The 2021 Mets are behind us. The 2021 postseason is ahead of us. As baseball fans, let’s enjoy that. Let’s enjoy the top-notch baseball teams we’re going to see, starting tonight, when the Dodgers host the Cardinals in the National League Wild Card Game, the winner of which will take on the Giants, whose 107-55 record is the best over 162 games of any NL club since 1986 (ahem). A Giants-Dodgers NLDS would be lit — lit! — but you can’t overlook the Cardinals and their recent 17-game winning streak.
The other Division Series in the senior circuit should be pretty good, too, featuring a team that used to live in Milwaukee versus the team that took its place. Braves. Brewers. Brace yourselves for a bruiser.
Over in the AL, America’s Team the Astros returns to the October stage, perhaps motivating boatloads (or should we say garbage scows) of the unaffiliated to pull for the White Sox, the class of the Central. The managerial matchup is literally one for the ages: Dusty Baker versus Tony La Russa. Both men have had their critics, but dudes who last as long as they have must know a few things.
Tampa Bay is the one-seed in the junior bracket. As ever, they loom as an inscrutable opponent, forever leaving you wondering how they keep doing it. The next team to have to unravel that mystery will be the Boston Red Sox, the American League Wild Card representative in their LDS.
Let’s see…one, two…five, six…eight, nine…yup, that’s it. Nine teams in the MLB postseason starting tonight.
I didn’t leave anybody out, did I?
Looks like you got it covered. There was some team that played one more game than we did, but I can’t think of the name…
I see what you did there. Nice.
Nicely done indeed.
As usual in these situations, I’ll be rooting for anyone who happens to be playing against…uh…those guys.
Good thing there wasn’t another team involved. They would have had to play another game and probably would have broadcast it on ESPN using those “Sunday Night” people again, but without Wayne and Howie or his fill-in as an alternative source of audio.
It is a shame that all we Mets fans can gloat about is the Yankee’s demise. At least they made the playoffs 5 straight years, while we have been shut out.
We can also gloat about the Nationals finishing last.
That other team, aka “The Unnaturals.”
Gloat about the Nationals? They weren’t trying since they broke up the team at the trade deadline.
Let us stew in shame, then, and enjoy nothing.
well it was nice tonsee familiar faces plawecki and robles play key roles in last nite’s proceedings.
amd yes disappointment and bitterness aside i look forward to some crisp, strategically non-disinterested baseball.
because october is *not* april…or even september!
The Phillies’ elimination was satisfying. The Nationals, they won a recent championship, broke it down, and if their prospects hit, Soto will still be young.
It was nostalgic to see Plawecki and Robles doing well.
The wildcard game is rough if your team loses it.
Besides Stanton, the game unfolded like a lot of Mets losses this season with the starter immediately putting his team in the hole, overstretched bullpen, and depressed hitting going down quietly.
I’m willing to give Cole a mulligan for his hamstring while noticing post-Spider Tack Cole performed like Pirates Cole. He has a lot to prove next year.
yup yankees were channeling some serious mets futility, down to ill-advised green light at third.
cole was channelling post-break walker
eovaldi though was pounding the strike zone with abandon.
if he was using the sticky he was sufficiently discrete…which i believe will be once again be the measure of “cheating” /”not cheating”
seeing big name pitchers repeatedly sail balls feet from the strike zone is not a good look for the sport.
giants-brewers-rays-white sox : any two of these and i’m good
Problem is, I can’t think of which team I detest more, the Cardinals or Dodgers. I suppose for me, it’s a win-win! One of those two monsters will be going home tonight.
Got nothing left to root for. I got everything I wanted from the MLB postseason last night.
Greg, I didn’t say enjoy nothing. As you pointed out, there is a lot of intriguing matchups of fine teams with the promise of good baseball this month. Enjoy that.
I am very psyched to see the Red Sox play the Rays.
Thank God those banner-hoarding animals, their obnoxious braying announcer and their ridiculous bandbox ballpark are done for the season. After the 2000 season I vowed to never talk baseball with a Y*****s fan again and I’ve stuck to that. Y*****s fans are the worst fans in all of professional sports and I truly hope they never get to experience another championship season again, ever.
Cardinal Way vs Dodger Way.
I have to say it did feel good to see Adam “Painwright” go home disappointed…
Not to gloat at a postseason entrant from the humble position of our season having been effectively ended long ago (with the Cardinals putting the hammer down on what little was left of our chances), but HA!
To me, the best part of the postseason will be watching Steve Cohen take a wrecking ball to his front office. Go for it, big guy!
Zack Scott’s drunk driving trial starts on DEC08, with a judge, not a jury. Not sure what they are waiting for, in not firing him now. Guess they endorse drunk driving.
Luis Rojas never carries an umbrella. Since most days it does not rain, being drenched when it DOES rain is just the price he pays, and he is fine with that. After all, no day is different than any other.
I wonder if the Wilpons would still own the Mets had they hired Chaim Bloom.
The Red Sox win made me think about what could have been in 2016 but for MadBum and Gillaspie.