There is a somewhat prevalent belief among fans that baseball should be boring. That is, baseball is a sport best suited for the interminable regular season grind of 162 games, and is best viewed at noon with a beer in hand, not in discrete odd-numbered series. Even though dismissing the euphoric potential of postseason baseball is straightforwardly outrageous, there are certain truths to this school of thinking. A three- or five- or even seven-game series is a hilarious way to determine the success of an MLB team; lazy regular-season baseball games are an ideal exercise in hedonism; and it’s a good reminder that playoff games—for all the stakes and pressure and potential—can still, by virtue of being baseball and thus fundamentally at the whims of luck, wind up being, well. Just fine, I guess.
For every historic Game 3 in the World Series, there is a Game 4, where everything unfolds about as you might expect. Shohei Ohtani the batter does not reach base nine times; Shohei Ohtani the pitcher does not throw six shutout innings and also hit three homers. The game lasts nine innings with a respectable, series-leveling 6-2 scoreline, instead of 18 innings with a walk-off home run. The nerve!
