World Series 2024: What Top Players Are Saying Amid MLB Playoff Bracket

The MLB Playoffs are red-hot, with two of the four teams vying for league championships determined and the other two set to be decided in high-stakes, high-pressure Game 5s.

Ahead of the LCS in both the National and American Leagues, two of the most impressive players remaining in this postseason have had a blunt approach to their performances and the situations they find themselves in.

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MVP Candidate Francisco Lindor's Ice Water Veins

When Francisco Lindor launched his grand slam to center field in Game 4 of the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday night at Citi Field, he rounded the bases with no expression of joy or satisfaction.

It was with a business-like demeanor that he touched home base, his teammates waiting to greet the MVP candidate and hero of the 2024 season.

Harrison Bader spoke to the New York Post's Jon Heyman on Lindor's big-moment grand slam after the game.

"He's poised. He is a cold dude. He is the coldest dude I've ever been around. He's colder than this champagne, baby," the center fielder said.

When asked about his apparent lack of emotion, Lindor told Heyman, "I'm celebrating inside, but at the end of the day, the job is not finished."

The "job" is a World Series title. To get there, Lindor and the Mets still have plenty of work to do. Up next is a date with either the NL-best Los Angeles Dodgers or the red-hot San Diego Padres.

Against either team, that same intense focus that helped Lindor come through in a series-clinching moment will be needed to help the Mets cash their ticket to the World Series for the first time since 2015 and, potentially, their first World Series victory since 1986.

Speaking of those Dodgers and Padres...

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One Last Showdown

"I don't care if we're down to our last life. They're down to their last life, too," Padres breakout star Jackson Merrill said after Wednesday's 8-0 loss to Los Angeles in Game 4.

He is right. Both teams, divisional rivals, are fighting for their championship lives Friday evening, with a date against the Mets at stake.

Merrill has been a star for the Padres this season, delivering 162 hits, 24 home runs, 90 RBI, and 16 stolen bases in his first year in MLB.

He will have to bring that bat to Game 5 against the Dodger's Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the $325 million pitcher acquired last offseason. Yamamoto pitched 90 innings, allowed 30 earned runs, struck out 105 batters, and tallied an ERA of 3.00.

Despite the hype surrounding the righty, the Padres have hit Yamamoto and hit him hard.

In three starts against San Diego, Yamamoto has not lasted longer than five innings with an ERA of 9.0.

The Padres went 2-1 in those games.

If Yamamoto struggles as he has to this point, the Padres will win and advance.

Yu Darvish gets the start for San Diego Friday and this postseason, has tallied 1.29 ERA.

How the explosive bats of Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, Mookie Betts, and NL MVP favorite Shohei Ohtani perform against them will ultimately decide which team continues their chase of baseball's most coveted prize.