Friday night video game thread: Dwight Smith Jr.’s Orioles vs. Mets

The Orioles got back to the postseason much sooner than we all expected. That is, as long as you count the postseason in the MLB Players League, where Dwight Smith Jr. piloted the Orioles of MLB The Show 20 into the #5 seed over the course of the last couple of weeks.

It might not be real baseball, but it’s been fun to follow him as he played a game against one player from each of the other MLB teams. The 2020 Orioles, as you can imagine, are not thought by the game to be very good, since their players are not very good. Despite having that handicap, Smith was able to get the O’s to a 19-10 record. Good job!

Much of the “regular season” action has been taking place on players individual Twitch channels. They’re dropping in on actual sports networks for the postseason. Smith’s is one of two best-of-three quarterfinals that will air on FS1 tonight at 10pm.

The games are quick. They’re only three innings as a regulation length and they cut out a lot of the between pitches and between batters pauses. I think Smith’s series against the Jeff McNeil-led Mets is second on the docket tonight, but it won’t take long to get there.

If Smith is victorious in this series tonight, he’ll take on the winner of the matchup between the Blake Snell Rays and the Gavin Lux Dodgers, also on FS1 tomorrow at 8pm. Snell was the regular season champion of the Players League. The championship, if he gets that far, is on ESPN on Sunday.