Johan Santana pitched seven innings of shutout baseball as he outdueled New York’s Mike Mussina in a 2–0 Twins victory in Game 1.
In Game 4, the Twins led 5–2 in the top of the eighth, until Rubén Sierra hit a three-run home run to force extra innings.
In the top of the eleventh, Alex Rodriguez scored off a wild pitch from Kyle Lohse which put the Yankees in the lead for good.
The Twins would not win another postseason game until 2023, in which they swept the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Wild Card round.
Pedro Martínez pitched seven solid innings as the Red Sox again blew out the Angels to take a 2–0 series lead headed home.
The Angels returned to the postseason again the next year, where they defeated the New York Yankees in the ALDS before falling to the eventual World Series champion Chicago White Sox in the ALCS.
Albert Pujols, Larry Walker, Jim Edmonds, and Mike Matheny all homered for the Cardinals as they blew out the Dodgers in Game 1.
Game 4 was tied early, until a three-run home run by Pujols in the top of the fourth put the Cardinals ahead for good, closing out the series.
In the fourth postseason meeting between these two teams, the Astros finally defeated the Braves in a tight five-game series to return to the NLCS for the first time since 1986.
Brad Ausmus, Lance Berkman, Carlos Beltrán, and Jason Lane all homered for the Astros as they blew out the Braves in Game 1 on the road.
Rafael Furcal won the game for the Braves in the bottom of the eleventh with a walk-off two-run home run to even the series headed to Houston.
In Game 2, Jon Lieber outdueled Pedro Martínez in a pitchers duel as the Yankees narrowly won to take a 2–0 series lead headed to Fenway Park.
"[33] However, thanks to walk-off heroics from David Ortiz, the Red Sox narrowly won Games 4 and 5, in twelve and fourteen innings respectively, to force the series back to the Bronx.
The Red Sox jumped out to a 4–0 lead in the top of the fourth thanks to a three-run home run by Mark Bellhorn, and despite the Yankees cutting their lead to two in the bottom of the eighth, Schilling and Keith Foulke kept the Yankees’ offense at bay to win 4–2 to force a seventh game, becoming the first team in MLB history to force a Game 7 after being down 3–0 in the series.
The Red Sox blew out the Yankees in Game 7 in part thanks to home runs from Ortiz, Bellhorn, and Johnny Damon, clinching the pennant and completing an improbable comeback.
The Houston Astros overcame a 3–0 series deficit in the 2020 ALCS to force a seventh game, but were unable to win the pennant like the Red Sox did.
The Astros then won Game 5 in a 3–0 shutout thanks to a walk-off three-run home run from Jeff Kent, and were now one win away from their first World Series appearance in franchise history.
Game 1 was an offensive shootout between both teams that was won by the Red Sox, which saw David Ortiz hit a three-run home run in his first World Series at-bat.
Derek Lowe also pitched seven shutout innings in Game 4 as the Red Sox shut out the Cardinals to end their long championship drought.