Or, you know, there's a far more simple explanation to explain this team's struggles. An explanation that isn't rife with a bunch of cliches and narritives. One that is purely logical and to the point. One that isn't totally filled with Occam's razor.
The explanation?... How about, this lineup is just in a slump. No ******** small sample size fueled choking narratives, none of this postseason experience crap, just a simple explanation - our hitters, especially the heart of the order, are in a slump.
There's a reason why baseball playoffs are a crapshoot - baseball, at its heart, is a game of streaks, and there is not enough time in 5 or 7 gammes for those dtreaks to balance out to usual team/player norms. The good players and teams go through more frequent and longer good streaks than bad, and the bad teams and players go through less frequent and shorter good streaks than bad. That's basically what baseball is. Our hitters are just in a slump, and it's coming at the worst possible time. And when hitters slump, they tend to get frustrated and start swinging harder and have less discipline at the plate, like what our hitters are doing. Every single hitter in a slump tends to do this. Either way, this funk we're in has all the earmarks of a slump. Nothing more, nothing less.
That said, what nerves CAN explain, however, is some of our defensive miscues. Martin throwing the ball away is one. That was just a brain fart. But at the end of the day, our hitting slump is what has cost us the most this series.