[blubbla]

An eventful group 18 is in the books.

Top of the bracket:

After long stretches without an upset, 4 teams have gone down in the last 2 groups. It very nearly was 5.

2415) 1954 Orioles over 112) 2002 Braves 4-1 = Eddie Waitkus .650 (13-20) 2 rbi
Both Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine were off their game in their starts, and though Kevin Millwood pitched well in both of his, he was outdueled by Bob Turley in the 1-0 finale of game 5.

113) 1908 Cubs over 2414) 1953 Browns 4-1 = Orval Overall 2-0 0.50 18 IP 10 K
114) 1914 Athletics over 2413) 1940 Athletics 4-1 = Rube Oldring .476 (10-21) 4 rbi
2412) 1937 Athletics over 115) 1941 Cardinals 4-2 = Bob Johnson .444 (8-18) 1-9
116) 1947 Yankees over 2411) 1936 Phillies 4-1 = George McQuinn .579 (11-19) 1-7
117) 1949 Yankees over 2410) 1909 Cardinals 4-3 = Bobby W Brown .423 (11-26) 1-4
St. Louis had a 3-0 lead as the Yankees couldn’t hit in the early part of the series, but New York woke with a 12 run outburst in game 4, eked out 2-1 wins in both games 5 and 6, and then KOed Slim Sallee with 5 runs in the first inning of game 7.

Bottom of the bracket:

4 of 7 lower seeds move up. Only one 7 gamer this set - but it had some firepower.

1380) 1909 White Sox over 1147) 1990 Rangers 4-1 = Dave Altizer .476 (10-21) 3 rbi
Ed Walsh defeated Nolan Ryan both times, Walsh even struck out more batters 20-17.

1379) 2016 Marlins over 1148) 1991 Brewers 4-1 = Giancarlo Stanton .300 (6-20) 2-6
1149) 1991 Mariners over 1378) 2000 Marlins 4-2 = Jay Buhner .364 (8-22) 3-3
Randy Johnson struck out 25 in 17 innings of work.

1377) 1986 Cardinals over 1150) 1992 Cardinals 4-2 = Ozzie Smith .522 (12-23) 3 rbi
Ozzie also hit .321 for the 1992 team.

1376) 1974 Expos over 1151) 1996 Rockies 4-3 = Bob Bailey .467 (14-30) 5-14
I thought the next listed series, which was played first, was an offensive series but this one surpassed for pitching futility. Colorado won game 1 13-7. Montreal took game 2 20-6, including 9 runs in the 9th. The Rockies struck back in game 3 12-5. After games 4 and 5 were comparatively calm (8-5 Montreal, and 7-6 Colorado), the Expos finished off the Rockies pitching with a 9-3 victory in game 6 and then knocked out Armando Reynoso with 6 runs in a third of an inning. In the 6th inning with the game at 9-3, Roger Bailey faced 5 batters and all scored, capped by a grand slam from Ron Fairly, From there the Rockies turned the mound over to their bench and allowed 12 more runs and a 26-3 final. Montreal’s big bats for the series, in addition to Bailey: Barry Foote (.519-3-12), Fairly (.478-4-12), and Mike Jorgensen (.462-2-12). Colorado was paced by Dante Bichette (.531, 17 of 32) and Andres Galarraga (.462-4-13)

1152) 1997 Rockies over 1372) 1998 White Sox 4-2 = Larry Walker .522 (12-23) 4-6
Offense galore in this battle of bad pitching. Dante Bichette and Frank Thomas joined Walker with 4 HR. Collectively the Blake Street Bombers hit 15 altogether.

1153) 1998 Dodgers over 1374) 1974 White Sox 4-2 = Gary Sheffield .304 (7-23) 3-4