Major Changes to Major League Baseball Post-Season
November baseball is no longer just an occasional occurrence; it is here to stay. This year, the MLB decided to switch things up on how the post-season would work. Instead of five teams from both leagues going on into the October post-season, it is now six. That means the three teams that were division winners from each league are joined by three Wild Card teams. So, instead of a one-off Wild Card game where the winner goes on to play the third Division winner in one of the two League Division Series (LDS), they now use a seeding process. The first seed from each league is the Division winner with the highest regular season record, followed by the second and third Division winners. Then, it’s the Wild Card team with the highest record, the second Wild Card team, and finally, the Wild Card team with the lowest record. The first and second seeds will get a bye and be placed into an LDS spot. The third seed will play the sixth seed in a 3-game series—the same for the fourth and fifth seeds. The winner of the third and sixth seed series will play the second seed team, and the winner of the fourth and fifth seed series will play the team in the first seed position. After the two Wild Card series, it will be more normal with two 5-game LDS, a 7-game LCS, and a 7-game World Series.
From the start of the 2022 post-season, it was evident that the new setup allowed for some major upsets and more variety of teams gunning for a deep October run. One of these major upsets was that the two teams that played for the National League Championship were two teams that had earned a Wild Card spot. The sixth-seed Philadelphia Phillies beat out the third-seed St. Louis Cardinals, who had clinched the NL Central Division, to go on and play the second-seed Atlanta Braves. The Braves are the team who not only won their Division (NL East) this season but won the whole damn season last year by clinching the World Series title for the first time since 1995. The Braves played a great season after their 2021 run, but they just didn’t have a fire lit under their butts like the Phillies seemed to, as they lost in the NLDS to Philadelphia 3 games to 1. The other team to play in the NLCS was the San Diego Padres. To get there, the fifth-seed Padres defeated the fourth-seed New York Mets in the Wild Card series before beating the first-seed Los Angeles Dodgers in their NLDS 3 games to 1. The Dodgers were not just the first seed because they had the best record in the National League. They had the best record in all Major League Baseball this season with 111 wins, which simultaneously set a franchise record. All this to say, it was a big upset that the Dodgers did not make it to the NLCS or even put up much of a fight, as they only won one game of their post-season appearance. The victor between the Padres and the Phillies was Philadelphia, who moved on to the World Series to play against the Houston Astros.
There were fewer upsets for the American League than the National League, considering the two teams that competed for the American League Championship were the first seed and second seed. The fifth-seed Seattle Mariners defeated the fourth-seed Toronto Blue Jays to make it to an ALDS against the first-seed Houston Astros. The Astros promptly swept the Mariners before moving on to the ALCS. The second-seed New York Yankees played the third-seed Cleveland Guardians in their ALDS, who beat out the sixth-seed Tampa Bay Rays to get there. Once the Yankees beat the Guardians, they played against the Astros in the ALCS. The Astros also swept the Yankees to get a bid for the World Series against the Phillies.
The World Series was an interesting match-up between a team in the sixth seed with 87 wins in the regular season playing a team in the first seed with 106 wins. The Phillies were determined to make it and fought for their Wild Card spot during the regular season, beating the Cardinals, the Braves, and the Padres. The Phillies were the last of the 12 teams to clinch their play-off berth, having fought tooth and nail to win games while hoping the Milwaukee Brewers lost theirs. The win that set them over the edge was actually a win against the Astros, the team they would later face in the World Series. After sweeping the two teams they faced in the ALDS and ALCS, the Astros dropped Game 1 of the series to the Phillies but won the next one to tie the series 1-1. The Phillies won the next game, and the first of the series was played in Philadelphia, but the Astros tied the series again in Game four and then went up three games to two with another win for Game five. Game six was back in Houston, and it was buzzing with excitement. The only exciting inning was the sixth inning where every run of the game was scored. The Astros were able to hold the Phillies to just one run scored and tried to hold on for the rest of the game. When there were three outs in the top of the ninth, the Houston Astros had won the World Series for the second time in six seasons and franchise history.
