MLB Playoff Recap: Regular Season Giants Bow to Postseason Underdogs

The 2023 MLB regular season spun a narrative of dominance and record-shattering performances, with the Atlanta Braves leading the helm. The Braves not only boasted the best player in the National League, Ronald Acuña Jr., but also broke new ground with his creation of the “40-70 club”, courtesy of his extraordinary prowess of 40 home runs and 70 stolen bases. Their supremacy was further echoed through a Majors’ best record of 104 wins and a staggering +231 run differential, illustrating an ensemble of consistent high-octane performances.

However, as the tides of the postseason rolled in, the Braves found themselves upended by the Philadelphia Phillies for the second consecutive year, a déjà vu that left a bitter taste. The Phillies, undeterred by the Braves’ regular-season heroics, took the series 3-1. A particularly gnarly 10-run defeat in game three, followed by Nick Castellanos’s historic back-to-back multi-homer games, was the proverbial nail in the coffin for the Braves’ illustrious season.

But the storyline of top seeds bowing out didn’t end with the Braves. The playoffs have seen the departure of MLB juggernauts one after another. The Arizona Diamondbacks, who swept the 100-win LA Dodgers, the Baltimore Orioles, and Tampa Bay Rays, with 101 and 99 wins respectively, all found themselves on the wrong side of the playoff magic. Even the 92-win Brewers, the NL Central champions, were sent packing as the Diamondbacks swept them in the Wild Card round. This unprecedented exit of the top five winningest teams, including five division winners, paints the playoffs as a realm where the regular-season giants are humbled and the underdogs have their day in the sun. It’s a stark reminder that in baseball, past glory doesn’t warrant future success. The postseason seems to operate in a dimension of its own, defying the logic established over the 162-game regular season grind.

The scenario unfolding in this postseason rings true to the old Spanish adage, “La pelota es redonda pero vine en caja cuadrada” – the baseball is round but comes packed in a square box. The unpredictability that is sewn into the fabric of baseball showcases itself most starkly in the postseason, where a clean slate can turn the tables in favor of the underdog, making the aura surrounding the playoffs nothing short of magical. Maybe that is what makes baseball special, it is always full of surprises, you can use advanced stats and metrics and it will still buck the trend. In other words, you can’t place this sport in a box, and that it why we love it.

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