This 1000%, and it's such a clear and obvious distinction I can't believe how much oxygen the layoff discussion is getting (not just here but in general). Especially after the regular season in which one of the strongest themes was teams' pitchers breaking down. The Dodgers pitching issue was probably the closest to getting the discussion it deserved. And their lineup was very top heavy but not as deep as the Braves or Phillies.Starting pitching really decided all of these series. The Dodgers had nothing, especially after Kershaw got knocked around. The Braves basically only had one good pitcher all series in Strider. Orioles had terrible pitching, which everyone knew was their bugaboo heading into the postseason. The Twins were the only team I would say that had decent starting pitching in the series and still lost.
Nola is a true ace in a league with very, very few of them. He gave up a lot of homers this year so his ERA was not very good, but he's super durable, takes the hill every fifth day and gives your team a chance to win. He's the exact kind of pitcher you want in a playoff series--I'd take him over a lot of guys with better rate stats.
The O's got through the regular season by leaning hard on their bullpen due to a weak rotation. All of those arms got cooked at some point before the season ended. The Braves only had 3 guys throw over 100 innings for them. And the Braves didn't acquire a starter at the deadline. The O's grabbed Flaherty, who's been a pitch away from a career ending shoulder injury for 2 years, because he was cheap. And he had the least to offer them in terms of eating innings to rest their pen. They took for granted that they're going to be a 95+ win team for years to come (there is no such guarantee), and they chose to hoard minor league assets that they won't have playing time for in the next 5 years, instead of getting more or better pitching support.
The regular season is not just a number you tally up at the end to see who was the best. That's not the point. I don't know, I've always thought of a season as being like reading a good story, like a hero's journey. It's a long half-year journey where teams rise and fall, they evolve, they discover things about themselves. They shape their personality as a team, they form an identity. They find out where their weaknesses are, and it's their job to figure out how to shore those up. It's a grind that's supposed to prepare them for the ultimate test and pressure cooker that is the playoffs. Nobody cares how good you were when half your games were played against mediocre to terrible teams, those are just the trials. The actual job is to slay the fucking monster at the end of the story. You can say that for all sports really. But it's particularly true for baseball, when the season is so long, with so many games played, and the nature of having to make sure you've got enough pitching left when the final chapter comes.