MLB Playoff Takeaways: Divisional Series

Photo by Junfu Han from The Detroit Free Press

We are down to the final four, and three of the four teams have lengthy World Series droughts, or have never won one at all.

The other is the Dodgers, who won last year.

Kind of spoiling the party, LA!

Here is what we learned from the divisional series.

Blue Jays defeat Yankees 3-1

In a best of 5, you want to get off to a good start.

The Jays were able to do so thanks to some incredible pitching, with Kevin Gausman and Trey Yesevage in games 1 and 2.

Add in Vlad Guerrero Jr. going beast mode, and it felt like this series was over after two.

And a big part of that is the Yankees bats going silent.

Aaron Judge was incredible, and had a huge clutch 3 run homer to tie game 3 which led to a Yankees win and saving their season, but the rest of the lineup went silent.

Trent Grisham, Ben Rice, Jazz Chisolm, Cody Bellinger, and Anthony Volpe went a combined 10-73.

Baseball is a team sport.

That’s not going to cut it.

And that’s why the Yankees are going home.

Mariners defeat Tigers 3-2

And continuing the theme of a total team effort, we have the Detroit Tigers.

This was a really good series all the way through, and came down to an incredible 15 inning game 5 where George Kirby faced off against Tarik Skubal.

Skubal was absolutely incredible. 6 innings and 13 strikeouts, including 7 in a row at one point.

And he got some help from Kerry Carpenter, who went 5-6 on the night, including a 2 run homer in the 6th inning to take the lead.

But this is a team sport.

And the rest of the Tigers lineup in game 5 went 4-46.

Yeah.

4-46.

They didn’t show up.

And on the other side of the dugout, the Mariners got runs batted in by Mitch Garver, Leo Rivas, and Jorge Polanco, none of whom are considered the top players on the roster.

It was a hard fought battle and an incredible game, and it came down to the depth.

The Mariners got some. The Tigers didn’t.

Brewers defeat Cubs 3-2

This was a high scoring series, so Brewers manager Pat Murphy decided to switch things up on the mound for a winner take all game 5.

He used 5 pitchers, including bringing in starter Jacob Misiorowski in the second inning, to empty the bullpen and keep the Cubs guessing all night.

It worked, as the Cubs red hot lineup could only muster one home run, giving the Brewers their first playoff series win in their last 7 attempts.

They’re going to need that pitching to stay hot, because they’re facing an even tougher lineup.

Dodgers defeat Phillies 3-1

I had absolutely no faith in the Dodgers bullpen.

I had no faith at the end of the season, and I had no faith after their Wild Card series against the Reds.

But, even if there was a scary moment in game 2, it was actually the Phillies bullpen that fell apart in this series, losing a lead in game 1, and having a costly error to lose game 4 in extra innings and be eliminated from the playoffs.

Credit to the Dodgers, but this was a very winnable series for the Phils, and they let it slip away.

How many more opportunities will there be?