SUPER-REGIONAL FF:  It’s the final super-regional, representing a strong group of 64 squads that began with five pennant-winners and saw two of those capture their regional to make an appearance here.  Not only that, but also included among the eight entrants are some teams that didn’t win a pennant but had the best record in MLB, such as two recent Dodgers teams.  In fact, the ELO rankings saw those two teams, LA from 2021 and 2022, as the best two squads in the group, with both having among the best season-ending ELO rating in baseball history and both expected to triumph over tough opposition to meet in the finals.  At that point the ratings are essentially a toss-up, with ‘21 fractionally better than ‘22 but with many of the same players on the two rosters.  Personally, I was hoping for pretty much anyone else to move on.

Round four action

For Friday Night Strat, we decided to give Tall Tactician the opportunity to reprise his management of his hometown team in the form of the pennant-winning 2009 Phillies, who would be operating at full strength after some minor injuries suffered in the regional had resolved.  Joe Blanton (12-8, 4.05) had led the Phils in innings pitched but was functioning as the #4 starter in this tournament.   His opponent would be the 91-loss 2023 Cardinals, helmed by StratFan Rick who had no particular attachment to the squad; the Cards would have Jack Flaherty (7-6, 4.43) on the mound.  It didn’t have the makings of a pitching duel, but one seemed to develop.  Neither team could do much of anything, but in the top of the 3rd it was Nolan Gorman finding his solid HR result for a two-run shot that put the underdog Cards ahead.   Tall Tactician moved to the Phils pen in the 6th, and Clay Condrey and Pedro Martinez hold the Card at bay waiting for the powerful Philly offense to heat up.  But that doesn’t seem to happen.  The Phils load the bases when Flaherty issues three walks in the 2nd, but Raul Mondesi hits into an inning-ending DP and that opportunity is lost.  Other similar opportunities arise, but Flaherty continues to work his way out of them, and the Phils can never push a runner across the plate; Flaherty ends up with a 5-hit shutout and the heavily favored Phillies head back to the storage drawers as the Cards move on with the 2-0 upset.

As one of the premier remaining matchups at the super-regional level, this game seemed to merit the Zoom treatment Friday Night Strat.  It was a round four game between the pennant-winning 1957 Yankees and the 106-win 2021 Dodgers, with EaglesFly taking the Yankees and StratFan Rick helming the Dodgers, with the winner likely to be the odds-on favorite to take this bracket and move on.  Befitting two good teams, the #4 starters were good enough to anchor most rotations, with Hall of Famer Whitey Ford (11-5, 2.57) going for the Yanks and pre-suspension Trevor Bauer (8-5, 2.59) on the hill for the Dodgers.  You might think that a pitching duel would be in order–but you couldn’t be more wrong.  The Yankees crush Bauer in the bottom of the 1st, with namesake Hank Bauer beginning the RBI train, followed by a 2-run double from Yogi Berra and then a 3-run homer from Jerry Lumpe that provides the finishing blow for Trevor B., after only a third of an inning pitched.  Clayton Kershaw then comes in after having been bypassed for the starting assignment, and he promptly yields a solo shot to Elston Howard on his first pitch.  After Gil McDougald finally provides the third out with what was his second out of the inning, the Yankees lead 7-0 and it’s looking like it’s over–but EaglesFly states that every time he jumps out to a big lead, he ends up losing.  That looked unlikely–but not for long, as in the top of the 2nd the Dodgers erupt for eight runs, chasing Ford after he allows six of them, and then Al Cicotte comes in and looks like he’s been paid to throw the game allowing two more without recording a single out.  Don Larsen finally manages to retire the side, but in the 3rd he’s tossing an imperfect game as he can record only one out before he allows six runs, with a bases loaded triple by Mookie Betts only a small taste of the Dodger barrage.  When the smoke clears, LA is leading 18-7 and the shell-shocked Yankees are demanding to check the dice for PEDs or corking.  The Yankees still have weapons, and Mickey Mantle proves his mettle with a grand slam in the 6th and a two-run homer in the 8th that “narrows” the lead to 21-15 going into the 9th, but the 5th Yankee pitcher, Johnny Kuck, proves no better than his predecessors when he allows a grand slam to Corey Seager, totalling 7 RBI in the game for the Dodger shortstop.  Victor Gonzalez comes in to mop up a perfect 9th and the game finally ends with the Dodgers pounding out a 25-15 win, setting the tournament record for runs scored by both the winning and the losing teams.  

The 91-win 2009 Cardinals won the NL Central, but they didn’t get as far in the post-season as the 92- win 2021 Red Sox who fell just short of a pennant in losing the ALCS.    The teams would be at the tail end of their rotation, with the Cards Kyle Lohse (6-10, 4.74) and Boston’s  Martin Perez (7-8, 4.74) nearly carbon copies of one another.  Predictably, neither would get very far in the game before getting roughed up; the Cards start with a 2-run double by Julio Lugo in the bottom of the 2nd, while solo shots from Kyle Schwarber and Ryan Ludwick tie it up immediately in the top of the 3rd.  Lugo and Mark DeRosa drive in two more in the bottom of the inning to restore the Cards lead, but a Rafael Devers grand slam in the top of the 5th sends Lohse to the showers.  He is quickly joined by Perez, who coughs up four runs of his own in the bottom of the inning and the Cards regain an 8-6 lead; Schwarber drives in another in the 6th for Boston and it’s a one run game until Skip Schumacher and Albert Pujols combine for three RBI in the 7th.  From there, the St. Louis bullpen gets into a string of trouble but manage to hold off a Boston rally to hang onto an 11-9 win that spells the end of the road for the Red Sox.

This round four game represented what should have been the 2022 NCLS matchup, because the 2022 Dodgers and the 2022 Braves had the two best records in the league but both lost in their divisional series.  Still, the quality of the two teams was evident in their #4 pitchers, with Tyler Anderson (15-5, 2.57) and Atlanta’s Charlie Morton (9-6, 4.34) boasting better cards than some of the #1 starters I’ve seen in this tournament.  The Dodgers, who won a remarkable 111 games, would have to play without injured star Freddie Freeman, although replacement Edwin Rios was a low AB powerblock although a dangerous 5 at 1B.  An RBI single by Trayce Thompson puts the Dodgers up by a run in the top of the 1st, but the Braves tie it in the bottom of the inning with a solo homer by Austin Riley, and they don’t stop there putting up single runs in the 2nd and 3rd to move out to a 3-1 lead.  However, a Gavin Lux triple cuts it to one in the 5th, and then a Thompson sac fly and a Rios solo shot puts the Dodgers ahead.  Typical of teams at this level of the tournament, the Braves fight back immediately as Riley hits his second bases-empty homer of the game to tie things up, and from there both teams call upon their bullpens, who keep the status quo through nine innings to send the game to extra frames.  The pens for both teams are deep and the scoreless innings mount, but finally in the top of the 14th Braves reliever Dylan Lee grooves one to weak hitting defensive replacement Hanser Alberto, who puts the ball into the seats for a 2-run homer; Daniel Hudson takes the mound in the bottom of the 14th and shuts down the Braves to close out the marathon 6-4 win and send a second Dodgers team to round five of this super-regional.

The survivors:  round five

After rolling the 2021 Dodgers to a tournament-record 25 runs in round four, we had to get StratFan Rick to reprise his dice magic for their round five matchup against the 2023 Cardinals, with the managing assignment picked up once again by Eaglesfly.  However, this time around it would be the top of the rotation for both teams, with Max Scherzer (15-4, 2.36) against Jordan Montgomery (6-9, 3.42) suggesting that the teams should score fewer than the 40(!) runs put up in the Dodgers’ last game.  Sure enough, the game is scoreless after four, but in the bottom of the 5th the StratFan skidders find their groove and it’s hit after hit for the Dodgers once again; Montgomery is yanked after allowing five runs, with a two-run Cory Seager triple being the finishing move, but JoJo Romero then embarks on a bizarre adventure with another run in the 6th and three in the 8th with Justin Taylor providing a two-run double as a key blow.  Meanwhile, the Cards can find nothing on Scherzer, who finishes up a 3-hit shutout, striking out 10 as the Dodgers march to another double-digit victory and move on to the super-regional final with the dominating 10-0 win.

After the previous round five game, this was a bit of deja vu with the 2022 Dodgers taking on the 2009 Cardinals for the chance to face the 2021 version of LA in the finals.  The Dodgers were hoping that ace Tony Gonsolin (16-1, 2.14) could go deep in the game after the 14 inning round four marathon that put a big dent in their strong bullpen.  He would face the Cards’ Adam Wainwright (19-8, 2.63), who had fallen a few outs short of a complete game in his first round appearance.  Things start out shaky for Wainwright as Trayce Thompson puts the Dodgers up in the top of the 1st with a two-run homer, but in the bottom of the inning it’s Albert Pujols with a two-run shot of his own to reset the game.  The Cards then move into the lead in the bottom of the 4th with an unexpected RBI triple from converted pitcher Rick Ankiel, but that celebration is short-lived as the Dodgers load up the bases on Wainwright in the 5th, and Thompson adds to his total with a grand-slam that sends Wainwright to the showers.  Andrew Miller is then greeted by a solo shot from Edwin Rios, in for the injured Freddie Freeman, and Thompson adds another RBI to his total in the 6th as the Dodgers cruise to an 8-3 win to set up a meeting in round six with their younger selves.

Super-regional finals

The last super-regional final of the tournament promised to be a very confusing one, mainly because the 2021 Dodgers and the 2022 Dodgers had a lot of the same players on their rosters.   However, it would not be the unusual circumstance of the same starter facing himself (which has happened previously in the tournament), as 2021 Walker Buehler (16-4, 2.47) was matched with 2022 Julio Urias (17-7, 2.16), who was the league ERA leader but who would be charged with keeping a 2021 offense in check that had scored 35 runs in their previous two games.   Sure enough, the ‘21s start off the top of the 1st with a 2-0 lead resulting from an AJ Pollack solo homer and a Chris Taylor RBI single, but ‘22 responds in the 2nd with a succession of singles, four of which score runs thanks to Justin Turner, the other Chris Taylor, Cody Bellinger, and Gavin Lux.   In the 3rd, the ‘22s extends their lead to 5-2 as injury replacement Edwin Rios hits his third homer of the super-regional, but the ‘21 version of Justin Turner smacks a solo shot of his own to narrow the gap, and both starters don’t last past the 5th inning as both teams boast strong (and similar) bullpens.  Those pens do the trick, with no further scoring until Rios hits his 4th homer of the bracket to provide additional insurance, leaving injured Freddie Freeman with the distinct feeling he’d been Wally Pipped.  At any rate, it’s the 2022 version of the Dodgers who will move on with the 6-3 victory over their previous season counterparts, placing them in the final field of 32 with a fine shot at going all the way as an 111-win team.  

Interesting card of Regional FF:  With two recent Dodgers teams playing in the round six finals, I personally had seen enough of the Dodgers both in Strat and in real life.  However, the way the bracket played out provided an opportunity to explore one of the quirks of this project:  how injuries are handled.  The upshot is that the Basic Strat injury chart is used as printed, meaning that some guys have been injured for 15 games in a tournament that only has eleven rounds in it.  That multiplies the unpredictability of the single elimination format, but it also rewards teams with decent depth, and a number of teams have advanced quite far despite multiple injuries thanks to the strength of their bench.  In certain unusual situations, an injury can actually help a team, because project rules stipulate that direct injury replacements are not subject to usage restrictions, meaning that a low-AB wonder, if available for that position, can become a starter.  The super-regional winning 2022 Dodgers ended up demonstrating this aspect nicely when Freddie Freeman, the NL leader in hits, doubles, and OBP, and 4th place finisher in the MVP voting, was lost to injury for 8 games in round two of the tournament.   For most squads, losing your best hitter might be a death blow, but these Dodgers reached deep into the extra players for the rather obscure Edwin Rios, who responded to his opportunity with four home runs in the three games of the super-regional.  Rios was a highly regarded prospect in the Dodger organization, and his MLB debut in 2019 was stellar as he compiled an eye-opening 1.010 OPS in 47 at-bats.  However, he didn’t get much of a chance to show his stuff in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, although he did earn a Series ring, and in 2021 he performed dismally in limited use.   The 2022 season that is shown here turned out to be his highest number of appearances in his career; although nowhere near the juggernaut of his 2019 one, it was still sufficiently power-packed to dominate the super-regional and propel his Dodgers to the final field of 32.  Unfortunately for Rios, that was pretty much the end of the road; he hit under .120 in both 2023 and 2024 in limited stints with the Cubs and Reds, and I’m guessing that his MLB career is over, even though he’s still only 31 years old.  Nonetheless, he might be happy to know that his team wouldn’t be among the final 32 survivors (of the 2,056 that began the tournament) without his outstanding performance as an injury replacement.  The Dodgers just better hope the dice don’t notice that 3-7 result before Freddie heals up.

SUPER-REGIONAL EE:  The penultimate super-regional derived from 64 teams that heavily sampled the 21st century given that those games were played relatively recently.  Only one pennant winner had begun in round one and they didn’t survive that first game; instead, half of these eight survivors were pretty good squads, while the other half were mediocre or worse.  The ELO rankings predicted that the 2006 White Sox, just one season removed from their first Series championship in nearly a century, would best the 2009 Dodgers in the finals, but I had a feeling that the last Sox team left alive in this tournament would succumb to the same jinx as the rest of the franchise. 

Round four action

When I did a sabbatical at Harvard in 1995-96, I took my oldest son (about age 10 at the time) to a number of games at Fenway, and he became a Red Sox fan.  Thus, even though he’s played Strat very infrequently throughout the years, and only to humor me, he was up for a father/son grudge match in which he would manage the 1997 Red Sox against my 2006 White Sox.  His team was fairly similar to those he had seen live, while my team was fairly similar to the 2005 World Champions that I had seen live (in the Series, no less), but neither team was as strong as their forebears.  Also, as a 4th round game this one would test the end of the respective rotations, and Boston’s Aaron Sele (13-12, 5.38) and the ChiSox’ Jon Garland (18-7, 4.51) both had better seasons.  The Red Sox jump out to a lead in the top of the 1st courtesy of a solo homer by Reggie Jefferson, and a sac fly by Darren Bragg in the 2nd makes it 2-0.  However, the South Side Hitmen reappear when Joe Crede and Juan Uribe go back to back in the bottom of the inning to tie it, and an RBI single from Scott Podsednik puts the White Sox up 3-2 in the 4th.  Both teams go to their pens in the 6th, with Jim Corsi holding Chicago at bay while big Bobby Jenks tosses two scoreless frames against Boston.   It remains a one-run Chicago lead going into the top of the 9th, and Mike MacDougal is charged with trying to close out the win.  But son Michael taps Rudy Pemberton to pinch hit–but not the .512-hitting freak from the previous season, but a .238 hitter that is nonetheless better than injury replacement Mike Benjamin.  All Rudy does is hit a pinch-hit homer to tie the game that quiets the Chicago crowd, sending the game to the bottom of the 9th with Corsi having tossed three hitless innings. It’s AJ Pierzynski to lead things off, and it’s a 2-8 roll, a HR 1-13 split that is converted and the White Sox walk it off with a 4-3 win that propels them on to round five, the last surviving team of the franchise in the tournament.

The 87-win 2015 Yankees had survived their regional with no injuries and with their strong bullpen fully rested, which might come in handy given that #4 starter Michael Pineda (12-10, 4.37) looked pretty hittable.  The 2008 Twins similarly had 88 wins, but their DH Jason Kubel was not yet back from injury and the guy at the bottom of their rotation, Glen Perkins (12-4, 4.41) also had potential for disaster, so a pitcher’s duel here was unlikely.  Sure enough, Mark Texeira kicks things off in the top of the 1st with a two-run homer, but an RBI double from Justin Morneau and a sac fly by Delmon Young ties it up in the bottom of the inning.  Mike Lamb pokes an RBI single in the 2nd and the Twins then take the lead, which holds until the top of the 4th when Didi Gregorius singles in Carlos Beltran to restore the tie.  Lamb responds with a 2-out RBI double in the bottom of the inning, and then back to back doubles by Joe Mauer and Morneau to lead off the 5th chase Pineda for Justin Wilson.  Injury replacement Matt Macri greets Wilson by converting a TR 1-3 split off Wilson’s card that scores Morneau, then a walk and a DP ball and it’s 7-3 Minnesota after five.  They hope that Perkins can hold on with a four run lead, but that’s quickly cut after doubles from Beltran and Stephen Drew, so Dennys Reyes is summoned to put out the fire and he does end the inning without further incident.  However, in the top of the 7th a walk and a 2-run homer by Brett Gardner and suddenly it’s a one run game; then SS-3 Brendan Harris drops a grounder that sets up a two out RBI single from Beltran and the game is tied.  At this point the Yanks decide to bring in closer Andrew Miller, and he records two quick strikeouts in the bottom of the 7th but that injury replacement Macri then converts a split homer for a solo shot and an 8-7 Twins lead.  Now, it’s the Twins turn to insert their closer, Joe Nathan, but Harris drops the grounder resulting from Nathan’s first pitch and Harris is yanked for a defensive replacement mid-inning.  Nathan gets out the 8th, but walks the leadoff batter in the 9th, and after two quick outs it’s Drew with a tape measure homer and suddenly the Yankees take a one run lead into the bottom of the 9th.  Seeking to preserve Miller for the next round, they give the save opportunity to Dellin Betances and his 1.50 ERA, and although Denard Span rips a double, he’s stranded as the tying run and the Yankees survive a battle to win 9-8 and advance.  

The 2008 Mariners were one of those teams that had no business reaching the super-regional round of this tournament, losing 101 games, but Ichiro spearheaded an offense that averaged 10 runs a game over their first three rounds.  Once again they would be underdogs, this time to a middling 82-79 2018 Pirates, who had squeaked through their regional that included a 22-inning marathon in the second round from which most of their bullpen had still not recovered, meaning that Ivan Nova (9-9, 4.19) was needed to pitch better than his card suggested.  He was still noticeably better carded than Seattle’s RA Dickey (5-8, 5.21), although the M’s pen was fortunately fully rested.  However, neither offense does anything in the early going, and Mariners 2B Jose Lopez suffers a tournament-ending injury in the 4th which doesn’t help Seattle any.  A solo shot by Starling Marte in the bottom of the inning finally starts the scoring, but Nova allows a walk and two singles, the last an RBI for Jeremy Reed, and the Pirates bring in Kyle Crick to try to keep things from getting worse.  But Pirates LF-2 Corey Dickerson then misplays a Jose Vidro single and another Mariners run scores before the Crick runs dry.   Now armed with a lead, Seattle summons Erik Bedard to begin the 6th, but he immediately allows a leadoff triple to catcher Francisco Cervelli.  In comes the infield, Bedard bears down, and thanks to two stellar defensive plays by injury replacement 2B Luis Valbuena, the Mariners escape the inning still clinging to the one run lead.  Roy Corcoran is charged with sustaining that lead in the bottom of the 9th, but he drops a Marte grounder to lead off the inning and Marte then steals second to put the tying run in scoring position with nobody out.  Dickerson then singles and the fleet Marte races home and the game is tied with the winning run aboard.  But Corcoran then retires three straight and the game heads to extra innings–with the Pirates down to the nether regions of their pen.  Edgar Santana gets the call for the 10th, and the battle continues.  M’s reliever Cesar Jimenez deals a HR 1-8 split to Colin Moran in the 12th, but Moran misses and ends up at 2nd with nobody out.  However, Jimenez strands him there, and as the game moves to the 14th the Pirates turn to Tyler Glasnow, and although he starts out with two quick K’s, he then yields three consecutive singles and the last one by Reed put the Mariners in the lead.  Jimenez then uses his last inning of eligibility to retire three in a row and the Mariners continue their unlikely run with a 3-2 win in 14 innings that keeps them alive and sends them to the next round.  

The 2009 Dodgers won 95 games and the NL West, making it to the NLCS but falling short of a pennant.  They had survived their regional despite some injuries, and though SS Rafael Furcal would be back for this round, but the other half of their DP combo, All-Star 2B Orlando Hudson, was out for the foreseeable future. The 2023 Angels lost 89 games in the last season of the Mike Trout/Shohei Ohtani duo, but they got through the first three rounds on pitching, only outscoring the opposition 7-3 across the three games.  For round four it was not a bad pitching matchup, with the Angels’ Patrick Sandoval (7-13, 4.11) against Chad Billingsley (12-111, 4.05) decent options for the bottom of the rotation.  Billingsley strikes out the side in the top of the 1st, although the three strikeouts were interrupted by a solo homer from Ohtani and a quick Angels lead.  The Dodgers respond immediately as leadoff hitter Juan Pierre walks, steals second, and scores on an Andre Ethier single, and in the 2nd it’s Pierre’s turn with a 2-out RBI single to give the Dodgers the lead.  Injury replacement Ronnie Belliard adds another 2-out single in the 3rd that scores a third Dodger run, but Brandon Drury nails a solo shot in the top of the 4th to make it a one-run game.  Both pitchers settle down from the, but a leadoff walk in the bottom of the 7th and the Angels bring in Andrew Wantz as they wantz to keep it close; he escapes with no damage.  Meanwhile, Billingsley is on a roll, striking out 12 and getting two outs in the bottom of the 9th but then a Trout single and a walk to CJ Cron puts the tying run in scoring position.  So the Dodgers summon Hong-Chin Kuo to get the final out, and he fans Mike Moustakas as the Dodgers survive with a 3-2 win to move on to round five. 

The survivors:  round five

The 2009 Dodgers can’t be faulted for wondering how their opponents, the 101-loss 2008 Mariners, managed to reach this far in the tournament, and now both teams would be returning to the top of their rotations.  That was particularly good news for Seattle, whose bullpen was toast after a 14 inning win in round four; Felix Hernandez (9-11, 3.45) was capable of going deep in the game.  For the Dodgers, Clayton Kershaw (8-8, 2.79) was ready to go, and both teams were missing their starting second basemen due to injuries.   Both aces make the first pass through the lineups with no damage, but in the 4th back to back doubles by Yuniesky Betancourt and Jeremy Reed stake the upstart M’s to a 2-0 lead.  The Dodgers don’t get on the board until a solo homer by Casey Blake in the bottom of the 7th makes it a one-run game, but a rally falls short as Hernandez retires PH Jim Thome to leave two runners stranded.  In the 8th, James Loney misses a HR 1-7/flyB that could have tied it, but that proves to be their last, best chance as Hernandez wraps up a 5-hitter as Seattle wins a 2-1 gem.  Kershaw fans 11 and allows only six hits, but three of them being in the same inning dooms the Dodgers as the improbable run for the Mariners continues.

The sole remaining representative of their franchise, the 2006 White Sox sought to resist the Sox jinx against the 2015 Yankees, with Yankee ace MasahiroTanaka (12-7, 3.51) against Jose Contreras (13-9, 4.27), the best the Sox could muster from a rotation that had crashed after World Championship of the previous season.   The Yanks jump in front in the bottom of the 3rd on a solo homer from Chase Headley off Contreras’ card, while Scott Podsednik reprises his improbable World Series heroics with a home run off Tanaka’s card in the 4th to tie the game.  However, RBI singles by Headley and Brett Gardner in the 5th put New York back on top, and in the 6th a solo shot by Carlos Beltran and a run-scoring triple from Did Gregorius makes it 5-1 Yankees, and it’s looking like the Sox run is over.  However, Chicago gets RBI hits from Paul Konerko and Joe Crede in the 7th and the Yanks have to summon Andrew Miller for his second straight appearance to try to hold onto the lead.  He does the job for the two innings he has left in him, and Chasen Shreve holds on in the 9th to eliminate the last White Sox team from the tournament, and send the Yankees on to the super-regional final with the 5-3 win.

Super-regional finals

The improbable march of the 2008 Mariners towards being a 100+ loss super-regional winner reaches the finals against a good 2015 Yankees team.  The finals merited a Zoom appearance by Seattle resident StratFan Rick to try to guide Ryan Rowland-Smith (5-3, 3.42) against the FNS managerial collective sending out swing starter Adam Warren (7-7, 3.29), with the Mariners saddled with the additional challenge of replacing injured 2b Jose Lopez.  Things start quietly enough but Rowland-Smith issues two walks in the top of the 2nd that turn to disaster when Didi Gregorius finds and converts the pitcher’s HR split for a three-run shot; then the next batter Chase Headley rolls the same result for back-to-back homers and a 4-0 lead.  In the bottom of the inning, some atrocious fielding by RF-4 Carlos Beltran sets up an RBI single for Jose Vidro, and then in the 4th a sac fly by Miguel Cairo narrows the gap to 4-2 Yanks.  However, Beltran atones with an insurance RBI in the top of the 6th, and virtually unhittable Dellin Betances comes out of the bullpen in the 8th to quell a Mariner threat and send the Yanks to the final field of 32 with a 5-2 victory.

Interesting card of Super-Regional EE:  Because the 2006 White Sox were the last representative of the franchise to be eliminated, I won’t have another opportunity to feature another player from my favorite team, so I thought I would take this last chance to feature a player who had won the World Series MVP immediately prior to this season.  Obviously, Dye did not rest on his laurels, having his career year despite the decline of the rest of the team and finishing 5th in the MVP voting on a disappointing squad.  In this project, he carried the Sox to round five, further than any other in franchise history, including the 2005 champs, who lost in the first round.  Plagued by injuries throughout his career, he ended up with 325 homers and a career OPS of .826, which while not Hall of Fame numbers should qualify him for the next Strat Baseball Heroes set, if there is one–I don’t see why he wasn’t in the Heroes 3 set already. At any rate, if I were to try to construct an all-time White Sox team based upon the best single-season cards off the top of my head, I believe that this one would be in right field.

SUPER-REGIONAL DD:  Of the six pennant-winners that began the first round in this field of 64 just one, the 1999 Braves, had hung on to make round four of the tournament, but there there were also a couple of division winners in this field and all had proved their grit in regional play.  I thought that those Braves and the Astros from the late 1990s would both be tough and guessed that they would match up in the final, with the Braves prevailing on the strength of an iconic starting rotation.  The ELO ratings predicted it would be a cakewalk for the Braves, predicting a win over a division-winning Brewers team to move on to the final field of 32.  

Round four action

The 1988 Red Sox seemed to have gotten past Bill Buckner’s miscue as they won 89 games, the AL East, and their regional, but now they faced a 1999 Braves team that won the NL pennant with 103 wins and one of the best rotations in the past several decades.  To demonstrate, their #4 starter in this project would be Tom Glavine (14-11, 4.12), still quite solid despite what was a down year for him; the Red Sox would counter with swingman Wes Gardner (8-6, 3.50).  The Red Sox score first on RBI hits from Larry Parrish and Jim Rice in the top of the 3rd, but like many good teams, the Braves respond immediately as Randall Simon drives in one and sets up a 3-run blast by Gerald Williams as the Braves take the lead.  They don’t stop there, with a two-run double from Bret Boone in the 4th, a two-run homer from Brian Hunter in the 5th, and another two-run blast from Ryan Klesko in the 8th batter a succession of Boston pitchers and when the final out is recorded by Glavine the Braves have cruised to an 11-3 win to continue to advance–with the top of their vaunted rotation coming up next round.

The 78-84 2022 Twins had ridden a couple of big games from Byron Buxton to take Regional #233, although 2B Jorge Polanco would be out with an injury in this round four game.  They faced the 1994 Red Sox, who limped to a 54-61 record before the strike shut the season down, but they had survived their regional despite three injuries in their first round game, including their ace Roger Clemens.  The limitation of the short season meant that for their #4 starter Boston had no option but to start a bad Danny Darwin (7-5, 6.30), while the Twins were in somewhat better shape with Dylan Bundy (6-8, 4.89) on the hill.  The Red Sox take a lead in the 2nd with an RBI double from Tim Naehring, then Otis Nixon knocks in another with a squib single.  After Mike Greenwell’s sac fly scores a third run, Mo Vaughn crushes a two-run homer and the Twins have seen enough of Bundy and hope that reliever Jovani Moran’s formidable card can stop the bleeding.  Minnesota gets on the board when Carlos Correa leads off the 4th finding Darwin’s solid 5-5 homer result, and when Jose Miranda doubles off a missed HR split he’s driven in by Gary Sanchez and the Boston lead shrinks to 5-2.  It becomes a one run game when Correa smacks a 2-run homer in the 5th, this one off his own card, but in the bottom of the inning Andre Dawson shoots a double past P-4 Moran that brings in two and Dawson scores on a Naehring sac fly as the Red Sox reassert an 8-4 lead.  They replace Darwin with Scott Bankhead to start the 6th, and he holds serve so Chris Howard takes over in the 8th hoping to close it out.  However, the Twins like the change and a couple of hits set up a run-scoring fielders choice; another hit sets up a 3-run homer by Luis Arraez off Howard’s card and the game is tied.  Howard leaves with a 52.73 ERA and closer Ken Ryan comes in; he’s immediately tagged for a double by Buxton but Correa is finally retired for the 3rd out.  However, in the top of the 9th injury replacement Alex Kirilloff rolls a 2-2 for a solid two run homer.  It’s now up to Twins closer Jorge Lopez to try to hang onto the Twins’s first lead of the game, and he does so, striking out PH Rich Rowland to preserve the 10-8 come-from-behind win that propels Minnesota into round five.

The 2011 Brewers won 96 games and the NL Central because of offensive power, a good rotation, and despite shaky infield defense; Randy Wolf (13-10, 3.69) was a solid option for a #4 starter in this round four matchup.  They faced the 2020 Padres, who had made the post-season in the pandemic year with a 37-23 record and had outscored their opposition in their regional 26 to 7.  Like all teams from that year, the Padres had a rotation strictly determined by IP and fortunately Garrett Richards (2-2, 4.03) was decent because their bullpen had been taxed in the previous two games.  However, the top of the first is a disaster for Richards, who walks four while errors from 3B-1 Manny Machado and 1B-3 Eric Hosmer combine for three Milwaukee runs, and it could have been worse without a caught stealing and an inning-ending DP with the bases loaded.  In the 2nd, Jurickson Profar gives the cardboard cutout fans something to cheer about with a bases loaded single that scores two to make it a one run game.  They then tie it when Fernando Tatis Jr. leads off the bottom of the 3rd with a triple, and he scores on a Machado single, but Corey Hart takes off his sunglasses at night for an RBI triple in the 5th putting the Brewers back in the lead.   When Jake Cronenworth doubles in the 6th, Milwaukee seeks to take no chances and summons closer John Axford and his 46 saves to try to escape the inning, and he is brilliant with a whiff and a lomax to end the threat.  A couple of singles in the top of the 7th and it’s San Diego’s turn to go to the pen, with Pierce Johnson inducing a DP to keep the game within one.  But Axford and Latroy Hawkins combine to keep the fearsome Padres hitters at bay and Milwaukee moves on with the 4-3 win. 

Houstonian Kevin took the opportunity to swing by Tournament Central and manage his 1997 Astros against me running the 2015 Diamondbacks.  The Astros won the NL Central that season but with only 83 wins, just slightly better than the 79 put up by the Dbacks.   However, the Astros had some other advantages such as a fully rested bullpen and a healthy lineup, while Arizona was down two different rightfielders to injury and extra inning games in the regional had taxed the pen.  For this round four game it would be Houston’s Shane Reynolds (9-10, 4.23) against Dback Chase Anderson (6-6, 4.30), and when the Astros began the top of the 1st with two straight doubles by Billy Spiers and Craig Biggio it was looking like it wouldn’t take long for Chase to be chased.   However, Anderson strands two and the Dbacks tie it in the bottom of the 3rd on a sac fly by Paul Goldschmidt.  It’s back to back doubles for Jeff Bagwell and Derek Bell in the 5th to put Houston up 2-1, but Houston has a problem in the bottom of the inning with a solo shot by AJ Pollock, and an RBI triple by David Peralta who then scores on a Wellington Castillo single and Arizona now leads 4-2 after five.  A solo homer by injury replacement Phil Gosselin provides some insurance, and although an RBI single from Chuck Carr narrows the margin in the 8th, closer Brad Zeigler comes in to exterminate the Killer B heart of the lineup to send the Diamondbacks on to round five with a 5-3 win and send Kevin back on the road with only one Astro team now still alive in the tournament.

The survivors:  round six

As with most round five games, the contestants were back to the top of their rotations meaning that the division-winning 2011 Brewers would have Shaun Marcum (13-7, 3.54) ready to go against Robbie Ray (5-12, 3.52) and the 2015 Diamondbacks.   The favored Brewers would be at full strength, while the Dbacks were still down two right fielders to injury and had some wear and tear on their bullpen from repeated close games.  In the top of the 1st, 1-16 Nyjer Morgan is nailed trying for an extra base on a Prince Fielder single, but eventually Fielder scores on a double from Corey Hart so Milwaukee does come away with a run.  In the 3rd, Ryan Braun converts a triple on Ray’s card and scores on a Fielder sac fly, but Welington Castillo grills a solo shot in the bottom of the 4th that narrows the Brewer lead to 2-1.  When Jonathan Lucroy doubles off Ray’s card in the 6th, Andrew Chafin comes in from the pen and quells the threat; the Dbacks respond in the bottom of the inning with a single and a Castillo double that puts the go-ahead run in scoring position with nobody out.  It’s now the Brewers’ turn to look to the pen, and Takashi Saito gets the call–but he issues a walk and then allows a 2-run double to Jake Lamb and the Dbacks take the lead.  Saito then finds his stuff and gets out of the inning without further damage, but Arizona can now summon Brad Ziegler to begin the 8th in search of his second straight save.  He goes into the 9th and retires two straight pinch-hitters, but Nyjer Morgan singles to put the tying run aboard and major threat Braun at the plate.  But Ziegler prevails, whiffing Braun and preserving the 3-2 win that sends the upstart Dbacks to round six, where starting RF Ender Inciarte is expected to come off the DL and rejoin the lineup.  

The 1999 Braves were back at the front of a very strong rotation, with Kevin Millwood (18-7, 2.68) a 3rd place finisher for the Cy Young award, despite a rather rocky round one start.  For the 2022 Twins, it would be Sonny Gray (8-5, 3.08) who had won his first round game thanks to a three home run performance by CF Byron Buxton.  An RBI single from DH Randall Simon puts the Braves up 1-0 in the bottom of the 1st, and things stay that way until injury replacement Eddie Perez hits a solo shot in the 5th, with Andruw Jones driving in another later in the inning with a missed HR split double.  In the 8th, it’s Bret Boone’s turn for a solo home run that provides some unnecessary padding, as Millwood finishes out a 4-hit shutout in dominating the Twins and sending the Braves on to the super-regional final with the 4-0 win.

Super-regional finals

Brother Chuck had rolled the 1999 Braves through the super-regional to this final game, and so he and John Smoltz (11-8, 3.19) would try to guide them to the final field of 32 against me with the 2015 Diamondbacks and Josh Collmenter (4-6, 3.79).   The Braves had won five straight courtesy of a legendary rotation, with Smoltz’s three-hit shutout in round two being one highlight; the Dbacks had gotten this far with some improbable come from behind wins, such as a four-run walk-off explosion in round two and a three-run walk-off in the 10th inning in round three.   Here, though, it’s Arizona who starts out ahead with a David Peralta sac fly in the bottom of the 3rd, but it all comes crashing down on Collmenter in the top of the 5th.  A six-run barrage that includes a 3-run homer by Chipper Jones and a 2 run double from Brian Hunter sends the Dbacks to the pen for Andrew Chafin, who finally ends the inning; Arizona then rallies for three in the bottom of the inning that includes a Welington Castillo homer and the lead narrows to 6-4.  The Dbacks thus appear poised for another comeback, but Hunter adds a run in the 6th on a sac fly, and Smoltz is looking sharp in the final innings–that is, until the second out of the 9th inning, when he’s injured for 15 games and the vaunted Braves rotation is down a man for the remainder of the tournament.  Russ Springer comes on to record the final out and the pennant-winning Braves capture the super-regional with a 7-4 victory to earn a berth among the final 32 teams, albeit without injured Javy Lopez and John Smoltz for the sectional matchups.

Interesting card of Super-Regional DD:   The 1999 Atlanta Braves reeled off six straight wins in this tournament to capture the super-regional, which is not terribly surprising given that three of the four pitchers in their starting rotation for the tournament were Hall-of-Famers named Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz.  Thing is, none of those three were the #1 starter for the NL champ, 103-win Braves; instead, it was this guy, who at age 24 finished 3rd in the Cy Young balloting while also receiving votes for NL MVP.   Despite this great season and a 16-year career that totaled 169 wins, I’m not sure many could name him in a trivia question about the final cog in the Braves rotation.  The Atlanta rotations of that era always seemed to come up with a fourth starter who was impressive with the Braves but a disappointment after they moved on (yes, Steve Avery and Denny Neagle, we’re looking at you), and Millwood was not really an exception to this trend; although he did lead the AL in ERA with Cleveland in 2005, he also led the league in losses with the Orioles in 2010.  In the first round, I felt a little uneasy starting Millwood over the three HOFers, and it didn’t help when Millwood failed to last four innings, getting bailed out by John Rocker and two homers/five RBI from Chipper Jones for a comeback win.  But Millwood proved his mettle in the super-regional with a four-hit shutout in his second start of the tournament, and despite a project-ending injury to Smoltz in the super-regional final, these Braves have to be considered a strong contender to go all the way.

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

Round four action

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

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

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

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

The survivors:  round five

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

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

Super-regional final

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

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

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

Round four action

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

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

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

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

The survivors:  round five

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

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

Super-regional finals

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

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

 

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

Round four action

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

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

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

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

The survivors:  round five

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

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

Super-regional finals

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

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

SUPER-REGIONAL Z:  There were three pennant winners among the 64 squads that began this super-regional, but only one had survived to make this group of eight–a flash-in-the-pan Marlins team that went from wild card to Series champs.   However, there were some teams here that were with a season or two of their own pennants, including the Once Upon a Time in Queens Mets, the Bash Brothers A’s, and the Killer B’s Astros.  My guess was that it would be the A’s and the Mets in the final, with the A’s power prevailing over the Mets pitching; the ELO rankings selected the pennant-winning Marlins over a Cardinals team from the nineties to win what it portrayed as a fairly mediocre group of survivors.

Round four action

The 1984 Mets had most of the pieces in place that would frustrate Bill Buckner shortly thereafter, but they faced a pretty big dropoff in moving to their #4 starter, Bruce Berenyi (12-13, 4.45).   In contrast, the 1959 Orioles had begun a tradition in their new home in Baltimore of strong rotations, and Milt Pappas (15-9, 3.27) was an enviable option to have at the tail end of it, although the Orioles lacked the offensive weapons wielded by the boys from Queens.  Even so, the O’s load the bases in the top of the 1st courtesy of some walks on Berenyi’s card, but they can only convert one run on a sac fly from Gus Triandos.  The Mets cause isn’t helped any when leadoff hitter Wally Backman is knocked out of the game with an injury in the bottom of the 3rd, but his replacement Ron Gardenhire rips a ball past the infield that was holding Jose Oquendo on 1st and that ties the game in the 5th.  Mets DH Kelvin Chapman adds a 2-out RBI single in the 6th to give them the lead, and in the 7th Mookie Wilson chops a 2-out single, steals second, and scores on a Keith Hernandez hit to add to the lead. In the top of the 8th, a Gene Woodling leadoff single is followed by a double from Bob Nieman, and with the two runners in scoring position the Mets move to the pen for Doug Sisk, but Bob Boyd pokes a squib single to score one and then Mets C-3 Mike Fitzgerald can’t stop an errant Sisk pitch with two outs and the tying run crosses the plate.  However, in the bottom of the inning backup SS Rafael Santana bloops a 2-out RBI single, and then Gardenhire drives another hit that is misplayed by O’s LF-4 Bob Nieman and the Mets reassert their lead heading into the 9th.  The game is then turned over to Mets closer Jesse Orosco, and he shuts down Baltimore in order to close out the 5-3 win that sends New York to round five with the dominating top of their rotation coming up.  

The 1993 Cardinals won a solid 87 games and cruised through their regional outscoring opponents 22 to 7, and although #4 starter Rheal Cormier (7-6, 4.33) was quite hittable, their bullpen was deep despite closer Lee Smith needing rest.  The 1984 Rangers lost 92 games but had been able to overcome bad defense with decent pitching and timely hitting in their regional, and Danny Darwin (8-12, 3.94) was a pretty good option at the bottom of a rotation for a 90-loss team.  In the bottom of the 1st Larry Parrish finds Cormier’s solid 6-5 homer for a 2-run shot, and then an error by Cards 1B-4 Gregg Jeffries sets up another run on a fielder’s choice to make it 3-0 Texas after one.  Bernard Gilkey wastes no time striking back, leading off the 2nd with a triple and scoring on a Todd Zeile sac fly, and in the 6th Rangers SS-4 Curtis Wilkerson makes his second error of the game and that allows a run when PH Gerald Perry rips a single past 2B-4 Wayne Tolleson.   With the tying run now on third, the Ranger move to closer Dave Schmidt and he whiffs Mark Whiten to preserve the one-run lead.  A leadoff hit by Billy Sample and Cormier hits the showers, with Mike Perez tasked with keeping things close and he retires the side without damage.  However, in the 8th defensive replacement George Wright comes up with a clutch 2-out single that scores the speedy Sample and provides the Rangers with an insurance run; things get ugly from there as Perez loads the bases and Parrish delivers a 2-RBI single.  Les Lancaster then comes in only to walk the bases full once again, and Gary Ward delivers the grand slam; two walks later it’s backup catcher Marvis Foley with a 3-run homer and the Rangers bat around for a 10-run inning that has the Arlington crowd forgetting about the heat.  Hoping to preserve an overused Schmidt for a possible appearance in a regional final, Dickie Noles comes in to mop up and although he and the bad Ranger defense try to make it interesting by allowing a couple of runs, it’s not enough as Texas moves on with a dominating 13-4 win.

For Friday Night Strat, we recruited our Canadian representative Eaglesfly to manage perhaps the last remaining Montreal representative in the tournament, the 91-win 1987 Expos, to face me and the Bash Brothers in the 1987 A’s, whose 81-81 record was only a prelude to a couple of pennants that would follow.  We were at the dregs of the rotation and Montreal’s Floyd Youmans and the A’s Curt Young (13-7, 4.08) needed to hang on faced with depleted bullpens.  Tim Wallach’s RBI double in the bottom of the 1st provides les Expos with an early lead, and Vance Law and Hubie Brooks add run scoring hits in the 4th to extend their lead to 3-0.  Wallach adds a solo homer in the 7th and Mitch Webster adds a sac fly in the 8th, while Youmans is brilliant through 8 innings, fanning eight and holding the powerful A’s to three hits.  However, in the 9th Youmans comes back to reality, as Mark McGwire, Terry Steinbach, and Mike Davis all poke run-scoring singles and the A’s put the tying run on base as Eaglesfly nervously summons Andy McGaffigan to try to get the third out before the lead crumbles entirely.  And he does the job as the Expos survive a 5-3 win and move on, while the A’s run ends at three wins as they head back into storage.

Strat enthusiast Kevin decided to make a pilgrimage to Endless Tournament Central for a shot at leading some of the remaining entries from the Astros franchise towards the final stages of the project.   For this game, he would helm the 2003 Astros, a solid 87-win team that lost their division by one game and who would go on to win the NL pennant two years later; however, in this round four game they were down to their #4 starter, an uninspiring Ron Villone (6-6, 4.13).  That left me to manage the 1997 Marlins, whose 92 wins were only slightly better than Houston but who had gone on to win the Series championship from a wild card playoff slot; they would have Al Leiter (11-9, 4.34) on the hill.  Both pitchers get off to a strong start, and Craig Biggio doesn’t break the scoreless tie until the top of the 4th with an RBI single, while the Marlins are held hitless through four.  However, they get their first hit in the bottom of the 5th when Villone loses control and walks in two runs, and when Jeff Conine adds a 2-run homer in the 6th for only the third Marlins hit, Villone is pulled for Brad Lidge.  The Marlins don’t record another hit, but the Marlins pen in the form of Robb Nen and Dennis Cook prove to be too much for the ‘stros and the pennant-winning Marlins close out the 4-1 win to survive and advance.

The survivors:  round five

It’s an altogether Orwellian round five game between the 1984 Mets and the 1984 Rangers, but the prospects look bleak for the Rangers, who lost 92 games while the Mets won 90 in the same season.  To make matters worse, the Mets would be sending out Rookie of the Year winner and Cy Young runner-up Doc Gooden (17-9, 2.60) and they would be getting Wally Backman back in the lineup after a minor injury.  The Rangers were hoping that Mike Mason (9-13, 3.61) would do better than he did in round one, when he staked the 2008 Dbacks to an 8-0 lead before getting pulled, precipitating a furious comeback for a 13-9 Texas win.  In the bottom of the 3rd, Gooden walks .182 hitter Ned Yost and then a single on his card is his first hit allowed; that seemed to rattle him because then Larry Parrish delivers a 2-out, 3-run homer and the Rangers continue an offensive display that has averaged over eight runs a game through the first four rounds.  A sac fly by Wayne Tolleson makes it 4-0 after four, and from there Mason is dominating.  He doesn’t allow anything off his card until a Rafael Santana single to lead off the 9th, but then he walks two and the bases are loaded with one out.  George Foster then hits a grounder towards the terrible Rangers up-the-middle defense, and true to form 2B-4 Tolleson drops it and one run scores, putting the go-ahead run at the plate in the form of Darryl Strawberry.  The Rangers stick with their ace Mason, and he walks Strawberry and now the tying run is at second.  A glance at the Texas bullpen yields no obvious solutions, and so Mason pitches to Hubie Brooks, who pops out rolling in his prime column.  The Mets then summon an ancient icon to pinch hit for weak-hitting catcher Mike Fitzgerald:  40-year old Rusty Staub, with a chance to recapture past glories.  But it is not to be; Mason strikes him out for whiff number 7, just one shy of Gooden’s total, and the underdog Rangers earn a berth in the super-regional finals with a 4-2 win.

With Canadian partisan Eaglesfly having led the 1987 Expos through round five, he had to reprise his leadership against a world champion 1997 Marlins team, with both squads returning to the top of their rotations:  Florida’s Kevin Brown (16-8, 2.69) against Montreal and Dennis Martinez (11-4, 3.30).  It’s the tail end of the Expos order that gets them on the board first, with Casey Candaele and Herm Winningham contributing RBI knocks in the 2nd and Candaele adding an RBI double in the 3rd to make it 3-0 Montreal.  However, Marlins guest manager ColavitoFan had made a last-minute lineup replacement to insert Cliff Floyd into the order, and he responds with a 3-run homer in the bottom of the 6th to tie the game.  Gary Sheffield then gives the fish the lead with a run-scoring triple in the 7th, and Martinez is pulled for Tim Burke, but that doesn’t go any better as Craig Counsel raps a bases-loaded single for two more runs in the 8th.  Meanwhile, Brown continues to work himself out of jams and he manages to close out a 6-3 win for the Marlins, and the last surviving Montreal squad goes down to eliminate their shot at the tournament title.

Super-regional finals

The super-regional final matches the World Series champion 1997 Marlins against an unlikely 92-loss 1984 Rangers team that had slugged their way past more highly rated opposition through their first five games; both starters were decent with Frank Tanana (15-15, 3.25) on the hill for the Rangers and Alex Fernandez (17-12, 3.59) getting the assignment for Florida.  The upstart Texans jump to a quick lead on an RBI single from Pete O’Brien in the top of the 1st, but then a series of misfortunes strikes.  First, the top of the 3rd inning ends with consecutive injuries to Buddy Bell and Larry Parrish, depriving the Rangers of two of their best hitters.  Then, in the bottom of the 3rd Tanana, who is cruising, is also injured, and closer Dave Schmidt comes in to immediately allow a single and then a two run homer to Charles Johnson and Florida leads with Texas having few weapons to work with.  They finally squeeze a few hits off Fernandez in the 8th, and Alan Bannister manages a squib single that ties the game, but Livan Hernandez comes in to shut things down and the game heads to extra innings.  Jay Powell enters the game in the 10th for the Marlins and he shackles the depleted Ranger offense, and in the bottom of the 11th Gary Sheffield converts a TR 1-3 against Dave Tobik that provides the walk-off RBI as the pennant-winning Marlins add a super-regional title to their list of accomplishments, moving on as one of the last 32 teams left standing.

Interesting card of Regional Z:  The 1997 Marlins were an interesting team, winning this super-regional and also the World Series, despite finishing under .500 in 1996 and losing 108 games in 1998.  This one-hit wonder achieved their moment with a collection of good ballplayers who I tend to associate with other teams, guys like Kevin Brown, Alex Fernandez, Moises Alou, Edgar Renteria, and the infamous Bobby Bonilla, whose salary was largely paid by the Mets.  There wasn’t much in the way of homegrown talent on this team, but one player who made a splash debut with the Marlins was this guy.  Livan Hernandez (not to be confused, like I do, with his half-brother El Duque) was a phenom in Castro-era Cuba, leading Cuba to the 1992 and 1993 World Junior Championships and having a dominant performance in the 1994 Baseball World Cup.  However, he defected through Mexico to the US in 1995 at the (alleged) age of 20, and given his background he was a perfect fit with the Marlins given Miami’s large Cuban community.  After one appearance in late 1996, he was brought up to the majors for good in mid-June 1997, and he made the most of it, being runner-up to Scott Rolen for NL Rookie of the Year.  However, it was in the post-season where he really made his mark, winning the MVP award for both the NLCS and the World Series, only the fourth time that had been done.  For his career, he had only appeared in 18 major league games when he started Game 1 of the 1997 Series, still the record for the fewest of any Game 1 starter in the World Series.