SECTIONAL III:  Two pennant winners and three division champs make for a strong group here, although accompanied by one of the true “WTF” teams of the tournament.  The Dodgers have a couple of entries here, and it could be an all-LA final, although a 100+ win Killer B’s Astros team threatens to head that off; even so, the 2017 Dodger variant is the ELO prediction to move on.  The eight entries and their paths to the sectional:

1958 Yankees:  ELO ranking 121, actual record 92-68, World Series champions.  This championship squad seemed to be at its best against stronger opposition, managing six wins without much contribution from Mickey Mantle, who finally got untracked in round six with a two-homer game.  Teams defeated to reach round seven:  1999 Royals (1917) 6-2; 1973 Dodgers (328) 2-1; 1955 Red Sox (612) 7-2; 1938 Phillies (2344) 6-5; 1967 Braves (1174) 4-2; 2003 Braves (177) 6-0.  Key performers:  Hank Bauer 3 HR, 9 RBI; Tony Kubek 1 HR 6 RBI; Mickey Mantle 3 HR 5 RBI; Bob Turley 2-0 18 IP 5 HA 0.50 ERA.

1987 Brewers:  ELO ranking 898, actual record 91-71.  The unheralded Brewers lost HOFer Robin Yount for eight games in the first round of the tournament, but they haven’t let that phase them as they’ve relied on the big bat of one-year wonder Bill Schoeder and a knack for coming back once relief ace Dan Plesac enters the game.  Teams defeated to reach round seven:  1966 Astros (1966) 2-1; 1994 Pirates (1887) 7-5; 1967 Giants (517) 8-2; 1990 Mariners (1527) 12-8; 1992 Expos (847) 7-1; 1974 Dodgers (92) 2-1 (12).  Key performers:  Bill Schroeder 3 HR 9 RBI; Paul Molitor 6 RBI; Greg Brock 6 RBI; Rob Deer 1 HR 5 RBI; Teddy Higuera 2-0 17.1 IP 8 HA 1.04 ERA; Dan Plesac 2-0, 1 SV, 7 IP 3 HA 0.00 ERA.  Injuries:  Robin Yount (2 games remaining).

2017 Dodgers:  ELO ranking 86, actual record 104-58, NL pennant winners.  These Dodgers started off strong against tough opposition, then had to squeeze by less formidable opposition and survived thanks to dominating closer Kenley Jansen’s three saves.  Teams defeated to reach round seven: 1962 Tigers (738) 5-2; 1949 Dodgers (120) 7-4; 1991 Angels (1107) 5-4; 1987 Royals (1117) 5-4; 1947 Cubs (1658) 2-1; 1963 Pirates (1455) 14-2. Key performers:  Curtis Granderson 2 HR 7 RBI, Yaiel Puig 2 HR 6 RBI, Cody Bellinger 2 HR 6 RBI, Kenley Jansen 3.1 IP, 1 HA, 0.00 ERA, 3 SVs.

1947 Senators:  ELO ranking 2058, actual record 64-90.  This is the Cinderella of the final 32 teams, a squad that has no business playing at this level.  They only faced one really good team en route to the sectionals, a pennant-winning A’s squad, but even so these Senators had been underdogs in five of their six games.  Hardly a team of stars, their success has been due to the fact that the core players on the team such as Vernon, Yost, and Wynn have come through when needed.  Teams defeated to reach round seven: 1996 Pirates (1850) 7-4; 1911 Browns (2360) 2-1 (12); 1972 A's (254) 12-4; 2009 Royals (1878) 4-0; 1990 Brewers (1408) 1-0; 1995 Mets (1256) 9-3.  Key performers:  Mickey Vernon 2 HR 7 RBI, Eddie Yost 1 HR 7 RBI.

1995 Padres:  ELO ranking 1555, actual record 70-74.  Mediocre on paper, these Padres began their run by knocking off a pennant winner and then recorded four more straight upsets before finally meeting and beating an evenly matched team in the super-regional final.  Basically a two man show, with the squad taking advantage of the brief PED-fueled peak of Ken Caminiti.  Teams defeated to reach round seven:  2021 Astros (155) 3-2; 2000 Reds (683) 4-3; 2001 Giants (503) 3-1; 1969 Senators (1172) 5-1; 2017 Twins (1115) 8-7; 1997 Brewers (1577) 6-2.  Key performers:  Ken Caminiti 3 HR 11 RBI, Tony Gwynn 8 RBI, Trevor Hoffman 1-0, 4.6 IP, 3 HA, 1.93 ERA, 1 SV.

1984 Cubs:  ELO ranking 519, actual record 96-65, won NL East.   This Cubs team reeled off four straight wins against inferior competition, but then proved their worth by knocking off two very good teams to reach the sectional, with Jody Davis being an unexpected spark at the plate.   Teams defeated to reach round seven:  1953 Red Sox (1039) 5-3; 1986 Twins (1835) 4-3; 2013 Blue Jays (1460) 8-3; 2019 Tigers (2375) 10-2; 2021 Giants (69) 1-0; 1993 Blue Jays (239) 12-4.  Key performers:  Jody Davis 3 HR 11 RBI,Leon Durham 1 HR 6 RBI, Ron Cey 1 HR 6 RBI, Ryne Sandberg 2 HR 5 RBI. 

1998 Astros:  ELO ranking 110, actual record 102-60, won NL Central.  The Killer B’s have come through for these Astros, while other than Randy Johnson the rotation has had to rely heavily upon closer Billy Wagner in clutch situations.  Teams defeated to reach round seven:   1999 Rockies (1776) 3-2; 2009 Yankees (33) 7-5; 1983 Padres (1268) 10-7; 1941 Red Sox (556) 5-1; 2017 Blue Jays (1409) 6-2;  1950 Browns (2273) 4-0.  Key performers:  Biggio 3 HR 7 RBI, Jeff Bagwell 2 HR 7 RBI, Moises Alou 2 HR 6 RBI, Billy Wagner 5.2 IP, 2 HA, 0.00, 2 SV.

2013 Dodgers:  ELO ranking 407, actual record 92-70, won NL West.  These Dodgers have put on one of the more dominating runs in the tournament, outsourcing their opposition 46 to 6 over their six games.    Teams defeated to reach round seven: 1996 Reds (1097) 7-0; 2021 Pirates (2323) 16-1; 1965 Cardinals (922) 8-3; 1996 Cubs (1313) 7-0; 2006 Cardinals (568) 3-1; 2010 Braves (538) 5-1.  Key performers:  Juan Uribe 3 HR 8 RBI, Yasiel Puig 2 HR 8 RBI, Adrian Gonzalez 2 HR 7 RBI, AJ Ellis 1 HR 6 RBI, Clayton Kershaw 2-0 18 IP, 9 HA, 0.50.  Injuries:  Mark Ellis (3 games remaining).

Round 7 action

As Series champs, the 1958 Yankees were hefty ELO favorites over the solid but unspectacular 1987 Brewers, particularly as the latter were missing HOFer Robin Yount for the duration of the tournament.  Furthermore, the pitching matchup seemed to favor the Yanks, as they had Don Larsen (9-6, 3.07) going against Bill Wegman (12-11, 4.24) of the Brew Crew.  The Yanks start off quickly with a solo homer by Gil McDougald in the top of the 1st, and Andy Carey adds a 2-run shot in the third to put New York up by a 3-0 margin.  Meanwhile, Larsen looks like he’s in perfect game form as he allows just one hit through the first 5 innings.   With runs looking tough to come by, Milwaukee pulls Wegman for Chuck Crim to begin the 6th, the in the 7th Carey knocks an RBI single and after New York loads the bases, Crim beans Mickey Mantle to drive in another–but Mantle is hurt and is out of the game, making the run very costly.  A two-run single by Mike Felder in the bottom of the inning gets the Brewers on the board and makes it look like that costly run may be necessary, but Larsen is perfect the rest of the way and the Yankees move on with the 5-2–but will be without their primary offensive weapon for their round eight matchup.

An apparent mismatch between the 104-win 2017 Dodgers and the 64-win 1947 Senators was one that the Dodgers perhaps should not be taking lightly, given that these Nats had reeled off six straight unlikely wins.   It would be up to Ray Scarborough (6-13, 3.41) to try to keep that streak going against LA’s Rich Hill (12-8, 3.32), and both pitchers seem up to the task as the game remains scoreless after six innings in which a total of only four hits were to be found.  However, reality sets in for the top of the 7th, as the Dodgers ride back-to-back doubles by Logan Forsythe and Chris Taylor for a 2-0 lead, with Washington calling upon Tom Ferrick out of the pen to try to keep things close.  And, sure enough, the magic of the Potomac seems to resurface, as the Senators respond by battering Hill and after Joe Grace rips a 2-run single to tie the game, it’s Stan Spence with a ball that clears cavernous Griffith Stadium for a two-run homer as even the lobbyists in the box seats rise to their feet.  It’s now up to Ferrick to try to hold that lead, but in the top of the 9th pinch hitter Austin Barnes cracks a solo shot to make it a one run game.  However, Ferrick holds serve to seal out the 4-3 Washington win and the remarkable Cinderella journey of the Senators continues as they next have a Sweet Sixteen date with the Yankees.

These were the last remaining entries in the tournament from the two contestants in this matchup between the 1984 Cubs and the 1995 Padres, so I recruited brother Chuck to roll for the Cubs as he does not share my antipathy towards the north siders; I would manage the Pads with Andy Benes (4-7, 4.17) going against his Scott Sanderson (8-5, 3.14) with both being pretty solid starters for #3 in the rotation.   However, both starters would begin the game on edge, with the Padres stranding runners on 2nd and 3rd in the top of the 1st inning, and in the bottom Cubs leadoff hitter and AA stealer Bob Dernier walked but was thrown out at second by Brad Ausmus.  There was no scoring until the top of the 4th when Jody Reed punches an RBI single for a 1-0 Padre lead.   Meanwhile, Benes was walking half the Cubs he faced but he didn’t allow a hit until the bottom of the 4th, when Jody Davis cranks an RBI double to tie the game.  The Pads knock three hits in the 6th with Reed and Archi Cianfrocco driving in two for a 3-1 lead, but again the Cubs respond with Gary Matthews narrowing the margin to one.  And there it stands going into the bottom of the 9th, when Benes faces Cubs PH Gary Woods with the tying run on 2nd and two away.  Woods lofts a flyball to CF-1 Steve Finley and it looks like it’s game over–but no, I roll a “1” on the split and Finley muffs it for a 2-base error that ties the game and puts the winning run on 3rd.  However, once again Benes works his way out of the jam to send the game to extra innings.  Sanderson dispatches the Padres in the top of the 10th, while in the bottom of the 10th it’s Dernier with a single and then he takes third on a Matthews hit.  Now, with two out and the winning run 90 feet away, and slugger Leon Durham at the plate.  Chuck then blows my mind, announcing that he is going to steal home with AA Dernier–the same guy who was nailed stealing 2nd to begin the game.  Off he goes, the split roll…..5, he’s safe, Cubs win 4-3, and the first walk-off steal of home in the tournament has been accomplished.  

The Friday Night Strat crowd was treated to a battle of two NL division-winners, with Houston partisan Kevin getting online to man the helm of the 1998 Astros, a team he had guided to the sectionals in face-to-face combat, with workhorse Shane Reynolds (19-8, 3.51) getting the call.  Here, he would face another of the innumerable Dodgers teams still alive, this one the 2013 Dodgers, who we assigned to brother Chuck given his propensity to get Dodgers injured in the line of duty; Hyun Jin Ryu (14-8, 3.00) would get the start.  Unfortunately, it’s Kevin who excounters the injury bug, as the Astros’ primary weapon of the tournament, Craig Biggio, is injured to begin the game, and the split roll is a 20, meaning that it’s time to call the hearse.  Andre Ethier adds insult to injury with a solo homer in the bottom of the 1st, and although Jeff Bagwell comes up with an RBI double in the 3rd, Houston strands two runners in scoring position, and run-scoring singles from Juan Uribe and injury replacement Michael Young push the Dodger lead to 3-1 after three.  The Astros tie it in the 4th behind a 2-run Bill Spiers double, but Carl Crawford knocks one in with a 5th inning triple to restore the LA lead.   The Astros get another run-scoring hit from Spiers in the 6th to tie the game for the third time, but Carl Everett commits the 4th Houston error of the game in the 7th, setting up Adrian Gonzalez for an RBI hit that puts the Dodgers ahead; although Billy Wagner then enters the game and shuts things down, it’s too late as Kenley Jansen returns the favor for the Dodgers who survive the 5-4 win and advance.

The survivors: round 8

The Zoom game of the week could only be the David v Goliath matchup of the world champion 1958 Yankees and the 90-loss 1947 Senators, bearers of the Cinderella slipper for this tournament.  However, Goliath was sporting some bruises already as both Mickey Mantle and Enos Slaughter were out for this game, eliminating two main sources of offense for the Yanks, while the Senators’ Buddy Lewis was back after a minor injury suffered in their round seven game.  For round eight both teams were at the bottom end of their rotations, and although that usually spells doom for a bad team, the Senators were a rare exception with four decent starting pitcher, and Mickey Haefner (10-14, 3.64) would have to be decent with the Nats’ only good reliever burnt in the prior game.   Meanwhile, swingman Art Ditmar (9-8, 3.42) would get the start for the Bombers, who would be helmed by the Tall Tactician, while Eaglesfly was in charge of the underdog Senators.  Right away, Washington lets it be known that they are not intimidated, as an error by NY 3B-1 Andy Carey in the bottom of the 1st sets up an Al Evans RBI double for a quick Nats lead.  That lasts until the top of the 3rd, when the firepower of the Yanks asserts itself; Haefner can’t get anyone out as Norm Siebern, Carey, and Elston Howard all poke RBI hits, and the inning is capped by a Yogi Berra 2-run homer and suddenly the Yanks lead 5-1.  Eaglesfly searches in vain for any talent in the bullpen, so Haefner has a chance at redemption and he finally gets the last out of the inning.  With a 90-loss team at this point it seems like it would be game over down four runs, but in the bottom of the 4th it’s Washington’s turn to filibuster, with Ditmar falling apart after a successful squeeze play by Jerry Priddy, with Joe Grace adding an RBI single that precedes a 2-run double from Stan Spence and it’s now a tie game with runners on 2nd and 3rd.  TT pulls Ditmar immediately and leads Ryne Duren out to the mound, pointing him in the direction of home plate; Duren then walks a batter to load the bases, and then walks Buddy Lewis to drive in another run and the Senators miraculously have reclaimed the lead.  Still, the Yanks didn’t win seven games in a row by accident, and Gil McDougald’s RBI single in the 5th ties the game yet again.  The Senators then lose Buddy Lewis to injury once again, this time for the rest of the tournament, but that opens the door for supersub Gil Coan and his .500 batting average; Coan comes up with runners on 2nd and 3rd and two out, but TT isn’t touching that and intentionally walks the bases loaded, a strategy that works when Duren whiffs Eddie Yost and the game is still tied.  It remains that way through the bottom of the 9th, with Bobby Shantz in to try to keep the Senators off the basepaths.  However, NY SS-3 Tony Kubek begins the inning by dropping a grounder, and after an out Priddy singles the winning run to 3rd.  With bottom of the order Mark Christman at the plate, Eaglesfly taps backup SS John Sullivan to pinch hit, risking a “4” at short if the gamble fails.  But, like most things for the Nats in this tournament, it does not fail; Sullivan slams a liner that drops and the winning run trots home for a 7-6 walkoff win for the unsinkable Senators move on to the Elite Eight with another jaw-dropping upset.

Befitting a round eight battle, two excellent division winning teams face off with the 1984 Cubs and Steve Trout (13-7, 3.41) matched against the 2013 Dodgers and mid-season pickup Ricky Nolasco (13-11, 3.70).  The Cubs jump to a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the 1st on a Gary Matthews RBI double, but Trout yields a 2-run homer to Yasiel Puig in the bottom of the inning as LA quickly responds.  They aren’t done either, as Juan Uribe triples in two more in the 3rd to make it 4-1.  The Cubs retaliate in the 4th to make it a one-run game courtesy of RBI hits from Ron Cey and Keith Moreland, but once again the Dodgers respond in kind in the bottom of the inning, with an Andre Ethier solo shot and a Hanley Ramirez RBI single that chases Trout for Warren Brusstar.  Moreland knocks in a run in the 5th that narrows the LA lead to 6-4, but Ethier adds an RBI double to his totals and Nolasco bears down to finish things out as the Dodgers survive and advance with the 7-4 win, sending the final Cubs team in the tournament back to the card catalogs.

Sectional final

Nobody in the Friday Night Strat crowd would lay odds for a win by the Cinderella 1947 Senators against the 2013 Dodgers, who would be sending out Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw (16-9, 1.83) to add pitching dominance to their far greater offensive punch.  The Senators would counter with their ace, Walt Masterson (12-16, 3.13), and an injury to RF Buddy Lewis opens the door for supersub Gil Coan and his .500 batting average.  Eaglesfly Roy would attempt to continue his luck with the Nats, while brother Chuck was reluctant to manage the Dodgers, not wanting to be the bad guy who knocks Cinderella out of the tournament.  That concern was quickly abandoned, as Kershaw was initially unable to get anybody out, with a leadoff single by Coan starting off three straight hits, the last an RBI single from Stan Spence, but Kershaw manages to strand the bases loaded to keep the damage to one run.  However, the hit parade continues in the top of the 2nd, as this time it’s Joe Grace, Mickey Vernon, and Al Evans all cracking RBI singles and before most Dodgers fans have even parked, the Senators lead 4-0.  Spence adds a solo homer in the 4th, and with Kershaw clearly not handling the pressure, Chuck opts for closer Kenley Jansen to begin the 6th.  By then it seems far too late, because the Dodger weapons can’t pull any triggers against a masterful Masterson.  He limits the Dodgers to four hits to complete a shutout, and the lowly squad from Washington adds another upset to their collection, a 5-0 whitewashing that unbelievably sends the Senators to the Final Four.  

Interesting card of Sectional III:  I had already featured Gil Coan's card with his .500 batting average back in Regional #155, and although I was tempted to do it again since it is one of the more remarkable entries in Strat history, I opted for a guy who has actually played a larger role in the Senators amazing run to the Final Four.  Spence was a one-man offense for the Nats, with two homers and six RBI in the three games of the Sectional providing the margins needed by the remarkably solid Washington starting rotation.  It's good to see Spence get his shot at stardom in this tournament, because he had a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time during his career.  His career began in the Red Sox system, where he was trying to break into an outfield of Ted Williams, Dom Dimaggio, and Doc Cramer, and he never had much more than a cup of coffee in the lineup in Boston.  He didn't get a chance at being a regular until he was traded to lowly Washington at age 27, where he immediately made an impact, hitting over .400 early in the season and finished 3rd in batting to Boston's Williams and Johnny Pesky.  Spence did lead the league in triples and was selected to the All-Star team while finishing 8th in the MVP voting.  Now going great guns with the Senators, his career was then further interrupted by WW II military service, but upon returning in 1946 he was once again an All-Star receiving MVP votes, as he did in the 1947 season for the team that has become Endless Tournament legends.  However, by then he was 33 and was traded back to Boston, but he was out of the majors within two seasons.  Spence apparently felt that his career record had been seriously damaged by Boston's neglect, but his spirit can enjoy some vindication in that he has led his Senators team to the Final Four with nine straight wins in this project, while no Red Sox teams, including those with Williams and Dimaggio, made it past round five. 

SECTIONAL II:  There are some quality representatives in these eight teams, including two pennant winners and three other division champs, but not a single team from the American League.  Also a couple of great bats making multiple appearances in this sectional, such as Willie Mays and Ryan Howard.  The ELO rankings point to one of the two Phillies teams in this group–interestingly, the one that didn’t win the pennant and the Series–to top the legendary ‘51 Giants and move on to the final four.  However, in order for that matchup to occur, the Phils may need to crush the hopes of a younger version of themselves in round eight. The eight entries and their paths to the sectional:

1951 Giants:  ELO ranking 151, actual record 98-59, NL pennant winners.  The beneficiaries of the “shot heard round the world”, their clutch performance in real life seemingly extended to this tournament, as they tended to play their best against strong teams.  Teams defeated to reach round seven: 2013 Rockies (1744) 5-1; 2014 Twins (1986) 5-4; 2000 Mets (354) 3-1; 1975 Mets (1248) 9-7; 1986 Tigers (676) 8-5; 2005 Phillies (542) 8-2.  Key performers:  Wes Westrum 2 HR 7 RBI; Don Mueller 2 HR 6 RBI; Willie Mays 1 HR 5 RBI.

2012 Reds:  ELO ranking 708, actual record 97-65, won NL Central.  A team that has won four of their six games by one run, greatly assisted by closer Aroldis Chapman who received Cy Young and MVP support for his dominating season.  Teams defeated to reach round seven:  1994 Angels (2061) 6-5; 2019 Padres (2205) 5-1; 1988 Astros (1328) 6-2; 1969 Astros (1346) 3-2; 1960 Yankees (201) 2-1; 2013 Indians (1020) 6-5.  Key performers:  Aroldis Chapman 6.3 IP, 4 HA 4.27 ERA, 1-0, 2 saves; Jay Bruce 1 HR 6 RBI; Ryan Ludwick 2 HR 4 RBI.  Injuries:  Joey Votto, 2 games remaining.

1997 Dodgers:  ELO ranking 576, actual record 88-74.  A team that underperformed in real life according to Pythagorean projections, these Dodgers had a fairly easy path to the sectional mainly riding the bats of Mondesi and Piazza.  Teams defeated to reach round seven: 1953 Senators (1055) 4-1, 1982 Rangers (1963) 6-2; 2016 Rays (1660) 1-0; 1968 Reds (1121) 4-3; 2004 Astros (341) 7-3;  2000 Twins (2126) 6-0.  Key performers:  Raul Mondesi 4 HR 9 RBI; Mike Piazza 3 HR 4 RBI; Chan Ho Park 2-0 15.7 IP 8 HA 2.30 ERA.  Injuries:  Roger Cedeno, 4 games remaining.

2012 Nationals:  ELO ranking 460, actual record 98-64, won NL East.  A strong rotation and run production from the heart of the lineup allowed the Nats to overcome long-term injuries to their double play combo, and pull off some come-from-behind wins.  Teams defeated to reach round seven:  1988 Padres (1223) 11-3; 2019 Brewers (718) 9-4; 1978 Royals (461) 3-2 (10); 1977 Angels (1582) 5-1; 2013 Orioles (743) 6-5; 1941 Tigers (1116) 3-2.   Key performers: Ryan Zimmerman 3 HR 10 RBI, Bryce Harper 1 HR 8 RBI.  Injuries: Ian Desmond 4 games remaining; Danny Espinosa 4 games remaining.   

2008 Phillies:  ELO ranking 298, actual record 92-70, World Series champions.  This championship squad beat numerous good teams to reach the sectional, averaging eight and a half runs a game in doing so.   They also managed to overcome a slew of minor injuries during the first rounds but they are now in full fighting form for sectional play.  Teams defeated to reach round seven:  1938 Reds (1091) 4-2; 1953 Reds (1763) 13-5; 2010 Rockies (904) 8-6; 1941 Pirates (797) 8-1; 2017 Cardinals (925) 9-3; 1964 Giants (663) 9-1.      Key performers:  Ryan Howard 3 HR 11 RBI, Shane Victorino 1 HR 11 RBI, Jayson Werth 2 HR 8 RBI.

2006 Dodgers:  ELO ranking 1228, actual record 88-74, wild card team.  Even though they made the post-season, these Dodgers had a difficult path to this round as they were underdogs in five of the six games needed to reach here, with consecutive shutouts in the previous two rounds showing the strength of the rotation.  Teams defeated to reach round seven:  1953 Braves (563) 4-3 (11); 2003 Pirates (1826) 8-1; 2016 Nationals (592) 6-4; 1995 Yankees (501) 4-3; 1930 Yankees (295) 12-0; 1960 Indians (1080) 1-0.  Key performancer:  Andre Ethier 1 HR 9 RBI, Nomar Garciaparra 1 HR 7 RBI.

2011 Phillies   ELO ranking 76, actual record 102-60, won NL East.  The second of the Phillies mini-dynasty to reach the sectionals, this was MLB’s best team that fell short in the post-season; however, they made up for it in this tournament, curiously dominating good teams and squeaking by bad ones.   Along the way they’ve had to surmount a number of injuries, including a 15-gamer to Chase Utley that knocks him clean out of the project.  Teams defeated to reach round seven:  1957 Senators (2295) 5-4; 1958 Dodgers (1576) 2-1; 2020 Nationals (760) 8-6; 1950 Cardinals (649) 18-2; 1964 Pirates (1311) 4-1; 2009 Reds (1752) 4-2.   Key performers:  Ryan Howard 2 HR 7 RBI, Shane Victorino 1 HR 5 RBI, John Mayberry Jr. 1 HR 5 RBI.  Injuries: Chase Utley 10 games remaining (out of tournament).

1960 Giants:  ELO ranking 881, actual record 79-75.  A team that went nowhere in reality, here it performed as a team with Mays, McCovey, Cepeda and Marichal might be expected to.  However, their path was relatively smooth and they have yet to face a team rated among the top 1000 of all time, so it remains to be seen if they can continue their run, while still dealing with injuries suffered in previous rounds.   Teams defeated to reach round seven:  1953 Tigers (2245) 5-4; 2017 Marlins (1806) 5-0; 1989 Tigers (2011) 4-1; 1927 White Sox (1290) 6-2; 2005 Blue Jays (1087) 4-3; 2017 Rays (1344) 3-2.  Key performers:  Orlando Cepeda 1 HR 6 RBI, Willie Mays 1 HR 6 RBI, Willie McCovey 1 HR 5 RBI.  Injuries: Sam Jones, 2 games remaining; Willie Kirkland, 7 games remaining (out of tournament).  

Round seven action

The 1951 Giants fired the shot heard round the world, so they were locked and loaded with Dave Koslo (10-9, 3.31) going against the injury-riddled 2012 Reds, who were without Scott Rolen and Joey Votto, and to make matters worse supercloser Aroldis Chapman would need to rest and would not be available to support Homer Bailey (13-10, 3.68) if needed.  And the need seemed to arise quickly in the top of the 1st, with Al Dark nailing an RBI triple and scoring on a Bobby Thomson sac fly.  An RBI double from Hank Thompson makes it 3-0 Giants in the second, but Bailey settles down and holds New York until Thompson drives in another with a 6th inning single.  The Reds move to reliever Jonathan Broxton at that point, and he shuts down the Giants offense, while in the 7th its Ryan time for Cincinnati as Ryan Hanigan cranks a solo homer while Ryan Ludwick adds an RBI single to narrow the gap to 4-2.  That lead holds until the bottom of the 8th, when Kolso gets into trouble and the Giants are forced to go to a limited bullpen and Al Corwin.  But Corwin is tagged for an RBI single by pinch hitter Didi Gregorius and suddenly the Reds have the winning run at the plate with the top of the order Brandon Phillips at the plate.   However, Corwin induces a weak popup and the Giants hang on for the 4-3 win and live to play another day.

I recruited brother Chuck to manage one of the too many LA teams to make the round of 32, this one being the 1997 Dodgers, while I would count on the pitching staff of the 2012 Nationals and Jordan Zimmerman (12-8, 2.94) going against Ramon Martinez (10-5, 3.64), who had tossed a 5-hit shutout in the finals of Regional #82.  Chuck immediately resumed a trend he’s been displaying recently, rolling a bone-crushing 10-game injury to primary Dodger weapon Mike Piazza in the top of the 1st.  An angry Dodger team responds in the 2nd with RBI hits from Todd Zeile and Darren Lewis, but a young Bryce Harper takes Martinez downtown in the 4th for a solo shot that makes it 2-1 LA.  Chuck’s dice of infirmity continue their roll as Eric Young goes down for the Dodgers for 15 games, and another solo homer from Mike Morse in the 7th ties the game.  Chuck sends out Scott Radinsky to begin the 8th, and that goes badly as a two-run double by Ryan Zimmerman and a Harper sac fly puts the Nats in the driver’s seat.  Craig Stammen seals off the Dodgers in the 9th and the Nats, battling injuries of their own with their DP combo out of the tournament, move on to the Sweet Sixteen with a 5-2 win.

In a Zoom showdown it was Philadelphia’s own Tall Tactician attempting to steer the world champion 2008 Phillies against the Friday Night Strat college of coaches guiding the 2006 Dodgers.  Philly would send out Brett Myers (10-13, 4.55), who was injured in the second inning of his first start in this tournament, against the Dodgers’ Brad Penny (16-9, 4.33), with both bullpens having seen some wear from tight super-regional finals.  In the bottom of the 2nd back to back doubles by JD Drew and Jeff Kent provide a 1-0 lead for LA, but the Phils tie it in the top of the 5th on a Shane Victorino RBI single.  However, the Dodgers respond immediately in the bottom of the inning as Kenny Lofton finds a solid 5-5 homer on Myers for a two-run shot to regain the lead.  Of course, any team left alive at this level doesn’t go down easily, and Greb Dobbs and Pedro Feliz deliver timely hits in the top of the 5th to cash out Penny and Joe Beimel comes in from the pen to record the last out, but the game is tied once again.  That lasts until the bottom of the 7th when Olmedo Saenz continues his tournament success with an RBI single off reliever Ryan Madson and it’s 4-3 LA heading into the 8th.  After a Pat Burrell single, the college of coaches taps closer Takashi Saito to try to preserve the lead, but with two outs the Tactician opts for pinch-hitter Matt Stairs, and the move is tactical genius as Stairs hits a climbing heater into the cheap seats for a 5-4 Philadelphia lead.  Now it’s time for Phils closer Brad Lidge, and I remind the assembly I witnessed Lidge for the Astros yielding a playoff clinching homer to Albert Pujols that still hasn’t come down–a shot that broke Lidge permanently in Houston.  Lidge didn’t seem to appreciate the reminder and he struck out the first two batters in the bottom of the 9th and the college decided it was time for their own pinch hitter, James Loney.  And of course Loney delivers a game-tying homer to send the battle to extra innings, with both teams having to stick with and burn their closers to try to pull off the win.   Saito does his job in the top of the 10th, and Lidge again fans the first two Dodgers–and then, it’s deja vu all over again, as Wilson Betemit converts his 1-13 homer split for a walk-off solo shot, Lighthouse Lidge once again brings them home, and the Dodgers move on to the Sweet Sixteen with the 6-5 walk-off win, while the Phils head to the card catalogs hoping that their still-surviving 2011 selves can avenge the loss.  

A sectional matchup for Friday Night Strat saw Philly partisan Tall Tactician manning the 2011 Phillies, the sectional favorite, against Eaglesfly and the 1960 Giants of Mays and McCovey fame, with the Phillies Cliff Lee (17-8, 2.40) getting the start against SF’s Jack Sanford (12-14, 3.82).  The Phils garner three hits in the top of the 2nd, but only a squib single by Placido Polanco drives in a run; meanwhile, the Giants are getting baserunners against Lee but they aren’t crossing the plate.  In the 5th an RBI double from John Mayberry Jr. provides some additional padding for Philly, while the Giants respond with an injury to SS Eddie Bressoud that doesn’t promise to make their task any easier.  Nonetheless, in the bottom of the 7th a two-run single from Hobie Landrith ties the game and warms up a chilly Candlestick crowd–at least briefly, until reliever Johnny Antonelli falls apart in the 8th with a double from Carlos Ruiz driving in two and a clutch hit from injury replacement Wilson Valdez scoring another.  Meanwhile, Lee seems to get stronger as the game goes on and he finishes out the 5-2 win to propel one of the two Phillies squads in the bracket on to the final field of 16.

The survivors:  round eight

The Friday Night Strat game of the week was the round eight matchup between the infamous 1951 Giants and Jim Hearn (17-9, 3.62) against the 2012 Nationals and Ross Detwiler (10-8, 3.40), both representing the tail end of their respective starting rotations.  The Giants deliver some opening shots with RBI hits from Don Mueller in the 2nd and Bobby Thomson in the 4th for an early lead, with Hearn looking sharp in permitting only two hits in his first five innings.  However, in the bottom of the 6th Ryan Zimmerman cracks a double that scores Bryce Harper and it’s a one-run ballgame as of the 7th inning stretch trivia bonanza.  Unfortunately, after a lengthy challenging trivia question, it seemed that Hearn couldn’t get loose again, as the Nats reel off consecutive hits by Michael Morse, Cesar Izturis, and Jayson Werth, and Al Corwin out of the GIants bullpen is not the answer as Harper adds to the hit parade and when the smoke clears four runs have crossed the plate.  That leaves Washington reliever Drew Storen in a position to lock down the win, and he does the job with a shot-less 9th inning as the Nationals move on to the Elite Eight with a 5-2 victory, while Willie Mays bows out of the tournament as the Giants return to storage.

After watching his Phils lose to the 2006 Dodgers in round seven, the Tall Tactician would have his chance for vengeance as he assumed the helm for the 2011 Phillies version for this round eight showdown.  Both teams were down to the bottom of their rotation, with the Phils going with Vance Worley (11-3, 3.01) while Mark Henrickson (6-15, 4.21) was sent out to start by Eaglesfly, managing the Dodgers in this Zoom battle.  This version of the Phils would also be down Chase Utley, out for the tournament with an injury, while Dodger closer Takashi Saito was unavailable after a prolonged outing in their extra inning win against the earlier Phils.  However, as seems to often be the case in this tournament, the Dodgers are unfazed by challenges and they immediately mount a threat with a run scoring in the bottom of the 1st on a Nomar Garciaparra single, but they leave two runners on, setting a pattern where Worley continues to strand men on base.  Meanwhile, the Phils are not doing much of anything against Henrickson, who allows only two hits through the first five innings.  However, in the top of the 6th a leadoff walk is followed by a 2-base error from Dodgers CF-3 Kenny Lofton, putting Ryan Howard at the plate with the tying run 90 feet away,  Eaglesfly brings the infield in and opts to walk the powerful Howard with first base open, bringing up Raul Ibanez with the bases loaded and nobody out.  Henrickson delivers, it’s a 2-5, HR 1-5, and the split die reads “4” for a grand slam that’s the first hit of the inning.  It’s enough to chase Henrickson for Hung-Chih Kuo, and he does the job, allowing only one more hit for the Phils in four innings of work.  But it’s to no avail; Ryan Madson comes in to pitch the 8th and 9th and although the Dodgers continue to get runners aboard, they can’t drive them in, and the Phillies complete their revenge with a 4-1 win in which they only record four hits–but those were enough to send them to the sectional final with a chance to move on to the Final Four, while heading back to the top of a very strong rotation.

Sectional II finals

A big matchup in the Sectional II final with the winner earning a berth in the Final Four of the tournament, with the Friday Night Strat crowd on hand to witness the Tall Tactician once again helming his 2011 Phillies against a collective of coaches on hand to guide the 2012 Nationals.  These two division winners both sported formidable rotations and a pitcher’s duel might be expected, with Cole Hamels (14-9, 2.79) on the hill for the Phils and Gio Gonzalez (21-8, 2.89) of the Nats both among the leading vote-getters for the Cy Young. Both teams had managed to survive crippling injuries to get this far, with the Phils losing Chase Utley for the tournament while the Nats had their entire double-play combo, Ian Desmond and Danny Espinosa, out of commission for at least one more game. Those injuries didn’t help the offenses against these top-flight pitchers, and for the first five innings there is only one hit recorded in the game.  Finally, in the 6th injury replacement Cesar Izturis find and converts Hamels’ HR split for a solo shot and a lead, one that is augmented in the 7th by a sac fly from the other Nats injury replacement, Steve Lombadozzi.  Meanwhile, Gonzalez is cruising, but in the 8th he starts to lose control, with the Phillies loading the bases on three walks, so Drew Storen is summoned from the pen and he gets the final out as the Nats hang onto the shutout.  Hamels wraps up the 9th having allowed only four hits, but the Phils head into the bottom of the 9th still having recorded only one hit and it’s looking bleak for their prospects, but this time it’s Storen who has control issues and Jimmy Rollins doubles in a run to make it 2-1.  A couple of walks loads the bases with one out, and #9 hitter Placido Polanco steps up to the plate to try to get the tying run across.  The FNS coaching collective opts to play the infield back looking for the double play, so Tall Tactician signals for the seldom-used (in this Basic tournament) squeeze play to insure that there would be no game-ending DP.  And, it works flawlessly, the tying run plates and now there are runners on 2nd and 3rd with two outs and the top of the order in Hunter Pence in the batter’s box.  Storen delivers, Pence rips a clean single, and the Phils walk it off with a classic 3-2 comeback win, one in which they only register three hits–pairing nicely with their four-hit win in round 7.  So, it’s the highly efficient Phils and their killer rotation, the last remaining squad of a dynasty that was remarkably successful in this tournament, that moves on to the Final Four with the 3-2 victory, while the Nationals fall just short after reeling off eight consecutive wins.

Interesting card(s) of Sectional II:   In 2012, a book authored by Jim Salisbury and Todd Zolecki was published that was entitled The Rotation: A Season with the Phillies and One of the Greatest Pitching Staffs Ever Assembled.  They argued that it had been more than half a century since a major league team's pitching staff boasted three pitchers in the Top Ten in career winning-percentage, and the fourth man up in the rotation just happened to be an NLCS and World Series MVP.  These are certainly impressive credentials, although I must admit that it isn’t these 2011 Phillies that come to mind when I think about the greatest four-man rotations: it’s more teams like the 1971 Orioles, 1954 Indians, or even the 1920 White Sox that occur to me.  Furthermore, this Phillies rotation didn’t last long, with key parts leaving or declining into mediocrity fairly soon thereafter.  Does that mean that the premise of the book is wildly mistaken?  I’m not sure, but I have to point out that all three of those aforementioned teams with “great” rotations had their shot in this tournament–and they are all long gone, while these Phils have reeled off nine straight wins to earn a spot as one of the final four left standing.  In other words, the cards and dice have spoken, and it’s hard for me to argue against them.

IN MEMORIAM:  As in previous years,  I want to pay tribute to the all-star team of players that we have lost in 2025.  Although there are only a couple of Hall of Famers on this roster, there are also some personal favorites for me that hurt to lose.  Baseball for me is unique in marking the passage of time; in my endless tournament, I’ve sometimes had two teams from the same franchise in consecutive years play each other, and although many of the players overlap, the teams are not the same.  Much like one cannot step into the same river twice, baseball flows on, and no matter what team was your particular favorite, it will never take the field again.  Except, that is, in Strat, where the skills of these players at those points in time–The Cobra’s arm, Ryno’s bat and glove, and the Beeg Guy coming out of the pen–are all frozen in amber, waiting for us to roll the dice and bring them back to life in our mind’s eye.  RIP to the class of 2025, gone but never forgotten by us.

SECTIONAL I:  These eight teams reflect an eclectic mix with games played dating back into the early 1980s, including a couple of old-timer teams that have since been updated and expanded.   The ELO rankings portray two of those teams, the ‘53 Dodgers and ‘31 A’s, in a virtual tie as being among the top 40 greatest teams of all time, so that could be a very interesting game for the sectional final.  The eight entries and their paths to the sectional:

1975 Giants:  ELO ranking 1508, actual record 80-81.  A seemingly mediocre team that was the underdog in all but one of their six games, recording four one-run victories and two blowouts in this tournament. Teams defeated to reach round seven:  1971 Pirates (149), 3-2 ; 1980 Pirates (617), 3-2 (10 innings); 1981 Cubs (2200), 15-0; 1975 Indians (1397), 5-4; 1977 Twins (756), 16-0; 1980 Rangers (1243), 3-2.  Key performers:   Bobby Murcer 2 HR 5 RBI; Glenn Adams 1 HR 6 RBI; Willie Montanez 5 RBI; Steve Ontiveros 5 RBI: John Montefusco 2-0, 18 IP, 9 H, 1.00 ERA. 

1948 Indians:  ELO ranking 97, actual record 97-58, World Series champions.  An all-time great team, their rotation recorded three shutouts in six games against very good opposition and allowed only five runs total on the way to the sectional.  Teams defeated to reach round seven: 1974 Rangers (1620), 5-2; 1970 Mets (655), 4-0; 1946 Red Sox (176), 3-2; 1969 Braves (1094), 6-0; 1973 Cardinals (1026), 10-0; 1960 Pirates (363), 3-1.  Key performers:  Joe Gordon 3 HR 5 RBI; Ken Keltner 2 HR 5 RBI; Satchel Paige 2-0 18 IP 11 HA 1.00 ERA; Bob Feller 2-0 18 IP 11 HA 0.50 ERA.

1971 Padres:  ELO ranking 2242, actual record 61-100.  Just two seasons past being an expansion team, the persistence of these Padres in this project is baffling.  A massive underdog in every game they played against some very strong teams, their rotation tossed six straight complete games as the bullpen was nonexistent, and the Colbert/Gaston tandem provided the offense. Teams defeated to reach round seven: 1980 Yankees (212), 8-6; 1970 Cubs (778), 5-3; 1978 Expos (1417), 7-4; 1972 Dodgers (709), 9-8; 1979 Yankees (466), 5-4; 1971 Reds (1213), 5-4 (10 innings).  Key performers: Nate Colbert 2 HR 8 RBI; Cito Gaston 2 HR 8 RBI;

1953 Dodgers:  ELO ranking 40, actual record 105-49, NL pennant-winners.  Generally regarded as one of the greatest teams of all time, five of the six teams they defeated were in the top third in baseball history, with their bats allowing them to survive some shaky pitching performances and a few extra inning cliffhangers.  Teams defeated to reach round seven: 1977 Tigers (1760), 7-6 (10 innings); 1961 Giants (549), 7-6 (15 innings); 1924 Senators (312), 6-4;1978 Red Sox (158), 7-5;  1976 Royals (509), 6-1; 1969 Cubs (602), 5-2.  Key performers: Carl Furillo 2 HR 11 RBI; Pee Wee Reese 2 HR 7 RBI; Duke Snider 2 HR 4 RBI.

1931 A's: ELO ranking 40, actual record 107-45, AL pennant-winners.  Another one of the greatest teams of all time, these A’s marched through the first six rounds outscoring some good opponents by a  47-11 run differential.  Teams defeated to reach round seven:  1977 Expos (1939), 5-2; 1961 Phillies (2298), 5-2; 1981 A's (837), 6-0; 1972 Astros (836), 11-1; 1950 Red Sox (86), 5-2 (10 innings); 1961 White Sox (864), 7-0.  Key performers: Al Simmons 3 HR, 10 RBI; Mickey Cochrane 1 HR, 11 RBI; Mule Haas 2 HR 4 RBI; Jimmie Foxx 1 HR 5 RBI; Lefty Grove 2-0, 19 IP, 12 H, 1.89 ERA.

1993 Reds: ELO ranking 1558, actual record 73-89.  Looking mediocre on paper but proving just good enough to win, besting three pretty strong opponents.  Oddly, the Reds scored exactly four runs in each of their first five rounds until managing five in the super-regional final, but that was enough thanks to strong outings from the starting rotation.  Teams defeated to reach round seven:  1948 Cubs (1994) 4-1; 1973 Pirates (937) 4-3; 2006 Twins (396) 4-3;1957 A's (2246) 4-3 (10 innings); 1984 Royals (1347) 4-0; 1991 Dodgers (428) 5-1.  Key performers:  Kevin Mitchell 1 HR 7 RBI; Reggie Sanders 6 RBI; Jose Rijo 2-0, 18 IP, 9 HA, 0.50 ERA.

1990 Cubs:  ELO ranking 1517, actual record 77-85.  A mediocre entry from the Cubs that hit 13 homers in their six games; they particularly earned my ire by eliminating one of my favorite White Sox teams in the super-regional final.  After pasting two cupcakes in the first two rounds, the Cubs ripped off four straight upsets against good teams to reach the sectional level. Teams defeated to reach round seven: 1963 Colt 45s (2266) 9-6 (11 innings);  1941 Browns (1712) 4-1; 1957 Tigers (907) 7-4; 1953 Cardinals (717) 7-5; 2019 Twins (592) 4-2; 1954 White Sox (126) 4-2. Key performers: Andre Dawson 3 HR 11 RBI; Hector Villanueva 3 HR 6 RBI; Jerome Walton 1 HR 5 RBI; Ryne Sandberg 1 HR 4 RBI.

2014 Tigers:   ELO ranking 616, actual record 90-72, won AL Central.  The Tigers had a fairly easy path to the sectionals, mainly riding a starting rotation capable of recording six straight complete games, with Scherzer being the most dominating.  Offensive production was spread across the lineup, coming to life recently with the team scoring twice as many runs in the super-regional as they had in the regional.  Teams defeated to reach round seven: 1938 Browns (2309) 2-0; 1987 Reds (970) 5-4;  2014 Mets (1489) 4-3; 2003 Rockies (1679) 5-2;  2010 Mets (1406) 7-2; 1980 Reds (848) 10-1.  Key performers: Ian Kinsler 1 HR 7 RBI; Torii Hunter 1 HR 4 RBI; Max Scherzer 2-0, 18 IP, 15 HA, 1.00 ERA.

Round seven action

The winner of the very first super-regional was actually determined sometime in 1982, if my memory serves, and that winner was the improbable 1975 Giants, but they now faced their first encounter with an Old-Timer great in the form of the 1948 Indians and their dominating starting rotation.   The Tribe would have Bob Lemon (20-14, 2.82) on the hill against the Giants’ Jim Barr (13-14, 3.06), and after a few innings of feeling each other out the Indians get to Barr in the bottom of the 3rd with RBI hits from Thurman Tucker and Dale Mitchell to give Cleveland a 2-0 lead.  But Lemon gets wild in the 4th, with a couple of walks setting up a sac fly by Dave Rader and a 2-out squib single from Steve Ontiveros that ties the game.  Ontiveros adds another RBI single to his collection in the 6th and the Giants take the lead, but Jim Hegan responds with one of his own in the bottom of the 7th to chase Barr and tie the game once again, and it remains that way through regulation.  Lemon is still throwing for Cleveland to begin the 10th, but he has finally run out of gas, as he’s ripped for hits by the likes of Von Joshua, Chris Speier and Derrel Thomas and the persistent Giants retake the lead; Gary Lavelle comes in to set down the Indians quietly in the bottom of the 10th and yet another all-time great team bites the dust as the Giants move on with a 6-3 extra inning win.

In a round seven game where the dice were actually rolled more than 40 years ago, the 100-loss 1971 Padres had managed to pull off a string of upsets to reach this pinnacle, but now they found themselves facing the powerful 1953 Dodgers, legendarily among the greatest teams of all time.  Furthermore, they would draw the Bums staff ace, Carl Erskine (20-6, 3.54) while the Pads would send out the far less legendary Steve Arlin (9-19, 3.48).  Arlin got off to a rough start with a two-run Duke Snider homer in the bottom of the 1st, and Ebbets Field is gearing up for a field day.  San Diego doesn’t get a hit until the 4th, but in the 5th Erskine falters and an RBI single from Enzo Hernandez and a 2-run double by Johnny Jeter (who has led his team further than namesake Derek ever did) puts the Padres in the lead.  Befitting a great team, the Bums respond immediately in the bottom of the inning as a clutch 2-out RBI single from Roy Campanella ties the game.  But the Padres have a response of their own, and it comes quickly in the top of the 6th with a solo homer from Cito Gaston; Arlin then does not allow another Dodger hit and once again, it’s the amazing Padres downing an all-time great 4-3 and earning an unlikely spot in the Sweet Sixteen in this tournament.

After two straight upsets involving Old-Timer teams, the 1931 A’s were a bit uneasy facing the underdog 1993 Reds, a team that underperformed in real life sufficiently to get manager Tony Perez fired in midseason.   The A’s certainly should have felt good about an apparent pitching mismatch with George Earnshaw (21-7, 3.67) looking a lot better than Cincinnati’s Tom Browning (7-7, 4.74).  However, both starters assert themselves early and there are no runs until Reds #9 hitter Bip Roberts drives one in with a triple in the bottom of the 5th.  The A’s respond with an RBI single from Phil Todt in the top of the 6th that ties the game, but they leave the bases loaded which proves unfortunate as the Reds rack Earnshaw in the bottom of the inning with a 2-run double by Randy Milligan, who then scores on a Barry Larkin single and the Reds lead 4-1.  Things take a bad turn for the A’s as they lose both Jimmie Foxx and Jimmy Dykes to injury, which jimmies their chances for a comeback, and Cincinnati then turns it over to their bullpen.  However, there isn’t much remaining of the infamous Nasty Boys out there and Johnny Ruffin and Jeff Reardon struggle to hold the A’s at bay.  RBI singles from Mule Haas and Al Simmons in the 8th make it a one run game.  However, Reardon manages to hold off the depleted A’s offense in the 9th to earn the save, and once again an all-time great squad bites the dust courtesy of a more modern mediocrity, with the Reds surviving and advancing with the 4-3 win.

I recruited brother Chuck to pilot the 1990 Cubs against my leadership of the 2014 Tigers, with both teams sending out their #3 starters, those being Mike Bielecki (8-11, 4.93) for the Cubs and Rick Porcello (15-13, 3.43) for Detroit.  The Tigers start things off in the bottom of the 1st with RBI hits from Victor Martinez and Miguel Cabrera, but the Cubs respond in kind in the 3rd behind Hector Villanueva and Shawon Dunston to tie it at two apiece.  The Cubs then take the lead in the 5th on a solo shot from Andre Dawson, but in the bottom of the inning weak hitting SS Andrew Romine returns the favor with a homer off Bielecki and the game resets after 5 innings, with both teams turning the games over to their respective bullpens to begin the 6th.  Rajai Davis and Ian Kinsler drive in runs for Detroit in the bottom of the 7th, but the Tigers lose 3B Nick Castellanos to injury and then Dave Clark makes Cubs fans glad all over with a two run double in the 8th that ties the game up once again.  Paul Assenmacher has the task of trying to close out the Tigers in the bottom of the 9th to send the game into extra innings,  but injury replacement Don Kelly pokes a leadoff double to put the winning run in scoring position.  That brings up .218 hitter Alex Avila, who lofts a routine fly ball to centerfield–but Cubs CF-2 Jerome Walton muffs it for a walk-off two base error and Cubs lose, with the Tigers earning a berth in the Sweet Sixteen of the tournament courtesy of an extra-inning 6-5 victory.

The survivors:  round eight

The 1975 Giants and the 1971 Padres were two highly unlikely opponents to be facing off in round eight of this tournament, but each had managed to reel off seven straight wins, usually against higher-rated opposition.  However, both teams now were at the bottom of their rotations–Mike Caldwell (7-13, 4.79) for the Giants, Fredie Norman (3-12, 3.32) for the Pads–which usually spells disaster for mediocre squads such as these, although a perusal of the historical documents revealed that both bullpens were well rested, especially since I had played their super-regional games in the mid-1980s.  This matchup merited being a featured Zoom game on Friday Night Strat, and ColavitoFan had experience with these Padres having led their predecessors to glory in a previous expansion-team league project; Tall Tactician agreed to steer the Giants despite his disappointment that the Willie M. on the squad was not Mays or McCovey, but Montanez.  The Giants get out quickly as an error by usually sure-handed Padre 2B-2 Don Mason opens the door for two runs, but Nate Colbert retaliates in the bottom of the inning by converting a HR 1/flyB 2-20 split that narrows the gap to 2-1.  A two-out RBI single by Enzo Hernandez then ties the game in the bottom of the 2nd, and then San Diego rattles off four straight hits in the 5th to chase Caldwell and the Padres take a 5-2 lead.  However, teams that get this far aren’t ones that give up easily, and the Giants immediately strike back in the top of the 6th as Norman fails to record an out, and Gary Matthews pulls rank for his second RBI to make it a one-run game.  ColavitoFan turns to reliever Dick Kelly to try to put the game away, but in the 9th it’s Montanez giving the Padres the Willies with a game-tying single and we head to extra innings.  Kelly holds serve in the top of the 10th, meaning that Gary Lavelle has to stave off the feeble bottom of the Padre lineup.  But Hernandez draws a leadoff walk, and Mason executes a perfect hit-and-run for a single that puts the winning run on third with Downtown Ollie Brown and the top of the order at the plate.  Brown lofts a flyball deep enough for Hernandez to dash home and the 100-loss Padres win their eight straight game 6-5 to place them in the Elite Eight for the tournament. 

The 1993 Reds had managed an epic upset in round seven and they were underdogs once again, facing the 2014 Tigers and Anibal Sanchez (8-5, 3.43), with the Reds sending out John Smiley (3-9, 5.62) at the bottom of their rotation.  After three scoreless innings, the Reds break things open in the top of the 4th with Bip Roberts and Barry Larkin each driving in a pair of runs, although an RBI single from Ian Kinsler in the bottom of the inning narrows the Reds lead to 4-1.  But disaster strikes the Reds in the 5th as Kevin Mitchell and Roberts are both lost for prolonged injuries, and then a two-run homer from Kinsler and a run-scoring double for Victor Martinez ties the game and chases Smiley after five innings.  The Reds turn in over to Jerry Spradlin, but he can’t keep the irrepressible Kinsler at bay as another RBI single in the 7th provides the Tigers with their first lead, and in the 8th Miggy Cabrera singles in a run set up by two Reds errors to add some insurance.   But the best policy is provided by Tiger reliever Al Albuquerque, who comes in to begin the 8th and shuts down the injury-depleted Reds to save the 6-4 win, and propel the Tigers to the sectional final.

Sectional I finals

We got ColavitoFan in for Friday Night Strat to reprise his successful leadership of the unlikely 1971 Padres as they continued their quest to earn a berth in the Final Four of this tournament.  However, standing in their way would be the 2014 Tigers and Max Scherzer (18-5, 3.15), who led the AL in wins while finishing 5th in the Cy Young voting.  However, I felt that the ace of the lowly Padres, Clay Kirby (15-13, 2.83), actually had a better card, as a solid double at 5-6 on Scherzer made me a bit nervous.  However, it was a solid 1-4 home run on Cito Gaston that put the upstart Padres ahead in the top of the 1st, but Miguel Cabrera halved that lead with a solo homer in the bottom of the 2nd, and JD Martinez singles in a run to tie the game in the 4th.  The Tigers would pick up RBI from Ian Kinsler, Rajai Davis, and the freshly healed Nick Castellanos that puts Detroit up 5-2 in the 5th.  However, never count these Padres out; they come storming back in the 6th, nailing Scherzer’s solid double twice, including one for two runs from Garry Jestadt, and when the smoke clears San Diego is leading 6-5.  They add another run in the 7th as Nate Colbert goes yard for a solo shot, and it looks like the Padres run will continue, but in the bottom of the 8th Kirby gets two outs but then allows two sharp singles and a walk and he’s clearly out of gas.  The Padres then have to dig into a bullpen already depleted from their extra inning win in round eight, so it's Cy Acosta who is tapped to try to preserve the win and get the last out with the bases loaded.  But a single by Torii Hunter makes it a one run game, bringing up .218-hitting catcher Alex Avila with no decent pinch hitters on the bench.  Avila steps in against Acosta, and rips a grounder to Padre SS-3 Enzo Hernandez, who has already made some stellar plays in this game.   However, not this time–it’s a two-base error, two runs score, the Tigers lead, and Tiger reliever Blaine Hardy retires the Padres in order in the 9th.  So the clock strikes midnight on the gutsy Padres, while the 2014 Tigers head to the Final Four of the tournament with an 8-7 win that saw four different lead changes.   And to underscore how the Tigers pulled this off:  although their real life post-season run was cut short in 2014, every member of their starting rotation finished their career with a World Series ring--just not with the Tigers.

Interesting card of Sectional I:  Even though they lost a wild sectional final that saw four separate lead changes, I felt obligated to honor the 1971 Padres for a remarkable run of eight straight victories that led them to the Elite Eight of this 2,056 team tournament.  Not bad for a last place team that lost 100 games and also finished last in the majors in attendance, averaging only 6,883 per game.  It took a remarkable streak of strong pitching and timely hitting to get this team so far, but they certainly never would have done it without their stalwart, 1B Nate Colbert.   Nate provided 4 homers and 10 RBI in the Padres’ nine games as the star of what was MLB’s worst offense that year, which is fitting because he was really the first star of that expansion franchise.  Colbert came up through the Astros organization, who tried to mold him into a spray hitter given the challenges posed to power hitters by the Astrodome, but the effort was so unsuccessful that Houston made him available in the expansion draft, where the Padres selected him with their 18th pick.  Beginning that inaugural 1969 season on the bench, he finally got his chance in late April, when he hit his first major league home run–against the Astros in the Astrodome.  He went on to average 30 homers a year over the next five seasons in a ballpark in San Diego that was also unfriendly to power hitters, with deep alleys and a 17-foot outfield wall.  During his 1971 season, he was struggling with back problems that plagued him for much of his career, but he was still named to the All Star team for the first time, and in ‘72 he received support for the MVP award, once hitting five home runs and driving in a record-setting 13 runs in a doubleheader.  Also, this card has sentimental value to me, as it is among those that I’ve owned the longest; the 1971 season was the second full set that I saved up to purchase as a kid.  It was also the first set to have an “Advanced” side, which when it comes to dice-rolling, has never really captured my imagination like the original.  

The Endless Single Elimination Tournament after the Super-Regional round:   Having completed 256 regionals and 32 super-regionals involving all 2,056 different teams that Strat has printed (as of this moment), I've now played every Strat team I own, although it's taken me 44 years to be able to say that.  The project is now down to the final 32 teams, each of which can boast six victories in a row.  In recognition of this dubious accomplishment, I have collated the "historical documents" of this project up to this point into a single PDF document, which enables any interested reader (a group almost certainly limited to a highly select few) to search for information about the fate of their favorite teams or players.   Since anyone reading this has to be somewhat of a numbers buff, here are some stats: the volume is 1,153 pages long and contains 647,884 words, dwarfing Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace (561,304), Gone with the Wind (418,053), Charles Dickens' longest work, Bleak House (360,947 words), Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov (364,153) and all seven volumes of C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia combined (345,535).  However, as always I must accept that my words-to-readers ratio is far higher than any of those authors, suggesting that perhaps I need to find other things to do.   At any rate, the Complete Super-Regional edition is available for inspection or download at the link below; hope someone enjoys it!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19a6hY9ijJANV2s69oQsf4MqLPHLc-CRK/view?usp=sharing

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.