Yesterday was a historic day for the baseball as there were 8 postseason games on in one day. While the season was short and two teams got in with losing records (the Houston Astros and Milwaukee Brewers) we got a huge surprise with the Miami Marlines making it in to! I personally hope that this expanded format is a one-off thing but I worry Manfred decided that money is better than the quality of play.
I have to ya as a Houston Astros fan HAHA. Everyone wanted the team to be bad to be an embarrassment but we rose above that. We made the postseason even though we had almost zero contributions from two ace pitchers and last year's ROY. Even in the postseason, we have 11 rookies out of the 28 spots. The closest I've seen to that was Maimi who had 7. For a team that caught nothing but flake this year Minnesota who was absurdly good at home was quickly and efficiently taken apart over the two-game sweep. Now we get to take on the rival A's who being honest have had our number this year.
This season the Astros were not very good in the regular season and without expanded playoffs, we wouldn't have made it. However, the teams were bunched up this year, and overall the teams that made the season should have. People could argue that someone who finished 4th in their division should have made the postseason but that argument is weak at best. The Astros were besieged by injuries we played/used more rookies than any other club including Miami who at one point had 18 players test positive for COVID-19. The team though battled though and did not give up.
Let's look at the Washington Nationals who won the World Series and ended up missing the playoffs and having a sub .500 season. This is the Astros stick it to you time. The games are all "neutral", I am not sure how playing in LA is exactly "neutral" but more fuel for the fire. Fier's will finally be forced to pitch against us after conveniently dodged pitching against us all season. Monday cannot come fast enough to see how this shakes out but boy am I ready!
Lets go 'Stros!
