Why a historic scandal in the 2026 MLB playoffs? Plus more intriguing eros trends

Four teams remain and something historic is guaranteed to happen this season. Either the Los Angeles Dodgers will become the first National League team to win a triple-double, or their long World Series drought will end. The Cleveland Cavaliers haven’t won a World Series since 1948. The Milwaukee Brewers (since 1970) and the Tampa Bay Rays (since 1998) have never won a title.

“This was a difficult year,” the manager of the Guardians, Stephen Vogt He said after the team’s ALDS Game 5 win Chicago White Sox on Saturday. “To be one step away from the World Series, the last goal, that’s really exciting.”

The Brewers and Dodgers will open their NLCS matchup Sunday night at American Family Stadium. The Rangers and Rays begin their ALCS at Tropicana Field on Monday. Here are our biggest questions for the Championship Seriesand now here is a look at three trends that we have seen in the modern era.

The offense is down. Way down.

In two rounds on the field, teams are hitting .208/.291/.334 and averaging 3.46 runs per game. He had a .192/.284/.304 line and 3.06 runs per game in the Division Series. Offense is down about 25% for the season. It’s always a block down the drain, but it’s in this season. Much more than usual.

Here’s the number of runs per game:

Game runs by MLB: Regular season playoffs vs

Usually, you can cut about half of the average friendship from regular season to season. This year is more than a full run with the last few games already played (25 games played and up to 21 games to go). If he holds 3.46 runs per game, he is the lowest in softball since the Division Series in 1995.

Lowest Scoring Postseason Since 1995
1. 2026; 3.46 runs per game
2. 2012: 3.49 runs per game
3. 2013: 3.55 runs per game
4. 2001: 3.56 runs per game
5. 1998: 3.62 runs per game

There are a multitude of reasons for this year’s sharp decline in offense. Part of it is/is probably the noise of the sample size. At the end of the day, there are only 25 games. We are starting to think about the conditions for the season more significantly, and while the results are certainly up to the development of the team, it is still baseball, and 25 games spread over 12 days is not. that many

There are parties in the field. In terms of runs per game, only six offenses have reached a season-high 11 times. Meanwhile, 10 of the top 12 teams in runs allowed per game reached the postseason (that is, fewer runs allowed per game), and the top four and nine of the top 12 teams in defensive efficiency reached the postseason. It is not in the course, it needs to be decorated.

In addition, some of the game’s best hitters were non-factors. Aaron Judge is injured and will not at-bat for the New York Yankees. Shohei Ohtani is clearly disappointed, physically. Jake Bauers, a top 10 OPS+ hitter this year, is playing injured, as is Ronald Acuña Jr. On the other hand, they have pitched the top five and nine of the top 11 pitchers in WAR this season.

This is why endless pitching matchups always put hitters at a disadvantage. Look at his average fastball velocity over the regular season. This is generally unfair;

Average MLB fastball velocity: regular season vs. playoffs

Average fastball — average — 96.1 mph that is. Through 25 games, he has thrown more 100 mph pitches this season (254) than in the entire 2008 regular season (211). I cannot stress this enough: it has never been harder to hit than it is now. They throw such tough stuff and have such nasty stuff, and they all get ideal matchups. It is an unfair fight.

Twenty-five postseason games have had 50 offenses and 42 have had 50 runs or fewer, and only five times have teams scored more than seven runs. No team has scored 10 runs in a game yet this season. Now that’s just the bottom line. Offense goes down every October, and this year it’s down more than it ever has been in Wild Card seasons.

The house runs are not leading the way

A few years ago, he ran home and led the way in the field. The game runs through the game in the football arc, you can see a few tables scroll up, but the home runs go through the game. up. Homers in October take on added importance and we’ve seen this year. José Ramírez’s two-run shot in a 2-0 win in Game 5, the Rays’ 1-0 home run in the ALDS, etc.

Overall, though, the home runs this season have been massive, both in terms of homers per game and the percentage of runs scored in home runs. Here are the numbers;

MLB hit/HR percentage: Regular season vs. playoffs

For all intents and purposes, the same percentage of runs scored on homers this season as in the regular season. The difference between 40.5% and 41.0% is nothing. The difference was much greater from 2022-25. There are home runs throughout the game, though. The difference between 1.15 and 0.96 is one in every five games or so. Meaning that.

This is unlikely to change for the rest of the season. The Dodgers hit their seventh homer of the season. The Rays were 22nd, the Rangers were 27th, and the Brewers were 29th. The ALCS matchup guarantees that a team in the bottom of 10 homers will reach the World Series for only the second time in the last 10 years, joining the 2023 Arizona Diamondbacks.

One year is not enough to call declines in home run confidence in football a trend. It could be a one-off. It happens, though. The “ball go far, horse go far” ethos has held true for years. Not even! Home runs just don’t get hit often. This also contributes to a low scoring season. Teams do not regularly place points on the board closer than one.

Empty buckets

basketball is positioned in the NBA, and hockey is positioned in the NHL, where players are assigned a “position” but are free to move around by design. The story of the vacant position comes to MLB because the lines between starter and reliever have never been more blurred. Openers and the bullpen are the norm and a viable strategy now, not a last resort.

Through 25 regular season games, relievers have thrown 232 innings compared to 207 innings by starters. That’s 52.9% of the innings to guys coming out of the bullpen, and that’s not out of the ordinary. First, they haven’t thrown more innings than relievers in the draft since 2023. Here are the innings pitched by relievers over the years;

Average IP from relievers: regular season vs. playoffs

The use of the rest always increases in time, which indeed must be attributed to two things. One, teams are more comfortable with the opener and the bullpen in general in growing games. They used to be really the last thing in one place. The manager would get peppered with questions before and after each game about him. Now it is common. It’s just something teams do.

And God, but the eros. The next day off-time never goes away. There have been three days in the ALDS this year. Three in the best five! When you know a rest day is coming, you can lean more heavily on your bullpen. Rarely does a relentless schedule allow regular time. The team asks for two weeks between off-days in the regular season.

Guardians vs. The White Sox streak features 53 pitching changes in five games. It’s just not something you can do in June or July or August. Parties use off-loading cards to their advantage, and that’s exactly what they do. You have to adjust to the schedule and adjust to your personnel, and more often than not, that means going to the bullpen.

It is fair to ask if this is good for the viewers and the total monitoring of the sport. I fully understand and understand the opener/bullpen game plan, but games can turn into a slog. The game has a hard time adjusting to change with a mid-inning pitching change and a commercial break every other half-inning, you know?

The four teams still standing all have at least two starting pitchers they trust implicitly. We are also now in the best of seven rounds, and games 3-5 will be played over three consecutive days. That doesn’t allow for the same heavy bullpen approach as the Wild Card Series and Division Series. First of all, it is important to bear the burden of moving forward.

No tinax bell, though. Empty bottles – maybe it’s better to call them parts-less bottles? — they are here to stay and have never been stronger than at this time. The matchups are optimized and hitters rarely contribute to those powerful second and third looks pitchers in a dark environment in October.