⚾ The 2020 MLB Postseason Is Unlike Any Other

Postseason success will come to those who show the greatest amount of adaptability. [View in browser]( [FOX SPORTS INSIDER WITH MARTIN ROGERS] In today’s FOX Sports Insider: This year’s MLB postseason will be a gauntlet of mental truth, with no place to hide ... we take a look at LeBron James and if he can use Pat Riley’s championship blueprint against him in this year’s NBA Finals ... and Isaiah Thomas has the perfect response to Tyler Herro talking about those drafted ahead of him. Major League Baseball’s supersized, frenetic feast of a postseason is upon us at last, to be decided by a whirlwind of activity amid the sound of comparative silence. With everything reimagined by necessity, it is all up for grabs and we don’t know much except for this. “It is going to be harder to win this one than ever before,” John Smoltz, 1995 World Series champion with the Atlanta Braves and FOX Sports baseball analyst, told me via telephone. We know where the World Series is going to be held this year – Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas – but we don’t know a whole lot more about what happens between now and then. For seedings mean little when series are short and home field familiarities are waived following the Wild Card round. Soon enough we will be picking through what and who is left after a flurried glut of games to get things started. There are contrasts all throughout the bracket. The expensively assembled Los Angeles Dodgers against the piecemeal Milwaukee Brewers. The Yankees, boasting the seemingly untouchable Gerrit Cole against the Cleveland Indians, with a collection of pitchers (Shane Bieber, Carlos Carrasco and Zach Plesac) that Smoltz describes as an “A-minus trio.” The Tampa Bay Rays, who were strong all season against the Toronto Blue Jays, who lit up when they had to. [STORY IMAGE 1] There are familiar faces and some distinctly surprising ones. The Miami Marlins have gone from 57-105 to the postseason, while the San Diego Padres have ridden Fernando Tatis Jr. and a surge of optimism to counteract years of ineptitude. And don’t forget that five of the teams in the field won 32 or fewer games, out of 60. While fans were getting busy trying to figure out the logistical restrictions involved with attempting to watch so much baseball - Wednesday’s slate features eight games crammed into start times 10 hours apart - the players were quickly coming to terms with the reality … of a new reality. These playoffs will be a gauntlet of mental truth, with no place to hide. No one wants to hear any excuses and there are no concessions granted, with the general feeling being that MLB somehow landed upon a revised formula that is as fair as the circumstances allow. There is no base of prior knowledge to work from and no indicators as to whether having seen the postseason countless times before or merely having nursed October fantasies will confer the bigger help. There is no benefit of experience, not this kind of experience, with no inferred lift from the crowd and no real anchors upon which to lean. Smoltz gets nostalgic when reflecting on the magic of the postseason, having lived through the good and the heartbreakingly bad of it. He will never forget the impact that sheer noise can have on the arm and the mind and its ability to either fortify or paralyze at a moment’s whim. [STORY IMAGE 2] “If I was out there in a regular season game and walked a batter in the first inning, you don’t think anything of it,” Smoltz said. “But if you do it in the playoffs, on the road, the entire crowd starts going crazy, the noise is deafening, and human nature says that you are going to feel totally different about it. “Baseball is more moment-to-moment than other sports. It is a different level of reaction and a greater shift. When Steph Curry hits a three in the playoffs, is it literally 10 times louder than in the regular season? No. With a postseason baseball crowd, the slightest thing feels like a rally. No one will have that benefit and no one will have the lift you get from overcoming it.” What Smoltz is getting at is that success will come to those who show the greatest amount of adaptability and for whom the mind proves most resilient. Fate will surely smile upon those who can bring their own internal lift at a time when the crowd would normally be summoning an electrifying burst of energy. If a player is capable of creating a rallying roar within his own head and still, when victory nears and the nerves kick in, be able to silence the doubting thoughts when there is nothing to drown them out, he will be on the right path. “Crowd or no crowd, the Yankees are still going to show up,” New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge told reporters. “(But) I miss the fans. My favorite times are the pregame introductions. I miss those moments.” [STORY IMAGE 3] Having been on the cusp of starting up when everything shut down, baseball’s return saw non-stop activity throughout its shortened 60-game campaign and barely any brakes applied once the postseason hit. Everything will be done by Oct. 28, at the latest. Getting through it will somehow be both a sprint and a grind. “The ones who are going to shine will be who is able to keep it all together,” Smoltz added. “It will be players who can thrive on the importance of the moment without all the usual obvious reminders that this is a big game, yet not be overawed by it. “You can’t rely on common logic. You would think that a veteran team that has seen it all before would have the edge. But no one has seen this before, so maybe past experience doesn’t help you. Maybe it is a team that comes in and gets hot and runs with it without thinking too much." Having a superteam, such as the Mookie Betts-led Dodgers, has never been a guarantee in the postseason. We saw that last year with the Washington Nationals overturning a miserable start and towering odds to win it all. Smoltz expects to see the Yankees surge, the Dodgers to be overpowering and the Houston Astros to use the feeling of the world being against them as impetus. Yet he has also never been more prepared to be surprised. “In truth, we just don’t know," Smoltz added. "And that is what is so great about it.” [STORY IMAGE 4] Just as a bunch of teams celebrated getting into the playoffs, the threat of being done for the season loomed with rapidity. Best-of-three series are breathless affairs by design, all those months of effort washed away with brutal haste for half the field. While the players tried to get their minds right, so too were those who sit nervously on their couches, glued to the screen before them. “I am just happy to be here,” San Diego Padres fan Meredith Paris told me, enjoying only the team’s sixth playoff appearance in 52 seasons. “I know that sounds kind of lame but after so many bad years it’s the truth. A lot of my friends disagree with me on this, but I hope the team feels the same way. If they go and play relaxed, I feel like that’s going to be a lot more productive.” Maybe that is the right approach, or perhaps it is the totally wrong one. Probably, the secret sauce is a concoction somewhere in between. Uncertainty rules as September turns into October and the fall gets going. Yet someone will strike upon the right formula over the next month or so, as baseball’s unique postseason develops: larger, stranger, and tougher than ever before. [STORY IMAGE 5] Here’s what others have said ... Nelson Cruz, Minnesota Twins: “Hopefully next year they implement the same protocols and we have 16 teams in the two leagues. There will be more teams willing to go all the way because they feel like they have a shot to go to the playoffs. That’s the whole deal you know. And once you’re in the playoffs anything can happen.” Jeff Passan, ESPN: “Baseball is not basketball. It isn't football. It isn't any other major sport. It's a game in which the worst team can beat the best team, and it isn't some kind of monumental upset. With the wild-card round this year made up of three-game series and the division series running five before the seven-game league championship and World Series, the 2020 playoffs are ripe for upsets — even with the best teams.“ Aaron Boone, New York Yankees Manager: “It’s 2020. We are grateful as athletes, as coaches [and] as employees to be working at this time of year, to be able to get through this season and be in a postseason situation.” [IN OTHER WORDS] - Who is Trey Lance? [ESPN.com senior writer Mark Schlabach]( introduces us to the NFL Draft darling who is only playing once this fall. - The MLB postseason has never been more of a marathon than it is this year, which favors teams with the deepest pitching staffs. [Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci]( writes that if you want to win the World Series, you better have the arms to do it. - Pat Riley taught LeBron James the secrets to constructing a championship team when he played in Miami. [The Ringer’s Jonathan Tjarks]( takes a look at if James can use Riley’s championship blueprint against him in this year’s NBA Finals. [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED] [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED]( Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro spoke with the media ahead of his team’s Game 1 NBA Finals matchup with the Los Angeles Lakers. When asked about being drafted 13th overall, Herro said that the 12 guys drafted ahead of him are in the back of his mind all the time. When SportsCenter posted the video on Twitter, free agent point guard Isaiah Thomas chimed in with a hysterical response. “Lol try remembering 59 guys lol,” said Thomas, who was the 60th selection of the 2011 NBA Draft by the Sacramento Kings. We’ll give you a little bit of help, Isaiah – Tanguy Ngombo, Ater Majok and Adam Hanga were the three players selected right before you. We’re looking forward to quizzing you on that soon! [VIEWER'S GUIDE] New York Yankees at Cleveland Indians (ESPN, 7 p.m. ET) Masahiro Tanaka takes the mound for the New York Yankees, who battle the Cleveland Indians in this American League Wild Card Game. WWE NXT (USA. 8 p.m. ET) Will Isaiah “Swerve” Scott make the NXT Cruiserweight division “Swerve’s house,” or will Santos Escobar’s reign continue? We’ll hear from both Scott and Escobar ahead of their clash. Miami Heat at Los Angeles Lakers (ABC, 9 p.m. ET) Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat go up against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Milwaukee Brewers at Los Angeles Dodgers (ESPN, 10 p.m. ET) Mookie Betts and the Los Angeles Dodgers take on the Milwaukee Brewers in this National League Wild Card Game. [BET OF THE DAY] [BET OF THE DAY] Odds provided by [FOX Bet]( Denver Broncos at New York Jets: Under 39.5 Points This week’s Thursday Night Football game features the Denver Broncos traveling to the Big Apple to take on the New York Jets. Don’t expect this matchup to feature an offensive outburst, as the Jets and Broncos both rank in the bottom three in the NFL in points scored. Sam Darnold and the Jets are averaging a measly 12.3 points per contest through three weeks, while the Broncos, who will start Brett Rypien under center this week, are putting up 15 points per game. Rypien, who will be Denver’s third different quarterback to start a game in four weeks, was promoted from the practice squad to the active roster last week. With that said, taking the under of 39.5 points sure seems like an enticing play. 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