Opinion

You can make this about Clayton Kershaw if you want. You can make this about Don Mattingly if you prefer.

Just don't forget why the Los Angeles Dodgers ace and manager are in a bind one game into a postseason that matters greatly to both of them. The seventh inning was only a problem because of what Jacob deGrom had already done in the first six.

In their first game of the 2015 postseason, the St. Louis Cardinals got a boost from two rookies and one guy who's being paid like a rookie.

The big difference, of course, is that the guy they're only paying like a rookie is 36 years old and is in the middle of what might be the finest season of a long, successful career.

It worked out pretty well last year, didn’t it? 

The Kansas City Royals had a definitive formula to winning games during last year’s postseason, and quite frankly it is what they tried to rely on for much of the last two regular seasons.

The Toronto Blue Jays were a juggernaut in the final months of the 2015 season, riding power hitting and power pitching to a 40-18 record after Aug. 1.

But as the Texas Rangers have shown in the American League Division Series, it turns out a pretty reliable way to defeat power is to simply play good, well-rounded baseball.

One man. One pitch. That is what stands in the way of the New York Mets potentially taking a 1-0 National League Division Series lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night.

For 22 Major League Baseball teams, all of the focus remains on the field and a quest to win a World Series. The rest of the league is making plans to be where eight teams are at right now, led by the start of free agency in November. 

This is one of the best free-agent classes in recent memory, with a great balance between hitting and pitching. There is no excuse for teams, whether they are in big or small markets, to come out of this winter without having found a way to address their biggest need. 

Though anything can happen in October, it's obvious at the outset that the Los Angeles Dodgers' hopes of winning a World Series title hinge on two fellas whose names rhyme with Gershaw and Kreinke.

Take this next sentence, stick it in an envelope, put the envelope in a time machine and send it back to a St. Louis Cardinals fan in March 2015.

Here's the sentence: You're going to lose Adam Wainwright for essentially the entire season to a busted Achilles, Matt Adams and Matt Holliday are going to miss almost 200 combined contests to injury—and the Cards are still going to win 100 games.

Home runs are supposed to be left in September. Those things are not supposed to transition into the fall, when the weather gets crisp, the leaves get brown and the pitching depth gets dense.

Pitching and small ball win in the Major League Baseball playoffs, or so the saying goes. If you are a team reliant on home runs, that reliance will be the death of you. That is what the myth tells us.

The playoffs have featured underdog wins in each of the first three games, highlighting the parity running rampant in baseball.

On Thursday, the World Series favorite Toronto Blue Jays fell 5-3 at home to the second-half-surging Texas Rangers while losing MVP candidate Josh Donaldson and Jose Bautista in the process.