Viewers Guide for the MLB Division Series

Major League Baseball’s 30 teams played over 2,400 regular season games to whittle the field down to 12. Nine games later, 12 have become eight left to battle it out in the Best-of-5 Division Series round. Higher seeds host games 1, 2 and 5 after coming off byes earned by finishing as the top-two division winners in their respective leagues. There’s some question whether the byes are a help or a hinderance after lower seeds won three of four Division Series last year and five of eight over the first two years of a three-game Wild Card round. Personally, I think those outcomes were a result of superior starting pitching tending to win out in the postseason.

American League

#5 Kansas City Royals vs #1 New York Yankees

How They Got Here

The Royals swept the Orioles in the Wild Card round in their first postseason games since winning the 2015 World Series.

• The Royals are the 81st team in MLB postseason history to score three or fewer combined runs in their first two games and only the third of those 81 to win both along with the 1950 Yankees in the World Series and the 2022 Guardians in the Division Series.

• Credit Kansas City for making the most of their limited postseason opportunities — they’re in the postseason for just the fourth time in the last 40 seasons, but have won at least a round each time and went to the World Series each of the previous three times with two championships.

The Yankees are back in the playoffs for the seventh time in eight seasons overall and the sixth time in seven seasons under manager Aaron Boone after missing out last year for the first time since 2016.

• The Yankees finished with the AL’s best record for the first time since 2012, which doesn’t feel like it should be true with 94 wins this season compared to 103 in 2019 and 100 the year prior.

• They’re looking for their second trip to the ALCS in three years and their third under Boone, but haven’t been to the World Series since winning it in 2009. 15 years matches their longest gap between World Series appearances (also 1981-96) since the first 18 years of both the World Series’ and Yankees existence (both began in 1903, Yankees first made it in 1921).

The Names to Know

The Royals will send 32-year old journeyman Michael Wacha to the mound for Game 1 Saturday and return to Cole Ragans at the top of the rotation for Monday’s Game 2. It always seems to be Bobby Witt Jr. at the center of the offense.

• Wacha, on his sixth team in six seasons, is one of 17 pitchers in baseball to start at least 75 games with an ERA of 3.50 or better over the last three seasons, and has done it with three different teams. He had a 1.00 ERA in the first four starts of his playoff career in 2013 with the Cardinals, but gave up six runs in Game 6 of the World Series as the Red Sox clinched. He’s allowed at least 3 ER in his last four playoff appearances dating to that World Series nightmare (including a relief appearance with the Rays) with a 15.55 ERA in those four outings.

• Ragans was brilliant against the Orioles in the Wild Card round, throwing six shutouts with 8 strikeouts while allowing just 4 hits and no walks. He was just the sixth pitcher to throw at least six shutout innings with 4 or fewer hits and no walks allowed in his postseason debut, the first to do so since 1982 (Bob Forsch), had the most strikeouts among the six, and oh by the way the first of the six was Christy Mathewson.

• 24-year old superstar shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. drove in two of the Royals’ three runs in the Wild Card series against the Orioles — the only run in their 1-0 win in Game 1 and the game-winning run in a 2-1 win in Game 2. He’s 3-for-9 (.333) in his first postseason after leading the Majors with a .332 average and 211 hits.

The Yankees will send their ace to the mound in Game 1, but they’ll probably live and die based on how much they get out of the best pair of hitters in any MLB lineup

• Aaron Judge led the Majors with 58 home runs and 144 RBI, his third 50-homer season (led AL in homers in each of them) and his second time leading the Majors in both of those categories. He joined Babe Ruth as the only Yankees with three 50-homer seasons (Ruth had four) and only Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire (four each) and Alex Rodriguez (three) had at least three 50-homer seasons.

  • Judge’s .772 career OPS in the postseason is almost 240 points lower than his 1.010 career OPS in the regular season. He’s homered once every 15.2 plate appearances in the playoffs compared to 13.7 in the regular season while his on base percentage is about 95 points lower (.310 compared to .406)

• Juan Soto will be the most sought-after free agent on the market when the season ends after finishing third in the AL and fourth in the Majors with a career-high 41 homers this season and leading the AL with a career-high 128 runs. He helped carry the Nationals to the World Series with five homers in those playoffs including three in the World Series and has an .845 OPS and 7 homers in 29 playoff games in his career overall.

• Cole was the unanimous AL Cy Young winner a year ago but missed most of the first half of this season after experiencing issues ramping up in spring training. He pitched well in his 17 starts, but his ERA was almost a run higher (3.41 up from 2.63) and he averaged about two-thirds of an inning fewer per start (5.6 down from 6.3). He’s made 17 postseason starts with a 2.93 ERA, but it’s 3.49 in 7 games with the Yankees (since 2020) after posting a 2.60 ERA in 10 playoff starts for the Pirates and Astros.

#6 Detroit Tigers vs #2 Cleveland Guardians

How They Got Here

The Tigers swept the Astros in their first playoff games since 2014, improving to 33-13 since being 55-63 on August 10th (the best record and most wins in baseball in that span)

• The Astros were the team that had played and won the most playoff games (103 games, 62 wins) since 2015, the year after the Tigers most recent playoff appearance. Thanks to the Wild Card sweep, the Tigers (2-0) now own MLB’s best playoff record since 2015 (the Angels are the only team without a berth).

• Detroit will look to advance past the Division Series for the first time since 2013, their third straight ALCS appearance at the time (lost two of three, lost World Series in the middle).

Cleveland won the AL Central for the second time in three years and is in the playoffs for the sixth time in eight seasons in their first year under manager Stephen Vogt following the (as it turns out brief!) retirement of Terry Francona last year

• The Guardians matched their most wins in the last five seasons with 92 in the regular season (and played only 16 1 games) while crossing the two million attendance threshold for the first time since 2017.

• They’re looking to advance past the ALDS for the first time since losing the 2016 World Series, eliminated in this round in three of their last four postseasons with a Wild Card loss in the other. Their only playoff round win since then was in the 2022 Wild Card round over the Rays before a five-game ALDS loss to the Yankees.

The Names to Know

The Tigers will most likely go with bullpen games in some capacity for all the games that aren’t started by AL pitching Triple Crown winner Tarik Skubal. They got contributions from pretty much everyone except their two best hitters in the regular season against the Astros.

• Skubal threw 6 shutout innings, allowing four hits and one walk in Game 1 of the Wild Card round, his postseason debut. He’s allowed 2 or fewer ER in five of his last six starts and is 6-0 with a 1.65 ERA since the Tigers turnaround began in August.

• The Tigers two best regular season hitters, Riley Greene (.827 OPS) and Kerry Carpenter (.932 in 250 fewer plate appearances than Greene) went a combined 2-for-15 without an extra-base hit or RBI in the Wild Card round.

• Luckily for the Tigers, Andy Ibanez went 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles and 3 RBI, Justyn-Henry Malloy also went 2-for-3, Wenceel Perez went 2-for-5 and scored a run and Jake Rogers went 3-for-8 and scored a run. All four of those players had an OPS under .700 in the regular season but currently have one of .750+ in the playoffs.

The Guardians are led by one of the best all-around players in baseball in Jose Ramirez and the most dominant pitcher in the game in closer Emmanuel Clase who headlines a bullpen that is just begging to get to the 6th inning with a lead.

• Ramirez has been an All-Star for four straight seasons and will almost certainly log his fifth straight top-10 finish for AL MVP after posting an .872 OPS, his best since finishing as MVP runner-up in 2020. He matched his career-high with 39 homers (set previously in 2018) and stole a career-high 41 bags, coming up one dinger shy of 40/40.

• Clase had an 0.61 ERA and 47 saves this season, posting an absurd 674 ERA+ which expresses a pitcher’s ERA relative to league average with 100 being average and every point above it being 1% better — in other words Clase was 574% better than the average pitcher this season. That’s the highest ERA+ ever for a pitcher with at least 70 innings in a season and the second-highest for a pitcher with at least 50 (Zach Britton had an 803 ERA+ in 67 innings for the 2018 Orioles, also with 47 saves).

• The Guardians have a 2.57 relief ERA overall, better than everyone else in baseball by more than half a run (the Brewers were next at 3.11 in the regular season). Three other relievers coming out of that bullpen made at least 74 appearances with an ERA under 2.00 (Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis and Tim Herrin). They’re the first team in MLB history to have four pitchers make 70+ appearances with an ERA under 2.00 — the 2003 Dodgers were the only other team to have three (Eric Gagne, Guillermo Mota and Paul Quantrill).

National League

#4 San Diego Padres vs #1 Los Angeles Dodgers

How They Got Here

The Padres swept the Braves, advancing through the Wild Card round for the third time in as many playoff appearances this decade

• The Padres won 8 of 13 meetings with the Dodgers this season, but lost the last two in LA during the penultimate series of the regular season with a chance to pull even in the NL West.

• The Padres were swept in the 2020 NLDS before winning it in 2022 (and losing the NLCS to the Phillies) to snap a streak of three straight playoff appearances ending at this stage dating to 2005. They were eliminated in the NLDS in four of six playoff appearances since its creation.

The Dodgers finished the best record in the Majors, but their fewest wins (98) in a non-2020 season since 2018 and their lowest win percentage in any season since then (finished 92-71 in 2018, lost in World Series)

• They’re trying to avoid losing the NLDS to a team that finished behind them in the NL West for the third straight season, including a 2022 loss to the Padres in four games (swept by Diamondbacks last year). It’s the fifth straight season they’ve played an NL West opponent in the NLDS overall (beat Padres in 2020 and Giants in 2021).

• The Dodgers have won 90+ games in all 11 full seasons since 2013 with 1,129 wins in that span. The Guardians have the next-most 90-win seasons (seven) while the Yankees are an entire Dodgers season’s worth of wins (95) back for the next-most wins with 1,034.

The Names to Know

The Padres announced that Wild Card Game 2 starter Joe Musgrove, who left that eventual win in the 4th inning, needs Tommy John surgery. One of the deepest rotations in baseball still has Dylan Cease and Yu Darvish going in Games 1 and 2 with Michael King (7 shutout innings in Game 1 vs Braves) waiting in the wings.

• Game 1 starter Cease didn’t miss a start and threw a career-high 189.1 innings in his first season as a Padre after being acquired from the White Sox in March while his 3.47 ERA was the second-best of his career (2.20 in 2022 while finishing as Cy Young runner-up). He made two postseason appearances with the White Sox, a scoreless inning of relief in 2020 and a rough 1.2-inning start in 2021 against the Astros allowing three runs.

• Game 2 starter Darvish had a 3.31 ERA in 16 starts this season overall and a 3.55 ERA in five September starts after missing the previous three months. He went 2-1 with a 2.88 ERA in four starts for the Padres in the 2022 playoffs (allowed 3 ER in 5 innings and got the win in NLDS Game 2 vs the Dodgers).

  • Darvis had a rough 2017 postseason with the Dodgers after being acquired at that year’s trade deadline, posting a 6.14 ERA in four starts including 1.2-inning starts in both Games 3 and 7 of the World Series loss to the Astros before leaving for the Cubs that offseason in free agency.

• Jurickson Profar, Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr. were one of two outfield trios with .800+ OPS in the regular season and the only one to make the playoff field (the Red Sox had the other trio). Two of the three had huge Wild Card series as Merrill and Tatis went a combined 7-for-13 with a combined cycle (2B and 3B for Merrill, HR for Tatis) while catcher Kyle Higashioka homered in each game after hitting a career-high 17 in the regular season.

The most recognizable name in the sport will make his postseason debut in a lineup that features two other former MVPs. The pitching staff isn’t quite as formidable.

• Shohei Ohtani had the first 50-homer/50-steal season in MLB history among a million other accolades. He has 98 homers and 225 RBI over the last two seasons with an OPS over 1.000 in both.

• 2020 NL MVP Freddie Freeman led the Braves to the World Series title the following season and has a .914 career OPS in 49 postseason games with 10 homers and 12 doubles, but suffered a sprained ankle last week that may compromise him somewhat.

• 2018 AL MVP Mookie Betts has won titles with both the Red Sox and Dodgers but hasn’t been great in the playoffs with a .710 OPS (187 points lower than the regular season) in 58 career playoff games. He went 0-for-11 in the playoffs last year, 2-for-25 in the NLDS losses over the last two seasons and 6-for-48 in the Dodgers last three playoff series dating to the 2021 NLCS loss to the Braves.

• Yoshinobu Yamamoto gets the start in Game 1 of his first MLB postseason after making 18 starts during his first MLB regular season with a 3.00 ERA. He’s pitched just four times since mid-June, all in September and none longer than 5 innings or 79 pitches. He allowed 6 ER in 8 innings over his last two starts, both against the lowly Rockies. Jack Flaherty goes in Game 2 after posing a 3.58 ERA in 10 starts for the Dodgers following a trade deadline acquisition from the Tigers. He’s made four starts and five total playoff appearances with the Cardinals (four starts in 2019-20) and Orioles (two innings of relief last year) with a 3.60 ERA.

#6 New York Mets vs #2 Philadelphia Phillies

How They Got Here

The Mets were the lone team not to sweep in the Wild Card round, bouncing back from their own late-inning collapse in Game 2 with an unforgettable comeback in Game 3 to send the Brewers packing.

• It was their first postseason series win since the 2015 NLCS, having lost the World Series that season while both playoff appearances since then had ended in the Wild Card round.

• The Mets and Phillies have played 1,081 times in the regular season. This is the first time they’ll ever meet in the postseason. The Phillies went 7-6 in the season series, with three of the Mets wins coming in games started by former Met Taijuan Walker (7.10 ERA), who won’t be on the Phillies roster, and a fourth coming against Ranger Suarez, who won’t start before Game 4 if at all.

The Phillies spent every day from May 3rd through the end of the regular season in sole possession of first place in the NL East, cruising to their first division title since winning it five times in a row from 2007-11.

• 95 wins were their sixth-most in franchise history and most since 2011 when they lost in the NLDS. 95-win Phillies teams are 1-1 in the NLDS all-time (won in 2010), with three of their five 95-win seasons coming before this round of the playoffs was added.

• They’re in the playoffs for the third straight season, just the third time that’s happened and matching the 1976-78 teams for the franchise’s second-longest streak. They’re looking to reach a third straight NLCS and second World Series in three years after blowing a 3-2 lead to the Diamondbacks last year with Games 6 and 7 at Citizens Bank Park.

The Names to Know

Kodai Senga will make just his second start and second appearance of the season for the Mets in Game 1, with Wild Card Game 1 starter Luis Severino set for Game 2. There’s no better name to know in the lineup than Pete Alonso after he saved the season against the Brewers.

• Alonso’s three-run homer in the 9th inning of Game 3 was the first go-ahead homer by a player whose team was trailing in the 9th inning or later of a winner-takes-all postseason game in playoff history. It extended the Mets tenure, at least for now, of the franchise’s third-most prolific home run hitter who will be a free agent at season’s end.

• Senga wasn’t expected to be in play for the rotation, if he was even in play to pitch in the playoffs at all, after an injury-riddled season that didn’t start until July because of a spring training shoulder injury and which lasted only 5.1 innings before he exited with a calf strain. He stood to be the Mets ace entering the season after posting a 2.98 ERA in 29 starts last year in his first season after coming over from Japan.

• Severino got the win in Game 1 of the Wild Card round, but allowed at least 3 ERA for the fourth straight start while lasting 6 innings and striking out 3. The first two starts in this stretch (in which he has a 4.87 ERA) came against the Phillies in September, allowing 6 ER in 12 innings across those two games while the Mets split.

The Phillies will send out one of the best pitchers in the game for Game 1 in possible Cy Young runner-up Zack Wheeler with Cristopher Sanchez set for Game 2 owing largely to extreme home/road splits and Aaron Nola in Game 3. The lineup is as deep as any in the playoff field, but they don’t call Bryce Harper “the Greatest Showman” for nothing.

• Wheeler finished with a 2.57 ERA in 32 starts and exactly 200 innings, his fourth time posting an ERA under 3.00 in five seasons with the Phillies (his down year last year had him finish with a 3.61 while battling back issues). He comes into the playoffs with 11 straight starts of at least 6 innings and no more than 2 earned runs, the longest such streak by a Phillie since at least 1893, and has a 2.42 ERA in 11 career playoff appearances, all with the Phillies the last two years.

  • Wheeler spent his first six MLB seasons with the Mets including one missed to injury in 2016, going 44-38 with a 3.77 ERA from 2013-19.

• Sanchez came into the season uncertain to hold down a spot in the Phillies rotation, but made 31 starts after entering the season with 22 in his MLB career and finished with a 3.32 ERA. He had a 2.21 ERA at home with a .544 OPS against, compared with a 5.02 ERA and .813 OPS against on the road, and thus got the nod Game 2 over the Phillies longest-tenured player in Nola. Nola made nine starts over the last two postseasons with a 3.70 ERA and 50 strikeouts against just 9 walks.

• Harper has battled an elbow issue down the stretch and will probably wince any time he swings and misses, causing the commentators to panic. It perhaps sapped a bit of his power (he hit only four homers from August 10th on), but he still managed to bat .303 with an .864 OPS and 17 doubles (several of which were near-homers and could’ve been homers in other parks) in that span. He has a 1.137 OPS over the last two postseasons with the Phillies and a .996 career playoff OPS that is ninth-highest among players with at least 100 postseason plate appearances and second-highest among players with at least 200 (trails only Carlos Beltran’s 1.021).