The Division Series round ran on sweeps, walk-offs and one reversed call. Surprise ran 3.11× above baseline across 1,332 articles.
Surprise overtook excitement. Last week's Wild Card round led on excitement (2.83×) with surprise at 2.20×; this week surprise leads at 3.11× against 2.61×. Joy (0.35× vs 0.12×) and admiration (0.26× vs 0.05×) are still far below baseline, just less so.
Each emotion's share within this event's articles compared to its share across the country's network. Lift > 1.5× = over-represented; lift < 0.5× = suppressed — same "×" convention as every weekly card.
A single "excitement" number hides very different stories underneath it. This breaks each of Step 0's top emotions into the specific angles actually driving it within MLB Division Series coverage — read by an LLM across the top 100 articles for that emotion, not a fixed taxonomy.
Top internal articles per emotion grouped into nuanced sub-shades anchored in actual article titles and editorial angles.
A roof-assisted out in the Rays' favor, three first-inning errors in Game 2 and a fan-interference call that overturned Anthony Volpe's homer in Game 3.
Surprise with sadness — the upset and the way it ended.
The White Sox riding a three-run sixth to a Game 2 win, then the Guardians erupting in the sixth to force a deciding Game 5.
Surprise with excitement — late-inning reversals in both directions.
The sections above describe what MLB Division Series coverage actually feels like. This is what to do with that read: which emotional registers to lean into, which to avoid, and where the coverage is genuinely under-bought for a brand activating around it.
A mid-sized story (1,332 articles, ~1.3M estimated visits, down 28% in share on the Wild Card week) with a very safe environment. Surprise and excitement dominate, so tension-led creative fits better than celebration-led creative.
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