For us baseball fans, few days are better than the one we have today. Four postseason games, back-to-back-to-back-to-back. Well, technically, there is some overlap, but that’s even better! More games means flipping channels, which means less of a chance we’ll have to sit through commercials for erectile dysfunction pills. Anyway …
We’ll get to see eight of the 12 playoff teams play this weekend, and, as a bit of a warmup, let’s run through eight things you should know—one for each team playing today—heading into the postseason.
Eric Hartline/USA TODAY Sports
1. A lot has been written about how the Guardians play a throwback style of baseball. They are the toughest team to strike out and they do not hit for much power. They pitch well and play solid defense. They are fun to watch because they create action. My favorite Guardians stat: They had just eight more home runs (127) than they did stolen bases (119). Leaguewide, teams averaged 91 more home runs than stolen bases.
2. The Rays have the worst OPS (.678) against right-handed pitching among this year’s 12 playoff teams. Cleveland’s righties have combined for a 3.42 ERA this season, good for third best in the majors. On the flip side, Guardians batters have the lowest OPS (.646) against lefthanders, while Tampa Bay’s southpaws together have a 2.99 ERA, which also ranks third among all left-handed staffmates.
3. Albert Pujols is no longer valuable only as a platoon player. Since the All-Star break, he’s hitting .284/.342/.578 with eight HR and a 157 wRC+ in 114 plate appearances against right-handed pitchers. That’s a good thing for the Cardinals, who are set to face two of the best righty starters in baseball, Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola, in their first two games.
4. Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto is widely considered one of the best backstops in the league, but he somehow still seems underrated. This year was his best yet. He ranked fifth in the National League with 6.5 WAR, and he was one of nine MLB players with at least 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases this year. He and Trea Turner were the only NL players with a 20/20 season.
5. Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette led the American League in hits (189) for the second year in a row. That wouldn’t have happened if not for his torrid final month of the season. In 32 games since Sept. 1, Bichette batted .406 and racked up 54 hits, 10 more than the player with the next most knocks, Carlos Correa.
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6. Julio Rodríguez is the Mariners’ best player, but let’s give some love to power-hitting third baseman Eugenio Suárez. Since the start of the 2017 season, only Aaron Judge (216) and Nolan Arenado (188) have hit more home runs than Suárez (186). This year, his first with Seattle, Suárez led the team with 31 homers and 87 RBIs.
7. Pete Alonso feasted on Padres pitching this season. In five games against San Diego, the Mets’ first baseman went 7-for-14 with two doubles and a home run. It’s true that five games is a small sample size, but he has fared well against the Friars throughout his career, if not to the extent that he has this season. In 18 games (70 plate appearances) vs. the Padres, Alonso is hitting .286 with a .429 on-base percentage.
8. Juan Soto is returning to the playoffs for the first time since he won the 2019 World Series with the Nationals. In 17 postseason games, Soto slashed .277/.373/.554 with five home runs, including two game-tying blasts—one off Clayton Kershaw and another off Gerrit Cole—and a go-ahead shot off Justin Verlander in Game 6 of the World Series.
Quick reminder that we’ll be back in your inbox tomorrow and every day during the 2022 postseason. If you’re reading this edition online, I’d encourage you to sign up for free to get this newsletter delivered directly to your email.
As always, if you have any questions or comments for our team, send a note to mlb@si.com.
1. THE OPENER
Frank Franklin II/AP
“Francisco Lindor will make $341 million over 10 years with the Mets, but he cannot buy the thing he most covets. A World Series ring, sure. But also a World Series sweatshirt.
“He showed up at work Thursday, the day before his Mets face the Padres in the three-game National League wild-card series, to find the next-best thing waiting for him at his locker: a bunch of stuff with the word POSTSEASON inscribed across it.”
That’s Stephanie Apstein, writing in her fun column from last night about how much the players love their postseason apparel.
Baseball Players LOVE Their Playoff Merch by Stephanie Apstein
Only slightly less coveted than the postseason berth itself, the highly anticipated playoff paraphernalia is an MLB rite of passage.
2. ICYMI
Let’s run through some of our other great SI baseball stories from this week.
AL Wild-Card Series Predictions for Guardians-Rays and Mariners-Blue Jays by SI MLB Staff
Which teams will be moving on to the American League Division Series next week? Our MLB writers make their picks.
NL Wild-Card Series Predictions for Mets-Padres and Cardinals-Phillies by SI MLB Staff
Which teams will be moving on to the National League Division Series next week? Our MLB writers make their picks.
We also previewed the keys to each series:
- Will Laws focused on Guardians-Rays
- Emma Baccellieri covered Cardinals-Phillies
- Nick Selbe examined Blue Jays-Mariners
- Stephanie Apstein outlined Padres-Mets
World Series Predictions Entering the MLB Playoffs by SI MLB Staff
Let’s take yet another stab at picking the team that will win it all.
And, in non-playoff news, we have this:
Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated
Inside the MLB Culture Wars That Led to Joe Maddon’s Firing by Joe Maddon and Tom Verducci
How could a World Series–winning manager with 19 years of experience lose his job over a 12-game sample? The answer is about much more than just a losing streak.
3. WORTH NOTING from Tom Verducci
Shohei Ohtani will not win the AL MVP Award, not with Aaron Judge hitting 62 home runs, but his 2022 season was even more amazing than his ‘21 season, when he did win the award. Ohtani became the first player with enough innings and plate appearances to officially qualify as a pitcher and a hitter. But more than qualifying, he dominated.
Ohtani finished fourth in home runs (34) and fourth in ERA (2.33), a mind-boggling achievement. He led AL pitchers in strikeouts per nine innings (11.9) while showing more elite weapons on the mound than any other pitcher.
Late in the season, Ohtani added a new pitch, a high velocity two-seamer with serious run. That gave Ohtani five pitches that rank among the best by any starting pitcher in the majors:
- Slider: most horizontal movement (7.5 inches above average)
- Sinker: highest perceived velocity (97.9 mph)
- Splitter: second-lowest batting average against (.125)
- Four-Seamer: third-highest perceived velocity (98.2 mph)
- Cutter: third-highest perceived velocity (91.4 mph)
4. W2W4 from Nick Selbe
**Checks notes, clears throat, taps mike** PLAYOFF BASEBALL!!!!
Clear your schedule, because the wild-card round hits the ground running with four games Friday, beginning with the Rays and Guardians at 12:07 p.m. ET. There’s something intriguing to watch in every matchup: Shane McClanahan vs. Shane Bieber, Albert Pujols back in the postseason with his One True Team and the Mariners participating in a playoff game for the first time in over two decades. But if we must pick one game to home in on, it’s Padres-Mets.
Dale Zanine/USA TODAY Sports
In one dugout, you have a Mets team with the league’s highest payroll that saw a 10.5-game division lead vanish down the stretch. In the other sit the Padres, who similarly have gone all in with aggressive trades and enormous contracts, yet have no resonant accomplishments to show for it. The winner of this series will face the Dodgers in the NLDS. The loser will have a long, long offseason to stare in the mirror and wonder how it all went wrong. I speak for neutral observers everywhere when I say that I can’t wait.
5. THE CLOSER from Emma Baccellieri
I’d been curious about how the new playoff format would affect pitching management—how teams might use their bullpens in the wild-card series while looking ahead to a potential divisional series, for example, or whether they’d bother to put their fourth starter on the roster at all for a best-of-three. I did not contemplate a situation like what the Mets have given us with Jacob deGrom: considering not throwing him in Game 2 if they win Game 1, so that he can be saved in the event of a sweep to kick off the NLDS, with the ability to pivot and use him instead if needed for a win-or-go-home Game 3. The logic is clear. It all makes sense. Yet it nonetheless strikes me as too cute by half. Which is a reminder of perhaps the best part of this new format: There are surprises to be had! Even if you think you’re prepared, get ready.
