The pressure of postseason baseball is one its biggest selling points — that feeling of tension that builds up to every season-defining pitch. But that buildup can also make the games take forever. According to Retrosheet’s data, the average playoff contest in 2021 took 3 hours and 40 minutes, up nearly 15 percent from a […]
With the All-Star Game and its many festivities (go Juan Soto!) in the rearview mirror, MLB can now set its sights on the stretch run — and all of the playoff races that come with it. So with some help from our forecast model, let’s dig into the burning questions that will get answered as […]
After a season when things seldom came easy, the Atlanta Braves finally changed that script for good on Tuesday night, dispatching the Houston Astros 7-0 to clinch their first World Series crown in 26 years. The title was a culmination of one of the most mercurial campaigns by any champion, but the Braves also proved […]
Going into the World Series, our forecast model offered up a rare prediction: a perfectly 50-50 championship tossup between the Houston Astros and Atlanta Braves. Atlanta disrupted that balance with a 6-2 win in Game 1, overcoming the loss of starting pitcher Charlie Morton (whose leg was fractured on a comebacker in the second inning) […]
A year ago, the Houston Astros and Atlanta Braves came oh-so-close to meeting in Arlington, Texas, for MLB’s COVID-19-bubble World Series. Both teams took their respective league championship series to do-or-die Game 7s, but each fell short. This time around, nothing could get in their way: The Astros turned around the ALCS in a hurry […]