The difference between the regular season and the playoffs is big in every sport but, in my opinion, the difference is the biggest in baseball.
I don't watch a ton of WWE wrestling, but I would compare it to the difference between a regular Monday Night RAW title match where the winner can lose by disqualification and still keep his belt and an actual fight to the death between the same two people.
There are almost limitless reasons to give up in the MLB regular season. You could have been eliminated from the playoffs early on and have 80 games to go. You could essentially have a playoff spot clinched and not really be too worried about dropping a game here or there. No matter what your situation, looking at your schedule and thinking, "We're facing David Price today? He throws like 97 mph!!! I mean, I guess we'll try to win but if we don't, there's two more games in the series so whatever." Don't think that baseball players don't think this way. Baseball is not like football where you're forced to be excited as hell just to survive the game.
That's the regular season.
Game 1 of the Rangers/Rays series, I watched in my hotel lobby while at work. One of the first camera shots was of Josh Hamilton staring at David Price from the dugout. It wasn't a death stare or a look of fear. I guess I would describe it as a look of acceptance. Hamilton, a left-handed hitter, was just watching this giant young flame-throwing lefty warm up and realizing, "I have to face this guy and there's no room for conceding defeat anymore." The look described, to me, what playoff baseball is about. Hamilton's Rangers ended up beating David Price twice on the road to win the series in five games.
Strange things happen in these playoffs. In the Cincinnati/Philadelphia series alone, we witnessed a no-hitter and two games that were decided by the Reds' inability to field the ball (they led the NL in defense this season). We've seen blown leads by the Twins and a series (the aforementioned Rays/Rangers series) have five straight games won by the road team (never happened before).
The reason these things happen is a thing called pressure. Pressure affects different people and different teams in different ways. Teams like the Yankees and Phillies in the first round, pressure has no effect. Those teams are used to this. If anything, a guy like Roy Halladay's concentration might go up, due to the fact that these games matter (as discussed before), but you won't see any nervousness from the Doc. Teams like the Rays, Rangers, Braves and Giants...those series are between evenly matched and evenly experienced teams. The Rangers and Giants won those series because they had the aces to calmly win any game they needed.
That brings us to the Reds.
Lets be honest, they weren't good enough to beat the Phillies this year. It's hard to compete with that 3-man rotation with that lineup backing it up. But, they could have pushed Philly to five. Game 2 was just a clear case of inexperience. It was sad yet inevitable. They found themselves up 4-0 in Philadelphia and got scared.
"What do we do now? Can the game be over??"
Even Scott Rolen freaked out. It was a complete team-wide break down that traveled with them to Cincinnati. The challenge for them and Dusty Baker is now to take the experience and use it rather than be haunted by it. This Reds team is good enough and young enough to be back in the same position next season, but will they do it? In 2007, I watched the Cleveland Indians blow a 3-1 lead in the ALCS (one game away from sweeping the shit out of an over matched Rockies team). The next season they were inexplicably not good. Now they're the worst team in the Majors. 2007 was not THAT long ago.
But that's what the MLB playoffs can do to you. Baseball is a difficult and precise sport and to succeed you really must balance alertness with calm and you have to learn to forget.
As we move further the teams get better and the pressure grows. It's really the only baseball that's any good to watch. At least I'll have something to do in the lobby.
