No, seriously, is it? All you hear across the sporting world is how defense wins championships, or in baseball’s case, pitching. But given the shaky pitching of the 2023 MLB playoff losers, has the narrative switched to hitting? It seems that this postseason, over others in the past, has been all about big home runs. Whether they come from the Rangers out-muscling the Orioles, the Astros squirming past the Twins on the backs of the longball, the heroics in Philadelphia from hitters one through nine, or the Diamondbacks forcing one of baseball’s best pitchers of the 2010s into retirement, swamp donkeys have come aplenty in this edition of the postseason.
I don’t think this is a coincidence. Well, I do, but I don’t. Offense was up this year because of the rule changes, but the ball is still deadened as compared to the juiced ball era from just a few years ago. I expected there to be a little more offense in this year’s first two playoff rounds, but I didn’t really expect the all-out bloodbath of homer barrages that took place. And as we enter the League Championship Series featuring the Lone Star State and the Jean Segura Revenge Series, I can’t help but think that we're bound to see some incredible scoring performances. All four teams came into the playoffs with anxious expectations for their pitching staffs, albeit in different ways, but still. It was clear that their offenses were going to have to carry them, and they did, and it doesn’t feel that weird that those offenses have made it this far. Even though, by win-loss record, this crop of teams in the AL and NL finals are the worst of all time (a combined 354 regular season wins), it doesn’t feel like any of these teams don’t deserve their World Series “Save the Dates”.
You can ask any multi-sport athlete and they will tell you that hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports. Colorado Buffaloes football head coach Deion Sanders of football and baseball fame has said this repeatedly. What that implies is that there’s a greater level of volatility when it comes to having a good or bad lineup versus a good or bad pitching staff. After all, baseball is the only sport where the defense controls the ball, so why have we been applying the “defense wins championships” mantra to baseball for so long when the hit-or-miss-ability of a team lies more on the bat than on the glove? Look, perhaps I’m blowing this out of proportion and the LCS will feature little to no run-scoring. Or, maybe we watch this year’s semis rooting for offensive displays only dreamt of on Mount Olympus, the kind of mythological dinger derbies that our kids won’t believe happened until we show them the tapes.
I would love to believe that postseason pitching duels are a guarantee, but something about the Division Series told me that hitting can win championships, too. I know, what blasphemy, but just watch the LCS and we’ll revisit this conversation in a week or so.
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