyball into a triple, and by the end of the inning it’s 5-0 A’s.  However, in the bottom of the 4th Zito loads up the bases and then delivers a gopher ball to Lee Walls, and suddenly after the slam it’s 5-4; when Al Dark scores Banks on a sac fly in the 5th it’s a whole new ballgame.  From there, both starters assert themselves; the A’s don’t get another hit until the top of the 9th, when they load the bases up for Miguel Tejada, but CF-3 George Altman pulls in Tejada’s flyball to end the threat.  That leaves it to Zito, who also pitches out of a jam to send the game into extra innings.  The 10th passes uneventfully, and now both teams are forced to go to their bullpens, where the A’s have a distinct advantage.  The Cubs turn to Don Elston who gets through the 11 successfully, while the A’s Billy Koch has a scare in the bottom of the inning when Tony Taylor triples, but Koch strands him to continue the game.  Elston is great through his maximum 4 innings, and so Koch is looking at the last of his innings in the bottom of the 14th.  He walks Tony Taylor, and Irv Noren shoots a GBA++ single past the holding 1st baseman, bringing up Ernie Banks, who has 3 hits already, with the winning run on 3rd.  However, the A’s bring the infield in and nail Taylor trying to score on the Banks grounder, and it’s now 2 out and Sammy Taylor at the plate.  Koch delivers, and Taylor knocks it into the Wrigley bleachers for the walk-off victory--Cubs win, 8-5, as the A’s moneyball machine goes bankrupt with only 6 hits in 14 innings. 

The survivors 

The 1953 Indians could trot out good starter after good starter with their rotation, and in this semifinal game it was 21-game winner Bob Lemon’s turn.  The 2015 Mariners, on the other hand, had a more suspect rotation and hoped that Hisashi Iwakuma could handle the Indians, the top-rated team remaining alive in the regional.  Both starters make a successful first pass through the opposing lineups, but in the 4th Luke Easter finds Iwakuma’s solid HR result for a 2-run blast to put the Indians up.  The Mariners try to respond in the 5th but meet with split dice disaster, as Seth Smith misses a HR 1-11 split and 1-15 Austin Jackson is cut down trying to score on the resulting double; when Bobby Avila (1-17) is cut down trying to take an extra base on a Rosen single, the crowd is howling for a new split die.  They don’t get one, but in the 6th Nelson Cruz converts a DO 1-6 and Franklin Gutierrez singles him home to narrow the score to 2-1.   Wally Westlake responds in the bottom of the inning, leading off by finding that solid 5-9 HR on Iwakuma, and when the latter loads up the bases the Mariners bring on first round game-saver Carson Smith, who fans Avila to keep the score at 3-1.   Smith and later Charlie Furbush keep the Indians at bay, but it’s all for naught as Lemon isn’t giving any quarter, wrapping up the 5-hit 3-1 victory to send the Indians to the finals in pursuit of their unprecedented 12th regional win.

Although the ELO rankings favored the 2003 Blue Jays over the 1959 Cubs in this semifinal, the Jays looked a whole lot worse without Roy Halladay on the mound, with #2 starter Kelvim Escobar (who got the snot knocked out of his 2004 self in Regional #109) representing a huge dropoff.  The Cubs actually had an okay starting rotation for a Wrigley-based team, with Darrell Hillman sporting an ERA nearly a full run better than Escobar’s.  Cubs fans get an early thrill when Banks puts one into the bleachers in the bottom of the 1st to make it 1-0.  The Jays try to respond immediately but Frank Catalanatto misses a HR split in the top of the 2nd and bounces it off the top of the ivy, and the Jays strand him at second.   However, in the 3rd Vernon Wells converts a HR 1-19 split (with a 19) for a solo shot and the game is tied.   The Cubs respond in the 5th by loading the bases, and then Tony Taylor rips a double that makes it 3-1 Cubs; when Banks leads off the 6th with a single the Jays move quickly to the bullpen in the form of Aquilino Lopez, who is greeted by a Dale Long triple, and then Sammy Taylor laces a ball through a drawn-in infield and it’s now 5-1 Cubs.  The Cubs add another when Tony Taylor nails his second double past the (bad) glove of Jays 3B Erik Hinske, and Banks singles Taylor home to make it 6-1.  From there on out, it’s all Hillman as he scatters 8 hits in his complete game victory that sends the Cubs to the final in pursuit of their 5th regional win.

Although it was an all-50s final, the two regional finalists were very different teams.  To underscore the differences, the 1959 Cubs scored twice as many runs as the 1953 Indians on their way to the finals, but they allowed six times as many runs.  For the Indians, it was clearly all about their great starting rotation and they still had two Hall of Fame starters to choose from for the final game, deciding to go with Early Wynn over Bob Feller.   The Cubs countered with 12-game winner Bob Anderson, who probably didn’t receive many HOF votes.  However, it’s Wynn who shows some cracks in the 2nd, allowing two sharp singles off his card with the Cubs then converting a run on an Al Dark sac fly.  They add to their lead in the 3rd when Ernie Banks rips a 2-run triple and then scores on Dale Long flyball to make it 4-0 Cubs.  In the 6th, Cubs C Sammy Taylor makes his second error of the game which narrows the lead to 4-1, but Walt Moryn blasts a 2-run HR in the 7th to further stretch the Cubs lead.  However, in the 8th the Indians finally begin to solve Anderson, as Wally Westlake singles in Dale Mitchell, and Larry Doby follows with a 2-run shot to make the score 6-4, although George Altman provides a solo shot in the bottom of the inning and it is 7-4 with the Indians coming up in the 9th for their last chance.  Jim Hegan manages a 2-out double, but Anderson gets Bobby Avila to pop out and the underdog Cubs win the regional with three straight upset victories against top tier teams.  They join the 1969, 1974, 1990, and 2017 squads as the fifth Cubs regional victors.  

Interesting card of Regional #112:  Not a lot of players have won MVP awards while playing for a losing team, but in 1959 Mr. Cub was an exception.  Turns out 1959 was a memorable year for baseball in Chicago, with the Sox taking their first pennant in 40 years since the Dead Sox scandal, and the Cubs….well, they won this Regional with Banks leading the way, and in real life Banks was the NL MVP for the second year in a row.    As a Sox fan growing up, I had a certain antipathy for the Cubs but Ernie Banks proved exempt from that, as he just seemed like such a good guy it was impossible to root against him.   Looking back on his career now, it is an interesting one--when he switched from SS to 1B at the age of 31, he actually declined considerably at the plate, as his SEVEN best offensive seasons came while he was playing the more demanding defensive position.   Because those early years were before I was capable of paying attention, I only got to watch him on WGN (with Jack Brickhouse announcing) as a pretty good hitting first baseman, but this card captures what he was in his twenties--one of the best players in baseball, laboring in obscurity on a consistently bad team.

REGIONAL #111:  This group didn’t appear to have any teams within hailing distance of a pennant; I had a strong hunch that certain teams were likely to be pretty bad, and a few others I wasn’t certain about.   The ‘96 Red Sox were a team that I remembered fondly as I spent that summer in the Boston area and took my son to a fair number of their games at Fenway, and he became a big fan of that team--and I remember them as being pretty good, albeit not pennant winners.  In terms of other competitors, I thought that given some success from their ‘96 and ‘98 teams in recent regionals, the ‘97 Rangers should represent well, and I seemed to remember some strong Angels teams in the ‘80s although I had no idea if 1982 was one of them.  As a sentimental choice, I picked the ‘96 version of the Red Sox over the Rangers in the finals.  The ELO ranks indicated that this was indeed one of those strong Angels teams, and they favored those Angels over my Red Sox pick in the finals, but the rankings did agree with my general impression that most of these teams simply weren’t very good. 

First round action

The 1996 Red Sox won 85 games with some impressive offense, having four guys in the heart of their order with SLG% over .500, and at the top of their rotation they had Roger Clemens, who somehow managed to have a losing 10-13 record despite all those bashers behind him.  The 74-88 2015 Padres were a very different team, with an anemic offense--top SLG was .440, and they only had 3 hitters with an OBP greater than .300--but one of the better bullpens I had seen in a long time.  The Padres grab the lead in the 2nd when Jedd Gyorko nails a 2-out triple off Clemens’ card and Amarista singles him in, but it doesn’t last long as a Darren Bragg RBI single ties it in the top of the 3rd.  However, in the bottom of the inning Rene Rivera gets the same TR 1-4 split off Clemens, and he scores on a Grandal single to put the Padres back in the lead.  Not to be outdone, in the 5th John Valentin nails a TR 1-3 off Padres’ starter Ian Kennedy, and Jeff Frye’s sac fly ties it up again, and a Tim Naering single in the 6th gives the Red Sox the 3-2 lead, although Canseco makes the final out trying to score on the hit.   When Frye doubles in the 7th, the Padres dip into their stellar bullpen, and Kevin Quackenbush ducks any damage, but when he loads the bases up in the 9th, the Padres summon Huston Street who keeps the game within a run heading into the bottom of the 9th.  And Clemens hangs on for the CG win, scattering 8 hits as the Red Sox squeak by with a 3-2 win in which their high-powered offense did not make an appearance.  

The matchup between the 76-76 1934 Red Sox and the 56-97 1948 Senators did not look like it would be a slugfest, as the top HR hitter for the Red Sox put up 11 homers while for the Senators the top slugger managed only 7.   Although Boston was not quite as good a team as the ‘96 version that had barely survived the previous game, they certainly looked better than the Senators, who were ELO-wise in contention to be one of the 100 worst teams of all time.  Adding to the likelihood of a low scoring game were two good starters, the Senators’ Ray Scarborough and Red Sox Wes Ferrell, with the latter generally regarded as one of the best hitting pitchers, although that is not an asset in this tournament.  Still, it doesn’t take long for the Senators to score on a Gil Coan sac fly in the bottom of the 1st, and when a Carden Gillenwater liner gets past Boston RF Dick Porter for a double in the 2nd, the Senators lead 3-0.  An RBI single from Carl Reynolds in the 3rd puts Boston on the board to make it 3-1, but then Ferrell loads up the bases in the 4th and Eddie Yost clears them with a double to give the Nats a commanding 6-1 lead.  From there on out, both pitchers are in control and Scarborough cruises to a 7-hit, 6-1 victory that propels the underdog Senators into the semifinals.

The 1982 Angels won 93 games and the AL West, only missing the AL pennant because of a Cecil Cooper single in the deciding game of the ALCS, and they were heavy ELO favorites to win this regional.   The 2016 White Sox went 78-84, a team building towards their current respectability but not there yet--although in Chris Sale they had a strong #1 starter to face the Angels’ Mike Witt.  The Sox get a timely hit in the 3rd from an unlikely source, .205 hitting CF JB Shuck, and jump out to a 2-0 lead, but that lead is short-lived as Fred Lynn raps a 2-out double in the 4th that ties the game.  The Angels dodge a bullet in the 5th when Reggie Jackson misplays a Brett Lawrie line drive into a triple, but Witt fans the next two Sox batters to strand Lawrie at third, and in the 7th Bobby Grich finds Sale’s HR result to give California the 3-2 lead.  Reggie then leads off the 8th with a prodigious HR off the US Cellular exploding scoreboard.  That’s more than Witt needs, and he closes out a 5-hit CG as the Angels move on with the 4-2 win.

The 77-85 1997 Rangers sought to maintain the tradition of first round victories established by the ‘96 and ‘98 teams in the past two regionals, and like those teams their power-packed lineup featured Juan Gonzalez, who did not win the MVP as he did in those two adjoining seasons but was still good for 42 HR and 131 RBI.  They faced a 95-loss 1991 Orioles fronted by an injury-less Cal Ripken Jr., with Bob Milacki getting the starting nod against Darren Oliver, the pick of a bad Rangers rotation.  Oliver escapes a threat in the 1st by retiring O’s DH Sam Horn, but is injured for the rest of the game on the play and Rick Helling, who pitched 10 innings for a win in Regiona #108, gets his chance.   The Rangers then stake Helling to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the 2nd, which featured a 2-run single by Rusty Greer with 2 out.  Lee Stevens leads off the 3rd with a HR that makes it 4-0, but the injury bug strikes again and the Rangers lose SS Benji Gil for 6 games, meaning that Billy Ripken, who is already in the game playing for Baltimore, gets to play for both teams.  The Orioles respond with 3 runs in the 4th from a Chris Hoiles HR and a Cal Ripken RBI single, and then tie it in the 5th on a Baltimore Billy Ripken single, making the Rangers turn to their closer John Wetteland to prevent further damage.  He does so, and in the 8th Mike Devereaux misses a HR 1-15 split and gets stranded at third by the 4th Rangers pitcher, Eric Gunderson.  When the Rangers lead off the bottom of the inning with two straight singles, Milacki is gone in favor of Jim Poole, who retires the side without incident and neither team scores in the 9th, so we head to extra innings.   Gunderson gets two quick outs in the top of the 10th, but then it all comes apart, with Cal Ripken and Sam Horn going back to back and the Orioles bring in Mike Flanagan to try to seal the deal against the heart of the Rangers order.  He does so with three quick outs, and the Orioles head to the semis with a 6-4 come from behind win.  

The survivors

Five RBI to Bragg about

Although the 1996 Red Sox managed to win a pitching duel behind Roger Clemens in round one, their rotation dropped off quickly and if Tim Wakefield’s knuckler wasn’t working, they were going to need their formidable offense to wake up.  Of course, it didn’t look like much would be needed against the 97-loss 1948 Senators, but the Nats had already upset one Red Sox squad and they were optimistic about eliminating another, sending Mickey Haefner to the mound.   The Red Sox don’t like the omens of the top of the 1st, rolling 5 straight results on Haefner’s card and having the inning end with a 1-16 runner cut down trying to score on a Canseco single.  The Senators show how it’s done in the bottom of the 1st, when their 1-16 runner scores on a Gil Coan single, and in the 3rd Bud Stewart gets hold of a floating knuckler for a solo shot and it’s 2-0 Washington.  But the Bosox bats come alive in the top of the 5th, when a Darren Bragg 2-RBI single is followed by a Reggie Jefferson 2-run homer, and Boston moves in front 4-2.  The Senators promptly load the bases with no outs in the bottom of the inning, courtesy in part from a Mike Stanley dropped popup, but Wakefield holds the Senators to one run on a Coan fielder’s choice.  The Red Sox decide they’ve seen enough of these upstarts, and explode for five runs in the 6th, including a Bragg 3-run blast, and it’s now 9-3.  The Senators try Tom Ferrick on the mound, but that doesn’t work either as Boston scores three more in the 8th, two on a Jefferson double.  The Senators do load the bases with no outs in the bottom of the 9th, but Stewart hits into a DP and Wakefield fans Coan to end the game, and the Red Sox move to the finals with a dominating 12-4 performance.

Remembering the great Baltimore pitching staffs of only a few seasons earlier, it was painful to discover that the 1991 Orioles had considerable trouble finding a #2 starter with an ERA below five, with the only one to meet that criterion being Ben McDonald (4.84).   As a division winner, the 1982 Angels had far more rotation depth, and they went with Bruce Kison but actually had four other decent alternatives.  The Angels strike in the 1st with a Doug Decinces solo blast, and were robbed of another when 1-16 Reggie Jackson was cut down at the plate trying to score on a Fred Lynn double.  The Orioles tie it in the 3rd when Cal Ripken misses a HR 1-15 split, but Joe Orsulak scores from 1st on the resulting double and it’s tied at one apiece.  From there on, both pitchers assert control, with McDonald looking strong until the 8th, when he allows two hits and is pulled with two outs for Jim Poole, who won the first round game in relief.  Poole gets the out, and Kison find himself in a similar jam in the bottom of the inning, but he gets out of the jam himself, fanning Cal Ripken with the go-ahead run on 3rd.  Poole then allows two straight singles to begin the 9th, and with 1 out and the go-ahead run on 3rd the Orioles bring the infield in, but Brian Downing rips it past the drawn-in 3rd baseman, Decinces adds a sac fly and the Angels take a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the 9th.  Hoiles gets a hit for the O’s, but that’s all as Kison fans Dwight Evans for the final out, wrapping up a 6-hitter and sending the Angels to the finals in pursuit of the 4th regional title for the franchise.  

The 1982 Angels were a well-balanced team with some strong defense, a deep starting rotation, and a core of good hitters, which explained their AL West title.  The 1996 Red Sox were pretty much a one-dimensional team, with that dimension being offense, and the best they could muster for a #3 starter was Aaron Sele and his 5.32 ERA to go against Angels’ 18-game winner Geoff Zahn.  However, things go wrong for Zahn in the 2nd when he allows five straight baserunners to begin the inning, the last one being a bases-loaded triple served to John Valentin, and the Red Sox jump out to an imposing 4-0 lead.  However, the Angels strike back in the 3rd with three runs, with Brian Downing picking up a HR 1-3 split, and it’s looking to be a dogfight.  In the 6th, Fred Lynn makes a costly error on a Valentin single to score two, and Jeff Frye drives him in with a double that chases Zahn for Andy Hassler, Boston now leading 7-3.  However, in the bottom of the inning Carew smacks an RBI single, the Angels load the bases, and Boston doesn’t trust Sele to get out of the jam, turning instead to Mark Brandenburg, who ends the inning by striking out Reggie Jackson but only after a Decinces sac fly makes the score 7-5.   The Angels threaten again in the 7th when Lynn walks and Baylor doubles, Lynn getting the stop sign at 3rd, but Brandenburg strikes out three in a row to quell the uprising.  A Darren Bragg triple in the 8th makes it 8-5, and then the Sox turn it over to closer Heathcliff Slocumb to try to finish things out.  That proves to be frightening, as the Angels lead off the bottom of the 9th with a Lynn double followed by a Baylor homer, and its now a one-run game and the Angels rap out two consecutive pinch-hit singles to put the tying run on 2nd in the form of pinch-runner Juan Beniquez.  Slocumb finally bears down and fans Carew and gets the groundout from Downing, and it goes in the books as an 8-7 victory that gives the Red Sox their 5th regional win, following 1950, 1978, 1983, and 2005.  

Interesting card of Regional #111:   This one was an easy selection, as this regional included  one of the most infamous cards in Strat history.  With no name on the card, you might think this is some sort of personalized card resulting from a twisted imagination, but no--these are the actual statistics of one Rudy Pemberton.  Rudy made his MLB debut in April 1995, which was immediately after the resolution of the 1994 strike, so I’m guessing that Rudy played in spring training games as a “replacement player” and as such was not invited to join the Players Association, which at the time licensed the use of player names to the game company.   Thus, Rudy was a “no-name” card...but not just any such card.  Replacement or not, Pemberton has gone down in history as the player with the highest batting average for any player who had 30 or more at-bats in a major league season.  Remarkably, Rudy only had another 63 MLB at-bats after this season, finishing his “career” with a lifetime .336 batting average--better than Stan Musial, Al Simmons, or Eddie Collins.   Afterwards he bounced around the minors with some stints in Japan, Korea, and Mexico, typically recording good batting numbers but of course never anything like the 1.336 OPS represented by this card.

REGIONAL #110:  Although none of the teams in Regional #110 won a pennant, the 1954 Yankees won the year before and the year after, while the 1989 Twins captured the AL two seasons before as well as two seasons after, so those squads were ones to be reckoned with.   The remaining teams didn’t strike me as particularly distinguished, and I had the feeling that the expansion 1969 Padres wouldn’t fare well.  In picking a winner, I went with the obvious, selecting the Yanks over the Twins in the final, which would avenge the Regional #103 flameout of the WS champ 1953 Yankees in their first round game.   The ELO rankings listed the ‘54 Yanks as the 27th best team of all time (unfortunately for them, the ‘54 Indians were ranked 24th) and thus had them as overwhelming favorites in the finals over a Rangers team that I couldn’t remember much of anything about, but which according to the ELO numbers was the only other “good” team (i.e., top 1000) in the bracket.

First round action

As a first year expansion team, the 52-110 1969 Padres were predictably terrible, ranked as one of the 25 worst teams of all time.  With only Nate Colbert and Downtown Ollie Brown looking ready for the majors, the Padres started 18-game loser Joe Niekro, who unlike his team was better than his record suggested.  The 73-89 1989 Mariners were only good by comparison, as their 19-year old rookie CF Ken Griffey Jr. was not quite the player he would ultimately become and there were other holes in their lineup both on offense and on defense.  The M’s move out in front 1-0 in the 3rd when Jay Buhner singles in Vizquel, and a Dave Valle sac fly in the 4th extends the lead to 2-0.  The Padres load the bases with one away in the 5th, and then Jose Arcia hits a weak grounder to 2B-1 Harold Reynolds...and he boots the sure DP ball and the Padres narrow the lead to 2-1.  Seattle gets the run back in the bottom of the inning when Griffey scores on a Jeff Leonard single, but Alvin Davis is cut down at the plate trying to stretch the lead further to end the inning.  In the 6th Colbert crushes a fastball from M’s starter Scott Bankhead for a solo shot, and it’s 3-2 and the Padres are looking like a team that won’t go down quietly.  Sure enough, in the 7th Ed Spiezio singles in pinch-runner Larry Stahl and it’s all tied up for the 7th inning stretch.  When Buhner hits a 2-out double in the bottom of the inning, the Padres pull Niekro for Frank Reberger, and he retires Leonard to keep things even.  However, in the 8th Reberger’s defense lets him down with two consecutive errors, and then Reynolds makes them pay, missing a TR 1-15 to score one, but again a Mariner is cut down at the plate to end the inning, with Seattle now in front 4-3.  So, it’s now up to Bankhead to get the last three outs, and he does so, finishing up a 6-hit complete game and sending the Mariners to the semis with a 4-3 win, Reberger absorbing the loss on the unearned run.

The 1954 Yanks went 103-51 but remarkably still finished eight games behind a great Indians team.  Even so, the Yankees had a strong rotation and a powerful lineup that really only had one hole--we’re looking at you, Rizzuto, a SS-3 with a .195 batting average who made Willie Miranda, who was also on this team, look like Honus Wagner by comparison.  After agonizing around starting pitching options, I decided to hold off on Whitey Ford, who had lost the first round game that knocked the ‘53 squad out of the tournament, and went with 20-game winner Bob Grim.   They faced a 76-78 1960 Indians team that had nothing in common with the squad that beat out the Yanks in ‘54, and generally looked worse than their record aside from the young starting pitcher that would face the Yanks, Jim Perry.   However, the Indians move to a 1-0 edge in the top of the 1st when a Rizzuto error is followed by singles from John Romano and Woodie Held, and they extend the lead to 2-0 on a Tito Francona fielder’s choice in the 3rd.  The Yanks don’t get their first hit off Perry until the 5th, when Joe Collins leads off by finding Perry’s solid HR result, but the Indians get the run back in the 6th when Bob Hale, playing for injured (for the rest of the tournament) Bubba Phillips, singles in Jimmie Piersall and it’s 3-1.   The Yanks threaten in the bottom of the frame but Hank Bauer hits into an inning-ending DP to squelch the rally, and Yankee Stadium is rocking with boos.   Perry keeps the shackles on until the 9th, when he records two quick outs but then Collins singles, Andy Carey doubles, and the tying run is on second….with SS sub Willie Miranda at the plate.  The Yanks call on Bob Cerv to PH with the game on the line, hoping that his power can deliver the walk-off win--but he grounds out, and once again a highly touted Yankees team from the 50’s crashes and burns in the 1st round, eliminated by the Indians by the final score of 3-1.

Two seasons away from a pennant both forward and back, the 1989 Twins didn’t look as good as I’d imagined before setting their lineup--they looked like the 80-82 team that they actually were.  In contrast, the 1996 Rangers were far better than I’d guessed, winning 90 games and the AL West.  My failure to anticipate this suggests I’m a slow learner since I had just managed the 1998 Rangers successfully to the finals in the regional before last, and the teams had one big factor in common:  Juan Gonzalez, featured previously as an Interesting Card of Regional #108, won the AL MVP in both seasons.  The starters involved Twin Frank Viola against the Rangers’ Ken Hill, whose 16 wins were double that of Viola’s total.   The Rangers get to Viola early when Rusty Greer triples and Gonzalez singles him home to spot Hill a 1-0 lead after one, and things get worse in the 2nd when Darryl Hamilton finds Viola’s HR result for a 3-run shot.  In the 4th, Hamilton and Will Clark add RBI singles and then Viola loads up the bases to face Gonzalez with two out; Twins management can’t stand it any longer and yank Viola for Gary Wayne.   Wayne walks Juan Gone to score another for the Rangers, but then gets Dean Palmer to ground out, and the tally is now 7-0 after four innings.  The Twins finally put up a run on an Al Newman RBI single in the 7th, but although Wayne and later Jeff Reardon keep the Rangers from further damage, the Twin can’t sustain anything against Hill and Texas heads to the semis with a 7-1 win.

For the second game in a row, a Minnesota team enters a first round matchup as the underdog, but the 92-loss 1998 Twins were ranked considerably lower than the ‘89 squad that was just eliminated in a blowout, as they were made up of guys either too early (e.g. David Ortiz) or too late (Paul Molitor, Otis Nixon) in their careers.   Although they didn’t fare much better than the Twins, the 87-loss 2015 Tigers looked to me like a much better team, with strong defense, offensive pop from Miggy Cabrera and JD Martinez, and although they had no depth in the starting rotation, they did have Justin Verlander in the #1 slot who compared very favorably to Twins starter Brad Radke.  It gets ugly fast for the Twins, as in the top of the 1st JD Martinez hits Radke’s HR result for a 3-run shot, and James McCann also hits it for a 2-run blast, and although the Tigers lose DH Victor Martinez to injury for 2 games, they don’t look like they’ll need him in this one with a 5-0 lead.   Radke settles down, but when Rajai Davis, subbing for the injured Martinez, smacks an RBI double off Radke’s card in the 6th the Twins go to their closer, Rick Aguilera, but he allows the two runners he inherited to score and the Tigers are up 8-0, and Verlander isn’t even breaking a sweat.   The Tigers add an unneeded insurance run in the 8th, and Verlander closes out the 6-hit shutout and the 9-0 blowout win.  However, after looking at the rest of the Tigers rotation, I’m guessing they might want to have saved some of those runs for later rounds.

The survivors

Both the 1989 Mariners and the 1960 Indians finished under .500, although the Indians had the superior ranking and defeated a much better team to reach this semifinal game.   The Indians started Bobby Locke against Seattle’s Erik Hanson, and Cleveland explores Hanson’s weaknesses in the bottom of the 1st with an Aspromonte double and a John Romano RBI single, both off Hanson’s card.  Woodie Held drives in another in the 3rd to make it 2-0, although Harvey Kuenn is cut down at the plate to prevent another run from scoring.   The M’s get a run in the 4th on a Henry Cotto sac fly, and tie it up in the 6th when Buhner singles in Griffey Jr., and as is often the case it’s looking like it will be a tightly contested semifinal.  In the bottom of the inning, Romano walks, Francona doubles, and the Mariners bring the infield in and replace Hanson with Mark Langston (despite rumors that he’s about to be traded to Montreal).   Langston comes through, no runners score, and the score remains knotted.  The Mariners mount a threat in the 8th, with runners on 1st and 2nd and one away, so the Indians turn to their relief ace, Johnny Klippstein, to put out the fire, and he does.  Then, Langston makes a 2-out mistake to Jimmie Piersall, who puts it into the grandstand at Cleveland Stadium to make it 4-2 Indians, and the crowd is rocking.  So it’s up to Klippstein in the 9th, and he sets Seattle down in order to propel the Indians into the finals, and dashes the hopes of the Mariners in their quest for their first regional win.  Seattle just had the misfortune of running into one of the most successful franchises in this tournament, as the Indians will be playing for their 11th regional win in the finals.

The 1996 Rangers had the distinction of being the only team with a winning record to make this regional’s semifinals, and as a division winner they are bent on avenging the defeat of the ‘98 team in the Regional #108 finals.  However, to have a chance they have to get past the 2015 Tigers, who blew out their opponent in the first round.  Neither team was blessed with a surplus of good starting pitching, and the matchup of the Rangers’ Roger Pavlik vs. Detroit’s Anibel Sanchez was hardly the stuff of legend.  Juan Gonzalez started things off in the top of the 1st with a solo HR, his first of the regional, but Rajai Davis finds Pavlik’s HR result to lead off the 2nd and quickly ties it up.  Gonzalez then leads off the 4th with his second homer of the game, but back to back errors by Pudge Rodriguez and Dean Palmer hand the Tigers a run and the game is once again tied.   With two out in the 6th, Kevin Elster finds ONE of Sanchez’s HR results, gets the 1-10 split with a 10, and the resulting 2-run blast sends Sanchez to the showers and Alex Wilson is called upon to try to keep things close for the Tigers.  Of course, Rajai Davis again finds Pavlik’s HR result for a 2-run shot that ties it up, and the Rangers have to turn to their weak bullpen, giving Dennis Cook a try, but that is a disaster as Cook allows 5 hits without closing out the inning.  Mike Henneman comes in and does no better, and when the inning finally ends with JD Martinez tagged out trying to score on a Davis single (the Tigers having batted around), Detroit has scored 6 runs on 9 hits in the inning and have an 8-4 lead.   The Rangers narrow the gap to 8-5 on a Dean Palmer RBI single, and the Tigers turn nervously to their gopher-ball prone closer, Joakim Soria.  Soria does his job, and the 2015 Tigers head to the finals with the hope of following in the footsteps of the 2014 Tiger team, winners of Regional #60.

According to the ELO ranks, the regional final matched the 4 vs. 5 seed in a battle of two mediocre squads with differing strengths.  The 2015 Tigers combined strong fielding and decent hitting with terrible pitching depth, while the 1960 Indians had a decent staff (albeit most with control issues) but limited offensive weaponry.  Thus far the Tigers were averaging 8.5 runs a game, while Indians opponents averaged 1.5 runs, contrasting the strengths of the two teams.  Because of their lack of rotation depth, the Tigers had no choice but to start Alfredo Simon and his 5.05 ERA, while the Indians countered with Gary Bell.  Detroit strikes first when Victor Martinez, back from an injury suffered in the first round, hits a solo HR in the 3rd, and the Tigers’ other Martinez, JD, leads off the 4th with a round tripper to make it 2-0.  However, the Indians start the top of the 5th with five straight singles, and by the time Simon gets things under control, Cleveland leads 3-2 and it was only that close because Tito Francona was cut down at the plate.  When the Tigers load the bases in the 6th on single and two walks, the Indians fear more wildness from Bell and decide to go to their closer Klippstein with the game on the line, and he gets the final out of the inning to preserve the lead.  Vic Power lives up to his name, finding Simon’s HR result for a solo shot that makes it 4-2, and the Tigers go to their pen for Alex Wilson, the winner of their semifinal game--and he induces a DP that prevents further damage.  In the bottom of the 8th, Klippstein is burnt after tossing two perfect innings, so the Indians have to turn to far worse bullpen options, selecting Don Newcombe in the hope that he can relive his past glory.  Although he allows two singles to start the bottom of the 9th, Kinsler hits into a DP and Cabrera grounds out to end the game and the regional, which goes to the Indians for the tournament-best 11th time in franchise history.   One of those prior wins was by the 1961 squad in Regional #50, giving that era of Indians an unexpected run of success in this tournament.

Interesting card of Regional #110:  Okay, so his team didn’t get past the semifinals, losing a game in which he hit two homers.  And, Juan Gone was just featured in the regional before last, showing his card from his _other_ MVP season, but this card is probably even better.  Besides, neither of the regional finalist teams had particularly interesting player cards, so I think this MVP-winning season deserves the recognition.   Despite winning two MVPs, Bleacher Report only lists Gonzalez as the 8th best player of the 1990s and the 5th best outfielder, meaning that he wouldn’t even start on the all-decade team in their book.  Even so, this is a card that most teams wouldn’t mind having in their lineup.

REGIONAL #109:  No pennant winners in this draw, although there were two division winners from the present millennium: a Braves team and a 2004 Angels team that had won the AL two years previously.  There was also a 1980 Brewers team that won the AL two years later, and I suspected that the 1949 Red Sox would be a good hitting team with the Splendid Splinter in the lineup, so the bottom half of the bracket looked to be where the tough competition was going to be.   I called a win for the Brewers, which would be the first regional win for that franchise in this tournament, with a wild guess that they would defeat the Twins in the finals.   I was surprised to then discover that the ELO ratings had the 1949 Red Sox as the 69th best team of all time, making them prohibitive regional favorites according to those rankings.

First round action

The 2005 Braves won 90 games and the NL East, and though they only retained one member of their storied rotation from previous years, John Smoltz was still a formidable starter and he could look forward to run support from the Joneses, Chipper and Andruw.   It didn’t seem like he would need much support facing the last place, 105-loss 1964 A’s, ranked as the worst team in the regional and having almost no weapons other than Rocky Colavito, who had to be wondering what he had done to deserve playing on this squad.  A’s starter Orlando Pena does a decent job until the 4th, when he issues three walks and two doubles to Adam Laroche and Todd Hollandsworth, and the Braves stake Smoltz to a 3-0 lead.  In the next inning, Andruw Jones and Jeff Francoeur contribute homers to make it 6-0 to chase Pena in favor of Wes Stock, but in the bottom half of the frame the A’s finally get on the board on a Doc Edwards sac fly.  Stock does his job in holding the Braves, but Smoltz is in control and finishes things out with a 5-hitter as the Braves move easily into the semis with a 6-1 victory.

The 1975 Rangers won 79 games, which wasn’t good enough for manager Billy Martin to keep his job.  In this first round game they were putting their hopes on the creative pitches of 18-game winner Gaylord Perry, as they faced an 85-win 2001 Twins team that had a steroid-era lineup with 8 hitters having SLG% exceeding .400.   Things remained scoreless until the 4th, when Texas CF Dave Moates finds Twins’ starter Joe Mays’ HR result to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead.  However, the porous Texas defense lets Perry down by starting the 6th with consecutive errors, setting up RBI from Cory Koskie and super-PH Matt LeCroy that tie things up.  Another Ranger error in the 7th and Perry starts to come undone, loading up the bases and then watch a LeCroy liner get past RF-4 Jeff Burroughs for a triple--a play on which Perry is injured, which may have been feigned simply to get him away from the Rangers’ efforts at defense.  Stan Thomas comes in and promptly grooves one to Torii Hunter for a 2-run blast, and by the time the smoke clears the score is 9-2.  From there on out, Mays simply has to lob it in and the Rangers can’t do anything with it, and the game ends with a 10-2 Twins victory, Mays finishing out the 6-hitter.

The ELO rankings placed the 1949 Red Sox as one of the best 70 teams of all time, winners of 96 games and finishing just one game off the AL pennant.  Although I accurately figured that Ted Williams would be a big factor, they also had big years from Vern Stephens and Bobby Doerr, and with two 20-game winners in the rotation they were favorites to win the regional.  However, the 2004 Angels were no patsies, winning 92 games and the AL West with some steroid-era offense, and although their starting pitching was the disaster typical of that era, they had some quality help in the bullpen.   Furthermore, this was the third straight matchup of 20th century vs. 21st century teams in this regional, and the latter had won all of them in prior games.   And the 21st century treats 25-game winner Mel Parnell roughly in the top of the 1st when Sox ss-2 Vern Stephens boots a grounder by the leadoff hitter, Parnell issues a walk, and then Vlad Guerrero misses a HR split but drives in both runners on the resulting double.  The next batter, Troy Glaus, knocks the ball over the Green Monster and it’s 4-0 before an out is recorded.   Another Boston error and some walks load the bases back up, David Eckstein and Adam Kennedy rap singles, and when the dust settles the score is 7-0 and the Red Sox are still waiting to have their first at-bats.   However, Boston shows that they won’t go quietly, as they start against Angel’s starter Kelvim Escobar with five straight hits, ultimately also batting around but leaving the bases loaded with the score 7-3 after one inning.   The Red Sox score another three in the 3rd courtesy of doubles from Pesky, Batts, and Tebbetts, and suddenly it’s a one run ballgame with a long way still to go.  When Williams doubles in the 4th, the Angels can tell that Escobar isn’t the answer, and they go very early to their closer Troy Percival in a desperate attempt to try to staunch the Boston momentum.   Percival does his job to end the threat, and the Angels come back to score three on RBI singles from Eckstein and Benji Molina in the top of the 5th to give them some breathing room with a 10-6 lead.  That doesn’t last long, as the Sox answer with 3 of their own in the bottom of the inning with RBI singles from Williams and Tebbetts, and the Angels are wondering what it is going to take to put the Red Sox away.  When Boston starts the 6th with two straight singles, Percival is yanked (after allowing 7 hits in recording 5 outs) and Francisco Rodriguez gets his chance to try to stop the Sox, but he surrenders a single to Billy Goodman and the game is tied at 10 apiece and there are still three innings left to play.  The Angels load the bases in the 8th with two out and summon .344 hitting Robb Quinlan to pinch hit, but Parnell strikes him out to keep the game deadlocked.   However, FRod is striking out the Red Sox himself, and the game remained tied after nine.  Chone Figgins rips a triple to lead off the 10th, and the Sox let Parnell try to work his way out of the jam, but then Ted Williams drops a Glaus flyball to give the Angels the lead.  With FRod burnt, the Angels turn to their 4th pitcher, Brendan Donnelly, to try to save the game, with Ted Williams staring at him to leadoff the bottom of the 10th.   But Chone Figgins makes a great play on a Williams grounder, Stephens pops out, and Donnelly fans Batts to send the Angels to the semis with a hard-fought 11-10 win.

I had picked the 1980 Brewers to win the regional because the ‘82 Harvey’s Wallbangers squad was a favorite of mine and I guessed that the ‘80 team had many of the same assets, and this time my guess was correct, as they had strong years from Cooper, Molitor, Yount, Oglivie et al., and a capable Moose Haas ready to start for the first round.  In fact, after setting the lineup I thought that they looked better than an 86-win team, and sure enough their Pythagorean projection indicated that they should have been good for 94 wins, which might be why they fired Buck Walters in ‘82 so that Harvey Kuenn could then lead them to the AL pennant.  They faced a near-contemporary AL team in the 1981 Angels, who went 51-59 in that strike year and relied primarily on Bobby Grich to provide offensive spark.   And he does so in the top of the first, missing a HR 1-13 split but driving in Carew on the resulting double, and the Angels have a quick 1-0 lead.  The Brewers get it back in the 2nd when Angels starter Ken Forsch flubs a Gorman Thomas grounder, and Charlie Moore drives Thomas in to tie it up.   This pattern is repeated in the 4th, when Angel C Ed Ott drops a popup and Moore drives him in to give Milwaukee a 2-1 edge, with both runs off Forsch unearned.  With the Angels threatening in the 6th, Cecil Cooper makes a dazzling stab to convert the DP and maintain the slim lead, and from there on out both pitchers are untouchable.  Forsch allows no earned runs and only 5 hits, but that’s not good enough as Haas closes out a 3-hitter and wins the 2-1 duel to send the Brewers to the semis.

The survivors

The 2005 Braves and the 2001 Twins had both cruised easily through their first round games, and although neither team was blessed with a particularly deep starting rotation, both could send out decent options in their #2 slot, with Atlanta’s Tim Hudson facing the Twins’ Brad Radke.  The first run of the game is driven in by a Jones, but it isn’t either of the Braves stars--rather, it’s Minnesota’s Jacque Jones that gives the Twins a 1-0 edge in the 4th.  However, in the 6th back to back doubles by Todd Hollandsworth and Johnny Estrada, coupled with an error by Twins RF Matt Lawton, gives the Braves a 2-1 lead.  Another double by Adam LaRoche in the 7th and Radke is pulled for Eddie Guardado, who prevents the run from scoring.  However, a Jeff Francoeur RBI single in the top of the 9th gives the Braves an insurance run, so it’s just up to Hudson to record the final three outs against the top of the Twins order.   A Lawton walk and a Torii Hunter single puts the winning run at the plate with two out in the form of Cristian Guzman, but Hudson strikes him out and the Braves head to the finals with the 3-1 win.

Both the 1980 Brewers and the 2004 Angels survived one-run games to make this semifinal--the Angels surviving a slugfest and the Brew Crew squeaking by in a pitchers’ duel.  One difference was that the Angels bullpen was severely taxed in their win, and they were hoping that Jarrod Washburn would be able to go deep in the game to give their relievers some rest.  The Brewers had a fresh pen and sent Reggie Cleveland to the mound, and they spotted Cleveland a solid lead by rapping five hits in the 1st inning, including a Molitor leadoff HR and a Don Money 2-run double that eluded Angel RF Vlad Guerrero, and the Brewers have a quick 4-0 lead.  When Yount smacks a 2-run shot to make it 6-0 in the 2nd, the Angels are already eyeing their pen, but they also rip five hits in the 3rd, including a Guerrero RBI double and a Troy Glaus 3 run HR, and it’s 6-4 and clearly anyone’s game.  A solo shot by Benji Molina in the 4th makes it 6-5, and he adds an RBI double in the 5th to tie things up.  Meanwhile, Washburn has recovered and is now tossing scoreless innings, although he has a scare in the 7th when Yount is cut down at the plate trying to score on a Cecil Cooper double.  A one-out double by David Eckstein in the 8th sends Cleveland to the showers, with Milwaukee bringing out Bob McClure to try to stop the Halos, and although he does so, in the top of the 9th Garrett Anderson finds McClure’s HR 1-6/flyB result and rolls the 6, giving the Angels their first lead heading into the bottom of the 9th.  Gantner leads it off with a single, so Anaheim pulls Washburn and gives Brendan Donnelly the chance to earn his second save in a row.  Molitor pushes a single past Angels SS Eckstein, and with two out Cecil Cooper comes to the plate with the tying run in scoring position and the winning run at first.   But Donnelly strikes Cooper out, earning the save and sending the Angels to the finals with a scrappy 7-6 comeback victory.

Although neither the ELO rankings nor I predicted it accurately, the pairing for the regional final seemed obvious--the two teams in the group that won their divisions.  In fact, with the two teams being from successive years, this matchup is a bit of an alternative World Series if some postseason games had gone differently.    Starting pitchers included Big Sexy Bartolo Colon for the 2004 Angels, and Horacio Ramirez for the 2005 Braves, two similar workhorses who both allowed too many hits and too many HRs for comfort.  The Angels get on the board in the bottom of the 1st when Atlanta LF Ryan Langerhans mishandles a Chone Figgins single, and Vlad Guerrero knocks him in on the next pitch for a 1-0 lead.  Four straight hits in the 2nd, including a Figgins 2-RBI single, and the Angels lead 3-0 and the Braves are in unfamiliar territory, having only allowed one run in each of their prior regional games.   In the 4th, the red-hot Figgins rips a triple to score Eckstein, and Guerrero singles him in again and it’s 5-0 Angels, and when Ramirez allows a single in the 5th the Braves bring in their closer Kyle Farnsworth in a desperation move to try to stay in the game.  That meets with limited success, as in the 6th Troy Glaus takes Farnsworth deep for a 2-run HR, Glaus’s third homer of the regional, and it’s now 7-0 Angels.   Although Colon had managed to strand numerous runners in scoring position, his luck runs out in the 7th when the Braves rap three straight hits against him, the last being an RBI double by Chipper Jones, and the Angels turn to Troy Percival to try to close things out.  He escapes the jam in highly efficient fashion, as Jeff Francoeur rolls the dreaded LOMAX and the Braves are immediately shut down courtesy of the triple play.  However, Percival struggles in the top of the 9th, and 3rd string catcher Eddie Perez rips a 2-run double that narrows the score to 7-3.  Although the Angels think about going to Brendan Donnelly again to see if he might be able to record a 3rd straight save, they stick with Percival and he gets the final two outs to give the Angels the 7-3 victory and the third regional title (with 1977 and 1989) for the Halos.  Glaus’s three homers and nine RBI earn him the regional MVP recognition, and the Angels thank the heavens that he never hit that ominous 2-6 injury roll in the bracket.

Interesting card of Regional #109:   Although regional MVP Troy Glaus had an interesting card with lots of power and a horrible injury roll, I had to go with Twins low-AB wonder boy Matt LeCroy, for obvious reasons.  Restricted to late-game PH duties because of his ABs, LeCroy wreaked havoc upon the Rangers in the first round but was unable to get his Twins past the semifinals.  As a kid, I played the heck out of those original Basic-only Hall of Fame cards and this card would have been formidable even in that set.   Who wouldn’t want a catcher that hit .425 with power and doubles scattered everywhere?  Okay, so he couldn’t draw a walk to save his life, and he was pretty terrible in the field, but I think I could overlook that.  He was age 25 during this season, and although he never lived up to the numbers he put up in these 40 at-bats, he did prove to have some power and eventually learned to draw a walk later in his career, although he never came within 150 points of this batting average again.   Now the manager for the Nationals’ AAA team in Rochester, LeCroy should just wave this card around if any of his players ever question his decisions.