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

Round four action

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

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

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

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

The survivors:  round five

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

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

Super-regional finals

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

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