Managing during the regular season and playoffs are two entirely different animals. In the postseason, skippers are constantly faced with contentious situations that not only make or break a game, but also the season.
And while the focus of the playoffs tends to be on stars performing to their regular-season accolades, the decisions managers green light often have a similarly drastic effect on a game’s outcome.
For instance, David Ortiz would have never faced Joaquin Benoit in Game 2 (and hit a clutch grand slam) if Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland had simply let starter Max Scherzer complete his game.
Read on to see the critical managerial moves that shifted the ALCS and NLCS.
All statistics sourced from Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs.com.