It comes down to extra innings and squandered opportunities, a year of firsts and not quite enough. Series were earned and given away, and the emotional pendulums of games were like rocket-propelled swing sets.
This year’s playoffs were the best I can remember in years. I was locked in, paying attention the whole way, listening to podcasts and reading articles to engage with every bit of detail. That made me more aware of everything that could be intriguing. But I also have a slightly more objective perspective on this: several friends who are, at best, ambivalent about baseball started to follow the playoffs and would happily text me out of nowhere with game updates. Something about the spread of storylines—the improbability of Milwaukee and Seattle storming into their respective positions, the returning juggernaut of the Dodgers, the hope and ineptitude of the Yankees against a rallying Blue Jays team—all crashed together in a beautiful miasma that captured attention beyond the usual fanbase.
Extra innings games will define these playoffs far into the future. I’ll remember being on a plane, in a car, then staying up until past midnight to watch the Mariners eke out their fifteen-inning win over the Tigers, all thanks to former Twins legends Mitch Garver and Jorge Polanco. Then, there’s the obvious one: eighteen innings in Game 3 of the World Series, over six and a half hours of baseball that kept me up until three in the morning. I couldn’t take my eyes off. Finally, a tight Game 7 that featured incredible heroics, a nearly sure win, yet it made it to the eleventh, and the Dodgers took it down.
There’s also the dynamic of relievers versus starters out of the bullpen. The Dodgers leaned heavily on their starters, largely letting relievers mop up any messes. The Blue Jays never felt quite so comfortable with their options. Both their closer and a starter coming out of the bullpen lost Game 7 by allowing solo home runs. But they were in a position to do that because of how dreadful the Blue Jays were on the base paths.
On two consecutive nights, the game was abruptly and obviously changed because of baserunning flubs. Barger prematurely ends Game 6 by getting doubled off on second. Then, Kiner-Falefa fails to score the winning run in the ninth inning of Game 7 because he took a terrible lead and unnecessarily slid into home instead of running through. My heart aches most for the individual players in Toronto who will relive these moments and think about how it could have been different. I do that for a litany of dumb moments in my life; I can’t imagine the pressure when it leads to disappointing a metropolitan area of millions of people, along with a good chunk of baseball-loving Americans.
As always, I’m sad that the baseball season is over. But, this is the benefit of hopping onto the Effectively Wild podcast train: there’s always something to talk about, to consider, to explore, to debate. It’s an evergreen sport, my favorite, but now I’m ready to get back on a regular sleep schedule. Watching baseball on the East Coast is rough.