A new playoff format is providing a lab for teams to learn how to handle this structure going forward.

And one lesson that should be absorbed when it comes to using your starting pitching is this: Don’t get cute.

The Mets and possibly the Blue Jays were considering not using their best starters for Game 2 of the wild-card round if they won Game 1. The theory being that if they lost Game 2, they still had that starter (in this case, Jacob deGrom and Kevin Gausman, respectively) lined up for the decisive Game 3.

But if they swept the wild-card round, they would have one of their two best starters to open the Division Series against a theoretically better division-winning team.