MLB Playoff Takeaways: Championship Series

Photo from Major League Baseball

For the first time since 1980, we are guaranteed to have a first time World Series Champion, and it’s between two teams nobody believed in to start the year.

It goes to show what good management can do.

Rays defeat Guardians 4-2

The Rays won the same way they won all season long.

They played smart baseball.

In a world of long ball, the Rays only had 4 home runs the entire series, two of which came in Game 6 to put the series away.

But other than that it was getting on base, getting runs, and good pitching.

10 of 13 batters that had plate appearances had an on base percentage of .300 or higher, and the pitching staff allowed 3 or less runs in every game outside of Game 1.

Get on base. Get runs across. Keep runs off the board.

It’s nice to see small ball succeed in a world of launch angles and exit velos.

Brewers defeat Dodgers 4-0

A large part of why this was a sweep was due to the Dodgers players underperforming.

Betts, Freeman, Ohtani, Hernandez, and Muncy went a combined 12-68 in the series, and Snell, Yamamoto, and Glasnow had terrible starts on the mound.

But that’s why it was a sweep.

The Brewers won this series because the Brewers were the better team.

Why did Yamamoto have a bad start in Game 2? Because Brice Turang and Jake Bauers had great at bats forcing walks, Turang’s being 12 pitches, and running up Yamamto’s pitch count before Christian Yelich hit a single to score 2 and take Yamamoto out of the game in the 3rd inning.

Why did Snell have a bad start in Game 3? Because Jake Bauers had a 11 pitch battle before hitting a two run home run to take the lead in the 7th, followed by Garrett Mitchell hitting another one right after to extend the lead.

This series was a battle, and the Brewers came out on top a majority of the time.

But that wasn’t luck.

They worked for it.

World Series Prediction

Man, I really don’t know.

Frankly, the Rays postseason so far seems more sustainable.

They have played the same way all season long, nothing has changed this postseason, and they’re back in the World Series.

But the Brewers have gotten here despite Jackson Chourio, one of their best players, really not playing very well this postseason outside of his clutch at bat in Game 2 of the NLDS.

You have to think, at some point, Chourio is going to break out and make a stronger impact.

I’m thinking this series goes seven games, and I’m going to give the edge to the team that got over their white whale this postseason.

The Brewers Win the World Series.