MLB playoff awards and superlatives from wild-card era

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The MLB wild-card era began in 1995 with an iconic series that ended with an iconic photo: Ken Griffey Jr. peeking out from a pile of Seattle Mariners teammates with a smile as big as Mount Rainier after scoring the winning run in the American League Division Series.

Thirty years later, the 2025 season ended with another iconic series and photo: Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the middle of a swarm of his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates, his expression a mix of joy and exhaustion after his legendary performance in winning the final two games of the World Series.

Since the expanded playoffs began -- initially eight teams, then 10 and now 12 -- there have been 1,097 postseason games. The…