I don't see what you see. I see relief aces used in the middle innings to desperately claw back into a game that would have gotten a bullpen backender by the fifth in July. I see alternate-day starters getting up and getting used for late-inning relief. Buck Showalter had an expression about something he avoided he called "chasing the win." He didn't want to upend his bullpen burning guys for two or three days down the road trying to climb back into a game when his team was down multiple runs. He was going to pitch Denyi Reyes or Edwin Uceta and if Nimmo or Lindor or someone was getting a day off, Buck wasn't going to throw him into the game. If those backenders shut down the opposition and his hitters hit their way back into the game, great, he would manage for the win, but otherwise, he was looking ahead to conserve his resources. That's not what you get in the playoffs. Regulars don't get rest days. Injured guys don't take it easy. Roger McDowell gets four-inning relief spots. Randy Johnson comes out of the pen the day after a start. I don't think we're as likely to get Kody Clemens on the mound as we were two weeks ago. And so a four- or five-run lead is that much less secure, because nobody's throwing up a white flag.