2021 MLB Postseason Run-Through

This year, the MLB postseason started on November 5th. Only 10 teams out of 30 make it to the playoffs.The teams that made it this year were the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Houston Astros, Tampa Bay Rays, and the Chicago White Sox which are all American League teams. On the National League side, the Los Angeles Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants, Atlanta Braves, and the Milwaukee Brewers made the post season.

The way teams figure out if they made it is if they have the best record in their division throughout the gruesome 162 game season. Only two teams in the American League and National League could make the postseason without being 1st in their respective divisions. The MLB playoffs last about three weeks to a month. The matchup for the World Series will always be the last standing American League team against the Last standing National League team. 

When it comes to the postseason in the MLB there are four rounds. They are the Wild Card, League Division Series, League Championship Series, and The World Series. MLB has different formatting than other sports when it comes to how many games are played. The Wild Card games are best of one game between two teams that didn’t win their division but were good enough to make it. The Wild Card games that occurred were the Red Sox vs Yankees, and the Dodgers vs Cardinals, and the winner of these games advanced to the League Division Series. The American League Division Series matchups were the Rays vs Red Sox, with the Red Sox winning the series in four games out of a five- game series. The other American League Division Series matchup was the Astros vs White Sox, ending up with the Astros also winning in game 4 out of a 5 game series.

For the National League Division series, the matchups were Dodgers vs. Giants resulting in the Dodgers winning the series in game five out of five games. The last National League Division matchup was the Braves vs. Brewers summing up with the Braves advancing as they won the series in four games out of five. Up next is the League Championship series which is a best out of seven series. Therefore, teams only need to win four games to advance to the World Series. The matchup for the American League Championship series was the Red Sox vs. Astros and the National League Championship Series was the Dodgers vs. Braves.

Before we get into who advanced to the World Series, let's just want to talk about players who broke out in the playoffs and were really important to their team, causing them to advance deep in the playoffs. A player that has had one of the best playoff performances in the last several years is Red Sox outfielder Kiké Hernández. He went on a tear during the postseason coming up extremely clutch during the playoffs. According to the Baseball Reference Kiké batted “.333 in the wildcard game, .450 in the 4 game division championship series with two home runs, and he also batted .385 and hit three homeruns in the six games series in the American League Championship.” These are strong numbers that have been put up by any hitter in this postseason. With this production in the postseason Kiké is expected to break out during the 2022 MLB season and show that he is a superstar in this league. Even though he had outstanding numbers, the playoffs didn’t unfold the way he wanted them to. 

After all the league championship games finished the last two teams remaining were the Houston Astros and the Atlanta Braves. This was a very interesting matchup because both teams had something major to prove. The Houston Astros were trying to prove that they can win a world series championship the right way since they were caught cheating in a previous world series that they won. The Atlanta Braves were trying to prove why they belonged in the playoffs and why they were the one that could beat the red hot Astros team. The Braves are trying to prove why they belong because they just barely made the playoffs and they were the only team to make it that had under ninety wins.

The way the series unfolded was the Braves took game 1, Astros took game 2, game 3 was taken by the Braves, Braves win again in game 4, Astros ranaway with game 5, and in game 6 a team was crowned a champion. The Braves upset the Astros at home. The series was 4-2. Jorge Soler was named World Series MVP for his clutch hitting and the Braves took home the pennant after a 21 year drought. And with that the 2021 season comes to an end and what better way then an underdog team to take the pennant.