Breaking down first week of 2024 MLB Playoffs

CLEVELAND — Walking, victorious, into the media interview room after Game 2 of the American League Division Series on Monday night at Progressive Field, A.J. Hinch smiled and shook his head.

“Playoffs,” the Tigers manager said.

Yeah. Playoffs. They’re awesome, aren’t they?

Hinch’s Tigers had just beaten the Guardians, 3-0, to even up their best-of-five in one of the best games you’ve seen lately.

That is, of course, unless you had watched the Phillies-Mets a night earlier when they played an entirely different style of game that was one of the best you’ve seen lately. And it will remain true until, inevitably, another “best game you’ve seen lately” comes along, probably today or tomorrow.

That’s what October does. It spits out instant classics like a jukebox playing the hits. And it never ceases to amaze even people like Hinch, who has managed 54 of these things and counting, how different these postseason games can feel.

“Every little thing,” he said, “feels like the biggest situation.”

This particular postseason just began — believe it or not — one week ago. If it feels like a lot longer than that, it’s because these games have packed a lot of life, a lot of tension and a lot of truly bananas baseball into that timeframe.

Let’s recap some of the oddities that have made this such a plentiful postseason so far.

1. Dominant closers downed
We might as well continue where we began, with the Tigers’ triumph. The story going into the game was whether Tarik Skubal, who just won the AL pitching Triple Crown, could even up the series for the Tigers. But by the ninth inning, with Skubal gone and the bullpens battling in a scoreless tie, the focus shifted to an elite arm of a different sort in the Guardians’ Emmanuel Clase.

In the regular season, Clase had a 0.61 ERA and 0.66 WHIP, becoming the first reliever (min. 30 appearances) with marks below 0.70 in both of those categories since Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley with the 1990 A’s. So it was shocking enough to see Clase surrender consecutive two-out singles to Jake Rogers and Trey Sweeney in the ninth inning of Monday’s game. But then came the most shocking outcome of all — Tigers DH Kerry Carpenter, who had not started the game, connecting on the decisive three-run home run.

Not only was that just the third homer surrendered by Clase this year, but it was the first time he had given up a three-run blast … in his entire career.

This wasn’t the first time this postseason that we saw such an unlikely ninth. When the Brewers had a 2-0 lead on the Mets in the decisive Game 3 of the Wild Card Series, they had every reason to feel confident closer Devin Williams would nail it down. Instead, Williams, who had allowed only three runs in 21 2/3 innings in the regular season, was torched by a Pete Alonso three-run homer. Not only was it just the third three-run homer off Williams in his career, but it was the first go-ahead home run EVER by a postseason player whose team was trailing in the ninth inning or later.

And that turned out to be a four-run inning for the Mets. Only twice before — and not since June 13, 2023 — had Williams allowed that many runs in an inning.

But of course it happened here, because, as Hinch said: Playoffs.

2. Everything Mets
Unless you climbed Mount Kilimanjaro backwards in your underwear, you did not have as wild a week as the Mets just had. Simply getting to October after starting the season 22-33 and trailing the Braves 3-0 in that memorable makeup game on Sept. 30 showed the Mets are magnets for drama. But in the postseason proper, they’ve been involved in some especially wild ones.

The Mets were up 3-2 against the Brewers entering the eighth inning of Game 2 of the Wild Card Series, but the Brewers rose to life with homers from Jackson Chourio and Garrett Mitchell to win that one, 5-3.

Then there was Alonso’s game-changing blast off Williams the next night. Then there was Game 1 of the NLDS against the Phillies. The Mets were shut down for seven innings by Zack Wheeler and trailing 1-0 entering the eighth, but they staged a five-run inning off the Phillies’ bullpen in an eventual 6-2 win.

And then there was Game 2 on Sunday, when the Mets led, 4-3, entering the eighth, only to cough up three runs to the Phils in the bottom of the inning, only to tie it on Mark Vientos’ two-run homer in the top of the ninth (making Vientos, who is 24, the youngest NL player with three extra-base hits in a postseason game), only to give up the game-winning RBI single to Nick Castellanos in the bottom of the inning.

Add it all up, and the Mets were involved in four straight postseason games in which the team that led entering the eighth inning lost.

Previously, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, no postseason team had ever been involved in even three straight games like that. But the Mets have done it four times (and counting?) because: Playoffs.

The Padres pounded out six home runs in that game — tying the postseason record with the 2023 Phillies in Game 3 of the NLDS and the 2015 Cubs in Game 3 of the NLDS.

One of those long balls was hit by the amazing rookie Jackson Merrill, who had three hits on the night. At 21 years, 170 days old, Merrill was the fourth-youngest player to have a three-hit game with a homer in the playoffs, behind only the Braves’ Andruw Jones (Game 1 of the 1996 World Series at 19 years, 180 days), the Nationals’ Juan Soto (Game 1 of the 2019 World Series at 20 years, 362 days) and the Astros’ Carlos Correa (Game 4 of the 2015 ALDS at 21 years, 20 days).

The Padres had not hit more than four homers in a game all season. But they hit six in Game 2, because: Playoffs.

4. No lead is safe
If you like seesaws, you can go to your neighborhood playground or just rewatch Game 1 of the ALDS between the Yankees and Royals. The Yanks prevailed, 6-5, and there has never been a postseason game like it.

The Royals struck first on a Tommy Pham sac fly that made it 1-0 Kansas City.

Then the Yankees answered with Gleyber Torres’ two-run homer to make it 2-1 Yanks.

Then MJ Melendez took Gerrit Cole deep with a two-run blast in the fourth to make it 3-2 Royals.

Then Kansas City reliever Angel Zerpa walked a hitter with the bases loaded two batters before John Schreiber did it again in the fifth to make it 4-3 Yankees.

Then Garrett Hampson singled home two Royals runners in the sixth to make it 5-4 Royals.

Then Yankees catcher Austin Wells singled home a run in the sixth to tie it.

If you’re scoring at home, that’s five lead changes. It had never happened in the postseason before, but it was bound to happen eventually, because: Playoffs.

5. More bonkers tidbits
We’ve already had seven games this postseason in which the team that scored first lost.

We’ll stop there, but there’s sure to be more coming. Because … say it with me … PLAYOFFS!