The MLB playoffs are in full swing with a new 12-team format. The format was implemented in the new Central Bargaining Agreement and was talked about for years because there were teams that were having great seasons, but still weren’t making the playoffs.

     The playoffs started off with the No. 6 seeded Rays having their stingers taken and their bats silenced in both games 1 and 2 losing by a score of 2-1 and 1-0 in the respective games to the No. 3 seeded Guardians. The Rays became the first team to be eliminated in the playoffs via the sweep. 

    Then the No. 6 seeded Phillies stunned the No. 3 seeded Cardinals and their veterans by becoming the second team to earn a sweep in the WCS with the game scores being 6-3 (game 1) and 2-0 (game 2). 

    Coming as a surprise to almost everybody in the baseball world, No. 5 seeded Seattle Mariners became the third team to sweep by cutting off the wings of the No. 4 seeded Toronto Blue Jays with game one’s final score being 4-0 and on miraculous comebacks in game 2 winning the game 10-9 after being down 9-5 in the 8th inning. 

     To round out the WCS the No. 4 seeded New York Mets became the first team out of four teams with 100 wins to be eliminated by underperforming pitchers, hitting, and, the pressure just getting to them as they lost to the No. 5 seeded San Diego Padres 2-1 in the series. 

    “Well, I think for most of the year, they had a great season, but their pitching started to fail them towards the end of the season and, unfortunately, failed them considerably when they got to the playoffs; so it didn’t go as well as we had hoped,”  lifetime Mets fan Andrew Shure.

     On the other side of the MLB playoffs in the American League, the No. 1 seeded Houston Astros became the first and only team to sweep their opponent in the ALDS this postseason as they took down the year-long underdogs, the Mariners. 

    The Phillies chopped up the NL No. 2 seeded Braves, winning the series 2-1and sending fans in Atlanta home dead silent, making the Braves the second team that won 100 games to lose in the playoffs this year. 

   The NL No. 1 seeded Dodgers did what they almost always have done since 2013: they lost to a lower-seeded team, dropping the series to the Padres 2-1. The Dodgers joined the Braves, and Mets as the third team that won 100 games to lose this year in the postseason. 

    The AL No. 2 seeded Yankees and Guardians played a heated series going back and forth on the field, but in the end, the Yankees rolled over the Guardians in Game 5 at Yankee Stadium. The American League Championship Series (ALCS) had the Astros silencing the Yankees, their bats, and their fans as they struck out a total of 50 times in the series, only had 12 hits across the four games, and star hitter Aaron Judge went a total of 1-for-16 with a walk and 4 strikeouts at the plate for the entire series en route to getting swept by the seemingly undefeatable Astros. 

   The MVP of the ALCS was Jeremy Peña as he hit two home runs, had a .353 batting average, a 1.176 on-base plus slugging percentage and he drove in four runs across the series whilst leading them to their fourth world series appearance since 2017. 

   In the National League Championship Series (NLCS) the Phillies showed their fight in an electric series against the Padres with no game having scored less than 2 runs and the average amount of runs scored per game was 8.4 runs. 

    The NLCS MVP was no other than Bryce Harper who has had a stellar year, and an even better postseason as he hit the go-ahead home run in Game 5 that solidified not only the Phillies spot in the World Series for the first time since 2009, but also his spot in history.

    The Matchup for the world series is now set between the Phillies (the NL representative) and the Astros (the AL representative). The Astros will be looking to win their first world series since 2017 when they beat the Dodgers in 7 games, meanwhile the Phillies will be looking to win their first since 2008 where they beat the Rays in 5 games. Game 1 is on Friday, October 28 in Houston Tx, at Minute Maid Ballpark, the game is on FOX and will start at 8:03 PM EST.