Spectacular MLB postseason concludes with dream World Series matchup

It’s been one of the craziest MLB postseasons in recent memory. Storylines, signature moments, clutch home runs and everything in between, the 2024 playoffs have had it all.

After an unforgettable first three rounds, October has culminated in one of the most anticipated World Series matchups ever, with the New York Yankees set to take on the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The two biggest markets. The two brightest stars in Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. And two of the most iconic franchises in the game’s history.

With Game 1 of the World Series set to begin Friday at Dodger Stadium, here is a look back at some of the biggest storylines so far from a postseason filled with just about everything baseball fans could have asked for.

ALCS produces major moments on both sides

The New York Yankees were favourites over the Cleveland Guardians heading into the ALCS, and things stayed on script through the first two meetings.

New York took Games 1 and 2 in the Bronx and set up what was essentially a must-win Game 3 for the Guardians back at home. Cleveland led 3-1 heading into the eighth, putting them in prime position to get back in the series. The Guardians had the best bullpen in 2024 by far, leading MLB with a 2.57 ERA. The next closest unit had an ERA almost a run higher at 3.55.

Led by the nearly unhittable Emmanuel Clase, teams struggled to even put balls in play, let alone string hits together to mount comebacks. But a two-out walk from Hunter Gaddis brought Aaron Judge to the plate as the tying run.

The runaway favourite for American League MVP, Judge struggled in the four games against the Kansas City Royals in the AL Division Series, hitting .154 with no home runs or RBIs. Judge went hitless in Game 1 against Cleveland before finally breaking through with a three-run bomb in Game 2.

Always a threat to leave the yard, manager Stephen Vogt summoned Clase to face Judge and hopefully get a five-out save to give Cleveland a much-needed win.

Clase got ahead in the count 1-2 and went to his 99 MPH cutter to try and put Judge away to end the inning. Except the ball caught too much of the plate and Judge lined it a hair over the right-field fence for a two-run home run, silencing a stunned Progressive Field crowd.

As great as that moment was, it might have been the fourth most important home run of the game. Up next was Giancarlo Stanton, who continued his postseason renaissance with a go-ahead blast that put the Yankees on top 4-3.

New York added a run in the top half of the ninth to go up two and push the Guardians to the brink of a 3-0 deficit. With two outs and nobody on, Yanks closer Luke Weaver allowed a double to Lane Thomas to bring up Jhonkensy Noel as the tying run. No big deal, as the Yankees’ win probability at the moment still stood at north of 95 per cent according to ESPN.

Nicknamed ‘Big Christmas,’ Noel is known for his power but can be vulnerable to the strikeout, hitting just .218 during the regular season. But Noel unleashed the swing (and bat flip) of his life on a meaty 1-0 changeup, crushing the ball deep into the left-field seats. Tie game.

An inning later against Clay Holmes, who lost his closer job to Weaver earlier in the season, Cleveland catcher David Fry won the game with a long home run into the left-field seats that produced a roar every bit as loud as Noel’s. And just like that, we had a series.

"I just told God, like, 'Hey, man, take this,'" Fry said after the game. "It's a tough matchup. Just try to have fun. You take the at-bat, got behind in the count and just got a pitch up in the zone and luckily it went out."

No scenario existed where Game 4 would be as good. And the situation seemed looser with the Guardians trailing 6-2 heading to the seventh. A Cleveland rally changed all that, with the Guardians breaking through with three runs in the seventh and one in the eighth to pull even at 6-6 heading to the ninth.

Vogt turned to Clase again, whose body of work in the postseason up to Game 4 was starkly different than the regular season. After turning in an 0.61 ERA and leading the AL in saves for the third straight year, Clase’s ERA had ballooned to 9.00 in the postseason, allowing six runs in six appearances. Unfortunately for the Guardians, his shakiness continued that night, as he allowed three hits and two runs to give the Yankees an 8-6 lead and eventual win by that same score.

Even though the Guardians trailed 3-1 in the series, every game had been close, with no victory by either side coming by more than three runs. So, it was a shock to no one when things went to extra innings in Game 5.

Clase bounced back with a scoreless ninth, leaving the 10th inning for Gaddis. TBS’ Ron Darling said on the telecast the inning before he felt the Guardians had the advantage in extras with Gaddis due to face the bottom of the order. However, a walk and an error complicated things, bringing Juan Soto to the plate with two on and two out.

Soto is a free agent this off-season and is expected to sign one of the largest deals in the history of sports. Some think the contract he’ll land will rival Shohei Ohtani’s 10-year, $700 million megadeal from last year. Soto is that good, and he showed why on Saturday.

He went down 1-2 in the count after three pitches, but fouled off breaking balls on the fourth, fifth and sixth pitches of the at-bat. Gaddis gave in and threw Soto a fastball on pitch No. 7 and the Yankees star did not miss it, hitting a towering home run into the right centre-field seats, delivering the blow that sent the Yankees back to the Fall Classic for the first time in 15 years.

"I was all over it, I was all over it," Soto said on the broadcast. "That was the only thing I was thinking. I was just saying to myself, 'You're all over that guy. You're all over that guy.' ... I just had to make good contact, and I did."

“Obviously he put up an amazing season statistically speaking, but in the biggest moments, that’s what he does,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone, calling it an at-bat for the ages. “And it shouldn’t be taken for granted.”

“What a game to finish on,” Vogt told reporters after telling his own team how proud of them he was after the loss.

An amazin’ and unlikely ride

There was no reason to assume June 12 would turn out to be anything remarkable for the New York Mets. They were 28-37, 17.5 games back of the division lead and looked to be heading to another disappointing season despite having the highest payroll in baseball.

New York was playing host to the Miami Marlins, who were the only team in the National League East with a worse record (23-43). The Mets won 10-4 in front of an underwhelming Citi Field crowd of 19,803, pushing their record to 29-37. In other words, it was about as inconsequential a mid-week ballgame in June between two struggling teams could be.

Except, it was the turning point for the Mets’ entire season.

Earlier that night, the Mets had an interesting guest throw out the game’s first pitch. Introduced as “the ultimate baseball fan, all the way from McDonaldland,” the round, purple McDonald’s mascot Grimace delivered the ceremonial pitch sporting a Mets City Connect hat and an oversized glove. A fun, light-hearted moment that got some play on social media. That had to be all it was supposed to be.

But after winning that night, the Mets kept winning. And winning. They walked off the Marlins the following night and won seven straight games. Then after a loss on June 19, the Mets won five of the next six, and were suddenly two games below .500 at 35-37. As the Mets won more and more, the legend of Grimace being the reason for their season turnaround grew.

New York rallied to finish the season 89-73 and drew a matchup with the Milwaukee Brewers in the Wild Card Series. The Mets took the opener of the best-of-three but fell in Game 2, setting up a deciding Game 3.

The stakes were high. The Mets’ payroll for the season came in at north of $317 million according to Spotrac, and the team had not won a playoff round since losing the 2015 World Series. And things once again looked dire heading to the ninth inning down 2-0 with star closer Devin Williams in to shut the door for Milwaukee.

And yet, the 2024 Mets refused to die. With one out and two runners on, Pete Alonso dug into the box for what could have been his final plate appearance as a Met. Alonso is a free agent after the season, and it remains a legitimate question whether or not he’ll be back.

On an 0-2 pitch, he lined a miraculous three-run homer into the right field seats, silencing the crowd in Milwaukee and turning the series around completely with one swing. Alonso and the Mets went on to win 4-2, moving onto the Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Philadelphia had been one of the best teams in baseball all season, finishing with 95 wins and their first division title since 2011. Apparently, the Mets were up for the challenge.

After splitting Games 1 and 2 in Philly, the Mets played their first home playoff game of the year in Game 3. Grimace was back at Citi Field to cheer on his new favourite team, and even New York’s Metro Transit Authority (MTA) got in on the fun by decorating the 7 Train with the beloved character’s smiling purple face all over.

The Mets won that night and put the series away the next day in Game 4, scoring all four of their runs on a grand slam from Francisco Lindor that was every bit as memorable as Alonso’s blast.

The magic eventually ran out against the juggernaut Dodgers in the NLCS, who ended the Mets’ season in Game 6 Sunday night. And yet, while ultimately falling short, it felt like the 2024 Mets accomplished more than what anyone thought possible.

“If you are emotionally invested in this Mets team and you’re sad right now it’s certainly understandable,” Mets broadcaster Howie Rose said late in Sunday’s game.

“If they don’t pull off some kind of magical comeback [here], you’ll realize what an incredible ride this team took you for this year. Started out 0-5, they showed some signs of life before they fell to 11 games under the .500 mark, a lot of people had them written off right there. And so, when you’re lying around during the off-season anticipating the next one, and you think about what the 2024 Mets were all about, you won’t be able to keep yourself from smiling.”

Cinderella stories

In 2023, the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals went a combined 134-190. Playing in the National League Central – widely considered the worst division in baseball heading into the season – the Tigers and Royals were mostly afterthoughts.

Kansas City spent money in the off-season but how much could a 56-win team really improve in one year? And the Tigers were without a winning season, let alone a playoff appearance, in nine straight years.

Right off the bat it was evident the Royals were much-improved. Led by star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., Kansas City went 34-21 in April and May to put themselves in the thick of the playoff race. But Detroit was a different story.

A.J. Hinch’s team started strong but faded over the next few months, sitting below .500 leading up to the trade deadline. Ace Tarik Skubal was the Cy Young frontrunner, but had a history of injuries and was only under contract through 2026. With the Tigers slipping out of contention, it looked like Skubal would be a prime trade candidate heading into the July 30 deadline.

The Tigers eventually elected to hold onto Skubal but did trade starter Jack Flaherty and catcher Carson Kelly, indicating they were sellers and content to waive the white flag on 2024. At one point their playoff odds according to FanGraphs had slipped to below 1 per cent.

Except Detroit went 35-16 after Aug.10 and got some help from the teams they were chasing as they shot back into wild-card contention. Somehow, the Tigers (86-76) emerged with the second wild-card seed, setting up a matchup with the Houston Astros in the Wild Card series. The Royals withstood a September slide and finished with the same record as the Tigers to draw the Baltimore Orioles in the opening round.

Both Detroit and Kansas City were massive underdogs.

Asterisk or no asterisk, the Astros have been the most successful team of the past decade and had reached at least the ALCS in seven straight seasons with two championships and four World Series appearances. The Orioles were a young team coming off a disappointing sweep in the 2023 Division Series that had learned from their mistakes and was ready to break through.

That each series ended up being sweeps was unsurprising. That they were sweeps in the Tigers’ and Royals’ favour was downright shocking.

“Regardless that nobody was rooting for us, regardless that nobody was putting us in the playoffs in a good spot, we didn’t care,” said Tigers infielder Andy Ibanez after closing out the Astros at Minute Maid Park. “We just put in hard work… to make the results come.”

But this Cinderella story came to an end as most do.

The Tigers gave the Cleveland Guardians a scare in the ALDS, but ultimately lost in a deciding Game 5 on a late-inning go-ahead home run by David Fry. And the Royals looked primed to go punch-for-punch with the New York Yankees after winning Game 2 in the Bronx to salvage a split in the first two games, but ran out of gas back in Kansas City with the Yankees closing out the series 3-1.

“It's motivation. That's really all there is to it,” Witt said after the series. “Because now that you get a taste of the postseason, you want to keep doing it. It's going to make everyone in this clubhouse work even harder.”

Like the Mets, albeit in a different way, both the Tigers and Royals took their fans on rides few could have been expecting entering the season.