Outside The Confines: The Championship Series are set (and started)

Blame it on the rain if you want, but we had to wait right up to the bitter end to see which team would be the final one to move on to the AL Championship Series, and after plenty of upsets with 100-win teams so far in the postseason, it was never a sure thing for the Yankees. But at the end of the ALDS, it was the Yankees who bested the Guardians and punched a ticket for more October baseball.

With that win in the books, we have our final four teams of the 2022 postseason. The Padres and Phillies will face off for the National League, and the Yankees and Astros will square off for the American League. I feel fairly certain plenty of brackets were busted in the Wild Card and Division Series rounds, and plenty of fans have been left miserable as their teams failed to fare as well as originally expected.

As for the Championship series, the NLCS is already underway with the Phillies taking the first game of the series 2-0.

Now on to the mid-week links.

• Christina De Nicola spotlights Kyle Schwarber’s epic postseason home run.
• The Dodgers really want to point out how big the difference is between the postseason and regular season, but let’s also remember they super duper lost. Story by Jay Jaffe.
• The Dodgers are also evidently very hopeful that Clayton Kershaw will return to the club in 2023. (ESPN)
• Perhaps they should take it easy considering they’ll be facing the Astros on short rest...

• In fact, according to Stephanie Asptein, the Yankees wore more booze than they drank as the ALDS celebrations were fairly muted.
• Mike Petriello assures us that the Phillies and Padres are more than just their season records.
• Daniel Chavkin shares Shohei Ohtani’s thoughts on the Angels’ dismal season.
• Have you ever just been really, really embarrassed for someone else?

• It looks like Team Israel will have some active MLBers on its roster for the WBC, shares Hillel Kuttler.
• Betelhem Ashame looks at the record-setting home run Aaron Judge blasted in the big game five.
• Daniel Chavkin looks at Gleyber Torres’s troll-job as the Yankees secured their win.
• Ken Rosenthal says it’s too early to say if the new postseason format is the cause of so many upsets. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Gee, that man in the hat looks familiar...

And tomorrow will be a better day, Buster. Make it so.