Our first look at baseball's new MLB playoff format was intense, compact, frenetic and, let's face it, a little bit random. One team whose spot in the tournament wasn't clinched until the closing days of the season, the Philadelphia Phillies, earned a date with the defending champion Atlanta Braves. Meanwhile, the St. Louis Cardinals -- a division champion playing a wild-card series -- are done after a dispiriting stretch that from start to finish lasted around 30 hours.
Those were just two outcomes from a playoff weekend unlike anything we'd see under the old format.