REGIONAL #163:  After a lot of talent in the previous bracket, this group looked rather middling to me at first glance.  Representing the last of the 1924 teams in the tournament, I guessed that the Indians would be pretty good, although they would face an ‘88 Royals team who were three years after a pennant.  There was a ‘54 Braves team with a promising rookie named Aaron that would also take a pennant three years later, and a 21st century Phillies team that were three years after winning the NL a couple of times.  Not feeling a clear favorite here, I guessed that there would be an old/new battle in the final between the Indians and the Phillies, with the more modern team winning by riding the typical advantages of greater power and team depth.  The ELO ranks portrayed this as a stronger bracket than I had initially thought, with the Braves favored to win over a 2009 Blue Jays team that I had apparently overlooked. 

First round action

The 1924 Indians weren’t participating much in the new home run craze of the time, with Tris Speaker leading the team with 9 homers while also managing the team, so they only went 67-86 although they boasted six .300 hitters in the lineup and a 20 game winner in Joe Shaute (20-17, 3.75).  They were ELO underdogs to the 84-77 1988 Royals, with George Brett, Danny Tartabull and Bo Jackson all with 20+ longballs, an excellent bullpen, and a 20 game winner of their own with a formidable card, Mark Gubicza (20-8, 2.70), who finished 3rd in the Cy Young votes.  True to form, the Indians get three squib singles in the top of the 1st but fail to score, leaving the bases loaded, and they load them up again in the 2nd but come up empty when Joe Sewell hits into an inning-ending DP.   The Indians do finally get on the board in the 6th with RBI singles from Sewell and George Burns, aided by some terrible fielding from RF-4 Tartabull, and the Royals can’t score until the 8th when a 2-out RBI single from Willie Wilson makes it a one-run game heading into the 9th.  Disaster strikes the Indians in the top of the 9th when Speaker goes down with an injury for 6 games, and then in the bottom of the 9th 2B Chick Fewster drops a grounder and then on the next batter fails to turn the DP, putting the tying run in scoring position for Brett, who knocks a single that scores the runner and sends the game to extra innings.  Gubicza begins the 10th by walking Charlie Jamison and then Homer Summa almost lives up to his name with a triple, and he scores on a Rube Lutzke double to put the Indians up by two.  PH Pat Tabler leads off the bottom of the 10th with a double, raising the hopes of the KC faithful, but Shaute finishes his final inning of eligibility by retiring three in a row and the Indians move on with the 4-2 win, but without their Hall of Fame centerfielder for the probable future.

The 1954 Braves were probably most memorable for the debut of a 20 year old outfielder named Henry Aaron, but they were a good team that went 89-65 to finished 3rd in the NL, with a big year from Eddie Mathews and their stalwart starter Warren Spahn (21-12, 3.14), who came in 3rd among pitchers in the MVP voting.  They were big ELO favorites over the 91-loss 2011 Cubs, a lackluster squad with Aramis Ramirez as their biggest bat and Matt Garza (10-10, 3.32) heading up a sketchy rotation.  Of course, casting aspersions on the Cubs lineup makes them come out like gangbusters in the 1st, as a leadoff single by Starlin Castro is followed by Kosuke Fukudome finding and converting Spahn’s HR split for a quick 2-0 lead.  The Cubs mount a two-out rally in the 3rd with an RBI double from Carlos Pena, who then scores on a Geovany Soto single off Spahn’s card and it’s looking like yet another bad outing for the Braves Hall of Famer, who has met with little success in this tournament.  The Cubs pile on more runs in the 5th, with Marlon Byrd missing Spahn’s HR split but driving in two on the resulting double, and Spahn is finally pulled after putting the Braves in a deep hole.  Ernie Johnson thus comes in and immediately yields a double to Darwin Barney that scores Byrd, and by the time the third out is recorded the Cubs lead 8-0.  Meanwhile, Garza continues to blow through the Braves lineup and he finishes up the three-hit shutout and the Cubs waltz to the semifinals with the 8-0 upset.  The loss for Spahn makes his tournament record an unimpressive 3-4 in 13 starts.

The 2012 Phillies went an even 81-81 but were the #3 seed in the regional according to the ELO ranks, with C Carlos Ruiz having a strong year and Cole Hamels (17-6, 3.05) got some Cy Young votes, finishing 8th in the balloting.  Given that underdogs had won every game in the regional thus far, the Phils weren’t particularly confident against their western Pennsylvanian opponent, the 1954 Pirates, even though the Pirates were ranked among the 50 worst teams of all time with a 53-101 record.  This Pittsburgh squad had the other Frank Thomas and not much else in the lineup, coupled with bad fielding and pretty bad starting pitching after Dick Littlefield (10-11, 3.60).  The Phils start off hot as the first hitter of the game, Juan Pierre, walks, steals second, and scores on a Kevin Frandsen single, and he ultimately scores on a sac fly and it’s 2-0 Phils before the Pirates can bat.  Then, Toby Atwell leads off the bottom of the inning by missing Hamels’ HR 1-17/DO split and gets stranded at second, and it’s looking like it might be a long day for Forbes faithful.   Things look a little better when the Bucs cut down 1-13 Ty Wigginton at the plate to end the top of the 2nd, but in the3rd the “defensive” DH for the Bucs, CF-2 Dick Hall, misplays a John Mayberry Jr single and it’s 4-0 Phils.  The complexion of the game changes abruptly in the 4th when the Pirates lead off with two singles, followed by a tape measure homer from Sid Gordon, and then Bob Skinner converts a HR 1-3/flyB split for a solo shot and it’s a tie ballgame.  The Phils regain the lead in the 8th when PH extraordinaire Darin Ruf hits a two-out triple to score Mayberry, and with the lead they decide to pull Hamels when he allows a single to Thomas in the bottom of the inning, turning the game over to Jeremy Horst and his 1.15 ERA.  But Horst promptly walks two to load the bases with one out, and the Phils switch to Raul Valdes, with not a walk on his card.  Valdes fans Preston Ward for the second out but former goat Hall singles, scoring Thomas to tie the game–but 1-11 Gordon is nailed at the plate and the game is knotted 5-5 going into the 9th.  Pierre leads off the top of the 9th with a single, steals second, and advances to 3rd on a Frandsen groundout; Carlos Ruiz then hits a grounder to Pirates 2B-2 Curt Roberts, the best fielder in the Pirates infield, but he boots it and Pierre scores the go-ahead run.  Valdes sets the Pirates down in order in the bottom of the 9th and the Phils escape the upset with a 6-5 win, with key errors from the only decent fielders on the Pittsburgh team being the difference in the game.   

The ELO ranks indicated that I had overlooked the 2009 Blue Jays, and indeed they looked worthy of their #2 seed even though they only went 75-87–a full nine games under their Pythagorean projection.  They had a power-packed lineup with 35+ HRs from Adam Lind and Aaron Hill, and strong infield defense, but their Achilles heel was a shallow rotation with only Roy Halladay (17-10, 2.79) having a decent season, which placed him 5th in the Cy Young vote.  They faced the 2016 Pirates that had a better 78-83 record but a much worse ELO rating ,for reasons I don’t really grasp; these Pirates were clearly better than the Pittsburgh team that played in the previous game, as they had a reasonably solid lineup, had decent defense, but had a rather improvised rotation with no workhorses and Jameson Taillon (5-4, 3.38) looking like their best bet to start.  The Jays jump to a lead in the top of the 1st on back-to-back doubles from Scott Rolen and DH Randy Ruiz, and then Adam Lind singles home Ruiz to make it 2-0.  In the bottom of the inning, the Pirates lose RF Gregory Polanco for the rest of the regional to injury, although they have a solid replacement in Matt Joyce.  In the 5th, LF-4 Lind manages to make a three base error to leadoff hitter David Freese, but Halladay bears down and strands him at third.  Rod Barajas gives Halladay a little padding by converting Taillon’s HR split to lead off the 7th, and then when Lyle Overbay pokes a 2-run shot in the 8th Taillon is gone for closer Tony Watson.  He does his job, but Halladay is on cruise control and finishes up a 3-hit shutout as the Jays progress to the semifinals with the 5-0 win.  

The survivors

In the semifinal matchup between the 1924 Indians and the 2011 Cubs, the two very different teams had different types of problems.  The Indians would be without their main weapon on offense, defense, and the manager of the team–Tris Speaker.  Meanwhile, the Cubs, who had blown out the regional favorite in round one, were going to have to go deeper into a terrible rotation and hope that Randy Wells (7-6, 4.99) could go the requisite five innings and turn the game over to a rested bullpen, while the Indians had a decent Sherry Smith (12-14, 3.02) on the hill.  Wells does fine until the 3rd, when he walks the first two batters off his card and then allows a 2-out single to Riggs Stephenson, also off his card, and the Indians lead 2-0.  Cleveland adds to the lead in the 5th with another RBI single from Stephenson and a bases-loaded single from Homer Summa that adds two more, and Wells is pulled having not made 5 innings before allowing 5 runs, and Sean Marshall comes in but he’s not much better and the Indians bat around and put up 6 runs in the inning to blow the game open–but their 1B George Burns adds to their injury list, getting knocked out for the rest of the regional.  The Cubs get on the board in the bottom of the inning with an RBI double from Marlon Byrd, but Summa contributes one of his own in the top of the 6th to make it 9-1.  And that’s how it ends with the Indians moving on to the finals, but hoping that their fielders won’t have to make any difficult plays with gaping holes in CF and 1B left by injury.

The 2012 Phillies were pushed hard by a bad Pirates team in round one, which put a bit of a strain on their pen and so they were hoping from a long outing by Cliff Lee (6-9, 3.16).  The 2009 Blue Jays were the top remaining seed in the regional, but having spent Roy Halladay (who was also the projected #4 starter for the Phils) in the first round, the Jays were left with Ricky Romero (13-9, 4.30) and a fully rested relief crew for this semifinal.  The Phils start off the top of the 1st following a formula that worked nicely for them in round one–Juan Samuel walks, steals second, and scores on a Carlos Ruiz single to take a lead.  In the 2nd, they take a different approach, with two singles followed by a long Ty Wigginton homer and the Jays fans at the Rogers Centre are starting to pay more attention to action in the outfield hotel than to that on the field.  They perk up a bit when Mario Scutaro finds Lee’s HR result for a solo shot in the 3rd, and then after a couple more hits Aaron Hill locates the same result on Lee for a two-out, 3-run shot that ties the game and ignites the crowd.  John Mayberry Jr. then leads off the 4th missing Romero’s HR split, but scoring later on a Kevin Frandsen single to push the Phils back in front.  Romero then settles down nicely, but a one-out double in the 8th by Nate Schierholtz and Romero is pulled for Jason Frasor, who promptly loads the bases but pitches his way out of the jam to prevent any damage.  Then, in the bottom of the 8th, Jays DH Randy Ruiz takes Lee deep for a solo shot on a 1-12 roll and the game is tied, and Lee is gone for Jeremy Horst, whose game one outing was pure horst****.  But this time Horst gets two quick outs and we head to the 9th with a tie game.  Frasor sets the Phils down in order in the top of the inning, Horst does likewise in the bottom, and it’s time for extra innings.  Frasor does his job in the 10th, while Horst is now toast for the regional and game one winner Raul Valdes comes in for the Phils and retires the side quietly.  In the top of the 11th, Frasor gets two quick outs but then Pierre singles and promptly steals second again, to bring up Frandsen–who leaves no doubt by smacking a double to score the go-ahead run.  It’s now up to Valdes in the bottom of the 11th, and the leadoff batter is DH Randy Ruiz, who hits a fly to LF-3 Pierre that turns into a double and the tying run is in scoring position with nobody out.  The Jays reluctantly pinch run for their slugging DH, but it is to no avail as Valdes bears down for three quick outs to win his second straight game of the regional, although he is now burnt for the bracket as well.  So the Phils head to the finals courtesy of their second straight 6-5 win in which they build a big lead, let the other team come back to tie it, but still pull it out with late-game heroics.  

For the first time in ages, the matchup in the final is exactly what I predicted, although if you told me that the 1924 Indians would lose both Tris Speaker and George Burns to injury, and that the 2012 Phillies would blow large leads to let both of their opponents back to tie the game, I might have changed my mind.  The Indians would start 34 year old Hall of Famer Stan Coveleski (15-16, 4.04), on the back end of his career, so the Phillies decided to counter and passed up Kyle Kendrick for their own declining Hall of Famer, 35 year old Roy Halladay (11-8, 4.49), who had pitched brilliantly in a younger version for Toronto in round one of the regional.  The Phillies begin in similar fashion to the way they had in all previous games–Juan Pierre singles, steals second, and scores on a Carlos Ruiz single, with all the hits coming off Coveleski.  In the 2nd, Nate Schierholtz races (1-14) home on a 2-out single by Placido Polanco to extend the Phils lead to 2-0; in the 4th Coveleski issues three walks, and although one gets erased when Jimmy Rollins is caught stealing, Polanco again delivers an RBI single with two out for additional padding.  However, when Halladay loads up the bases in the 6th, the Phils opt for their closer, Jonathan Papelbon, to make his first appearance in the regional, and he whiffs Homer Summa and retires Luke Sewell to keep the Indians off the scoreboard.  Coveleski also loads up the bases in the bottom of the inning, so Cleveland checks their bullpen and there is nothing there but certain disaster, so they stick with their aging ace and he walks Kevin Frandsen to drive in a run, although he does get the third out by hitting the infamous modern Strat hole at the 9 roll in Carlos Ruiz’s best column.  The Indians start to light up Papelbon in the 8th and they score a couple of runs on grounders that Phils 2B-2 Chase Utley should have converted into DPs but didn’t, but Phils PH extraordinaire Darin Ruf leads off the bottom of the inning with a mammoth homer that makes the Phillies phaithful pheel more comfortable.  They then turn the game over to Jake Diekman in the 9th, despite his control issues.  Cleveland PH Pat McNulty leads off by flying out on a roll that would have been a hit on Chick Fewster, the guy he pinch hit for.  Charlie Jameison then singles and there is a murmur in the crowd, but then Joe Sewell hits a grounder to Rollins, 6-4-3 and it’s game, set, regional as the Phils win 5-2.  They become part of a remarkable dynasty in this tournament, with the Phillies from this era consistently winning regionals:  2005, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2012, and 2014.  This 2012 version was further noteworthy because the Phillies were actively dismantling their team during the season, for example trading away Shane Victorino and Hunter Pence meaning that 2/3s of their regular outfield wasn’t even carded on the team.  Regardless, the remnants were good enough to win the bracket as a #3 seed to continue the legacy of these Phillies teams.

Interesting card of Regional #163:  After featuring the Bambino in this spot for the prior regional, it seems appropriate to go with a card of Ruthian proportions for this bracket, especially since the Phils managed to win the bracket.   In 2012, a 26-year old rookie named Darin Ruf got a callup in mid-September, demonstrating the power of three by batting .333 in 33 AB with 3 HR.  Although his bat continued to show some pop, he never lived up to this card in his subsequent seasons with the Phillies and by 2016 they gave up on him after he hit .205 in limited appearances.  Facing a disillusioning return to the minors at age 30, he opted instead to play in the Korean Baseball Organization for the (Samsung) Lions, and while the 2017 Lions were a 55-84 team that struggled to stay out of the KBO cellar, Ruf showed that he was no fluke as demonstrated by my homebrew card that commemorates his inaugural Korean season.  He had continued success in Korea, and so finally with MLB rosters somewhat depleted in the 2020 pandemic season, his contract was picked up by the Giants, and he continued to hit well, with a .904 OPS for San Francisco in 2021.  He struggled in 2022 and this may be the end of the line for him at age 35, but those 33 at bats in his rookie season made him a formidable late-inning weapon for the Phillies in this tournament and helped them continue a remarkable string of regional wins for the Phils of that era.

REGIONAL #162:  After some lackluster draws in the past few brackets, this one promises to be epic.  It features the World Champion, trashcan-banging 2017 Astros who won the first Series in the history of the franchise, as well as a golden-era Yankee team that was one season away from a pennant, a Cubs team two years after their first in ages, and a Pirates squad due to be family in a couple of seasons.  Just the bottom half of the bracket alone will include appearances by The Babe, Hammerin’ Hank, the Say Hey Kid, Stretch McCovey and Pops Stargell.  Although I guessed that the Astros would be the best team top-to-bottom, I had to believe that karma would catch up with them, and so I picked Babe and the 1920 Yanks to shut them down in the finals.  The ELO ranks predicted the same two teams in the final but went with the Astros to win it all, and also agreed that this was one of the strongest collections of eight teams to have played in a single regional in a long time.  

First round action

The 2017 Astros won 101 games and the first World Series for the franchise, and although the trashcan banging may have helped a lineup that saw every player hit double-digit homers, that didn’t account for a strong pitching staff headed by late-season pickup Justin Verlander (15-8, 3.36) and a defense where everyone except the catcher was a “2” fielder.   They were big ELO favorites over the 74-88 2013 Brewers, but Milwaukee magic had triumphed in the last regional and the crew were hoping Kyle Lohse (11-10, 3.35) could quiet the trash cans.  The Stros strike in the 2nd with a 2-run homer from Yuli Gurriel, and in the 4th a 2-out error by Lohse sets up another 2-run shot, this one from Brian McCann.  When Gurriel misses his HR 1-13/DO split to lead off the 6th, the Brewers see no reason to wait and bring in Francisco Rodriguez to try to keep things close and he strands Gurriel at 2nd for no damage.  The Brewers finally manufacture a run in the 7th when Jean Segura singles, steals second, and scores on a hit from PH Scooter Gennett, the hero of Regional #104.  FRod shuts the Astros down in the interim, but it doesn’t matter as Verlander allows no more baserunners and completes the 5-hitter to send Houston to the semifinals with the 4-1 win.

After their long-awaited Series win in 2016, I seem to remember Cubs fans believing that this would be the beginning of a dynasty, but it was not to be and this 2018 Cubs team was one of the squads that failed to deliver on that promise.  Mind you, this was still a good team, winning 95 games albeit making a rapid exit from the postseason as a wildcard, with 2B-1 Javier Baez coming in second in the MVP balloting and Kyle Hendricks (14-11, 3.44) heading up a decent rotation.  They faced the 2004 Orioles, a 78-84 team who had a big year from Melvin Mora but a pitching staff that got bad quickly after Rodrigo Lopez (14-9, 3.59).  In the top of the 3rd, BJ Surhoff scores on a close play at the plate courtesy of a Brian Roberts single and the Orioles take the lead, but Baez ties it with a solo shot in the bottom of the inning.  Baltimore moves back on top in the 4th when Rafael Palmeiro juices a double and then scores on a Luis Matos base hit, but again the Cubs respond in the bottom of the inning with a Willson Contreras RBI triple, and he scores on a single from Albert Almora and the Cubs take the lead, 3-2.  Mora then ties it with a solo shot in the 5th, and the Cubs efforts to respond are thwarted when Kyle Schwarber misses a SI 1-15 split with a runner on 3rd to make the final out in the bottom of the inning.  Cubs DH Daniel Murphy goes down with an 8-game injury in the 6th to the chagrin of the Wrigley crowd, but they make some noise when Ben Zobrist squibs a single past 2b-2 Roberts and the O’s summon BJ Ryan to relieve Lopez.  Ryan then induces a double play ball from Anthony Rizzo and the game is still tied heading into the 8th.  A single from Miguel Tejada and the Cubs move to their deep bullpen for Pedro Strop, and he gets a DP out of Javy Lopez and the game proceeds to the 9th where both relievers dispatch the bottom of the respective orders and we head to extra frames.  By the 11th, Ryan has burnt his eligibility for the regional, and Bruce Chen comes in; he does his job, and then Strop is similarly used up by the 12th so the Cubs move to Steve Cishek, and he does likewise.  However, in the top of the 13th Roberts doubles and then David Newhan scores him on the only complete hit on Cishek’s card, and the O’s move ahead with the Cubs facing their last chance in the bottom of the 13th.  Schwarber walks and gets into scoring position with two out, but Chen whiffs injury replacement DH Ian Happ and the Orioles pull off the 4-3 win, moving on to the semifinal round but with a seriously depleted bullpen from the 13 inning marathon.

Despite an impressive 95-59 record, the 1920 Yankees only finished in 3rd place but they were on the cusp of a historic run, with Babe Ruth having his breakout season and Carl Mays (26-11, 3.06) anchoring a strong rotation, all of which was good enough to make them the #2 seed in this regional.  They faced a serious challenge from the 1965 Braves, who went 86-76 in their last year in Milwaukee, but had plenty of power in the form of Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews, and Tony Cloninger (24-11, 3.29) had his career year as staff ace.   The Braves assert themselves quickly in the bottom of the 1st, with back to back doubles from Joe Torre and Aaron giving them a lead, and then a two-out double from Mathews scores Aaron and Mack Jones with Mathews scoring on a Frank Bolling single–and it’s 4-0 Braves after one inning.  Things just get worse for the Yanks in the 3rd when Aaron leads off with a flyball that CF-4 Ping Bodie manages to turn into a 3-base error; NY brings the infield in to pitch to Mack Jones, who promptly hits the gbA+ to score Aaron and Mays is starting to throw at Braves hitters.  That doesn’t intimidate them as they rap three hits off Mays’ card in the 4th and karma for the Ray Chapman incident seems to have caught up to Mays, who is pulled in desperation for #3 starter Jack Quinn, but Quinn immediately gives up a 2-run double to Rico Carty and it’s 8-0 after four innings and the sparse Milwaukee crowd is putting their Atlanta real estate search on hold.   Meanwhile, Cloninger doesn’t allow a hit until Bob Meusal knocks a single in the 7th, and that is followed by a towering homer from Ruth that narrows the gap slightly.  But that is all the Yanks can muster, as Cloninger wraps up the 3-hitter and the Braves eliminate the Bombers in an 8-2 blowout.

The 1977 Pirates won 96 games to finish 2nd in the NL East, having most of the pieces in place for their championship run two seasons later, but they were hampered by injuries to Willie Stargell, who nonetheless qualified for starting DH duties here.  They also had John Candelaria (20-5, 2.34) on the mound, the NL ERA leader and 5th in the Cy Young vote. However, all that only made them slight favorites over the 1966 Giants, who won 93 games to finish 2nd behind the Dodgers and boasting May, McCovey, and Jim Ray Hart all hitting over 30 homers and Juan Marichal (25-6, 2.23) placing 6th in the MVP voting.  The Giants take the lead in the 2nd when Pirates 1B-4 Bill Robinson allows two doubles, the second a two-run affair from Len Gabrielson, and then in the 4th Tito Fuentes finds Candelaria’s solid 6-9 HR result for a solo shot that makes it 3-0.  The Pirates get on the board in the bottom of the inning when a Dave Parker double sets up a run-scoring fielder’s choice from Al Oliver, but when McCovey leads off the 6th with a double off a missed HR split on Candelaria’s card the Bucs decide that it’s time for Goose Gossage.  Gossage gets an out, then retires Tom Haller on a HR 1-2/flyB with a “3” split, and finally delivers to Jesus Alou, who answers the prayers of Giants fans by finding and converting Gossage’s HR split for a 5-1 lead.  Pittsburgh responds with a run on an RBI single by Parker in the bottom of the inning, but in the 8th the omens aren’t good for the Pirates as with two out the 1-18 Phil Garner is cut down at the plate trying to score on a Parker double.  In the bottom of the 9th Bill Robinson leads off with a double and Oliver adds a single to bring up Stargell as the tying run; the Giants check their bullpen but see nobody nearly as good as their Hall of Fame starter, so it’s up to Marichal to close things out.  But Stargell raps a base hit off Marichal’s card and it’s now a 2-run game and there is still nobody out.  Marichal records a strikeout but then yields a single to Frank Taveras and the bases are loaded with the infield back, hoping against hope to turn a double play against the speedy Omar Moreno.  And sure enough, it’s a gbA+, Lanier to Fuentes to Robinson, and it’s game over with the Giants hanging on for the 5-3 victory.  

The survivors

The #7 seeded 2004 Orioles found themselves to be an okay team in a group of good ones, making it to the semifinals courtesy of a marathon extra-inning win but with a severely depleted bullpen that might well be needed to support Daniel Cabrera (12-8, 5.00).  They had the challenge of facing the top seed 2017 Astros and Dallas Keuchel, who would be at full strength for the matchup with the trash cans freshly polished.  The Astros launch in the top of the 3rd on a squib RBI single from Carlos Correa, but there could have been more as they leave the bases loaded.  They do get two more in the 4th on a 2-out Brian McCann homer, but the Orioles respond with a 2-out Miguel Tejada double followed by a single from Javy Lopez to score the run to make it 3-1.  In the 6th, Keuchel walks two and Tejada makes him pay with a double that ties the game, and the Astros start to feel karma settling in as Jose Altuve is caught stealing for the second time in the game in the 7th.  A leadoff single by Larry Bigbie in the bottom of the inning and the Astros summon closer Ken Giles to try to halt the momentum shift, and he does his job so the game enters the 8th still tied.  It stays that way through regulation, as Giles whiffs Brian Roberts with the winning run on third to end the bottom of the 9th.  In the top of the 10th, Cabrera pitching his final inning by issuing two walks but fanning George Springer to keep the Astros from scoring, while Giles finishes his final inning of eligibility in the regional by getting Tejada, who had hit three doubles thus far in the game, to hit into a DP to end the inning.  Jason Grimsley comes in to pitch the 11th for the O’s, and he sets the Stros down in order, while Chris Devinski gets the call in the bottom of the 11th for Houston.  He allows a leadoff single to Javy Lopez and then a walk to Rafael Palmiero, and Tim Raines Jr. comes in to pinch run as the winning run at second with nobody out.  Luis Matos hits into a fielder’s choice so Raines moves to 3rd as the winning run with one out, and the infield comes in as Devinski faces Bigbie.  Bigbie hits a sharp grounder to 3B-2 Alex Bregman, who looks the runner back but can’t turn the DP and there are two out with runners on 2nd and 3rd and PH David Segui at the plate.  Devenski strikes him out swinging, and the game moves to the 12th.  McCann draws a leadoff walk followed by a single from Cameron Maybin, a AA stealer who is nailed going to second for the third CS of the game for Houston, this time courtesy of backup C-4 Geronimo Gil.  The infield comes in for Altuve, who squibs a single over the head of the SS and the Astros take the lead.  Altuve then finally successfully steals second, and Correa follows with a single and Altuve races home for some added insurance.  The hits keep coming, including RBI singles from Gurriel and Josh Reddick, and by the time new reliever Jorge Julio gets the third out Houston has scored four to take a commanding lead.  This time, there is no extra-inning magic in the Orioles as Devenski puts them down in order and the Astros gain the finals with the 12-inning 7-3 victory.

Semifinal games in this tournament tend to be hard-fought battles, and this one had the makings of a classic, with the 1965 Braves of Aaron and Mathews against the 1966 Giants of Mays and McCovey, with both teams having defeated formidable opponents in the first round.  The pitching matchup was a good one with the Giants’ Gaylord Perry (21-8, 2.99) against Ken Johnson (16-10, 3.43) and both teams had fully rested bullpens.  In the top of the 1st, the Braves, who had started off fast against the Yankees in round one, knock four hits against Perry but only get one run on a Rico Carty RBI single as Joe Torre hits into a rally-killing DP.  That lead lasts until the 4th, when Mays converts Johnson’s HR split to lead off the inning and the score is knotted entering the 5th.  Perry escapes disaster in the 6th by whiffing PH Gene Oliver with runners on 2nd and 3rd; when Giants defensive replacement Ollie Brown misses Johnson’s HR split for a double in the 8th, the Braves take no chances and bring in closer Billy O’Dell, who strands Brown and we move to the 9th with the score still tied at one apiece.  Perry sets down the Braves in order in the top of the 9th, but in the bottom O’Dell walks the first two batters in Mays and McCovey to put the winning run in scoring position and Jim Ray Hart at the plate.  O’Dell finally throws a strike, and Hart rips it into the RF corner to score Mays and the Giants win the 2-1 squeaker to gain the finals, even though they only managed five hits. 

This was the strongest matchup in a regional final in some time, with two 90+ win teams facing off for the crown.  The top-seeded 2017 Astros came into the final with a bullpen that had been taxed and a trashcan that had been dented in their extra-inning semifinal; their closer wouldn’t be available for two more games although Brad Peacock (13-2, 3.00) displayed a gaudy record that suggested he might not need relief.  The 1966 Giants were the #5 seed in a group with six very good teams, but they had gotten this far without the core of their lineup really breaking through, and Bobby Bolin (11-10, 2.89) was a solid option as their #3 starter.  The Giants show signs of waking up in the bottom of the 1st as McCovey rips a solo HR into the wind at Candlestick Park; DH Jim Hart then makes the final out with a 6-12 toss, but the Astros breathe a big sigh of relief when Peacock escapes injury with a “2” split roll.  In the 3rd, Jose Altuve doubles with two out and the Astros send lumber C Brian McCann home to try to tie the game, but he’s out by a mile; the Giants’ luck in the bottom of the inning isn’t much better as Hal Lanier manages to bunt into a double play to kill a rally.  In the 4th, the Houston defense makes a rare slipup as CF-2 George Springer can’t get to a Tom Haller flyball and Mays scores to push the SF lead to 2-0.  The Astros rally in the 6th as Springer knocks an RBI single, but Bolin bails himself out from further damage with a great defensive play with the bases loaded and two out, despite his “4” fielding rating.  In the bottom of the inning Mays misses a HR 1-14 split, but the resulting double sets up a sac fly by Hart pushing the score to 3-1.   The Astros return the high split favor in the 8th as Marwin Gonzalez misses Bolin’s HR 1-17 split, but the double scores Altuve and once again it’s a one-run game.  Bolin then just needs to get through the top of the 9th, but it begins with C-3 Tom Haller dropping a popup, but Bolin gets the next two and now he faces PH Tyler White for the regional.  White rips a grounder, 2B-2 Lanier makes the diving stop, flips to McCovey and karma has caught up with the Astros as the Giants celebrate the regional crown with the 3-2 squeaker.  Despite the murderer’s row of Mays, McCovey, and Hart, the Giants MVP honors go to their starting rotation, which only allowed a total of 6 runs in the three complete games they tossed.

Interesting card of Regional #162:  With all the hoopla around Aaron Judge breaking the AL home run record, I’d like to remind everyone that Maris and his successors should all be carrying the famous asterisk, because they all played in a longer season than did one George Herman Ruth.  Unless the game company uncharacteristically grants my wish and releases another season from the golden era of pre-war baseball, this will be the last entry for the Bambino in my tournament, and what an entry it is.  Judge, hold Ruth’s hot dog:  in this, his first season with the Yankees, Babe by himself outhomered every other TEAM in the league–yes, the entire team, all of them.  By comparison, in 2022 Judge would have needed 111 dingers to outhomer the WORST team in the league; he would have needed 215 HR to match Ruth’s accomplishment of besting all of them.  In my years of watching baseball, I’ve marveled at the power (enhanced or no) of sluggers like McGwire, Sosa, Bonds, and Judge, but it is hard to imagine that the game will ever see another player who is so far better than every other hitter in the league than Ruth was in 1920.  Unfortunately, this included everyone on his own team as well, and these Yanks made a rapid exit from the tournament with Ruth getting walked twice and generating all of their runs with a homer on the only decent pitch he saw.

REGIONAL #161:  This bracket draw included two pair, including two Phillies teams from adjacent years–the two immediately following their pennant in 1983.  The other duo involved the Brewers, one shortly after their one year as the Pilots and the other shortly before they jumped from the AL to the NL.   There was also the final tournament entry from the deadball 1911 season, an A’s team that was similar to one that exited quickly in the last regional, and Pirates and Padres representatives that I suspected were fairly undistinguished.  I predicted an all-Philly Phinal, with the ‘84 version of the Phils, being fresh off their pennant, would emerge on top.  The ELO rankings agreed with my estimation, and ranked those ‘84 Phillies as really the only good team in the group.

First round action

The 75-87 1985 Phillies had seriously declined from their ‘83 pennant, with an aging Mike Schmidt moving to first base but still their main offensive weapon, and Steve Carlton moving to irrelevance with Kevin Gross (15-13, 3.41) fronting a so-so rotation backed by a decent bullpen.  They were nonetheless ELO favorites over the 93-loss 1998 Pirates, who were entering years of ineptitude, here represented by their all-”4” DP combo that probably wouldn’t be much help to starter Francisco Cordova (13-14, 3.31).  The Phillies burst out quickly in the top of the 1st with Luis Aguayo leading off the game with a homer, and then a Schmidt double is followed by RBI singles from Ozzie Virgil and Rick Schu and it’s 3-0 Phils before the western Pennsylvanians can swing a bat.  Things don’t get better for the Pirates, as in the 3rd a couple of fielding mishaps by their SS-4 Lou Collier sets up an RBI single for Juan Samuel and a 2-run base hit for Schmidt, and Cordova is yanked for Jason Christiansen who retires the side but the Phils now lead 7-0.  After Christiansen holds the Phils in the top of the 4th, the Pirates take heart and get rolling in the bottom of the inning with a 2-run homer from DH Freddy Garcia, and Jason Kendall adds another 2-run shot in the 5th and it’s starting to look like a ballgame.  But Glenn Wilson finds a solid double on Christiansen’s card to begin the 6th and Virgil singles him home and the Phils extend their lead to 8-4.  Wilson then leads off the 8th with a homer against new Pirates reliever Ricardo Rincon, and then Rincon walks the bases loaded in the 9th to set up a 2-run single for Wilson while another run scores after C-2 Kendall drops a popup with two out.  Kendall atones somewhat with an RBI single in the bottom of the 9th but Gross is good enough to complete the game and preserve the pen as the Phils waltz to the easy 12-5 win.

Most of the Seattle Pilots were gone from the 91-loss 1972 Brewers, but they still reeked of expansion with a collection of has-beens, albeit having a not-terrible starting rotation with Jim Lonborg (14-12, 2.83) hoping to recapture past glories.  Fortunately for them, they faced the 74-88 1983 A’s, whose ELO ranking wasn’t much better, and much like the ‘82 that made a rapid exit in the previous regional they had a AAA Rickey Henderson at the top of order and not much after him.  Steve McCatty (6-9, 3.99) would get the starting nod but like most of the rest of the rotation, his control left something to be desired.  The pitchers are in control early, but in the 5th A’s RF-3 Mike Davis turns a Ron Theobald fly into a double, setting up an RBI single for Ellie Rodriguez and the Brewers move in front briefly until Dwayne Murphy leads off the bottom of the inning with a long homer that ties it back up.  In the 6th, the A’s take the lead when Henderson singles, steals his second base of the game, and Carney Lansford drives him in with a single and it’s 2-1 Oakland.  When Downtown Ollie Brown leads off the top of the 8th with a double, the A’s pull McCatty for Tom Burgmeier, who promptly allows two straight singles off his card, the second one an RBI for George Scott, and the game is tied once again.  But who should be leading off the bottom of the inning but Henderson, who singles, steals second, and scores on another Lansford hit, chasing Lonborg for Frank Linzy.   Linzy faces Davey Lopes, who manages to convert Linzy’s HR 1-5/flyB split and the A’s take charge.  It’s then just up to Burgmeier to escape the 9th, and he comes through unscathed and unlike two Henderson-led teams in the last regional, the A’s this time move on to the second round with a 5-2 victory.

The 1984 Phillies were a better team than the ‘85 version that was still alive in the top half of this bracket, with their 81-81 record a six game improvement and sporting a viable Steve Carlton, although they opted to go with John Denny (7-7, 2.45) for their first round matchup against the 1911 Indians.  The Indians would be the final 1911 season team to enter the tournament, and only one–the Senators–had captured a regional, with most of the deadball era teams simply being outgunned by more modern squads.  Despite being ELO underdogs to the Phils, the Indians had a better record at 80-73 and had a top part of the order that boasted Shoeless Joe (4th in the MVP balloting) as well as Nap Lajoie, who was so important to the team that their nickname was actually the Naps rather than the Indians at the time.  Furthermore, the Naps had Vean Gregg (23-7, 1.80) on the mound, a rookie who led the AL in ERA and could have won the Cy Young Award, except for the fact that the 44-year old Young was still pitching for the team and would be available out of the bullpen.  Both pitchers begin the game in fine form, and there is no score until the bottom of the 5th when Ivy Olson singles and Cleveland plays 1911 smallball, sacrificing him to 2nd from where he scores on a 2-out Lajoie base hit.  However, in the 6th the Phils decide they can play that game, and when PH Jeff Stone walks, he steals second and scores on a 2-out Mike Schmidt single and the game is tied.  Then, in the 7th Sixto Lezcano gets a hold of a Gregg fastball that goes into hitherto unknown parts of League Park, and that solo shot puts the Phils up 2-1.  Smallball fails the Naps in the bottom of the inning when Olson is caught stealing on a botched hit and run, and the Phils threaten to blow it open in the top of the 8th loading up the bases, but Lezcano flies out to end the inning with no additional insurance, so they bring in the defensive replacements to support Denny.  In the bottom of the 9th, Terry Turner leads off with a single and advances to second on the hit and run, and gets to third on a groundout by PH Syd Smith.   That brings up Jack Graney with the tying run on 3rd, and the Phils eye their bullpen but stick with Denny, and Graney rolls a SI 1-2/lo on Denny’s card; the split die teeters on a “1” but comes to rest on the 7 and the Phils survive the 2-1 duel to advance to the semifinals.  

The second Milwaukee team in the regional was a little bit better than the other entrant from 25 years earlier, as the 1997 Brewers went 78-83 aided by some steroid-era power, although their pitching staff after Ben McDonald (8-7, 4.06) was frightening.  They were also slight ELO favorites over a 76-86 2013 Padres team that had a rather nondescript lineup, although Andrew Cashner (10-9, 3.09) had a strong card as their round one starter.  The game remains scoreless until the bottom of the 4th, when Will Venable leads off by finding and converting McDonald’s HR split, although John Jaha returns the favor with a HR off Cashner in the 6th and the game is tied.  Jeromy Burnitz then crushes a two-run shot in the 8th to put the Brewers up for the first time in the game, and armed with the lead they bring in closer Doug Jones to pitch the last two innings.  In the 8th, the Padres lose their top hitter Carlos Quentin to a 15 game injury, and Jones holds San Diego scoreless for his two innings to send the Brewers to the semis with a 3-1 win, despite a 6-hitter from Cashner.  

The survivors

This semifinal matched near-contemporaries in the #2 seed 1985 Phillies against the #7 seeded 1984 A’s, although their ELO ranks were not as different as the seeding might suggest.  The Phils tapped Shane Rawley (13-8, 3.31) for the start, although like pretty much all of the Philadelphia rotation, his card was not as good as his stats might suggest.  The A’s went with Chris Codoroli (12-12, 4.46), mainly because the rest of the rotation couldn’t seem to throw strikes as the team was the second worst in the AL in walks allowed.   Things are quiet until the top of the 5th, when Garry Maddox finds and converts the HR split on Codoroli for a 2-run shot, and when in the 6th Von Hayes singles and then PH Alan Knicely delivers a double to put two runners in scoring position, the A’s opt for Tom Burgmeier again out of the pen.  Tom Foley greets Burgmeier with a single that scores Hayes, but 1-17 PR Jeff Stone is out at the plate trying to score a second run.  However, Foley eventually scores on a Luis Aguayo RBI single, and then an error by A’s 3B-3 Carney Lansford loads up the bases for Mike Schmidt; Burgmeier is overcautious and walks in a run, and then is undercautious to Glenn Wilson who puts it in the corner for a bases-clearing triple that chases Burgmeier for Gorman Heimueller.  He records the final out but the Phils now lead 8-0 and wholesale defensive substitution ensues.  Davey Lopes gets the A’s on the board in the bottom of the inning with a leadoff homer, but that is the last hit Rawley allows as he closes out a 6-hitter and the Phils move to the finals with the easy 8-1 win and must wait to see if they will face their ‘84 selves for the regional title.

The top seeded 1984 Phillies decided to place their chances to make the final on the strong left arm of Hall of Famer Steve Carlton (13-7, 3.58), as they were a little nervous after scoring only two runs in the opener.  For the 1997 Brewers, it was Jose Mercedes (7-10, 3.79) on the mound for a team that had only put up three runs themselves, so both offenses were looking to break out this game.  It was the Brewers who fired the first shot, as Carlton walks Jeff Cirillo in the bottom of the 1st and he races home on a Jeromy Burnitz double to make it 1-0.  That doesn’t last long, as Phils DH Tim Corcoran blasts a leadoff HR off Mercedes’ card in the top of the 2nd, and in the 4th Mike Schmidt hits a tape measure shot with the bases empty to give the Phils the lead.  In the bottom of the 5th the Philly defense comes up short, with LF-3 Glenn Wilson allowing a double and then an error by 2b-4 Juan Samuel sets up an RBI on a fielder’s choice for Marc Newfield.  However, Brewers SS Jose Valentin gets injured for 7 games, and the game remains tied when the inning ends with Mike Matheny (1-13) getting nailed at the plate trying to score the go-ahead run on a single.  Both starters remain in control until the 9th, when a Corcoran single is followed by Ozzie Virgil missing a HR 1-14/DO split, but the 1-11 Corcoran is barely safe at home for a Phils lead.  The Brewers have then seen too many Mercedes bends, and Doug Jones comes in to retire the side.  It’s then up to Carlton in the bottom of the 9th, but Dave Nilsson singles, and pinch runner Chuck Carr races to third on another single by injury replacement Mark Loretta, so the winning run is aboard.  The Phils bring the infield in and decide to let Lefty try to work out of his jam, but Gerald Williams singles off Carlton’s card and the game is tied with one out and the winning run 90 feet away.  The Brewers send up PH Jesse Levis to face Carlton, who refuses to come out of the game, and Levis calmly lines a single into the gap and it’s game over, with the Brewers winning a wild come from behind walk-off 4-3 victory–dashing the hopes of the City of Brotherly Love for a monopoly on the finals. 

The regional final matched the #2 seed 1985 Phillies, who had outscored the opposition 20-6 in the first two rounds, against the #4 seeded 1997 Brewers, who squeaked into the final with a 7-4 run differential.  Not only were the Brewers ELO underdogs, but they would not have their starting shortstop to support the shaky arm of Scott Karl (10-13, 4.47), their best of bad options, while the Phils went with Charles Hudson (8-13, 3.78) who had better stats but that wasn’t entirely evident in his card.  The fireworks start in the bottom of the 1st when John Jaha jacks a 2-out 2-run homer to put the Brewers up, but Von Hayes narrows the gap in the top of the 2nd with an RBI single.  Milwaukee gets the run back in the bottom of the inning when Jeff Cirillo finds Hudson’s solid 6-4 HR result for a 2-out solo shot, and when Phils SS-2 Tom Foley makes an error in the 3rd and Mike Matheny gets a gbA+ with a held runner for an RBI single, Hudson loses it, grooving one to #9 hitter Marc Newfield who deposits it in the stands for a 3-run shot that blows the game open.  A double by Julio Franco and Hudson is gone, with Don Carman coming in to get the final out, but the Brewers lead is now 7-1.  The Phils get a run in the 4th but it comes when Rick Schu hits into a DP, and although Carman gives them four no-hit innings, their offense is having no success closing the gap against Karl.  With Carman spent in the 7th, the Phils bring in aging Steve Carlton to see if he can atone for the 9th inning loss his younger self earned against these same Brewers in the second round, and he holds the Brewers, with the last Milwaukee hitter of the game, C Mike Matheny, getting injured for 4 games.  But it is to no avail as Karl finishes out a 7-hitter and the Brewers roll to the 7-2 win and the regional crown, the 4th such accomplishment for the franchise joining 1987, 1990, and 2003.  However, they will face some future challenges, as they will be missing their starting catcher and shortstop when they enter super-regional play as a sub-.500 team.

Interesting card(s) of Regional #161:  I’ve never selected three cards for this feature before, but this situation struck me as an oddity.  According to tournament rules, the starters for the game (who must play for at least 5 innings) will be the players with the most ABs at their primary position; for left field on the 1984 Phillies, that was Glenn Wilson, who hit .240 with 6 HR in 341 AB.  What was odd about this situation was that the Phils had THREE players, all with LF as their primary position, who were FAR better than Wilson, and this was back when the company printed only 24 players (including extras) per team.   Has there ever been another team with as much bench strength in left field?? Even after all these years, I remembered Stone’s card as a one-year wonder once I saw it, but I’d forgotten about the other two; Corcoran’s card in particular is killer, and he was selected for team DH honors in this tournament.  This was Stone’s rookie season, and he actually came in 7th in the Rookie of the Year balloting despite his limited ABs; however, it was Gross, with the least impressive card of the three, that had the most successful career.  Unfortunately, these Phillies didn’t last very long in the tournament, mainly because they couldn’t seem to put up many runs; perhaps they would have gone further if there had been some plausible way to get all three of these guys in the lineup for the entire game.

 

REGIONAL #160:  The hand that was dealt in this regional was a bit unusual, as it included three pairs and every team selected was from the American League.  The tandem entries were from the Mariners, A’s, and Blue Jays, with the nearest teams timewise to a pennant being the 2007 White Sox and the 1992 A’s, both two years after winning the AL.   Because the ‘93 version of the A’s had made it to the semis of the previous regional by defeating a pennant winner, I guessed that the ‘92 version would finish the job and beat the Angels in the finals, although I thought that the 2020 Mariners could be a dark horse given the unpredictability of the pandemic teams.  I was surprised to discover that the ELO ranks had the same two teams in the finals, with the two dead even in terms of their ELO composite score, but since the Angels were listed first that had to be the ELO pick.

First round action

The 2020 Mariners had a lot of cards for a team that only played 60 games in the pandemic season; unfortunately most of those cards weren’t any good, consistent with their 27-33 record, but fortunately their top IP starter, Marco Gonzales (7-2, 3.10), had one of the better ones.  However, they drew the regional’s top seed in the 89-win 2006 Angels, who had a strong lineup, decent defense, and a solid rotation with Jered Weaver (11-2, 2.56) getting the first round start.  The Angels strike first when Orlando Cabrera leads off the bottom of the 3rd by finding and converting Gonzales’ HR split, and that one mistake proves to be the ballgame as both starters are in great form.  Gonzales ends with a 5-hitter, but that’s not enough as Weaver tosses a 3-hit shutout and the favored Angels survive with a 1-0 victory.  The Angels win despite making more errors than runs, something that needs to be fixed if they hope to win the bracket.

The 94-loss 1982 A’s had AAA stealer Rickey Henderson at the top of the order with 130 SB, but they had little else to brag about and swingman Tom Underwood (10-6, 3.29) was much better than their more commonly used starting pitchers.  They were ELO underdogs against the 83-79 2000 Blue Jays, a steroid era squad with six guys in the lineup with 20 or more homers but also a steroid era pitching staff fronted by David Wells (20-8, 4.11) who led the AL in wins and came in 3rd in the Cy Young voting.  The Jays firepower is evident early, as in the bottom of the 1st a Brad Fullmer RBI single and a 2-run shot from Tony Batista give them a 3-0 lead that could have been worse but for Shannon Stewart (1-16) getting nailed trying for an extra base.  The A’s cut into that lead in the 3rd with a two run double from Wayne Gross hit off Wells’ card, but in the bottom of the 6th Fullmer smacks a 2-run blast that puts the Jays back up by three.  In the 8th, Henderson singles, steals second, and scores (barely) on a Jeff Burroughs base hit to narrow the gap, and Wells is showing signs of tiring but the Jays aren’t happy with their bullpen options so they stick with their ace.  In the top of the 9th, Mike Heath singles and PH Joe Rudi draws a walk, so with two out the exhausted Wells is facing Henderson as the go-ahead run.  But he reaches into the reserves and whiffs Rickey to propel the Jays into the semifinals with the 5-3 win.

The 96-66 1992 A’s won the AL West and came within two games in the ALCS of a pennant; here, they were looking to finish where the ‘93 version fell short in the semifinals of the prior regional, but this team was considerably better, with a healthy McGwire, a killer bullpen, and a solid rotation with Ron Darling (15-10, 3.66) at the front of it.  They were also hoping to avenge the loss by the ‘82 squad in the prior game, although other than Rickey Henderson batting leadoff the two teams had little in common.  They faced a 78-84 2017 Mariners team that could hit the ball, with eight guys in the lineup with a SLG% over .400, but their defense had some holes and the starting pitching after ace James Paxton (12-5, 2.98) got bad quickly.   The M’s proved their offensive mettle in the bottom of the 1st with Nelson Cruz and Mike Zunino going back-to-back to provide a quick 3-0 lead, and a 2-out RBI single from Jean Segura extends their lead in the 2nd.  A two-base error by A’s 3B-2 Carney Lansford sets up a two-run single by Mitch Haniger, and when Robinson Cano follows that with a single the A’s have had enough of Darling and turn to Jeff Russell, but Ben Gamel hits a single that CF-2 Willie Wilson misplays and by the time Russell gets out three, the M’s lead 7-0 after three and the A’s still don’t have a hit.   In the 4th, another error by Wilson opens the door to a three-run homer from Kyle Seager.  Paxson finally loses his no-hit bid in the 6th when he lets a Walt Weiss grounder get by him for a single, and then Wilson doubles and Rickey Henderson drives them both in with a single; he steals second and scores on a Ruben Sierra single and the gap narrows slightly to 10-3 Seattle.  Paxton continues to struggle in the 7th, loading the bases up with two out to face McGwire, who crushes it into the far reaches of Safeco for a grand slam and it’s a whole new ballgame.  Seeking to capitalize on the momentum shift, the A’s bring in closer Dennis Eckersley to begin the bottom of the 7th, but a Gamel triple drives one in to provide a little more padding for Seattle.  Hoping to preserve their pen, the Mariners give Paxton a chance to recover his form and he does so, striking out the side (albeit with a Lance Blankenship double mixed in) in the 9th and the Mariners end on top of the 11-7 slugfest, meaning that the A’s teams go 0 for 2 in the first round while the Mariners split their appearances.    

The 2007 White Sox had swept the World Series just two seasons previously, but this team was a shadow of their former selves, losing 90 games, but they still hoped to avenge the first round exit of the ‘05 team in Regional #141 brought about by the jinx that befalls all my favorite teams.  The Sox had Mark Buerhle (10-9, 3.63) as their top option to face the 2011 Blue Jays, who went an even 81-81 but had a solid lineup with RF Jose Bautista finishing 3rd in the MVP voting and Rickey Romero (15-11, 2.92) placing 10th in the Cy Young balloting.  The Sox take the lead in the 2nd when Paulie Konerko jacks a leadoff homer, but Buerhle has a meltdown in the bottom of the 3rd where he can’t get the final out, and by the time he does Brett Lawrie contributes a two-run double and Edwin Encarnacion and Eric Thames also drive in runs and the Jays take a 4-1 lead.  When Kelly Johnson blasts a solo shot off Buehrle’s card in the 4th, Ozzie Guillen in desperation signals for the fat guy and in comes closer Bobby Jenks, who ends the inning without further damage.  However, in the 5th Lawrie crushes one with Bautista aboard and the rout is on.  Sox DH Jim Thome tries to make it more respectable with a solo HR in the 6th, but Romero is in charge until the 9th.  Then, he starts to lose effectiveness but the Jays want to preserve their pen so they stick with their ace.  However, he allows an RBI single to Rob Mackowiak, another to AJ Pierzinski, and then loads the bases and PH Luis Terrero comes to the plate as the go-ahead run with one out.  The Jays finally have to admit Romero is toast and summon Marc Rzepczynksi from the pen, primarily to make me type yet another unspellable name in this 9th inning rally.  Marc fans Terrero to bring up Tadahito Iguchi, who flies out harmlessly to leave the bases loaded, and the Jays hold on for the 7-4 win.

The survivors

The top-seeded 2006 Angels barely survived round one scoring only one run, and while John Lackey (13-11, 3.58) was a decent #2 starter, they probably couldn’t count on another shutout in their semifinal against the steroid-era 2000 Blue Jays.  The #4 seeded Jays opted to go with Frank Castillo (10-5, 3.59), but he is victimized in the top of the 1st by a 2-out error from his SS-2 Alex Gonzalez, which sets up a 2-run homer from Juan Rivera and the Angels move on top quickly.  Garrett Anderson adds to the margin in the 2nd by leading off the inning with a HR, but the Jays bats come alive in the bottom of the inning, as although Darrin Fletcher misses a HR 1-18 split, he still drives one in and a sac fly from Gonzalez and a Morandini single that is misplayed by Angels CF-3 Chone Figgins and the game is tied 3-3.  In the bottom of the 4th, Tony Batista and Fletcher get back to back doubles from Lackey’s HR 1/DO result, and RF-4 Vlad Guerrero can’t get to a Morandini flyball that scores Fletcher; Lackey then loads the bases and the Angels sense the game getting away so they summon closer Francisco Rodriguez to try to get the last out.  However, Carlos Delgado puts FRod’s first offering into the RF corner for a bases-clearing double and when the inning finally ends the Jays hold an 8-3 lead.  The Angels cut into the lead with a leadoff homer from Mike Napoli in the 6th, and when Rivera leads off the 8th with his second homer of the game off Castillo’s card, the nervous Jays move to the pen and Joey Hamilton sets down three in a row.  In the 9th, Hamilton tosses his second perfect inning in relief and the Jays head to the finals with the upset 8-5 win.

The 2011 Blue Jays were aiming to achieve something that was unprecedented in this tournament–an all-Jays regional final.  Favored to do so as the top remaining seed at #3, the Jays gave the start to swingman Carlos Villanueva (6-4, 4.04) to face the 2017 Mariners, who put up double digit runs in their first round win.  For the Mariners, Mike Leake (10-13, 3.92) was the best of the remaining options, and he’s in good form until the bottom of the 3rd, when Colby Rasmus finds and converts Leake’s HR split for a solo shot and a Jays lead.  That lead is short-lived when Mike Zunino connects for a leadoff homer in the 4th, and that rattles Villanueva who then allows a 2-run triple to Robinson Cano and Ben Gamel rips a grounder through the drawn-in infield and the Mariners take a 4-1 lead.  However, M’s CF Jarrod Dyson ends the inning with a gruesome 15-game injury, and the Jays try to seize back the momentum by capitalizing on a Yonder Alonso error followed by a Rasmus triple and an RBI single from Yunel Escobar, and it’s a one-run game after five.  When Leake gives up a single in the bottom of the 7th, the M’s head to the pen for Tony Zych, who retires the side without incident.  Then, Nelson Cruz leads off the 8th with a tape measure shot and Villanueva is gone for Casey Janssen, but mighty Casey allows a double to Zunino and a 2-run homer to Alonso and the Jays fans begin to head for the exits.  A solo shot by Jose Bautista in the bottom of the inning makes a few of them sit back down, so for the 9th the Mariners bring in Nick Vincent to try to record the save, fearing to go to their closer Edwin Diaz because of his gopher ball tendencies.  Vincent does the job and the Mariners head to the finals with the 7-4 win, but they will be without their starting CF for the remainder of the tournament.

For the second game in a row, the #5 seeded 2017 Mariners were facing a Toronto squad, this one the #4 seed 2000 Blue Jays.  The Mariners would be playing short their regular CF and with a somewhat taxed bullpen available to support Erasmo Martinez (5-6, 4.39), while the Jays tapped Esteban Loaiza (10-13, 4.56) and with two strong offenses and two mediocre starters, the fans at Safeco Field were expecting some fireworks.  The first taste was a 2-out Carlos Delgado solo shot in the top of the 1st to put the Jays ahead, and in the 3rd they add to their lead with a Dave Martinez RBI single and a Carlos Delgado sac fly.  However, the Mariners get those latter runs back in the bottom of the inning courtesy of a Nelson Cruz double, and it’s 3-2 Jays after three.   Loaiza survives a threat in the 5th by whiffing Mike Zunino with the bases loaded and two out, but when he walks the first two batters of the 6th he’s gone for Joey Hamilton, who earned the save in their semifinal game.  Hamilton starts out by dropping a Kyle Seager grounder to load the bases with nobody out, but he then strikes out the next two batters and gets Jean Segura to fly out to end the inning with the Jays lead still intact.  In the top of the 7th, an Alex Gonzalez double drives in Jose Cruz Jr., and Martinez is pulled for Tony Zych who ends the inning but the Jays now lead by two.  Mitch Haniger then leads off the bottom of the inning by getting injured for 6 games, and the Mariners’ outfield resembles an infirmary.  With Hamilton’s eligibility now used up, the Jays bring in closer Billy Koch to begin the 8th, and he gets through it and through two outs of the 9th with no problem, but then Nelson Cruz doubles and defensive replacement LF-2 Dave Martinez drops a Zunino flyball for a two-base error and it’s a one-run game with the tying run in scoring position in the form of pinch runner Taylor Motter.  Koch delivers to Yonder Alonso, and it’s a groundout (plus meaningless injury, no less) and the Blue Jays hold on for a 4-3 win to take the regional crown, the fourth for the franchise joining 1985, 1989 and 2005.  The Jays award regional MVP honors to Joey Hamilton, a little used starter forced into relief who pitched four hitless innings with a save in round two and an all-important hold in the finals.

Interesting card of Regional #160:  Bill James described him as the best leadoff man in baseball history, and although I find that I disagree with James a fair amount, this may not be one of those times.  In 1982, the 23 year old Henderson stole 130 bases, breaking Lou Brock’s modern-era record for steals and that record still stands today.  We don’t see a lot of AAA stealers in Strat, but this card is one of the best of them, representing a season where Rickey was 10th in the MVP voting after having been the runner-up the prior season (at age 22).   The all-time career SB leader by nearly 500 steals, James points out that Rickey had the most steals of anyone before the age of 29 as well as the most steals after age 29–and that other than him, there was nobody else who appears on both lists of leaders.  Anyhow, despite sporting this card in the leadoff spot, the 1982 A’s made a first round exit in this tournament, managing to lose 94 games for Billy Martin in real life.  One has to wonder how many games they would have lost if Henderson wasn’t on the team. 

REGIONAL #159:   My team selector program went on a Royals binge for this bracket, inviting three different KC squads to participate including the 2014 pennant-winners.  There weren’t any other immediate contenders that jumped out; there was an A’s team in decline from the Bash Brothers days, and a Rangers team that was a few years away from a pennant-winner (one that by the way went down in the previous regional).   I thought the top half of the group looked stronger than the bottom half,and I ultimately went with the AL winning 2014 Royals over the Rockies of the past season to emerge from the finals.  The ELO ranks indicated that neither half of the bracket was very strong, and although the pennant winning Royals were the favorites, they were ranked as only the 6th best team of 2014.  Still, they were predicted to handle largely mediocre opposition, with the ELO picking an all-Royals final with the other two KC squads having rankings that were virtually tied with each other.  

First round action

The 2014 Royals won 89 games and captured the AL pennant from a wild card slot, but their ELO score was not very impressive, portraying them as the 6th best team in baseball and only the 4th best team in their league.  Their strengths were in strong defense (five “1”s in the lineup) and excellent relief pitching available to support swingman starter Danny Duffy (9-12, 2.53), although their offense was rather anemic and their rotation was pretty pedestrian for a pennant winner.  However, they were still prohibitive favorites against the 94-loss 1993 A’s, who didn’t do much bashing with Canseco gone and McGwire relegated to part time duty with 84 ABs, and Bobby Witt (14-13, 4.21) at the top of the rotation.   The A’s do a little bashing in the 2nd when Ruben Sierra finds and converts Duffy’s HR split with two out for a solo shot, but 3B Craig Paquette promptly gets injured making the third out–which under tournament rules allows McGwire to get into the lineup.  In the 3rd, Duffy issues two walks and then Terry Steinbach takes him deep for a three run shot, putting the Royals in a sizable hole.  A Troy Neel sac fly makes it 5-0 Oakland in the top of the 5th, and when Mike Bordick leads off the 7th with a single, Duffy is pulled for Wade Davis and his 1.00 ERA, but with two out Steinback rolls a 5-2, which is the only hit on Davis’s card, and it happens to be a solid triple and the A’s extend their lead, while putting Steinbach just a double short of a cycle.  Meanwhile, Bobby Witt is throwing bullets and he finishes out a 3-hit shutout to send the regional favorites back into storage in the first round, as the A’s win 6-0 despite only recording five hits themselves.

The ELO ranks had this first round game as a matchup of two middling squads.  The 75-87 2007 Rangers would in a few years become the pennant winner that didn’t survive the previous regional; although the team had some offensive weapons there were a number of instances where the backup was better than the regular, and the rotation was pretty dreadful with Brandon McCarthy (8-10, 4.87) being the best it could offer.  They faced the 1995 Mets, who went 69-75 in that strike-shortened season and were still hoping to get their money’s worth out of Bobby Bonilla, as well as hoping for a decent outing from spot starter Bill Pulsipher (5-7, 3.98).  In the bottom of the third, both Jose Vizcaino and Rico Brogna find and convert McCarthy’s HR 1-8 split, and the Mets jump to a 3-0 lead, which Brogna extends with an RBI single in the 4th.  When Carl Everett leads off the 5th with a towering blast to make it 5-0, McCarthy gets the hook and Joaquin Benoit is summoned in desperation.  The Rangers also bring in numerous backups in the 6th, and one of them, Mark Teixeira, gets them on the board with an RBI single and then they load up the bases with two out, so the Mets pull Pulsipher and have Doug Henry face Rangers PH Victor Diaz; Henry issues two straight walks before recording the third out and the Mets lead is suddenly cut to two.  The omens keep looking bad for the Mets when C Todd Hundley is knocked out of the game with an injury in the bottom of the inning, and then David Murphy raps a solo shot off Henry’s card in the top of the 7th, although Jeff Kent answers with one of his own in the bottom of the inning and the Queens faithful breathe a little easier.  Not taking any chances, the Mets summon closer John Franco to begin the 8th, but a 2-base error by SS-3 Vizcaino followed by a Diaz double off Franco’s card and it’s a one-run game.  However, in the bottom of the 8th the Mets pound Benoit in his final inning of eligibility, and a Bonilla double, a Brogna RBI single and a sac fly from injury replacement Kelly Stinnett and it’s a big pad for Franco entering the 9th.  But the Rangers aren’t going down easy, and Michael Young converts Franco’s HR HR 1-7 split for a 2-run blast, and then Teixeira and Sammy Sosa get singles off bad OF fielding by the Mets and the go-ahead run is at the plate for the Rangers.   But Franco bears down and whiffs Marlon Byrd and Diaz and the Mets hang on for the 9-7 win, moving on but with a taxed bullpen and without Hundley until the regional final.  

In a meeting of mediocrities,the 70-74 1995 Royals faced off against the 74-87 2021 Rockies.  The second Royals effort in this regional featured a lineup that was pretty good at getting on base with Gary Gaetti providing most of the power, as well as a decent pitching staff headed by Kevin Appier (15-10, 3.89) that had only three starters over 100 IP due to the strike-shortened season.  The Rockies from this past season had some Coors-fueled power up and down the lineup but as has been typical for that franchise, the pitching left something to be desired with German Marquez (12-11, 4.40) seeming to be their best option.  However, it’s Appier who starts out rough, issuing two straight 2-out walks in the bottom of the 1st and then Rockies DH Connor Joe launches one into the thin Colorado air for a 3-run blast.  A two-out Ryan McMahon RBI single makes it 4-0 in the 4th, and in the 6th a 2-out Garrett Hampson single scores another and Appier is done, with closer Jeff Montgomery able to get the last out. However, in the 8th the Rockies rock Montgomery for four hits and two runs courtesy of a Hampson triple, and Marquez finishes out a 5-hit shutout as the Rockies cruise to the 7-0 win and the second Royals team of the regional makes a rapid exit.

The third Kansas City squad of this regional, the 1971 Royals managed to go 85-76 with a largely punchless lineup (Amos Otis and his 15 HR led the team) on the basis of a solid pitching staff and noteworthy team speed.  With young Paul Splittorf (8-9, 2.69) on the mound, they were sizeable ELO favorites over the 96-loss 2012 Twins, who had four guys with more homers than Otis in the lineup but only two starting pitchers with more than 100 innings, Scott Diamond (12-9, 3.54) being the best of those.  Diamond gets in the rough for three hits in the bottom of the 2nd, with the last one being a 2-run single by Bob Oliver, and the Royals take the early lead.  They add another run in the 4th on double from Joe Keough and Ed Kirkpatrick, but their lead falls apart in the top of the 5th on RBI singles from Denard Span and Ben Revere, followed by costly errors from KC’s 2B-2 Cookie Rojas and 3B-2 Paul Schaal that both score runs, and the Twins take a 4-3 lead.  Joe Mauer adds some insurance in the top of the 8th with a leadoff homer, and the Twins bring in the defensive replacements.  Revere then leads off the 9th with a single, steals second, and scores on a Jamey Carroll base hit and Splittorf is finally pulled for Tom Burgmeier, but the Royals have nothing against Diamond and the Twin roll to the 6-3 victory, and all three Royals teams in the regional go down in the first-round without much of a fight.

The survivors

Although they finished under .500, the 1995 Mets were the highest seed remaining in the regional after round one, but they had no decent replacement for injured C Todd Hundley and their bullpen was taxed and could use a complete game from Pete Harnisch (2-8, 3.68).  Meanwhile, their opponent, the 1993 A’s, benefited from an injury that allows Mark McGwire to start the game, and they had a fully rested pen which was good because Ron Darling (5-9, 5.16) was the best of their terrible remaining starting options.  In the 3rd, Harnisch issues two walks and then grooves one to McGwire, who bounces it off the big apple in the Shea outfield for a 3-run lead.  It doesn’t last long, as Darling disintegrates in the bottom of the 4th after Oakland C Terry Steinbach drops a popup which is followed by a Jeff Kent HR off Darling’s split; from there it just gets worse as RBI doubles from injury replacement Kelly Stinnett and Bobby Bonilla and and RBI single from Jose Vizcaino and Darling is gone, replaced by Rick Honeycutt who finally gets the third out but it’s 6-3 Mets after four. The injury bug hits the Mets again in the 5th as Kent goes down for 8 games, and the carnage continues with A’s SS Mike Bordick getting a 7-game injury in the 7th.  The Mets add another run in the bottom of the 7th when Bobby Bonilla doubles and eventually scores on a sac fly from injury replacement Tim Bogar, and Harnisch gives the Mets the sorely needed complete game as they head to the finals with the 7-3 win, without Kent but with Hundley coming back.

The second semifinal matched two victors of first round upsets, the #6 seed 2021 Rockies and Austin Gomber (9-9, 4.53) against the #8 seeded 2012 Twins and their only starting option, Brian Duensing (4-12, 5.12), with both teams having fully rested pens to try to help out two fairly terrible starters.  Pitching in Coors, Gomber had some issues with the longball and Ben Revere demonstrates that by leading off the bottom of the 1st with a roll of Gomber’s 5-9 solid HR to give the Twins the quick advantage.  However, in the top of the 2nd the Rockies load the bases and then #9 hitter Raimel Tapia clears them with a double off Duensing’s card; Trevor Story follows that up with a long home run and the Rockies blow past the Twins to a 5-1 lead.  The Twins begin to claw back in the 3rd with an RBI double from Denard Span, who scores on a Ryan Doumit single and the lead is cut to 5-3, and it’s looking like this game could be a long one.  A two-out double in the 4th by Revere scores one, and then Span singles home Revere and the game is tied and Gomber is a goner with Jordan Sheffield brought in only to issue a walk and an RBI single to Doumit before getting the third out, and the Twins now lead 6-5.  That evaporates immediately as CJ Cron leads off the 5th by converting Duensing’s HR split, and it’s the Twins turn to go to the pen, with Casey Fien retiring the side to keep the game tied.  Cron leads off the 7th with his second leadoff HR of the game and the Rockies regain the lead, and in the 8th they add to it with a 2-out 2-run double from Story.  The Rockies have to go to the pen in the bottom of the 8th and they bring in Robert Stephenson, who was featured in Regional #157 as having the worst pitcher’s card I had ever seen.  Although his 2021 card was much better, the bad karma persisted as the Twins rake Stephenson, with an RBI single from Span followed by a 3-run homer by Josh Willingham and Stephenson leaves after a third of an inning with four runs allowed.  Lucas Gilbreath comes in to get the last two outs but the Twins now take a one-run lead into the 9th.  Fien is now cashed out for the regional and Jared Burton is handed the save opportunity, and he dispatches the Rockies in order to earn the save in the 10-9 see-saw victory that propels the bottom-seeded Twins into the finals. 

The regional final matchup between the #2 seeded 1995 Mets and the #8 seed 2012 Twins sounded more lopsided than it was, as the Mets were an under .500 team who would be without all star 2B Jeff Kent for the foreseeable future.  The main advantage for the Mets was that, although they were a strike year team, they still had more starting pitching with 100 innings than did the Twins, and so the Mets could opt for the mediocre Bobby Jones (10-10, 4.19) while the Twins had no choice but to start the terrible Nick Blackburn (4-9, 7.39), almost certainly the worst pitcher ever to start a regional final.  The game begins a bit problematically for the Twins, as although Blackburn manages to throw a perfect inning in the top of the 1st, Ben Revere leads off the bottom of the 1st by getting thrown out at second trying to steal on Todd Hundley; Josh Willingham then misses a HR split that almost certainly would have scored Revere, and DH Ryan Doumit makes the third out of a scoreless inning by getting injured for 8 games.  Hundley then finds one of Blackburn’s HR results to give the Mets the lead in the 2nd, and injury replacement Tim Bogar rolls the same Blackburn result to lead off the 3rd while later in the inning Rico Brogna nails a 2-run HR off his own card and the Mets lead 4-0.  The Twins get on the board in the bottom of the 3rd courtesy of a Willingham RBI single, but in the 5th the Mets get it back when Brogna misses a HR 1-16/DO split but still drives in a run and drives Blackburn out of the game, having reached his runs allowed minimum to pull.  Closer Glen Perkins comes in to get the third out, but in the 7th Twins 3B-4 Trevor Plouffe plouffes a grounder that sets up a three run homer by Hundley, his second blast of the game, and the Mets lead extends to 8-1.  A two-run homer by Brogna in the 9th gives him a 2-HR game, while Jones waltzes to the complete game 10-1 victory as the Mets take the regional with a blowout.  The Mets honor Brogna with regional MVP honors based upon his three homers and nine RBI in the three games, and notch their 6th regional win, as the 1995 team joins the 1993 and 1996 Mets in forming an unlikely mini-dynasty of bracket winners, as none of those three teams finished over .500 in real life. 

Interesting card of Regional #159:  From the hitting school of “keep swinging hard and something good is eventually bound to happen”, we have one Clete Thomas.  Clete did not make an appearance in the Twins’ three regional games, but their bench was so shallow I admit that I did contemplate using him a few times.  I mean, he doesn’t hit into double plays, and his card is quite easy to read, with none of those splits or multi-line results to clutter it up.  My first Strat set was the 1967 AL, and Dave Duncan’s card with the A’s in that old original set has stuck with me over all these years as the prototype of the bad hitters card, but I think Thomas’s card is even more striking with that “one of these results is not like the others” look.  Apparently he was named after Clete Boyer, his father’s favorite ballplayer, and although Thomas’s career was much shorter than Boyer's, they actually ended up with nearly identical career OPS numbers.  One other relevant factoid about Thomas was that his first career homer came off Nick Blackburn of the Twins–the losing pitching of the regional final, who was similarly creamed by the Mets.

REGIONAL #158:  My random team selector this time pulled two teams from the most recently carded season, and one of them was the Series champion 2021 Braves.  However, it just so happened that in the first round those Braves would face a second pennant winner included in this bracket, the 2010 Rangers, the first time since Regional #91 that two pennant winners would meet in round one (spoiler alert:  neither of those teams won the regional!).  There were some other possibilities in here as well, such as a ‘59 Pirates team that would famously win the Series the following year, and the other 2021 team represented, the Twins, who I thought I remembered being competitive.  With only one Rangers team having a regional win in the tournament, I thought that perhaps they were due and that they would handle the Braves in round one and move on to defeat the Pirates in the finals.   However, the season-ending ELO rank for the Braves put them around the 50th best of all time and so picked them as favorites over a 2007 A’s team ranked as the best in the bottom of the bracket. 

First round action

The 2021 Braves were Series champions and had a season-ending ELO rating that placed them among the best teams of all time, but they had a rather modest 88-73 record and, really looking closely at their team for the first time since getting the cards, I wasn’t overwhelmed.  They did have power up and down the lineup, good team defense, and Charlie Morton (14-6, 3.34) was a solid staff ace, but they weren’t that great at getting on base and the back end of their rotation was rather pedestrian for a pennant-winner.   Speaking of pennant-winners, they faced the 2010 Rangers, who won 90 games and the AL, and the Rangers had plenty of power of their own, led by AL MVP Josh Hamilton, and had the capable Cliff Lee (12-9, 3.18) on the mound, so this looked like a close matchup between two very good teams.  In the 2nd, the Braves take the lead when Freddie Freeman races home on a Jorge Soler double, but the Rangers tie it in the 4th when Braves C-4 Stephen Vogt drops a Vlad Guerrero popup which allows a run to score.  When Guerrero singles Hamilton to third with two out in the bottom of the 6th, the Braves bring in Luke Jackson to try to prevent the run from scoring, but Jackson promptly uncorks a wild pitch that Vogt has no chance of stopping and Hamilton scores to give the Rangers the lead.  When Dansby Swanson doubles to lead off the 8th, the Rangers pull Lee for closer Neftali Feliz, who tosses two perfect innings to shut down the Braves and preserve the 2-1 win for the Rangers.  As such, the champions of the most recent card set in the tournament make a rapid exit and the Rangers continue their quest to reverse the poor showing of the franchise thus far.

The 83-79 1991 Mariners could take heart from the fact that the 1990 version of the team was the only Mariner squad to win a regional; both teams had a couple of Griffey’s at their disposal, and the exceptionally wild Randy Johnson, (13-10, 3.98, 228 K, 152 BB) on the mound.  They were ELO favorites against the 73-89 2021 Twins, a curious team with some mighty but injury prone sluggers (e.g. Byron Buxton with a 1.005 OPS but an injury at 3-8) and a non-existent rotation with the staff leader in IP traded away mid-season.  So the Twins decided to send out trade acquisition John Gant (5-11, 4.09) who almost rivaled Johnson’s BB/9 rate.  The Mariners waste no time and jump out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the 1st with an RBI single from Edgar Martinez, a 2-run triple from Jay Buhner, and a run-scoring double by Pete O’Brien.  Although Gant settles down afterward, a walk and a single in the top of the 6th and the Twins see no reason not to go to their pen, and Joe Ryan comes in to strike out the side.  Sensing the momentum shifting, the Twins get a single and then three Johnson walks force in a run and the M’s bring in Bill Swift with the bases loaded and two out to face PH Luis Arraez.  The roll: 1-4, gbA on Arraez, solid HR on Ryan Jeffers, the guy he pinch hit for.  Minnesota puts up another run in the 8th on a Jorge Polanco fielder’s choice, and the Mariners bring in Mike Schooler to try to close things out.  Meanwhile, Ryan completes four innings of no-hit relief and the Twins enter the bottom of the 9th down by two.  Miguel Sano leads off with a double and then PH Alex Kirilloff follows with a single, putting the winning run at the plate with nobody out.  Another base hit by Trevor Larnach and it’s a one run game with the tying run in scoring position; #9 hitter Andrelton Simmons is at the plate and the Twins call for the sacrifice; Simmons beats it out and the bases are loaded with nobody out and the winning run now on second base and the top of the Twins order up.   Seattle has to pull the totally ineffective Schooler, and they give Mike Jackson the impossible task of pulling this one out.  The infield comes in for Max Kepler, but he lofts a flyball deep enough to score the run and the game is tied and the imposing Buxton is at the plate.  Buxton hits a grounder to SS-3 Omar Vizquel, who flips it to Harold Reynolds and on to O’Brien and we head to extra innings.  Alvin Davis leads off the 10th missing a HR 1-13/flyB split with a 14 roll, and new Twins pitcher Tyler Duffey is in control until the top of the 13th, when a spate of wildness loads the bases with one out and Minnesota moves to Jorge Alcala, with better control but also gopher ball issues, and he gets out of the jam.  The Mariners then have to move to Calvin Jones, their 5th pitcher of the game, in the bottom of the 13th, and he does his job but the Mariners bats do not, and finally in the bottom of the 15th Byron Buxton can be denied no longer, leading off with a tape measure shot that drives a stake into the Mariners and gives the Twins the exhausting 5-4 win.

The 1981 Blue Jays were ranked as one of the worst 100 teams of all time, with a 37-69 record in that strike year and a host of players that would be better later on but dismal now.  However, they did have Dave Stieb (11-10, 3.18) on the mound, who actually received MVP votes as the bright spot in a dim group.  They faced the 90-loss 1964 Red Sox, another team that would be better in a few years, but the Boston lineup had far more weapons than did the Jays and although Bob Heffner (7-9, 4.08) was not of Stieb’s caliber, the Red Sox did have some talent in the bullpen, including Dick Radatz’s 157 relief innings.  The Jays cause is not helped in the top of the 1st when DH Otto Velez is injured for seven games, but in the 2nd Alfredo Griffin knocks in a run with a triple and the Jays take a lead.   Stieb doesn’t allow a hit until the 4th, but it’s a long one as Felix Mantilla sends it over the Green Monster to tie the game, but that tie doesn’t last long as the Jays strike in the 5th with an Al Woods solo shot and an RBI double from Barry Bonnell, who scores on a Heffner error and the Jays lead by three.  Radatz is summoned to begin the 6th for the Sox, and he does his job but it’s to no avail as Stieb is dominating, finishing up a 2-hitter and the Jays somehow move on with the 4-1 win.

The 1959 Pirates were just a year away from a championship, but they were barely a .500 team at 78-76 with a rather anemic lineup, although Vern Law (18-9, 2.98) got MVP votes, as did Roy Face, who went 18-1, all in relief.  It was interesting that they were ELO underdogs to a sub-.500 2007 A’s team that went 76-86 and was a rather faceless “Moneyball” era squad with Dan Haren (15-9, 3.07) getting the first round start.   In the bottom of the 1st, it’s Dr. Strangeglove who gets things going for the Pirates as Dick Stuart crushes a 2-run moonshot with Virdon aboard, and then Bob Skinner goes back-to-back and the A’s are quickly in a three-run hole.  They dig out of it immediately, as in the top of the 2nd Law can’t get anyone out, and the double play combo of Groat and Mazeroski both allow infield singles that score runs, and it’s tied 3-3 until the bottom of the inning, when Pirates C Danny Kravitz knocks a 2-run homer to put the Pirates back in front, and it’s looking like a long game.  However, in the 5th Pirates LF-4 Skinner bobbles a Travis Buck single that allows a run to score, and then Mark Ellis blasts a homer and the A’s take the lead, 6-5.  A leadoff single by A’s #9 hitter Jason Kendall in the 6th and Pittsburgh realizes that the Law has been broken, and no point in saving Face so in he comes.  Face quickly induces a DP ball and ends the threat, and the Pirates get to work in the bottom of the inning with a Smokey Burgess single and a walk to Don Hoak, and it’s the A’s turn to move to the pen and Huston Street, who has had several excellent relief appearances in this tournament for a variety of teams, and Street sets the Pirates down in order with no damage.  Oakland DH Jack Cust crushes a solo shot in the top of the 7th to provide some insurance, but in the bottom of the inning it’s time for a new policy as Roberto Clemente finds and converts Street’s HR split for a 2-run shot and the game is tied once again.  In the bottom of the 8th Hoak doubles past CF-3 Nick Swisher, and Groat follows with a sharp single but the 1-14 Hoak is nailed trying to score.  Thus, the game is still deadlocked at six apiece heading into the 9th; both relievers are in their last inning of eligibility for the regional but neither team wants to pull their best, so it’s game on.  Face does his job, 1-2-3 with two whiffs, and so it’s Street’s turn in the bottom of the 9th.  He gets two quick outs but Stuart singles and then Skinner walks, so the Pirates have to pinch run for Stuart as the winning run in scoring position and Burgess at the plate.  Burgess lines out, and we head to extra innings and the Pirates biggest bat is now out of the game.  The Pirates turn to their painfully shallow pen and bring in Ron Blackburn, and he gets through the 10th with no issues; the A’s turn to Alan Embree in the bottom of the inning and he does likewise.  In the bottom of the 12th, Pirates PH Harry Bright misses a HR 1-6/flyB split with a 9 to make the third out with Burgess on 3rd and we move on to the 13th–the last inning of regional eligibility for this set of relievers.  Blackburn walks Dan Johnson to lead off the inning, and then A’s SS Bobby Crosby rolls Blackburn’s solid 4-10 HR and the wheels come off; Cust adds a 2-run homer, Swisher gets an RBI grounder, and Travis Buck rolls the 4-10 and it’s a 6-run 13th inning for the A’s, who bring in Andrew Brown to preserve Embree and he mops up the 13-7 extra inning win for the A’s in a game that saw nine homers leave Forbes Field.  

The survivors

As the victor of the first-round clash between pennant winners, the 2010 Rangers were going with CJ Wilson (15-8, 3.35) and they had several advantages over the 2021 Twins.  In addition to a much worse record and ranking, the Twins had basically blown their bullpen in a 15-inning marathon in round one and so starter Michael Pineda (9-8, 3.62) would basically be on his own in this outing.  It was the Twins who strike first in the bottom of the first, with Byron Buxton scoring on a Jorge Polanco fielder’s choice when the Rangers opted to play the infield back.  Julio Borbon finds Pineda’s solid 5-9 HR result to lead off the 3rd to tie it briefly, but in the bottom of the 4th Josh Donaldson and Miguel Sano go back-to-back and the Twins assert a 4-1 lead.  An error by Rangers 3B-4 Michael Young sets up a Polanco sac fly in the 5th, but the Rangers get the run back in the 6th on an RBI single from Mitch Moreland and it’s 5-2 in favor of the underdog Twins.  When Trevor Larnach leads off the bottom of the 6th with a double on a missed HR split, the Rangers have seen enough of Wilson and Darren O’Day comes in but Larnach scores on a Buxton sac fly to extend the Minnesota lead.  Meanwhile, Pineda gets stronger as he goes along, finishing the game with three perfect innings and the Twins pull off the 6-2 upset over a pennant-winner to reach the regional finals.

The 2007 A’s were the only ELO-favored team to have won a game in this regional thus far, and they were the highest seeded team still alive although their 13-inning game in the first round left them with little bullpen to support Joe Blanton (14-10, 3.95).  The 1981 Blue Jays had their own problems, as aside from being the #8 seed they had lost their DH to injury, although Luis Leal (7-13, 3.67) pitched better than his record.  The A’s get a 2-run double from Eric Chavez in the bottom of the 1st to take the early lead, but the bad news is that they lose RF Travis Buck to injury for 6 games.  The Jays immediately tie it back up in the top of the 2nd on clutch 2-out, 2-run single from Alfredo Griffin, but the A’s strike back as injury replacement Milton Bradley delivers a 2-out triple to put Oakland up by one.  Leal then issues four walks in the 4th, walking in one run and another scoring on a Shannon Stewart sac fly, but then in the top of the 5th Blanton comes up with a sore arm and has to leave the game, and the depleted A’s pen sends out Santiago Casilla and his 4.44 ERA as their best long relief option.  That doesn’t go well, as in the 6th the Jays rack Casilla for three runs to tie the game, and it could have been worse as John Mayberry makes the third out missing a HR 1-8 split with two men on base.  The A’s get runners on first and third with one out in the 7th, and Leal is pulled for Jerry Garvin, who allows an RBI single to Dan Johnson but retires PH Daric Barton with the bases loaded to keep the Jays within one.  Garvin holds the A’s, and so the Jays enter the 9th down by one and Andrew Brown is summoned by Oakland to close things out; he does, and the A’s survive to reach the finals coming out on top of the 6-5 battle.  

The regional finals match the #3 seed 2007 A’s against the #6 seeded 2021 Twins, but to me the matchup looked much closer than the ELO rankings would suggest.  Neither team had a great option on the mound, with the A’s going with Lenny Dinardo (8-10, 4.11) while the Twins’ lone remaining 100 IP option was Kenta Maeda (6-5, 4.66).  The A’s take the lead in the bottom of the 2nd when Eric Chavez misses the split on Maeda’s HR 1/DO but Milton Bradley races home on the double; Maeda then recovers and strikes out the side to strand Chavez, and the Twins tie it in the third on a Byron Buxton sac fly.  In the 6th, the injury bug finally strikes the Twins as Miguel Sano gets knocked out for the tournament, and the A’s capitalize in the bottom of the inning when Bradley misses a HR 1-14/DO split but scores on a 2-out triple by Mark Ellis.  When Andrelton Simmons doubles to lead off the 7th, the A’s pull Dinardo for Alan Embree and he gets out of the jam safely.  Maeda then falls apart in the bottom of the inning, allowing a 2-run double to Nick Swisher, and when Alex Colome comes in he isn’t much better, yielding a 2-out 2-run single to Chavez and it’s now 6-1 A’s.  The Twins get one back in the 8th out a 2-out RBI single from injury replacement Alex Kirilloff, but that’s all they can muster and the A’s take the 6-2 win and the regional, their 6th for the franchise but only the first from this century.

Interesting card of Regional #158:  With the old-timer teams I played so much as a kid, the position of centerfield in our drafts was all about Willie, Mickey, and the Duke, and it was hard to imagine there being such a great collection ranging out there again.  However, I have to say that this card from the most recent Strat season gives them a run for their money.   Byron Buxton hasn’t been a high-profile player in his career, maybe because he plays for the Twins or perhaps because he has lost so much time to injury, but in 2021 he seemed to be on his way to an epic year when he was derailed by a series of injuries.  His batting average in 2022 hasn’t really recovered, although he has cleared 20 homers in a season for the first time in his career–but what’s interesting is that when he did so, he had then hit 52 homers in his last 162 games played, the third most in such a span in Twins franchise history behind Harmon Killebrew and Nelson Cruz.  Note that he’s also up there with the Big Three in his defensive ability, as this season he pulled off an unprecedented 8-5 triple play with a spectacular catch and throw against the White Sox.  Buxton did avoid injury during this regional, although he made the last out in the finals by striking out–on a roll of 3-9.