Several weeks ago, baseball fans did their best (and failed, based on ratings) to muster the energy to watch a World Series matchup between the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks. It was a continuation of an MLB era where the unexpected has become expected.

Neither team won their division. Neither entered the season with a bona fide star. Both beat teams that had stars to spare. For yet another year, it was emphatically proven that winning postseason teams are not necessarily built by gargantuan contracts. The Mets, Yankees and Padres spent nearly a billion dollars and none of them made the playoffs. There was more to baseball than the dotted line.

No one cares anymore. Shohei Ohtani signed a contract for $700 million. The Dodgers are World Series favorites again.

The short-term memory of baseball fans clamoring for free agents this offseason is frankly shocking. There is an obvious disconnect between the way that teams prepare for the season and the season itself. With an expanded playoff format and a dozen or so teams willing to shell out more than $100 million, it is becoming clearer and clearer that no one player has the ability to change a team’s fortunes. But big signings over the winter continue to swing the World Series’ future odds like a pendulum.

On paper, the Dodgers were probably already one of the best teams in baseball, so Ohtani is obviously going to improve their chances. The nature of his contract is also overwhelmingly favorable for the team, as Los Angeles will be able to defer the vast majority of the money it owes him and sign more players in the interim.

But if Ohtani had been on the team last year and sustained the same injury that took him off the mound for the Angels, the Dodgers still probably would have lost in decisive fashion in the NLDS. It’s impossible to prove one way or another, but it’s a fact that the Diamondbacks were the better team for three games in October. After a 101-win season, Los Angeles was simply overwhelmed in the postseason. No one player could have made any difference.

Teams like the Diamondbacks succeeded in the playoffs because their well-paid stars performed well and key supporting characters stepped up. Rising star Corbin Carroll led Arizona all season on a $1.6 million salary. No active member of the roster made more than $12 million.

It’s easy to get excited in the offseason, a time when there are no stakes and unlimited opportunities to speculate. But it has set some of the richest teams up for failure in recent years. Payrolls and offers keep getting bigger, but 29 teams will lose in 2024. That number won’t change.

The Texas Rangers defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 5 of the 2023 World Series Wednesday night to clinch the first championship in the franchise’s history. Most people heard about it via social media or news alerts. One of the most prestigious sporting events in the United States was little more than a blip for most fans, who decided that the World Series was over before it started.

Though ratings have not yet been released for Game 5, the first four games of this year’s series were the least-watched World Series games outside of the pandemic in recorded history. Game 5 may enjoy a slight uptick in viewership because the Diamondbacks were facing elimination, but this year’s championship is almost certain to break the event’s record for lowest average ratings ever.

Media outlets have begun a frenzied search for the cause of this ratings crater, with most blaming small markets and the Houston Astros’ elimination in the ALCS. Both of these reasons can be refuted, as the Diamondbacks and Rangers enjoyed healthy ratings boosts with improved play during the regular season. The Astros aren’t a sure bet for postseason ratings either, as their World Series against the Phillies last year will soon be the third least-watched championship in MLB history.

But while those reasons are difficult to accept, there is an even more compelling cause for viewer disinterest that is even harder to stomach. In part, it is a claim that goes against the spirit of baseball and sports in general:

The Diamondbacks did not deserve to be in the playoffs and MLB’s playoff format is intrinsically flawed.

Now, that’s not a very nice thing to say. Diamondbacks players, coaches and executives all worked extremely hard to earn a Wild Card berth. Once they reached the playoffs, they defeated the Brewers, Dodgers and Phillies, three talented teams with serious championship aspirations of their own. They made the most of an opportunity and proved that they belonged among the best in the National League. The only problem is that baseball is really, really weird.

In 2020, Action Sports analyzed the previous five seasons of major American sports and found that MLB had the highest upset rate, with betting underdogs winning 41.6% of the time. Baseball is so unpredictable that it is often taken for granted when these upsets occur.

To put things in perspective, the Rangers, newly crowned champions of the league, played the Oakland Athletics 13 times in 2023. Though the A’s finished the season with a 50-112 record and will go down as one of the worst teams in the history of baseball, they still managed to beat Texas four times.

Nothing can be taken away from the Diamondbacks as a team; they got hot at the right time and took advantage of their opponent’s weaknesses. If Clayton Kershaw is going to give up six runs in the first inning of an NLDS game, then it doesn’t matter if the Dodgers won 101 games. Arizona deserved to win. The point, however, is that any competent team in baseball can beat any other competent team on the right day, and this element of randomness has gotten out of hand now that the league has expanded the playoffs to include three Wild Card teams.

For all the praise one can give the Diamondbacks for their postseason performance, they finished the regular season with 84 wins and lost their division by 14 games. They briefly controlled the NL West early in the season, lost ground to the Dodgers and finished well enough to stay above .500. That sounds more like a disappointment than a success, and yet, the team still snuck into the playoffs, where the records stopped mattering.

Just behind them in the standings, the 82-80 Padres will be remembered as profound underperformers who missed the playoffs with the likes of Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis. If they had won three more games and made it into the postseason, there’s no telling how much damage they could have done. Their embarrassing play over the course of 162 games might not have made a difference.

Even after the Diamondbacks made the playoffs, the league made no real attempt to market the team to national audiences. Their Wild Card series against the Milwaukee Brewers was the only one to air on ESPN2, with the other three series airing on ABC and ESPN. Neither game in the two-game sweep drew more than two million viewers, according to Sports Media Watch, putting it last on average among the four matchups.

Even as the World Series approached, only the most diehard baseball fans outside Arizona would have been able to name more than five players on the Diamondbacks. Young star Corbin Carroll stands out and Zac Gallen hit a bird earlier in the season, but MLB never had a reason to market the team at any point during the season. Their success, while well-earned during the postseason, was completely incongruent with the six months of baseball that preceded it.

When people tune in to watch March Madness, they watch for the upsets. Most viewers are casual fans who weren’t paying attention to the actual college basketball season. The NCAA Tournament is chaotic and punishing and everything that fans of the sport are looking for. The storylines revolve around this randomness. That’s not why people watch the MLB Playoffs.

When viewers turn on the MLB Playoffs, they expect to witness the culmination of a grueling 162-game season in which the best teams compete for the championship. In two straight years since the playoff format was changed, however, MLB seasons have ended in middle-of-the-road N.L. underdogs getting slaughtered by superior A.L. rivals. People have clearly decided that that isn’t worth watching.

Now, there is a minor flaw in this argument. For some reason, the American League has somehow managed to consistently produce a highly touted team for the World Series in the new format. This might be somewhat dressed up, however. Last year, the 106-56 Astros were a historically good team while their ALCS counterpart, the 99-win Yankees, almost got dumped in the ALDS by the Cleveland Guardians. Houston swept New York in four games. This year, the Astros returned to the ALCS and the Rangers boasted newly acquired players from other organizations, but neither team came close to having the best regular season in the A.L. Both teams almost lost their playoff berths to the resurgent Mariners. Houston’s dynastic success may be providing consistency for viewers that would not be present otherwise.

If teams like the Braves and Dodgers win 104 and 101 games, respectively, but disappear in the playoffs, no amount of fan support should protect them from a postseason defeat. There doesn’t have to be an excessive reward for regular-season success, but there should be a more significant punishment for regular-season mediocrity.

It’s a hard truth, but national audiences don’t want a baseball tournament built for underdogs. They want to see the monsters, the teams they’ve watched and read about all season. In October, teams that win 100 games shouldn’t have to worry about the likes of the Cubs, a team that missed the postseason by one game with an 83-79 record.

As things are now, having 12 playoff spots theoretically gives every team in the league a 40% chance of making the playoffs. Toss a few teams with no chance and a few more that give up at the trade deadline, and it follows that practically any team above .500 has a chance at the postseason. From there, it’s just baseball, infinitely random and currently unsatisfying for many. If storylines from the regular season do not begin to bear some resemblance to storylines in the playoffs, then viewers will realize more and more that they have no reason to watch either.

The Houston Astros earned their first win of the ALCS in Game 3 Wednesday night, defeating the Texas Rangers 8-5 on the road. Houston now trails 2-1 in the best-of-seven series and can even the score with another road victory on Thursday.

In his first start since suffering a muscle strain in early September, Max Scherzer was dull in his 28th career postseason appearance. Though he became the second pitcher ever to make postseason starts for five different teams, his playoff debut for Texas was not memorable for good reason. He allowed five runs on five innings in four innings of work before exiting.

“I thought he had good stuff,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy told reporters. “He’s a little rusty. It’s been a month since he’s been out there. He’s only going to get better. He feels good. That’s the good news.”

Scherzer told reporters after the game that he had mixed feelings about his performance, arguing that he did better than the box score might suggest.

“In these situations, look there’s some bad in this I get it, but that’s what you kinda gotta tune out and look at the good,” Scherzer said. “Look, I made some mistakes, I get it. I got punished for it. There were some good things I did as well. … I’m not going to sit here and beat myself down.”

The Astros and Rangers have now played three closely contested games, with the pair matching up well on the mound and at the plate. Texas took Games 1 and 2 on the road by 2-0 and 5-4 scores, respectively, meaning that there has not yet been a home win for either team heading into Game 4.

Both teams are reaching the bottom of their rotations as the series reaches a potential midway point, as the Rangers’ Andrew Heaney and Astros’ Jose Urquidy are expected to match up this evening. Urquidy was one of Houston’s heroes in the ALDS, as he led the team to a win over the Twins to clinch that series. Heaney had several bad outings for Texas during the regular season, inflating his ERA, but also recorded 151 strikeouts in 28 starts.

For the tenth time in 11 seasons, the Los Angeles Dodgers have reached the postseason and fallen short of a World Series title. With a firmly established reputation for shying away in big moments, Los Angeles will spend another offseason deciphering exactly what is keeping the team from a championship.

Beyond a World Series title in 2020, a season shortened by the pandemic, the Dodgers have not made the most of their regular season triumphs in the past decade. Los Angeles has never failed to earn 90 wins in a full season and has earned ten division titles, but despite entering all of those postseasons as a World Series contender, the team has only advanced past the NLCS twice, in 2017 and 2018. Those teams lost to the Astros and Red Sox, respectively.

This year, the Dodgers won 101 games and were widely considered to be the second choice to win the title. They didn’t a single playoff game, going down to the sixth-seeded Arizona Diamondbacks in three straight games in the NLDS. Ace Clayton Kershaw, 35, gave up six runs in Game 1, setting the tone for a lopsided series in which the underdogs controlled every facet of the matchup.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts took responsibility for the team’s recent lack of playoff success. Roberts can only take so much blame for Los Angeles’ decade of disappointments. Since arriving in 2016, Roberts led the team to three World Series appearances but only managed to win the title during the pandemic.

“It doesn’t matter if it was a seven-game series, we lost the first three games,” Roberts said. “For me, I’ve got to do a better job of figuring out a way to get our guys prepared for the postseason. I’ll own that. I think we’ve got great players. I’ve got to figure out a way to get these guys prepared for whatever format, whatever series. Yeah, the regular season, I think we do a great job. But the last couple of postseasons, it just hasn’t gone well for us, and so I’ve got to figure it out.”

With Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman leading the team, the Dodgers will likely remain contenders for some time. But after losing at so many different points and failing to capitalize on profoundly talented rosters, frustration will only continue to mount for one of the league’s biggest underachievers.

The Houston Astros defeated the Minnesota Twins in four games to win the ALDS. Following the commanding series victory, the team will advance to the ALCS for a highly anticipated AL West matchup with the Texas Rangers.

Houston won Game 4 behind a stellar outing from starting pitcher Jose Urquidy, who allowed two runs and struck out six in 5.2 innings. Manager Dusty Baker joked after the game that he couldn’t recognize his own starter, who rose to the occasion to eliminate the Twins and end the ALDS.

“In that kind of situation, I think I have big hunger there,” Urquidy said after the game. “Obviously, my focus and my plan to prepare has to be very clear, and I have to put all my mind on it. I feel very comfortable being here with this team … creating a good plan of attack with my catcher.”

Besides a 6-2 loss in Game 2, the reigning World Series champions never appeared unsettled by Minnesota, who advanced to the ALDS after sweeping the sixth-seeded Toronto Blue Jays. Houston survived a late Twins comeback to win 6-4 in Game 1 and dominated in Game 3, when starter Cristian Javier struck out nine Twins’ batters in a 9-1 victory.

Facing elimination in Game 4 Wednesday, the Twins delivered an honest effort and even took a 1-0 lead when star slugger Royce Lewis homered in the bottom of the first. The Astros came right back when Michael Brantley hit his own solo shot in the second, however, and Jose Abreu hit a two-run bomb in the fourth to take a 3-1 lead. Minnesota scored a run in the sixth but eventually went quietly in a season-ending 3-2 defeat.

Despite losing the series to Houston, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli was encouraged by his team’s season and maintains lofty goals for the near future.

“The team is hungry in a way that I don’t think we probably even were before,” Baldelli said after the defeat. “You get a taste of something like this, you show this to people, what this looks like and what it is. We’re not that far from playing in the World Series.”

With the ALDS wrapped up, the Astros will play the Rangers, their archrivals in the AL East. Star pitchers Justin Verlander and Framber Valdez will be available to start Games 1 and 2 at home in Minute Maid Park next week.

The Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-2 in Game 3 of the NLDS Wednesday night, completing a three-game sweep over their NL West rivals. The Dodgers were heavily favored in the series and were widely considered World Series contenders, but the team appeared overmatched by Arizona in all three games.

“I think it’s an understatement to say we were counted out, especially in this series, for sure,” Diamondbacks ace Zac Gallen told reporters Wednesday. “And obviously, it’s no secret we’ve had our battles with them, our struggles. But yeah, this one tastes a little bit sweeter, for sure. Especially since I heard some comments that this is just gonna be a home game for them.”

After two victories on the road to begin the series, the Diamondbacks completed their sweep Wednesday at Chase Field in Phoenix in front of a sold-out crowd of 48,159. Arizona scored four runs in the bottom of the third inning, knocking Dodgers starter Lance Lynn out of the game. The team didn’t score again, but the Diamondbacks’ bullpen allowed just two runs in nearly six innings of work and propelled the team to a two-run win.

Solid pitching and timely hitting were key for Arizona all series, as the team never trailed in any of the three games. In Game 1, Diamondbacks hitters teed off against Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, scoring six runs in the first and knocking him out of the game. They tacked one another three in the second and cruised to an 11-2 victory.

The Diamondbacks jumped on the Dodgers again in Game 2, scoring three runs in the top of the first. Gallen held us his end on the mound, allowing just two runs to Los Angeles in 5.2 innings and leading the team to its first of two 4-2 wins in the series.

With the Dodgers now out of the way, the sixth-seeded Diamondbacks still have a long way to go. They will likely be underdogs in the NLCS, and if they advance to the World Series, they will face either the Texas Rangers or Houston Astros, two teams with highly powerful offenses and exceptional pitching.

Arizona’s NLCS opponent is the last of the final four teams to be determined, as the Phillies currently hold a 2-1 series lead over the Braves in their NLDS matchup. If Philadelphia defeats Atlanta for the second straight year, the NLCS will be played between the fourth- and sixth-seeded teams in the bracket. Only one underdog can advance from there.

The Philadelphia Phillies won Game 2 of their Wild Card series Wednesday to sweep the Miami Marlins. The team will now advance to the NLDS, where they will face the highly touted Atlanta Braves in a rematch of last year’s NLDS.

There were few points throughout the Wild Card series where the Marlins appeared to be in control, as the Phillies dominated much of the action through the first game, a 4-1 victory, and romped in the second to move on.

After an opening game in which Philadelphia mostly relied on ace Zack Wheeler, who allowed just one run and struck out eight batters in 6.2 innings, the team was more productive at the plate in Game 2. With a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth inning, second baseman Bryson Stott hit a grand slam to extend the Phillies’ lead well beyond reach. They went on to win the game 7-1.

Though the bats woke up in Game 2, the pitching was just as dominant, as starter Aaron Nola allowed just three hits in seven scoreless innings of work. The Marlins never seemed comfortable at the plate, scoring just two runs in the entire series. There’s a team on the Phillies’ horizon, however, that will likely prove more capable.

With 104 wins in the regular season and 307 combined home runs, tied for the all-time record, the Braves are the surefire favorite to win this year’s World Series. Power hitters like Matt Olson, Marcell Ozuna and Ronald Acuna Jr., the first player ever to hit 40 home runs and steal 70 bases, are sure to provide a different challenge for Philadelphia’s pitching. Atlanta has several arms of its own as well, as Spencer Strider could possibly be rejoined by injured starters Max Fried and Charlie Morton in time for the series.

When these two teams faced off last year, both were in a roughly similar position. The Braves were formidable World Series favorites while the Phillies were unlikely underdogs who had squeaked into the playoffs as the sixth seed. But in a massive upset, Philadelphia’s pitching outlasted that of Atlanta and the team took the NLDS in four games. The Phillies went all the way to the World Series before falling to the Houston Astros.

Though both teams are in similar positions, the main difference going into this 2023 matchup is that both contenders have improved since last season. The Braves have finally realized their true potential at the plate, improving on a 101-win season in 2022 and setting multiple team and individual records along the way. The Phillies, meanwhile, added star shortstop Trea Turner in the offseason while retaining most of its talented pitching core.

“I think (we match up) pretty well,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said Wednesday. “They have a great club, don’t sell them short at all. But I think we do match up. I think our offense can go against anybody’s. Our two starters, Wheeler and Nola, they’re really pitching well right now. They’re on a roll, and hopefully, they stay on a roll.”

The Minnesota Twins swept the Toronto Blue Jays in two games Tuesday and Wednesday to win the AL Wild Card series. The team will advance to the ALDS for the eighth time in franchise history and play the Houston Astros, winners of last year’s World Series.

By defeating Toronto, the Twins finally ended one of baseball’s more infamous droughts, as the team has not won a playoff series since 2002 despite making nine more appearances since. There are still more ancient barriers to climb, however, as the team has not made it to the ALCS since 2002 either. That season, the Twins lost to the Los Angeles Angels, who went on to win the World Series. In Minnesota’s previous two ALCS appearances in 1987 and 1991, the team went on to win the World Series.

The Twins’ pair of low-scoring wins over the Blue Jays came down to timely hits from returning stars and superior pitching. In Game 1, designated hitter Royce Lewis made his first appearance since September 19 and hit two home runs, accounting for all three of the team’s runs. Starting pitcher Pablo Lopez allowed a run in the sixth inning but the bullpen shut down Toronto batters and carried the team home to a 3-1 victory.

In Game 2, Minnesota’s offense was similarly stagnant for most of the game, but in the top of the fourth inning, shortstop Carlos Correa cashed in with the bases loaded with a single to score the first run of the game. The Twins tacked on another in that inning to take a 2-0 lead, but the second run wasn’t necessary, thanks to starting pitcher Sonny Gray. The Minnesota ace threw five scoreless innings against Toronto and the bullpen came through again, keeping the Blue Jays in check in the late stages and earning a series victory for the team.

With just 87 wins in the regular season, the Twins did not enter the postseason with strong prospects despite winning the AL Central. They will still be heavy underdogs when they take on the Astros, but with several stars hitting their stride immediately upon returning from injury, the team appeared commanding against the Blue Jays and seems prepared for a tougher matchup.

Someone should inform the residents of Tampa, Florida, that their baseball team just got knocked out of the playoffs. They probably won’t be too distressed.

The Tampa Bay Rays lost Game 2 of the American League Wild Card series Wednesday to the Texas Rangers, who will advance to the ALDS to face the Baltimore Orioles. The Rays played very poorly in both games, losing 4-0 and 7-1, finishing a 99-win 2023 season with a bitter 0-2 sweep. But with so little occurring on the field, the crowd (or lack thereof) became the story of this series.

In Game 1 Tuesday, the Rays reported an attendance of 19,704 fans at Tropicana Field. The following day, in the final game of Tampa’s season, 20,198 fans showed up. With a capacity of 42,735 at the Trop, this means that less than half of the seats were filled as one of the best teams in baseball made its fifth straight postseason appearance. The two games earned records as the lowest and second-lowest attended MLB non-pandemic postseason games in more than a century.

Before I scold Rays fans for letting their team down, it’s important to recognize that there are obstacles to attending a Rays game on any day. Tropicana Field is not located in Tampa but in St. Peterburg, a smaller city 26 miles away. The stadium is outdated, providing little comfort to fans by modern standards. The nonretractable roof prevents the team from playing in the Florida sunshine and the field is still artificial turf, a rarity in MLB today.

It didn’t help that the games occurred a little after 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday, presumably when many people were working. But this is where the excuses end for Rays fans. In 2019 and 2021, Tampa also hosted playoff games and did not come close to selling out the stadium for any of them. It’s impossible to know if this has any correlation to the team’s notorious lack of postseason success, but it’s hard to imagine the team playing worse than it did against Texas in this most recent series.

It feels obvious to say, but when your team makes the postseason, you go. The travel across the Tampa Bay area to St. Petersburg could very well be a pain, but there are plenty of examples of fans going out of their way to support their teams. No one in New York would ever be caught dead in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on any day but Sunday, as the Jets and Giants have boasted high attendance numbers at MetLife Stadium for years.

The Rays are a frustrating story of talent failing to transfer to popularity, as outside factors prevent the team from enjoying the same fanbase shared by other teams in the area. The NFL’s Buccaneers have seldom enjoyed packed stadiums by NFL standards, but the fanbase is loyal and passionate and promises some noise every weekend. The NHL’s Lightning is consistently one of the most watched teams in the league. The Rays, a consistently strong team with star power and wins to back up their reputation, were booed by their own scattershot crowd as they ended yet another postseason run prematurely.

“Some boos starting to come down from the group,” ESPN commentator Sean McDonough said during Game 2. “I’m not sure we can call it a crowd. The group here at the Trop.”

Baseball fans have criticized the Houston Astros after the team’s game Wednesday, claiming that the team instigated a fight with Mariners star Julio Rodriguez. In the midst of a tight division race, the Astros were frustrated after two of their batters were hit in the game Tuesday.

“I’m tired of our guys getting hit,” Houston manager Dusty Baker said before the game Wednesday. “It makes guys a lot bolder when they don’t have to hit.”

Baker’s comments were seen by many as loading the powder keg, which nearly exploded in the bottom of the sixth inning when Astros pitcher Hector Neris charged Rodriguez following a strikeout. Neris seemed intent on taunting Rodriguez but he was quickly held back to prevent him from escalating the matter further. Both benches cleared and it took several minutes to resolve the dispute.

“He’s my friend,” Neris told reporters after the game. “Just, it’s part of the game.”

For his part, Rodriguez said through a spokesperson that he was shocked by Neris’ behavior.

The Astros went on to win the game 8-3, taking the three-game series and a 1.5-game lead in the Wild Card over Seattle. The primary reason for such high tensions was the playoff race, as both teams desperately needed the win in order to earn the last postseason berth. The Rays and Blue Jays have the first two spots, leaving just one for the runner-up in the AL West.

With just a few games remaining for each team, Houston now controls its own destiny in a series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Mariners must try to sweep the Texas Rangers in a four-game set, and even then, the Astros could eliminate them with a sweep of their own. There is an exhaustive list of possibilities from there, but in short, Houston’s series win over Seattle put them in a vastly more comfortable position.

Many fans of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim held low expectations for their team going into the season, more as a result of prior disappointments than future potential. On paper for the last few seasons, the team has appeared formidable but failed to even reach the postseason. The Angels are once again hovering just above .500 going into the All-Star break in 2023, and a slate of injuries could complicate things further as time runs short.

In the span of two games against the Padres Monday and Tuesday, Los Angeles stars Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani and Anthony Rendon all exited early with injuries. Ohtani and Rendon sustained short-term setbacks and should return shortly, but Trout had to receive surgery to treat a wrist injury and will not return for four to eight weeks.

Trout’s injury, suffered after he hit a foul ball Monday, comes at a crucial point for the Angels, who soon need to assess their current standing and future needs at the trade deadline. With a 45-44 record, the team is third in the AL West and four games out of the final Wild Card spot. Though Trout has not quite lived up to his typically outstanding production this year, he remains a key contributor and veteran leader on the team, one that likely only has one more opportunity to win with its current core.

Trout, 31, is already regressing from his generational numbers earlier in his career for the Angels, but the most urgent issue in Anaheim is the impending free agency battle for Ohtani. Arguably the most versatile star in the history of the sport, the two-way phenom will leave the Angels at the end of the season to pursue a massive contract. The Dodgers, Mets and Yankees will all reportedly pursue him.

For all of the Angels’ failures to miss the postseason with Trout and Ohtani in the lineup, making a run in 2023 could have absolved those past sins. The team has been far from perfect in that effort but did just enough in the first half of the season to make it possible. There’s no more room for error, however, nor time to tread water, and other players will have to step up in Trout’s absence in order to finally validate the team’s star power with a playoff berth.

Justin Verlander’s performance Wednesday night against the New York Yankees was singularly impressive, a solid six-inning outing in which he struck out 11 batters to give the Houston Astros a one-game lead in the ALCS. In the context of his career, however, it means even more, another chapter in the future Hall-of-Famer’s routine domination of the Bronx Bombers over the last decade.

Since 2011, Verlander has faced the Yankees in the postseason eight times as a member of the Detroit Tigers and Astros. The team he started for won six of those games, with the pair of losses coming eight years apart in 2011 and 2019. Between 2006 and 2019, the Yankees have faced off against teams featuring Verlander in five postseason series. They have never advanced past him.

Verlander’s most recent win Wednesday was the sixth straight time in which he has held the Yankees to five hits or less in the playoffs, allowing three on this occasion. Despite the loss in 2019, he has now held New York to two runs or less in five of their last six postseason matchups.

After reviewing this reign in full, it’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that Verlander has been one of the key contributors to the Yankees’ postseason struggles over the last decade. Despite consistently strong regular season performances and healthy payrolls, the team has not reached the World Series since 2009. Many have argued that their power-hitting lineup has not been enough to compensate for a relatively weak starting rotation over the years.

Those issues seemed to be a thing of the past earlier this season when Gerrit Cole was nearly pitching like an ace and Nestor Cortes appeared as a sudden revelation. But then the team collapsed in the second half, and it took Aaron Judge’s historic home run chase to breathe new life into the team ahead of the postseason. After all these years, the 108-win Astros were still better in 2022, and Wednesday night’s game served as a cruel reminder. Despite his advanced age, Verlander continues to give the Yankees’ opponents the advantage in the playoffs.

Game 2 of the ALCS kicks off tonight, and though the Yankees won’t have to deal with Verlander again, Astros pitcher Frambler Valdez is a talent in his own right. New York pitcher Luis Severino, on the other hand, is still looking for his first postseason win against the Astros, having appeared in two losing efforts in 2017 and another in 2019. In his only playoff appearance this season, Severino allowed three runs to the Cleveland Guardians in a game the Yankees went on to lose 6-5. Cleveland’s offense is significantly weaker than Houston’s, which features Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez and Alex Bregman.

As New York proved against Cleveland, there’s life for the Yankees as long as there’s a game left to play. But Game 1 of the ALCS felt more like an inescapably familiar tune than anything new for the organization. The path to the World Series is as clear as it’s ever been, but Verlander and company remain the perpetual obstacle.

The San Diego Padres were four outs away from taking Game 2 of their NLDS series against the Los Angeles Dodgers when a goose flew on to the field. Dodgers second baseman Gavin Lux hit a single soon after to bring the tying run to the plate.

The situation didn’t improve for the Padres when closer Josh Hader came in, as the reliever walked the next batter to put men on first and second. But Hader eventually found his way out of the jam, getting catcher Austin Barnes to fly out to end the eighth inning. San Diego went on to win 5-3.

According to the Los Angeles Audubon Society, the goose on the field was a Greater White-Fronted Goose.

Margaret Rubega, an ornithologist and evolutionary biology professor at the University of Connecticut, confirmed this with uSports.

These geese migrate south through California in the fall, and the bright lights of the stadium likely distracted it as it traveled in the night sky.

Though the goose’s impact on the game turned out to be negligible, it is undeniable that the Dodgers seemed to be going quietly until it appeared. It remained on the field for Lux’s single before the Dodger Stadium grounds crew began a lengthy effort to detain the animal and escort it off the grounds.

It’s frivolous to claim that allowing the goose to stick around would have led to a Dodgers win, but it wouldn’t have been the first bird-related interference in MLB history.

Pitcher Randy Johnson famously killed one during a preseason game in 2001, and in 2009, Cleveland won on a walkoff hit against the Kansas City Royals after a flock of seagulls distracted Coco Crisp trying to field the ball in center field.

Animal-related curses are also relatively common in baseball, though they’re typically reserved for the Chicago Cubs. The Curse of the Billy Goat began in 1945 when a local Chicago tavern owner had to leave the Cubs’ World Series game due to the odor emanating from his pet goat. He vowed that the Cubs wouldn’t win anymore, and they didn’t for 71 years. In the midst of that cursed period for the Cubs, they also blew a lead in the 1969 N.L. Pennant race after a black cat ran past their dugout in a game against the New York Mets, who went on to win the World Series that year.

Through two games, the Dodgers and Padres are tied with one win apiece, and the teams will now travel to San Diego for the next two games of the series. They’ll be traveling south down the coast of California, making it ever so slightly more possible that another flying visitor can follow them down to Petco Park.

The New York Mets and Atlanta Braves are still neck-and-neck atop the N.L. East division, and with six games remaining in the regular season, a three-game series between the two teams may decide the season. The series begins Friday in Atlanta, though inclement weather from Hurricane Ian may change that.

With a 98-58 record, the Mets hold a one-game lead over the 97-59 Braves. On Wednesday, the two teams were tied for first, but Atlanta lost to the Washington Nationals while New York won against the Miami Marlins. Both games ended in extra innings a half hour apart.

With the lead in the division, New York can clinch with a three-game sweep of Atlanta. If the Mets win two games against the Braves, they can clinch with one win in their final three-game series against the Nationals. New York also has the tiebreaker over Atlanta, though that can change in this series.

The Braves cannot clinch with a sweep but winning all three games against the Mets would earn them the tiebreaker. It would also put them in a very good position to secure the division in three games against the Marlins. Atlanta can still win the division with two wins over New York this weekend, but the team would not be able to control its own destiny in that scenario.

Both teams have arranged their pitching rotations to best prepare for this upcoming series. Barring complications, the Mets will start Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt while the Braves will likely start Max Fried, Kyle Wright and Charlie Morton.

Both teams have premier starting pitchers in the National League, though the Mets’ combination of deGrom and Scherzer is especially notable. Atlanta will compete without rising star Spencer Strider, who is on the 15-day IL with an oblique strain.

Offensively, New York and Atlanta are vastly different. The Braves are dependent on power-hitting from players like Austin Riley and Matt Olson. Dansby Swanson, Marcell Ozuna and Ronald Acuña are also key contributors in the stacked lineup. Atlanta ranks second in the league in total home runs, trailing only Aaron Judge’s New York Yankees.

Meanwhile, the Mets typically depend on base hits and rallies, as hitters like Francisco Lindor, Jeff McNeil and Brandon Nimmo have all been versatile contact hitters capable of more at times. Every team needs its anchor though, and Pete Alonso has had a powerful year, becoming the first player in franchise history to hit 40 home runs in separate seasons.

Both teams will also play without key bats, as the Mets are without outfielder Starling Marte while the Braves are missing second baseman Ozzie Albies.

The Mets and Braves earned postseason berths some time ago, but the winner of the division will earn a valuable bye straight to the NLDS. Escaping a likely Wild Card matchup with the San Diego Padres could leave either team in a much better position to reach the NLCS and World Series.

As of right now, the Braves will have home-field advantage for the series, but MLB officials are considering contingency plans as Hurricane Ian approaches Florida. Rain forecasts in Atlanta are clear for now but there could be further complications.

On Sunday night, the Atlanta Braves extended their NLCS lead to 2-0 after beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-4. Braves left fielder Eddie Rosario lined a single up the middle, bouncing right off Corey Seager‘s glove to send home Dansby Swanson for the winning run.

Rosario’s hit capped off a remarkable individual performance, featuring a 4-5 night at the plate and some gutsy base-running.

The game itself was a back-and-forth thriller that embodied what makes October baseball so special.

The Dodgers took an early lead in the first inning when, with a man on first, Seager belted an Ian Anderson curveball over the right-field wall to put his team up 2-0.

The Braves responded in the bottom of the fourth, as Joc Pederson clobbered a 454-foot bomb off Dodgers’ ace Max Scherzer into the Coors Light Chop House Deck to tie it up at 2-2.

The score remained tied for the next few innings until the 7th inning. With two outs and the bases loaded, Chris Taylor punched a bloop double that went past a lunging Guillermo Heredia, who had just entered the game as part of a double switch, bringing home two runners to put the Dodgers back up 4-2.

However, the Braves responded in the bottom of the 8th with clutch hitting and aggressive base-running. With nobody out, Freddie Freeman flied out to left field, but Rosario tagged up from first base to narrowly beat Turner’s swipe at second.

The tag-up perfectly set up the following at-bat, whereby second baseman Ozzie Albies knocked a soft liner into short right field. Braves third base coach Ron Washington gave Rosario the green light to charge home, which fortunately worked out, as Rosario barely beat out the play at the plate.

The next at-bat, rising star Austin Riley ripped a Julio Urías fastball into the gap in left-center, scoring Albies all the way from first base to tie the game up at four apiece.

Then, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the man of the hour Rosario crushed the walk-off single off the flamethrower Kenley Jansen.

“I’m really happy that the team and manager put their confidence in me to put me in the leadoff spot,” Rosario told MLB Network. “I’m really happy I was able to come through.”

Game 3 of the NLCS will take place tomorrow in Los Angeles.

Tuesday’s AL Wild Card Game between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees was a highly anticipated one with each team having their backs against the wall. The victor would go on to play in the ALDS against the 100-win Tampa Bay Rays, who won the stacked AL East that featured four 90-win teams. Both squads played a recently as late September 26, the Yankees’ sweeping the Red Sox with the help of Giancarlo Stanton‘s dominant three-homer, 10 RBI series.

The game even had historical significance, given the precedent of the 1978 AL East tie-breaker game, defined by the iconic Bucky Dent homer in the seventh inning to give the Yanks the lead.

Alas, last night’s game did not turn out the way Yankee fans had hoped for.

Gerrit Cole took the mound for New York while former Yankee Nathan Eovaldi started for the Red Sox. Cole, who was putting up Cy Young-worthy number throughout most of the season, had been struggling over the past five games, going 2-2 with a 6.15 ERA, in part due to a nagging left hamstring injury. Last night was a test to see if the Yankees $324 million man would be able to deliver when it mattered most.

The Bronx Bombers got off to a seemingly promising start in the first inning, coming out aggressive in the box and making solid contact off Eovaldi. With two outs in the bottom of the first, Stanton launched a slider more than halfway up the Green Monster, however, it ultimately ended up being a loud single. The ball seemed to be a goner off the bat, fooling everyone from Stanton himself to Yankees’ play-by-play announcer John Sterling, which at least made for a hilarious call.

The Red Sox set the tone for the night in the bottom of the first inning. After giving up a two-out walk to blossoming star Rafael Devers, Cole hung a changeup right down the middle that was sent 427 feet over the center-field wall by Xander Bogaerts, giving the Sox a 2-0 lead.

Cole’s woes continued in the top of the third. Leading off the inning, Kyle Schwarber pummeled a 435-foot to right field, extending the lead to 3-0. The home run was eerily reminiscent of what had transpired during the 2015 Wild Card Game.

After allowing a walk to Devers, Cole was pulled from the game by Aaron Boone after just two innings of work.

Eovaldi, on the other hand, was dealing, striking out eight of the first 18 batters and retiring 11 straight during one stretch.

Yankees’ first baseman (and Schwarber’s former Cubs teammate) Anthony Rizzo was the only hitter to tag the right-hander, pulling a curveball around Pesky’s Pole for a solo home run to cut the lead to 3-1.

To the shock of many, including Eovaldi, Red Sox manager Alex Cora decided to remove his pitcher from the game after a subsequent in-field hit by Aaron Judge.

“When I went to the mound, he gave me this look, like, ‘What are you doing?'” Cora said after the game.

“It’s just such a tough game to manage. If he stays there and he hits a home run, then oof. We felt like our bullpen was ready for the rest of the game. We got lucky that the ball stayed in the ballpark, we made a great play, then we did a great job the rest of the game.”

The Red Sox thus brought in reliever Ryan Brasier to face Stanton. The substitution initially appeared to backfire, as the Yankees DH crushed a 400-foot line-drive off the Monster, again. The ball would have been a home run in 11 MLB stadiums. Instead, it ended up resulting in a costly out that would put a halt to the Yankees’ mid-game comeback, as the Sox nailed Judge at home plate after a perfectly executed relay.

The Red Sox added a few more insurance runs with two clutch hits by left fielder Alex Verdugo, slapping an RBI-double in the bottom of the sixth and then lining a two-run single in the top of the seventh to put his team up for good.

The Yanks did add a run in the top of the ninth inning with the scorching hot Stanton hitting an opposite field home run just inside the pole.

However, one cannot help but acknowledge the irony that Stanton’s weakest hit ball of the evening was the one that ended up going over the fence. It just may be the best way to summarize last night’s misfortune.

In what seems like the only way to have professional sports in a post-COVID world, the MLB is considering using a bubble setup similar to the NBA’s format. This comes off the heels of two major outbreaks in the MLB with the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals both having their seasons suspended after more than 10 members of each team tested positive with the Cardinals not playing a game since July 29. According to ESPN, the playoffs would likely start in three areas then move to two hubs and the format would look something like this:

• The three-game National League wild-card round, played in three days, would stage the No. 1 seed vs. No. 8, No. 2 vs. No. 7 and No. 3 vs. No. 6 at Dodger Stadium. The same American League seeds would play at Angel Stadium, about 30 miles southeast in Anaheim. The Nos. 4 and 5 seeds in both leagues would face off at Petco Park in San Diego.
• The NL Division Series would hold two games per day at Dodger Stadium and the ALDS two games per day at Angel Stadium.
• The NLCS would be held at Dodger Stadium and the ALCS at Angel Stadium, or both would be played at a single site.
• The World Series would be held at a single site or perhaps both.

Let’s hope this isn’t too little too late after the MLB seemed to go into its restart blindly hoping against hope that everything would turn out okay and instead it has been a disastrous season so far with two damaging outbreaks and more players opting out seemingly every day. Talks are very preliminary at this point but the discussions are being taken seriously enough that one official told ESPN: “If we want to make sure we get through October, we really need to get this right.”

With the MLB season kicking off this Saturday with an abbreviated 60-game regular-season schedule, the MLB network reported that the Players’ Union is discussing upping the number of teams in this year’s playoffs from 10 to 16. Although, this is likely motivated more by ad revenue that could be gained from the extra games this also may be a move to add a greater sense of legitimacy to a rather wonky season that most people expect.

Baseball is a game of runs and with the normal mammoth 162-game regular season even the worst of teams can go on a solid 60-game run which, with the reduced number of teams, may lead to some fraud-like appearances in the playoff. With this potential playoff expansion, there will be more playoff games that sports-starved fans will almost definitely tune into, and there is a lower chance that a team that is more deserving than another but gets off to a slow start, will be eliminated from playoff contention wherein a normal year they would have made it.

If all goes well with this idea it is possible that baseball could maintain this number of playoff teams when the game is able to return to a normal, complete season. While nothing is finalized, I see this as a no-lose proposal for the MLB and one that it should jump on immediately. At a time like this, few people are calling for less high-level sports action and this could be the boost that the league was looking for after it’s ratings have been declining over the past few years.

It was all cheers and tears as C.C. Sabathia‘s made his final pitch as a Major League baseball player. As reported earlier, he was not going to start in the playoffs, but was available for relief.

Sabathia was battling injuries all year long. Instead of calling it a career after his last setback during the regular season, he came back for a final start, which was met with a lot of emotions from player and fans. It was his last major league start at home. No word was given whether he would be in the roster for the playoff at the time, so the assumption that this was his last appearance in pinstripes was valid.

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But then, down two games to one against Houston, the New York Yankees were down 7-3 when Sabathia came in as relief in the eight inning. When the skipper Aaron Boone called for Sabathia, he was visibly emotional. Sabathia inherited two runners at the corners (one on a fielding error). He was pitching well, getting a few infield ground balls; but one of them was not fielded properly and ended up loading the bases. After a pitch to the next batter, he knew there was something wrong.

Sabathia briefly touched his shoulder, but walked around trying to stay in the game. The trainer and coach Girardi went on to the field to talk to Sabathia. After a warm up pitch, he begrudgingly walked back to the dugout.

It was a bittersweet moment of sportsmanship as the whole crowd rallied around him, including fans with both jerseys and Astros players giving him a standing ovation. Sabathia got to the steps of the hallway leading to the locker room, sat down, and put his head down away from the cameras.

It was the end of two decades of Sabathia. The Astros won 8-3 and are down three to one in the series.

The next game is Friday at 7:10 p.m. EST.

After a sensational performance from Red Sox ace David Price against Los Angeles, Boston is now two games away from its fourth title in 14 years.

Sox And Dodgers Exchange Highlights In Tense game 2

Second baseman Ian Kinsler took the lead in the second, batting in a runner on second for a commanding early score for Boston. Incredibly, the Red Sox are 8-0 this postseason when they score first.

The night was marked by a handful of remarkable plays, topped by a J.D. Martinez tie-breaking single in the bottom of the fifth with the bases loaded and two outs. Andrew Benintendi grabbed a potential double with the Red Sox down one early after Dodgers star outfielder Yasiel Puig took the lead in the previous inning.

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Perhaps the most remarkable play of the night came from the arm of Dodgers outfielder Chris Taylor, who threw Kinsler out at third base in unorthodox fashion. The throw slipped through Kinsler’s legs at the perfect moment as he began to slide toward third base, with Manny Machado lurking above. Machado kept stride and tagged Kinsler out to the amazement of spectators, and the befuddlement of announcer Joe Buck.

The bag of tricks wasn’t to stave off the Red Sox For Game two. The Dodgers now desperately need a win, and home field back in L.A. for Game three on Friday may be their only saving grace. The Sox have now won six straight postseason games. The only other years where they won six or more consecutive games was 2004, where they won eight, and 2007 with seven straight. Both years ended up with trophies in Boston.