Postseason Is a Whole New Ballgame

The mere mention of playoff baseball makes Shawon Dunston's face light up. Dunston played 1,814 regular-season games in the majors, but none compared to the 27 playoff games over four Octobers.

Playoff baseball, to hear Dunston tell it, is one of those rare experiences that can be at once magnificent and maddening. Dunston breaks into a broad smile as he talks about the thrill of a hard-earned playoff victory, the way a group of players who thought they were close over the previous seven months develop an even stronger bond in October.

Then suddenly the smile disappears as Dunston describes the 2002 National League championship ring that he refuses to wear. Can't even look at the thing. It reminds him of how close he came to getting The Ring. Just five outs away.

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"That's the only thing that would make me cry," said Dunston, now a Giants coach. "It still hurts."

Welcome to October, where all that talk about baseball being a marathon goes out the window, leaving players with just a handful of games between ecstasy and agony.

In theory, the game is the same as it is during the regular season. In reality?

"Not even close," said Cardinals pitcher John Smoltz, who has pitched the equivalent of one full season -- 207 innings -- in the postseason.

"You play 162 games and more times than not, your numbers are going to be pretty reflective of how your year was. You play a short series and that is not the case whatsoever. One bad start. One bad game. All of a sudden it changes. The people that are the most patient and can deal with that are the ones who have the best chance to be successful. The ones that panic or press, you just don't win a World Series that way."


In short, the trick to playoff baseball is to somehow keep that consistent approach that got you through 162 games, even though everything around you is screaming that there's no time for that. An 0-for-8, a failure to hit a ball to the right side, a bad relief outing. Happens all the time in June without much notice. Do it in October and you've got a problem.

"Every pitch, every out means something huge," Omar Vizquel said. "Every time you make an error it's magnified. If you make a mental mistake, it's devastating for the team. You played 162 games, been through a lot of situations. You have to put yourself in the situation where [mistakes] aren't going to happen."

Keeping It The Same

If you can figure out the way to do it, you simply have to ignore that external stuff, the extra media coverage and scrutiny. In theory, it doesn't matter how many more people are watching, hitting a ball to the right side to move a runner is the same job in October as it is in May.

"You've got to try to tune all that out and stay with the same preparation and routines you've done for 162 games," said Giants outfielder Aaron Rowand, who won a World Series with the 2005 White Sox. "Every move is scrutinized a lot more, but to try to win that game, [fundamentals] are just as important in Day 15 as it is in the playoffs."

"One bad start. One bad game. All of a sudden it changes. The people that are the most patient and can deal with that are the ones who have the best chance to be successful."
-- John Smoltz One of the traps of playoff baseball is when players or teams change because of the atmosphere. A manager who has used one lineup all year against lefties may tweak it in the playoffs because he wants his marquee players on the field.

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, a winner of a World Series in each league, said there should be no difference: "If it's the best lineup to win, it's the best lineup to win" in the regular season or October.

A's infielder Nomar Garciaparra, who went to the playoffs five times with the Red Sox and Dodgers, said changing for the postseason doesn't work.

"You can't do something one way all season and expect to do something different in the postseason," Garciaparra said. "If you watch postseason play, they'll say 'How come he didn't bunt there?' But if he didn't do it all year, what makes you think he'll be able to do it now?"

The irony of it all -- what makes playoff baseball so tough to figure -- is that it's correct to go with the percentages, but you don't usually have time to wait for them to play out. Joe Torre said he learned early in his managerial career that starting pitchers who may be allowed to work through some early troubles in the regular season don't get that luxury in the playoffs.

"You have a very short leash in the postseason," the Dodgers manager said. "You have to win today. You are not there to make friends. You sit somebody. You play somebody. You go with who will make you win that day."

Emotions Running High

When Jeff Kent drove in a run to give the Giants' a 5-0 lead in Game 6 of the '02 World Series, he uncharacteristically pumped his fist and pointed into the Giants dugout as he ran toward first.

"Jeff doesn't do that," Dunston said. "He was feeling it."

Dunston said that feelings among teammates change in the playoffs.

"Even though you are with guys for six months, you might not like all your teammates, but once you come in and make the playoffs, everyone becomes real tight, automatically," Dunston said. "I remember Barry [Bonds] wouldn't stretch with us, but during the postseason he'd stretch with us. After he'd hit, he'd stay outside and watch us. We were like, 'What's wrong with him?' It was different. But it was, 'Oh, Barry wants a ring just like us.' "

A's second baseman Mark Ellis said emotions run so high during playoff games that you can feel the affects afterward.

"Sometimes after a regular season game you are not totally mentally exhausted after a game, but you go home after a playoff game and all you want to do is just veg out on the couch and relax," he said. "In a regular season game, there just isn't the intensity. You can feel it in the dugout. You can feel it in the stands, from the first pitch on."

Added Smoltz: "I still get butterflies. You aren't human if you don't."

Performing in that atmosphere is a challenge on a number of levels. There is the simple fact that you are facing the toughest competition combined with the pressure of a team's entire season riding on a small sample of games. Beyond that, though, players know that their careers may be judged, fairly or not, based on what happens in those few games.

That's why, according to Smoltz, the playoffs so often provide the least expected heroes: guys like David Eckstein (MVP of the 2006 World Series) or Scott Brosius (MVP of the 1998 Series).

"They rise to the occasion because they have everything to gain and nothing to lose," Smoltz said. "And a lot of great superstars have everything to lose and nothing to gain. It's an atmosphere that I love, but not a lot of people want to be in because they don't want to deal with the fact [the expectations] are not justifiable."

Bonds wore that collar his entire career, until his 2002 breakthrough. Alex Rodriguez is still wearing it. Other players, like Mariano Rivera, Manny Ramirez and Smoltz, to name a few, have managed to continue their regular season success into the playoffs.

Smoltz, who is the all-time leader in postseason victories (15), said keeping the proper mental approach is the trick.

"You talk about it so much, it lends to an atmosphere of I gotta be perfect," he said. "The more you do that, the less you are going to be successful. I know it's true. I've lived it. I've done it."