As we advance into the later rounds of our Second-Chance World Series, things are taking on a 1990s flavor, with half of our survivors coming from the decade of grunge, Michael Jordan and backward ball caps. It's probably just a coincidence. But one thing we do know is that in this era of expanded Major League Baseball playoffs, we not only have more opportunities for teams to win the World Series tournament -- which is what it has become -- it also increases the chances that a great team is going to end the season disappointed. Six of our eight remaining teams hail from the wild-card era.
Read on for a series-by-series recap and to see who advanced to the quarterfinals of our tournament that will play out all week long.
Jump to American League matchups:
(No. 1) 2001 Mariners vs. (No. 8) 1985 Blue Jays
(No. 4) 1946 Red Sox vs. (No. 12) 2011 Rangers
(No. 3) 1995 Indians vs. (No. 11) 1983 White Sox
(No. 7) 1977 Royals vs. (No. 15) 1997 Orioles
Jump to National League matchups:
(No. 1) 1998 Astros vs. (No. 9) 1998 Padres
(No. 12) 1993 Phillies vs. (No. 13) 1984 Cubs
(No. 3) 1994 Expos vs. (No. 6) 1962 Giants
(No. 7) 2002 Braves vs. (No. 15) 2009 Rockies
See the final 8 teams & All-second round team
How we determined our 32-team bracket
American League Second Round
(All series best-of-seven)
(No. 1 seed) 2001 Seattle Mariners beat (No. 8) 1985 Toronto Blue Jays 4-1
Lou Piniella's rampaging Mariners appear to be on their way to proving ESPN analyst and Seattleite David Schoenfield right. Maybe they really are the best team that didn't win a World Series. The M's dismantled the Bobby Cox-era Blue Jays in five games, scoring at least seven runs in all of their wins. The Mariners lead the tournament with a .316 team batting average while winning eight of their 10 games.
Game 1: Mariners 8, Blue Jays 6. John Olerud's three-run homer against his original team helped Seattle knock out Blue Jays ace Dave Stieb in the fifth.
Game 2: Mariners 9, Blue Jays 1. Bret Boone and Mike Cameron homered in back of Jamie Moyer, who held Toronto to one run over 7⅔ innings and won for the third time in the tournament.
Game 3: Mariners 7, Blue Jays 4. Stan Javier's three hits led the Mariners' offense, while Aaron Sele went seven solid innings.
Game 4: Blue Jays 10, Mariners 4. Stieb recovered to go eight innings, keeping Toronto's fading hopes alive.
Game 5: Mariners 9, Blue Jays 2. Freddy Garcia went the distance, backed by Boone's three RBIs, as the Mariners advanced to the AL semifinals.
MVP: Mike Cameron, Mariners (.400, 3 HRs, 6 RBIs, .571 OBP)
Key stat: Seattle is averaging 8.1 runs per game through the first two rounds.
Clinching box score:
Clinching-game details: Exhibition Stadium | Time 3:20
E: Bell, D (1), Suzuki (2), Upshaw (1)
2B: Olerud (2), Bell, D (6), Fernandez (3), Iorg (4), Moseby (2), Upshaw (1)
3B: Suzuki (1)
HR: Boone (3) off Alexander (4) in the 1st with bases empty, 393 feet
CS: Boone (1)
Game MVP: Bret Boone
(No. 12) 2011 Texas Rangers beat (No. 4) 1946 Boston Red Sox 4-1
Back when Ted Williams decided that fishing wasn't quite enough adrenaline for a retired ballplayer, the Red Sox were coming off a historic pennant win in 1967, ensuring that Boston's managing job would belong to Dick Williams for the foreseeable future. So Williams took the job of running the second version of the Washington Senators, a sad-sack bunch who badly needed personality. And who was a bigger personality than Teddy Ballgame?
While Williams did some odd things as a skipper, particularly when it came to anything that wasn't about hitting, he still led the neo-Senators to their only winning season in 1969. He even got himself voted AL Manager of the Year by The Associated Press. Things went south for the Senators after that, both on the field and off it, and they packed up and moved to Arlington, Texas, for the 1972 season. Williams became less engaged with each passing campaign. Still, he remained with the franchise long enough to earn a title that now seems a bit incongruous: Ted Williams was the first manager of the Texas Rangers.
So our virtual tournament pitted a Williams at the height of his prowess against the team he eventually managed. Alas, his success against Ron Washington's Rangers was at about the level as what he did as a skipper. Williams homered twice in five games but went just 3-for-18 overall, and Texas romped into the AL semifinals. For the tournament, Williams hit .171. His virtual postseason destiny worked out no better than the real thing.
Game 1: Rangers 4, Red Sox 2. Colby Lewis pitched into the eighth to beat first-round hero Tex Hughson.
Game 2: Rangers 6, Red Sox 4. Adrian Beltre homered twice against his former team and scored three runs.
Game 3: Rangers 12, Red Sox 2. Texas battered Mickey Harris and Jim Bagby Jr. for 16 hits, including six homers by six different players.
Game 4: Red Sox 7, Rangers 3. Hughson recovered his form with a complete-game win for his third victory of the tournament.
Game 5: Rangers 7, Red Sox 4. Dom DiMaggio's two-run homer in the eighth pulled Boston within a run, but Michael Young and Keith Moreland provided a pair of insurance runs with RBI singles in the bottom half of the inning.
MVP: Colby Lewis, Rangers (2-0, 2.63 ERA, 13 K's, 1 BB over 13⅔ IP)
Key stat: Williams was 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position during the tournament.
Clinching box score:
Clinching-game details: Rangers Ballpark | Time 3:02
E: Doerr (1)
2B: Beltre (2), Kinsler (2)
HR: Williams, T (2) off Lewis (5) in the 6th with 1 on base, 330 feet; DiMaggio (2) off Bush (1) in the 8th with 1 on base, 346 feet
SB: Pesky (1)
CS: Murphy (1)
Game MVP: Adrian Beltre
(No. 3) 1995 Cleveland Indians beat (No. 11) 1983 Chicago White Sox 4-3
Cleveland survived a back-and-forth series dominated by great pitching performances and a nail-biter in Game 7. LaMarr Hoyt started three times in the series for the White Sox, which isn't something that happens anymore. While cross-era statistical normalization is used in these simulations to put the numbers for all teams on the same baseline, you can't really normalize the differences in pitching staff construction across eras. Relievers have been important for the entire period covered by this tournament (since World War II), but of course the reliance on deep bullpens is a fairly recent phenomenon. While the current approach works, it's still fun to see things like Hoyt throwing 21⅔ innings in a playoff series or Juan Marichal throwing 152 pitches, as he did for the 1962 Giants in the first round.
Here, Hoyt started Chicago off on a grand note, throwing a one-hit shutout in Game 1, allowing only a third-inning single to Paul Sorrento. In Game 4, Hoyt was knocked out after four innings and lost to Charles Nagy. In Game 7, Hoyt hooked up with Dennis Martinez in a winner-take-all duel that would have been one for the ages. Hoyt gave up an early run, but that was all the scoring until Tom Paciorek drove in Harold Baines, who started the ninth with a double. However, Tony Pena ended it with a two-out single to plate Eddie Murray. In real life, that duel likely wouldn't have happened under today's two-times-through-the-order playoff paradigm.
Game 1: White Sox 8, Indians 0. Backing Hoyt, White Sox leadoff hitter Rudy Law had three singles and stole four bases.
Game 2: Indians 4, White Sox 3, 11 innings. Sorrento walked and scored the tying run in the ninth, then won it with a leadoff homer off Dick Tidrow in the 11th.
Game 3: Indians 13, White Sox 5. Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome and Albert Belle homered for Cleveland.
Game 4: Indians 7, White Sox 5. Ramirez and Sorrento homered, with the latter hammering a three-run shot to chase Hoyt.
Game 5: White Sox 9, Indians 2. Chicago stayed alive thanks to a strong outing from Britt Burns and two-run homers from Ron Kittle and Greg Luzinski.
Game 6: White Sox 7, Indians 5. After Cleveland knocked out Floyd Bannister early, Chicago rallied from a 5-0 deficit, with Law getting three more hits and two more steals.
Game 7: Indians 2, White Sox 1. If virtual Tony La Russa was a real person, perhaps he would have explained why he left Hoyt in with two runners on in the ninth by pointing out that his closer, Salome Barojas, had worked a two-inning save the night before.
MVP: Paul Sorrento, Indians (.250, 2 HRs, 4 RBIs, game-winning homer in Game 2)
Key stat: This might seem familiar to Cleveland fans from the era: The Indians have survived the first two rounds even though their rotation has compiled a 5.23 ERA thus far.
Clinching box score:
Clinching-game details: Jacobs Field | Time 2:23
E: Baines (1), Cruz, J (1)
2B: Baines (2), Baerga (1)
SB: Cruz (5), Lofton (7)
CS: Sorrento (1), Vizquel (2)
Game MVP: Dennis Martinez
(No. 7) 1977 Kansas City Royals beat (No. 15) 1997 Baltimore Orioles 4-3
The Royals and Orioles had some overlapping years during their respective heydays in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but they never clashed in the playoffs in those days. The two Orioles division champs from that time -- 1979 and 1983 -- both came in seasons in which the Royals were down. The franchises never met in a high-stakes series until the 2014 AL Championship Series, when the Royals routed Baltimore in four games.
This matchup was as even as even gets. Both teams scored 32 runs in the seven games. Baltimore outhit K.C. 60-58. Two games went extra innings, one a 17-inning marathon. In the end, the Royals got one more dominant start than the Orioles and moved on. Kansas City, those darlings of the disco era, became the oldest remaining team in the tournament.
Game 1: Orioles 6, Royals 0. Mike Mussina threw a six-hitter, backed by homers from Jeffrey Hammonds and Cal Ripken Jr.
Game 2: Royals 3, Orioles 1. Larry Gura and Doug Bird combined to throttle the Baltimore offense, and George Brett drove in two runs.
Game 3: Royals 9, Orioles 8, 17 innings. In a 7-hour, 6-minute sportswriter's nightmare, both teams scored a run in the 10th. In the 17th, K.C. got an RBI double from Hal McRae. In the bottom of the 17th, the Orioles loaded the bases with nobody out, but Andy Hassler got Jeff Reboulet on a home-to-first double play and Ripken on a groundout to escape.
Game 4: Orioles 5, Royals 1. Rafael Palmeiro and Geronimo Berroa homered, backing Scott Kamieniecki's seven strong innings.
Game 5: Royals 6, Orioles 1, 11 innings. John Mayberry's three-run homer off Armando Benitez keyed a five-run Royals rally in the 11th.
Game 6: Orioles 10, Royals 9. Tom Poquette pulled K.C. within a run with a two-out, bases-loaded triple in the ninth, but Randy Myers entered and retired Darrell Porter on a fly ball.
Game 7: Royals 4, Orioles 1. Paul Splittorff held the O's to one run over seven innings, followed by Mark Littell's two-inning save.
MVP: Mark Littell, Royals (4⅓ scoreless innings during 17-inning Game 3 and two-inning save in Game 7)
Key stat: Royals relievers have a 1.35 ERA through the first two rounds.
Clinching box score:
Clinching-game details: Kauffman Stadium | Time 2:42
E: Porter, D (2), Brett (1)
2B: Porter, D (1), Cowens (5)
HR: Porter, D (3) off Erickson (3) in the 4th with 1 on base, 346 feet
SB: Otis (5)
Game MVP: Paul Splittorff
National League Second Round
(All series best-of-seven)
(No. 1) 1998 Houston Astros beat (No. 9) 1998 San Diego Padres 4-3
The 1998 Astros won 102 games, the only 100-win season during all their years in the National League. They took on the Padres in the NL Division Series. The Padres won 98 games that year, but Houston had a run differential of 140 runs better than that of San Diego, so it appeared to be a mismatch. But it's baseball -- and the postseason -- so the Padres knocked out the best team the Astros had fielded up to that time in four games. After Randy Johnson had throttled the NL to the tune of a 10-1 record and 1.28 ERA after Houston acquired him at the trade deadline, San Diego beat him twice in October, even though he allowed just three earned runs in 14 innings.
This tournament is about second chances, but for most of our entrants, it's not so literal. The Astros are the one team that had an actual virtual chance to knock out the team that knocked them out in real life. And they did. Eventually. Johnson was great in the series, allowing just three earned runs in 16 innings, though the Padres did beat him in one of his two starts -- a reverb from '98. But it all came down to a Game 7 that was a jarring echo of Houston's famous 16-inning Game 6 loss to the New York Mets in the 1986 NLCS.
This clincher also went 16 frames, but it wasn't the same kind of teeter-totter affair. Both offenses were throttled, for the most part. But as Bruce Bochy elected to keep Trevor Hoffman in his back pocket for a save situation, Houston finally broke through when Tony Eusebio drove in Carl Everett with a single off Mark Langston to end it. Twenty-two years later, the NL's Astros have their revenge.
Game 1: Padres 4, Astros 3. Kevin Brown outpitched Jose Lima, and Hoffman picked up his fourth save of the tournament.
Game 2: Astros 6, Padres 0. Johnson went the distance, tossing an eight-hitter and striking out nine.
Game 3: Astros 3, Padres 0. Mike Hampton hurled Houston's second straight shutout.
Game 4: Padres 3, Astros 1. The Padres drew even behind Brown, pitching on short rest, another save from Hoffman and Ken Caminiti's two RBIs.
Game 5: Astros 4, Padres 2. It was Lima Time, as the mercurial righty went the distance, backed by homers from Richard Hidalgo and Sean Berry.
Game 6: Padres 4, Astros 3. The Padres forced a seventh game thanks to a strong eight innings from Alan Ashby and a solo homer from Greg Vaughn.
Game 7: Astros 2, Padres 1, 16 innings. Brown threw seven shutout innings before Houston got the tying run in the eighth off San Diego reliever Donne Wall.
MVP: Mike Hampton, Astros (1-0, 0.53 ERA over two starts)
Key stat: Through two rounds, Houston starters have a 2.86 ERA.
Clinching box score:
Clinching-game details: Astrodome | Time 5:10
E: Rivera (3), Vaughn, G (1), Ausmus (1)
2B: Vaughn, G (3), Veras, Q (2), Alou, M (3), Bagwell (5)
SB: Vaughn (1), Sweeney (1), Gwynn (1), Spiers (2), Biggio (5), Ausmus (2)
CS: Veras (4), Caminiti (2), Biggio (2)
Game MVP: Mike Hampton
(No. 12) 1993 Philadelphia Phillies beat (No. 13) 1984 Chicago Cubs 4-2
Cubs fans were at least spared a virtual addition to their history of gut-wrenching playoff defeats. The Phillies won three low-scoring games to start the series and closed it out with a rout in Game 6. You might recall that the 1993 Phillies seemed like destiny's darlings, right up to the moment when Toronto's Joe Carter ended their season with a game-winning home run in Game 6 of the World Series.
Well, Carter played into the fate of both of the teams in this matchup. In addition to beating the Phillies in 1993, he was part of the trade in 1984 in which the Cubs shipped him and three other players to Cleveland for Rick Sutcliffe, George Frazier and Ron Hassey. Maybe Carter could have helped combat the Phillies in the sim, but chances are Cubs fans are more than satisfied with what they got from Sutcliffe in that trade.
Game 1: Phillies 4, Cubs 1. No. 4 starter Tommy Greene got the start after the Phillies needed seven games to beat the '93 Giants in the first round and responded by holding the rested Cubs to one run over eight innings.
Game 2: Phillies 2, Cubs 0. Starters Steve Trout and Curt Schilling departed with no-decisions after carrying shutouts into the late innings, before Jim Eisenreich and Lenny Dykstra drove in runs in the eighth to lift Philly.
Game 3: Phillies 4, Cubs 3, 12 innings. Dave Hollins' homer in the 12th off Warren Brusstar gave the Phillies a commanding series lead.
Game 4: Cubs 3, Phillies 2. Then-starter Dennis Eckersley threw 7⅔ strong innings before giving way to fellow Hall of Fame closer Lee Smith, who got four outs for the save.
Game 5: Cubs 11, Phillies 1. Leon Durham drove in four runs to back Sutcliffe and keep the Cubs alive.
Game 6: Phillies 10, Cubs 1. The Phillies chased Trout with a six-run second, more than enough for Schilling, who went the distance and lowered his tournament ERA to 0.57 over four outings.
MVP: Mitch Williams, Phillies (three saves over three scoreless outings)
Key stat: Cubs star Ryne Sandberg finished the sim with a .132 average over 38 at-bats without a homer.
Clinching box score:
Clinching-game details: Veterans Stadium | Time 3:11
E: Cey (2), Davis, J (1), Frazier (1)
2B: Hollins (3)
3B: Dernier (1)
HR: Incaviglia (4) off Frazier (1) in the 6th with 2 on base, 338 feet
Game MVP: Curt Schilling
(No. 3) 1994 Montreal Expos beat (No. 6) 1962 San Francisco Giants 4-0
Felipe Alou, the manager, led the Expos to a sweep against the team for which he played in 1962, the Willie Mays-led Giants. Alou went easy on himself, as his younger self hit .368 in the series. Alou's brother, Matty, played on those '62 Giants as well, though he wasn't a regular and went 1-for-3 in the series. And Alou's nephew, Moises, helped the Expos with an MVP-worthy performance in the series, hitting .375 with a homer and four RBIs (though he didn't actually get MVP honors). There's still a chance for even more Alou vs. Alou action: Moises is still alive on the other half of the NL bracket with the 1998 Astros. The Expos' 8-1 mark over the first two rounds is the best of any team thus far in the tournament. For a sweep, this was a close series: Montreal outscored the Giants by just five runs.
Game 1: Expos 5, Giants 4. Moises Alou homered for and against his uncle's teams, but it was Wil Cordero's eighth-inning sac fly that provided the winning margin against Giants lefty Billy Pierce.
Game 2: Expos 6, Giants 4. Cliff Floyd had four hits in support of Pedro Martinez, who pitched into the eighth and picked up his third win of the tournament.
Game 3: Expos 6, Giants 5, 10 innings. Montreal plated three runs in the top of the 10th, then the Giants answered with two. Mel Rojas struck out Jim Davenport with a runner on second to end it.
Game 4: Expos 5, Giants 4, 11 innings. Cordero's 11th-inning single put the Expos ahead, then John Wetteland set down three straight for this fourth save of the tournament, striking out Willie McCovey to clinch it.
MVP: John Wetteland, Expos (two wins and two saves in four appearances, one run allowed over six innings)
Key stat: Larry Walker had just one RBI in the series, but he hit .412 and is now at .462 for the tourney with a 1.321 OPS.
Clinching box score:
Clinching-game details: Candlestick Park | Time 3:39
E: Cordero 2 (2)
2B: Alou, M (4), Walker, L (6)
HR: Cordero (2) off O'Dell (1) in the 5th with bases empty, 346 feet; McCovey (1) off Rojas (1) in the 7th with bases empty, 345 feet
SB: Floyd (2), Berry (1), Cordero (1), Mays 2 (2), O'Dell (1)
CS: Lansing (1), McCovey (1)
Game MVP: Wil Cordero
(No. 15) 2009 Colorado Rockies beat (No. 7) 2002 Atlanta Braves 4-1
When the Rockies set their still-existing franchise record with 92 wins in 2009, they also had their highest-ever rank in team ERA, finishing seventh in the NL. Given the issues with pitching in their home environs, it felt kind of miraculous. Colorado went 41-40 on the road that season, largely because of its 4.06 staff ERA away from home.
Does that mean that Colorado could pitch with a Smoltz-Maddux-Glavine Braves team? Maybe not, but they did in this simulation. Beginning with Jorge de la Rosa's Game 1 gem, the Rockies throttled an Atlanta offense that featured Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones and Gary Sheffield. So a franchise that has never won a real-life World Series moved one step closer to getting a virtual one.
Game 1: Rockies 5, Braves 0. De la Rosa threw 7⅔ scoreless innings, and Troy Tulowitzki drove in three runs.
Game 2: Rockies 8, Braves 4. Ian Stewart doubled, homered and drove in four, while Ubaldo Jimenez outpitched Greg Maddux.
Game 3: Braves 5, Rockies 4. Rafael Furcal, Julio Franco and Sheffield collected three hits apiece to back a solid outing by Kevin Millwood.
Game 4: Rockies 4, Braves 3. Huston Street gave up a run in the ninth, but with runners on the corners and two out, he got Andruw Jones on a deep drive to end it.
Game 5: Rockies 5, Braves 1. After de la Rosa held the Braves to one run over six innings, Colorado scored five runs in the eighth off the Atlanta bullpen to put away the series, with the big blow a bases-loaded triple by Dexter Fowler.
MVP: Jorge de la Rosa, Rockies (1-0, 0.66 ERA over 13⅔ innings)
Clinching box score:
Clinching-game details: Coors Field | Time 3:34
E: Jones, C (2)
2B: Lopez, J (3), Franco, M (1)
3B: Fowler (1)
SB: Jones (1), Barmes (1)
Game MVP: Dexter Fowler
League semifinal matchups
(Semifinal results will be revealed on Wednesday)
AMERICAN LEAGUE
(No. 1) 2001 Seattle Mariners vs. (No. 12) 2011 Texas Rangers
(No. 3) 1995 Cleveland Indians vs. (No. 7) 1977 Kansas City Royals
NATIONAL LEAGUE
(No. 1) 1998 Houston Astros 4 vs. (No. 12) 1993 Philadelphia Phillies
(No. 3) 1994 Montreal Expos vs. (No. 7) 2009 Colorado Rockies
ALL-SECOND-ROUND TEAM
P: John Wetteland, Expos
C: Carlton Fisk, White Sox
1B: John Olerud, Mariners
2B: Bret Boone, Mariners
3B: Adrian Beltre, Rangers
SS: Troy Tulowitzki, Rockies
LF: Albert Belle, Indians
CF: Mike Cameron, Mariners
RF: Felipe Alou, Giants
DH: Paul Sorrento, Indians
Second round MVP: Cameron