REGIONAL #250:  Once again, it appeared that two of the best teams in the draw would be facing off in round one, with last season’s Yankees and Phillies being two teams that I vaguely remembered were thought to be potential Series opponents, although neither team took the pennant.  However, there was one squad that indeed did capture the pennant, the 2009 version of the Phillies, and they were right in the middle of an remarkable run of regional winners for the franchise that already included 2005, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2012, and 2014.  Among other potential competitors were a Nationals team separated from their lone pennant by a pandemic year, the 2023 Twins who I seemed to remember playing in the postseason, and a strike-season Red Sox team some years before the infamous ‘85 pennant-winners.  Aside from the Marlins and the ‘59 Senators, I thought this looked like a strong group but I had to pick the 2009 Phils given their previous successes in this project, and for extra measure I selected the other Phillies team to face them in the Phinals.   The ELO rankings agreed with that assessment, but suggested that the older Phils would have a more challenging path to the final than the newer model.

First round action

In what looked like the best round one matchup in this group, it was the top seeded, pennant winning 2009 Phillies facing the #4 seed 1981 Red Sox.  The Phils took the NL East with 93 wins and cruised through the playoffs but fell short in the Series; they were loaded offensively with Ryan Howard finishing 3rd for MVP and Chase Utley, Shane Victorino, and Jayson Werth all also received votes.  However, their pitching staff was not the best, although JA Happ (12-4, 2.93) was a strong option at the top of the rotation, and Brad Lidge was one of worst closers I’d seen on a pennant-winning team.  The Red Sox went 59-49 in that strike-shortened season, with hitting leader Carney Lansford and Dwight Evans both in the top ten for MVP, but innings shortages left Mike Torrez 10-3, 3.69) atop a rather shallow rotation.  Boston suffers a blow in the top of the 3rd when Jerry Remy is knocked out of the regional in his second at-bat, and those 24-player die cut teams didn’t provide much depth to replace him.  The Phils don’t get their first hit until the bottom of the 4th, but it’s a long one as Raul Ibanez provides a lead with a solo shot, and Jimmy Rollins leads off the 5th by converting Torrez’s HR split for another run.  Torrez gets out of a jam, striking out Werth with the bases loaded to end the 7th with no damage, and the Phils leave two more on in the 8th, but their limited production proves sufficient as Happ finishes up with a 4-hit shutout and the favorites move on with a quiet 2-0 win.

I was surprised to discover that this first round game was a huge mismatch by the ELO ratings, mainly because I didn’t realize the 2021 Nationals had collapsed after winning a season two seasons earlier.  This version of the Nats managed to lose 97 games, and although Juan Soto was the MVP runner-up and Kyle Schwarber provided additional power, the rotation was painful to look at with Joe Ross (5-9, 4.17) just tossing enough innings to be eligible as their best option.  Meanwhile, I had accurately remembered that the 2023 Twins made the playoffs and won the AL Central with 87 wins; Sonny Gray (8-8, 2.79) was the runner-up for the Cy Young award and the fourth starter in their rotation still probably had a better card than Ross.  But Schwarber spots Ross with a leadoff homer in the top of the 2nd, and in the 7th the lead gets extended by RBI hits from Alcides Escobar and Starlin Castro.  When Soto leads off the 8th with a double, the Twins are forced to try Brock Stewart and his 0.65 ERA to try to head off further damage, but he yields a 2-out single to Escobar that scores another run.  Meanwhile, Ross is mystifying the Twins, and he ends with the second 4-hit shutout of the regional as the bottom seed in the bracket surprises and moves on with the 4-0 win.

This matchup features two franchises that haven’t seen a lot of success in the tournament.  The 2023 Marlins were the #6 seed but had a decent 84-78 record; Luis Arraez led the NL with a .354 average and finished 8th in the MVP voting, while Jesus Luzardo (10-10, 3.58) was a respectable round one starter.    For the #7 seed 1959 Senators, it was the usual first in war, first in peace, and last in the American League with 91 losses, but this team had Harmon Killebrew leading the league in homers and he, Jim Lemon, and Bob Allison all received MVP votes, as did Camilo Pascual (17-10, 2.64) with an outstanding year.   Washington comes out charging in the bottom of the 1st, with an RBI single by Roy Sievers, a sac fly by Faye Throneberry, and an error from Miami 3B-3 Jake Burger resulting in a 3-0 Nats lead.  They add to it in the 2nd with a 2-run double from Lemon, although Burger atones for his error by leading off the 4th with a long homer and Jorge Soler goes back to back to make it a 5-2 game.  Meanwhile, Luzardo settles down for a while, but when he puts the first two runners on in the 5th the Marlins move to Tanner Scott from the pen, and he gets out of the jam to keep Miami in the game.  Killebrew jacks one to lead off the7th but the Marlins get it back on a Jesus Sanchez RBI single in the 8th, although Jazz Chisholm misses his HR 1-15 split that could have made it even closer.  The Marlins mount a comeback in the top of the 9th, as Arraez drives in a run with his first hit of the game, and with two out and two runs in scoring position that could tie the game, Burger comes to the plate as the go-ahead run.  A mound chat with Pascual and the Senators stick with their ace, who strikes out Burger and Washington heads to the semifinals with the 6-4 win.  

Two teams from the past season that fell short of expectations, the 2023 Phillies were the #2 seed while the 2023 Yankees were seeded as #5.   The Phils won 90 games but fell just short of a pennant in the NLCS; there were MVP votes for Bryce Harper, Nick Castellanos, and Kyle Schwarber, who hit 47 homers but batted .197 and would occupy a well-deserved DH role because he was a hazard in the outfield.  Zack Wheeler (13-6, 3.61) was 6th in the Cy Young voting and was a force to be reckoned with.   The Yankees limped to an 82-80 record, and their primary weapon was Aaron Judge, who needed to stay healthy unlike the actual season.  However, their great equalizer was Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole (15-4, 2.63) who would give them a chance against anybody.  Things go sour in the bottom of the 2nd for Wheeler, as two walks and errors from LF-2 Brandon Marsh and two errors in the inning by SS-3 Trea Turner help the Yanks bat around, garnering six unearned runs in the process, and the Bronx cheers are deafening.  The Phils try to get back into it in the 3rd but 1-11+2 Alec Bohm is cut down at the plate for the third out, leading to a lot of second-guessing by Philly sports radio, especially when Castellanos leads off the 4th with a homer.  Two straight hits by the Yanks to lead off the bottom of the 4th and Wheeler is pulled for Jose Alvarado and his 1.74 ERA, and he staves off further damage but the Phils are swinging and missing against Cole.  Finally, some running aggressiveness pays off in the 7th as Turner walks, steals second, and races home on a JT Realmuto single, but that’s all Cole is giving up as he finishes out a 5-hitter while fanning 13 and the Yankees pull off the upset with the 6-2 win.  

The survivors

This semifinal appeared to be quite lopsided with the top seeded 2009 Phillies against the bottom seed 2021 Nationals, but the Nats had already pulled off one big upset and were aiming for a second, although their Paolo Espino (5-5, 4.27) looked to be at a disadvantage against Philly’s Cliff Lee (14-13, 3.22).   However, things start out rough for the Phils in the top of the 1st as they miss two DO 1-13 splits for singles, miss a HR 1-10 split for a double, and then miss a 1-13 split trying to score on that double–and come away with zero runs on three potential extra base hits.  In the bottom of the 3rd Kyle Schwarber hits his second solo homer of the regional to give the Nats the lead, while in the 4th the Phils lose their RF as Jayson Werth gets injured while hitting into a double play.  In the 6th Ryan Howard misses a HR split, but advances to 3rd with one out on an error by Espino, so the Nats seek to hold their slim edge and summon Andres Machado out of a none-too-good bullpen.  Machado fans injury replacement John Mayberry Jr. and Ben Francisco and the Phillies again come up empty-handed.  However, in the 7th they load the bases with nobody out, and with the infield in Machado strikes out Shane Victorino and it’s deja vu all over again.  However, Machado misses to Chase Utley and walks in the tying run, but he gets out of the inning without further damage, and when Victor Robles finds and converts Lee’s HR 1-6 split Washington moves back on top.  The Phils again get two runners in scoring position in the 8th but fail to score, and when Lee allows two hits in the bottom of the inning they move to Scott Eyre and he gets out of the jam to keep it a one-run deficit as the Phils take their last cuts in the 9th.  It’s the top of the order for Machado, and Victorino pops out, but Utley crushes one and the game is tied and heads to the bottom of the 9th, where Eyre dispatches the Nats and we head to extra innings.  With Machado burnt, Washington turns to Kyle Finnegan.  Both relievers do their job until the top of the 12th, when a double by Mayberry puts two runners in scoring position with nobody out, and the Nats do their familiar infield in positioning.  A groundball B gets one out at the plate, but a walk loads the bases for Jimmy Rollins–who fans and leaves the game with an injury.  An out by Pedro Feliz and once again the Phils come up empty.  In the bottom of the inning Eyre has to leave after four hitless innings, and Clay Condrey comes in to immediately yield a triple to Josh Harrison, putting the winning run 90 feet away and Juan Soto at the plate.   But Condrey whiffs Soto and the game heads to the 13th, where Raul Ibanez makes a statement with a 3-run homer in the top of the inning, after which the Phils load the bases but then fail to score.  Even so, Condrey has all the runs he needs as he holds on to send the Phillies to the finals with the 5-2 win, and although Rollins will be back for game, Werth is still out and the bullpen is in rough shape.  

After starting a Cy Young winner in the first round, the #5 seeded 2023 Yankees were now looking at a very shallow rotation, and decided that they had to use spot starter Michael King (4-8, 2.75) as their best chance of reaching the finals.   For the #7 seed 1959 Senators it would be Pedro Ramos (13-19, 4.15) trying to keep the ball in the newfangled Yankee Stadium, but it’s the Senators who knock the first homer as Roy Sievers crushes a 3-run shot, with Faye Throneberry then going back-to-back in the top of the 1st to silence the Bronx.  Then, in the 4th the Nats load the bases on two singles and a walk, and then Lenny Green draws a walk for one run, and Jim Lemon rolls King’s HR 1-9/flyB split–he misses the grand slam, but gets an RBI on the sac fly.   That brings up Killebrew, and he leaves no room for splits, crushing a solid 3-run homer that makes it 9-0 Washington and the crowd begins heading for the exits.  King joins them, with Wandy Peralta coming in to get the third out.  Anthony Volpe leads off the bottom of the 5th with a homer to try to begin the long climb back into the game; Anthony Rizzo then converts a TR 1, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, although not an Anthony, then singles in another run.  A few batters later, Giancarlo Stanton belts a three-run homer and suddenly it’s 9-5 and Ramos’s leash gets a lot shorter.  The Yanks’ comeback hopes take a hit when 3B DJ LeMahieu is lost for the tournament to injury leading off the 6th, but the next batter Volpe avenges his fallen colleague with his second homer of the game; Jimmy Cordero then takes over on the mound for New York to begin the 7th as they inch closer.  Throneberry greets Cordero with his second homer of the game and Washington takes a 10-6 lead into the 7th inning stretch.  But two straight walks to lead off the bottom of the inning and the Senators summon Chuck Stobbs to face Judge; Stobbs induces a DP ball from Judge and whiffs Stanton in a clutch situation.  And Washington’s offense isn’t done yet; Bob Allison knocks a two-out, two-run double in the top of the 8th and he scores on a Sievers single, and so the Nats preserve Stobbs and bring in Hal Griggs to try to close things out.  He tosses two hitless innings and the upstart Senators give a hint of things to come in Minnesota during the 60s, pounding the Yankees 13-6 to reach the bracket final.  

A lopsided matchup in the bracket final pits the top-seeded, pennant winning 2009 Phillies against the #7 seeded, 91-loss 1959 Senators, with the Phils Cole Hamels (10-11, 4.32 ) facing Washington swingman Tex Clevenger (8-5, 3.92).  This was also the Zoom game of the week, with TT taking the reins of his Phils while I would attempt to continue the good fortune that I’d seemed to bring to the Senators in the first two rounds.  However, that quickly turned to misfortune as the Senators would lose their primary weapon, big Harmon Killebrew, to a tournament-ending injury in the bottom of the 1st inning.  The team rallied around this big loss, with Lenny Green finding and converting Hamels’ inviting 6-5 HR split in the 3rd, and Hal Naragon drove in another in the 4th while Clevenger was tossing no-hit ball.  However, Washington’s terrible defense, with its all-”4” infield, quickly loses that lead, with an error by SS-4 Ron Samford and an X-chart double from Pedro Feliz tying the game in the 5th.  That is the only hit Clevenger allows until the 8th, but then Clevenger commits the 3rd Nats error of the game, Shane Victorino knocks an RBI single, and with first base open I refuse to walk Ryan Howard, who promptly drives in another run and the Phillies move in front.  Skeptical of that 6-5 on Hamels, TT motions for Ryan Madson from the pen (leaving the terrible Brad Lidge warming up), and that proves to be enough to cement the 4-2 win and adding another regional crown to the Phillies collection from that era; in a decade long span, seven versions of the Phils have won regionals:  2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2014, the most impressive run of any franchise in this tournament, although they’ve had limited success outside of that run. 

Interesting card of Regional #250:   The ‘59 Senators were unlikely candidates to reach the regional finals, but they did so thanks in large part to the efforts of a 23-year old in his first full time season in the majors; all he did was lead the AL in homers and received noteworthy support for MVP on a bottom-dwelling team.  Killebrew signed as a 17 year old out of Idaho, on the recommendation of an Idaho senator who was a regular at the Senators’ games, and he began spot appearances in the majors at age 18, but the team didn’t seem to know what to do with him.   For example, his debut appearance was as a pinch-runner, a concept not reflected in his Strat running rating, and the Senators were committed to Eddie Yost at third base, so he spent most of 1954 to 1958 in the minors.  When Yost was traded after the 1958 season, Killer got his chance and he certainly made the most of it.  Shortly thereafter he and the team moved to Minnesota where both met with greater success, and he crossed the 500 homer threshold in 1971–but you have to wonder what his totals might have been if he’d been a Senators regular the five seasons that he spent primarily in the minors.  In this tournament, as Killebrew went, so went the team, as he led them to the finals with his combination of power and on-base ability, but his injury in his first at bat of the final spelled doom for the Senators unlikely run.