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.