Gavin Sheets was sent up to pinch-hit, which is the baseball equivalent of being asked to hold a coat, and he returned the coat with a two-run homer. That was the swing of the NL Wild Card Series. The Padres beat the Cubs 4-1 in Game 2 and swept them out of October before Chicago could get comfortable.

Then the pitching staff took over the evening. Five Padres pitchers combined on a five-hitter. Nobody got a ninth-inning heroic stare or a mound-side hug. The Cubs got a procession of arms, each one handing the baton to the next, and by the end the scoreboard looked like it had been proofread.

That is a roster-building argument, and it is worth reading closely. Winning a short series with a bench bat and a relay of pitchers says the cheap parts of a roster can decide a best-of-three. A Wild Card Series gives you no time to be a star-driven team. It rewards the team with the longer bench.

Meanwhile the New York Yankees swept Boston, so the American League side of the bracket also finished its first round fast and without drama. October moved on from the Wild Card round quickly.

Over in the National League, the Dodgers are seeking a third championship in a row, and Freddie Freeman has been talking publicly about how long that core has left. Los Angeles has spent the season being measured against a calendar. San Diego just arrived with a pinch-hitter, five pitchers and no particular interest in anyone's window.

The Dodgers built a dynasty to avoid exactly this kind of series. A team in a hurry to win a third straight title now has to ask what a bench bat and a bullpen can do to it.