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The big-spending Philadelphia Phillies and ultra-aggressive San Diego Padres are gone. So, too, are the perennially strong Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros.

The surprising Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers came and went, as did the scrappy Milwaukee Brewers and the new-and-improved Baltimore Orioles.

The remaining overdogs are an interesting bunch. The Mets were terrible earlier this season, which seemed to line up with the new organizational mindset of playing the long game under new baseball czar David Stearns.

Then the Mets got hot and stayed hot, which sent the clear message that they are in to win it right now. And why not? That team is loaded with stars.

The Dodgers are overdue to win a true World Championship, one earned after the 162-game grind and not after an abbreviated pandemic season. Manager Dave Roberts is feeling every bit of that pressure.

How does a franchise spend that kind of money and not win every year?

And the Yankees are way, way, way overdue to earn a parade, period. So while they are glad to be up 1-0 on the Guardians, they know there is much more work to do.

鈥淭here鈥檚 still three to get,鈥� Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton said. 鈥淲e know this is good, but in our eyes, we haven鈥檛 done nothing yet.鈥�

But the Yankees are building their collective belief as this series progresses.

鈥淭his team trusts each other a lot,鈥� Yankees slugger Anthony Rizzo said. 鈥淣o one needs to be the guy. There鈥檚 a lot of guys here who have done special things in this game. We just pass it on to the next guy. Up and down our lineup, it doesn鈥檛 matter who鈥檚 up, we believe in them. That鈥檚 our mentality. It shows in how close we are and the trust we have.鈥�

Here is what folks are writing about postseason play:

Gabe Lacques,听USA Today:聽鈥淏efore the biggest start of his life, Carlos Rodo虂n utilized the resources that come with being a聽New York Yankee. And then he justified the significant investment New York has placed in his burly left arm. Monday night at Yankee Stadium, Rodo虂n lived up to the expectations the Yankees levied upon him when he signed a six-year, $162 million contract before the 2023 season. Two seasons of injury-plagued, erratic, 4.74-ERA teeth-gnashing were all but forgotten with every swing and miss by a Cleveland Guardian, every zero hung on the scoreboard. And in Game 1 of this American League Championship Series, Rodo虂n not only joined this postseason party burgeoning in the Bronx, but showed he may be a significant reason why the Yankees just might hang World Series banner No. 28. New York registered a 5-2 victory and claimed a 1-0 ALCS lead thanks in no small part to its might, literal and financial. Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton each deposited home run balls in the outfield bullpens. Newly minted closer Luke Weaver put out a flash fire in the eighth, stranding the tying run at the plate, and continued his perfect postseason by striking out the side in the ninth for a five-out save.鈥�

Timothy Jackson, Baseball Prospectus: 鈥淲hat鈥檚 the worst that could happen when the Guardians are down in the series: Refuse to let their starting pitcher finish five frames, and watch聽Tanner Bibee聽wield stuff that mostly tops out as just okay? What鈥檚 that? That sounds like the background to a character in a Bruce Springsteen song from the 80s to you? Sure, Cleveland has that kind of charm about them. And you鈥檙e right鈦犫�攖hey鈥檒l need every bit of it to bounce back in the Bronx tonight. Meanwhile, the Yankees have enough top-end talent to rebuff seemingly any amount of midwestern grit or charisma.聽Gerrit Cole聽and his sub-3.00 career postseason ERA will look to reinforce the fact.鈥�

Will Leitch, : “It is always important to remember the context in which the Yankees signed Cole to that nine-year deal before the 2020 season. Cole, and his Astros, had just beaten the Yankees in the 2019 ALCS, ensuring that the Yankees would go a full decade between World Series. ‘Get us back there,’ the Yanks seemed to be saying to Cole with the deal. ‘Be our ace.’ It has turned into a decade-and-a-half since the Yankees made that 2009 World Series, something you can hardly blame on Cole. Now that the Yankees are closer than they have been since he arrived -- remember, the 2022 team was swept in the ALCS -- it makes sense that they turn to Cole to get them that one step further. This hasn’t necessarily been a vintage Cole season, thanks in large part to injury. But he was excellent in his ALDS-clinching start, and there’s still no one they’d rather have on the mound. This game is why he is here, after all.”

Matt Snyder, : “Anyone who has spent much time watching or reading about the Yankees this postseason has heard plenty about the playoff struggles of presumptive 2024 AL MVP Aaron Judge. It'll be his second MVP in three years, but he's had trouble getting going in the playoffs. Someone who also has an MVP and has not had any playoff issues? That would be Giancarlo Stanton. The herculean Yankees slugger homered in Game 1 of the ALCS, a 5-2 Yankees win over the Cleveland Guardians. It was not a cheapie. That prodigious blast was Stanton's 13th career homer in 115 playoff at-bats. It's a small sample, as most playoff stats are, but Stanton has been better in the playoffs (.278/.348/.661) than the regular season (.257/.345/.525) on a rate basis. Among players with at least 100 playoff plate appearances, Stanton sits behind only Babe Ruth (.744), Lou Gehrig (.731) and Randy Arozarena (.690) in slugging percentage.”

Jayson Stark, The Athletic: 鈥淧erhaps you found yourself mulling this on Monday afternoon:聽Hmmm, I wonder if the Dodgers will ever give up another run in this postseason?聽After all, they hadn鈥檛 allowed one for a ridiculous 33 consecutive postseason innings in a row. But we found someone Monday who was not wondering about that. His name?聽Francisco Lindor . . . 聽Not only did the Dodgers鈥� historic scoreless streak聽did not make it through the first inning. It didn鈥檛 even make it past the first hitter, thanks to that Lindor leadoff bomb.鈥澛�

Ben Clemens, FanGraphs: 鈥淭he magic of baseball is that every pitch counts and no game is ever truly over. There鈥檚 no victory formation, no garbage time with two minutes left in a 30-point blowout. If you have outs left, you can string together hits ad nauseam and win the game. But while that鈥檚 technically true, the game doesn鈥檛 really work that way in practice. Most games boil down to a few key moments, where the stakes are heightened and the outcome is truly uncertain. Win those moments, and you generally win the game. In Game 2 of the NLCS on Monday, there were three such moments. You could use leverage index to tell you that. You could also just watch the game and count when there were a lot of runners on. The Mets won 7-3 to even the series at one game each, but if those three moments had broken differently, the game could have too.鈥�

Bradford Doolittle, : “With an even series after two games and the next three games at Citi Field, the probabilities have swung ever so slightly to the Mets' side. That's just the math of it, but in reality, nothing in this series has been decided. New York now has home advantage, but that's more or less meaningless -- and the more important factor is which team benefits more from the day off as the series shifts to New York. Whose staff needed the rest more? Whose injured hitters (Freddie Freeman, Gavin Lux, Brandon Nimmo) will be most restored by Game 3? Basically, buckle up for Wednesday because this thing is just getting started.” 

Andrew Mearns, Baseball Prospectus: “Postseason baseball is a capricious affair. We’ve known that for a long, long time. But it remains fairly shocking that the Padres’ lineup was so thoroughly unplugged after the halfway point of this NLDS. As the final gamer noted, they hadn’t been shut out for 24 consecutive innings at all in 2024, until the very end. It was rare in the context of full MLB playoff history too, as no postseason team had been blanked for that many innings in a row in 33 years. Although momentum only exists so much, there’s a stark difference between losing momentum and just … vanishing.”

MEGAPHONE

鈥淗e鈥檚 just got that South Florida grit. He鈥檚 got a little edge to him. He knows how to hit. He鈥檚 not scared of the moment, and that鈥檚 where that comes in. You鈥檝e got to play with a little bit of that dog in you.鈥�

Mets slugger J.D. Martinez, on teammate Mark Vientos delivering a grand slam homer.