Call to the pen
Fansided

Clutch in the MLB postseason: Game-changing moments (2016-2022)

By Emily Townley

Oct 7, 2022; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; A general view of the MLB Postseason logo before the game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Seattle Mariners in game one of the Wild Card series for the 2022 MLB Playoffs at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 7, 2022; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; A general view of the MLB Postseason logo before the game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Seattle Mariners in game one of the Wild Card series for the 2022 MLB Playoffs at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports /
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Oct 18, 2020; Arlington, Texas, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Cody Bellinger (35) rounds the bases and celebrates hitting a home run against the Atlanta Braves during the seventh inning in game seven of the 2020 NLCS at Globe Life Field. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 18, 2020; Arlington, Texas, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Cody Bellinger (35) rounds the bases and celebrates hitting a home run against the Atlanta Braves during the seventh inning in game seven of the 2020 NLCS at Globe Life Field. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports /

2020

The shortened 2020 season was strange, to put it lightly. And not just for reasons related to you know what. For one, more games were played as a result of the Wild Card round expanding to all playoff teams, not just teams seeded lower. However, that didn’t make it any less exciting. Both the ALCS and NLCS went down to the wire (much to my chagrin), with both Tampa and Atlanta going up 3-1 before their respective rivals forced Games 6 and 7. As much as it pains me to write about this, I have to go with the catch by Mookie Betts in Game 7 of the NLCS as being the “clutch” moment of the postseason.

As mentioned before, Atlanta had a 3-1 series lead over the Dodgers. How they blew it, I don’t know. It’s part of their “charm.” Anyway, back to Betts. Overall, Game 7 was incredibly close, with the run differential being “one” for both teams for most of the game. Betts’s defense in the 2020 postseason was phenomenal; I could argue for any of the defensive plays he made in the NLDS, NLCS, or World Series to be the ultimate clutch moments. Yet it is this out that, to me, made fortune look upon the Dodgers as opposed to Atlanta.

What should’ve been a Freddie Freeman home run ended up being a long out. Though it wasn’t the final nail in the coffin for the Braves (that would be Cody Bellinger’s dinger in the seventh inning), without it, I do not think the Dodgers would have advanced to the World Series.

Anti-Clutch: Atlanta. All of them. They had to win one game I cannot believe-(the writer exploded before finishing this sentence) (NLCS Games 5-7)

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