Believe it or not, the 2018 World Series Championship boiled down to the overlooked ability of a lineup to put the baseball in play. The game today is defined by launch angles, sabermetrics and computer baseball but, to reach the games pinnacle, the difference is clear and it is old school. The Boston Red Sox are built on speed, contact and have more than enough power to be the most balanced attack in the league for the 2018 season. Their offensive game flows through Mookie Betts, and Andrew Benintendi. Both stars are dynamic in ways that do not always include the long ball. Their ability to make contact, put the ball in play and constantly put pressure on the opposing defense was unmatched in October. Postseason baseball is a tournament featuring the top teams playing their highest level of baseball. It is a whole different beast as the differences in talent are miniscule. It is not power and launch angles that defined the Boston Red Sox championship but their ability to make contact up and down the lineup.
The do-or-die atmosphere of playoff baseball makes the game drastically different than that observed for 162 regular season games. There is hardly anything to separate the teams matched up, especially as you advance deeper into the postseason. This forces a team to execute and play clean baseball. A strikeout is pure cleanliness by one side and useless for the other. Just like in any sport, mistakes are magnified and it is essential that a lineup has the ability to make contact and consistently pressure the defense to make a clean baseball play. If you have watched games this October, you have witnessed cheap basehits, swinging bunts and bloop hits often end up resulting in runs or at least strong scoring chances.
Teams no longer care about strikeouts and the strong majority have shifted focus on the ability to lift a ball for extra base hits or homeruns. The expense is a huge uptick in strikeouts and front offices are fine with this. This can result in a weakness that is easily exploited in high leverage situations. The absence of the strong contact hitter in this huge philosophical revolution can hinder a team’s chances at the ultimate prize. Striking out at an astronomical rate allows them to execute on the fewer plays and takes the pressure off of the opposition. This ease and fluidity more often than not results in winning baseball for the other team. The following teams were well positioned for October coming out of the regular season but were not ready to make a championship run. This offseason they must focus on improving their offense’s contact-ability.
Oakland A’s struck out 13 times in their only playoff game
Chicago Cubs struck out 16 times in their only playoff game
Colorado Rockies struck out 43 times in 4 games
Cleveland Indians struck out 30 times in 3 games
Milwaukee Brewers struck out 104 times in 10 games
The Brewers made this list not because they were not successful, but because their ability to put the ball in play could have been the difference between an NLCS appearance and an appearance in the World Series. The teams listed averaged over 10 Ks per game in the pressure-packed postseason. This is not championship baseball and it exposed a weakness that could not be overcome. Productive outs and putting pressure on the defense is paramount when the game’s best match up in the postseason. But, with only 27 outs in a game, is it logical to call any out productive? That is the argument of sabermetricians and advanced stats gurus. Productive outs include moving a runner over, putting pressure on the fielders to make a tough play or anything to keep a pitcher out of his groove and not allow for an extended period of dominance. Take a moment and bring yourself back to game 3 of the World Series that went a record breaking 18 innings. Ian Kinsler, was forced to make a difficult play in the hole with the game on the line. The veteran lost his balance, resulting in an infield hit and the tying run to score in the 12thinning. Max Muncy would later deliver a walk-off homerun to win the game in the 18thinning.
The Red Sox ended up taking more quality at-bats and put more balls in play as they are constructed in a manner that allows them to thrive no matter the circumstances.The result was a World Series Championship. Once you get to October, every play is more meaningful and for that reason, to achieve the ultimate goal, you have to throw sabermetrics, launch angles and computer baseball out the window. Call me old-fashioned, but this World Series was not won with the homerun ball but with contact swings and seeing-eye singles.