The Cubs season is over, so it has been difficult to transition to watching only other teams play baseball. But after a fairly lame Wild Card series full of blowouts and few close games, the Division Series have been must-watch. Unless you really like offense.
The average margin for victory in the 10 Division Series games have been only 1.6 runs, with 6 of the games have a 1-run margin. But the catalyst for these close games has been the dominance of the pitching.
In the regular season, the league average ERA was 4.18. But in the division series, it has been 2.67. And average OPS is down from .719 to .564.
With the lack of high-scoring games, it have drastically increased the value of every base runner, every stolen base, and every close pitch. And unless you are Joe Davis, every run scored has been something to be very excited about.
With the overall lack of runs scored, I do wonder whether this is something that will turn off some fans. I remember watching the slog that was the AFC Championship between the Broncos and Patriots last year, when neither team could do much of anything. Is that what casual baseball fans are thinking when Tampa beat the Yankees 1-0 in game one of their series?
Personally, I love the close, low-scoring games. Managers are forced to make tough decisions about leaving a pitcher in for one hitter too many. And they have learned how to try to manipulate the 3-batter minimum by having pitchers come in to get the last out of an inning.
Dominant starters are still very valuable, as we’ve seen from Drew Rasmussen and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. But for teams without great starters, a decent bullpen can piece together a masterful performance.
Only time will tell whet we see from TV ratings, which might determine whether the powers that be in MLB want to tweak the rules to encourage more offense in the playoffs. But for me, things seem to be going well – except for the Cubs fate in 2026.
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