MLB fans react to the notion that inferior teams made it to the 2022 NLCS

There is an ongoing narrative that inferior teams have made it to the NLCS this season. At least, that's what a portion of the MLB fanbase have been claiming after the toppling of the NL giants in this year's postseason.

All 100-win teams in the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, and the reigning champions the Atlanta Braves have been eliminated. The 90-plus win St. Louis Cardinals have been eliminated as well. Therefore, the National League Championship Series is being contested by fellow wild cards—the fifth-seed San Diego Padres and the sixth-seed Philadelphia Phillies. Neither team reached 90 wins in the season.

MLB podcaster Jared Carrabis shared his sentiment on Twitter. It was a talking point among the fans. Some sided with the podcaster, while some begged to digress.

Other baseball fans argued that this year's NLCS wasn't a contest between the best teams but just the teams that hit their stride during the postseason.

Regardless of who's playing in the NLCS, one thing is for certain—it's that both teams deserve to be in those spots as they've displayed magnificent baseball in the postseason.

Philadelphia Phillies take Game 1 of the NLCS

The Philadelphia Phillies drew first blood in the National League Championship Series against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. In what was a duel between the starting pitchers, Zack Wheeler came out on top after producing a gem. The Phillies starter recorded eight strikeouts after giving up just one hit and one walk in seven innings of work.

San Diego Padres starter Yu Darvish, on the other hand, surrendered solo home runs to Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber that were the only runs that the Phillies needed to win the game 2-0.

About the author

Daniel Santiago is a journalist who has been reporting on baseball at Sportskeeda since 2022. He was drawn towards the sport after the underlying statistics and the analysis surrounding it grabbed his attention.

Daniel particularly enjoys furnishing reports about historic events in baseball and analyzing the game through a statistic-based outlook, based on Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference. This is in line with how he enjoyed watching baseball as a pastime. As a writer, he is very particular about cross-checking from reputable sources and doing his due diligence.

He became a lifelong Hideki Matsui fan after his exploits in the 2009 World Series for the New York Yankees. Among the current generation, Daniel's favorites include Shohei Ohtani and Jung Hoo Lee. Daniel is a huge follower of Asian baseball and both Ohtani and Lee have been in the top echelon of their respective leagues during their time with the NPB and KBO.

His favorite moment as a baseball fan was the final at-bat of the 2023 World Baseball Classic between Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. He believes there aren't many words to fittingly describe the intensity of the moment.

As an avid sports fan, Daniel watches other sports and Esports when not writing about baseball.

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