More MTO games than before

I've gone through quite a few MTOs so far this year, but lately it has felt different. This week I have just finished Mariners regular season and today just started an Angels campaign.
The end of the Mariners season was a slog; literally playing every second game for the last month. I couldn't believe it, but put it down to being a close division race (I started strong, but muffed the second half).
Now, doing the Angels, I've been battling away for close to an hour - only losing one game, but it is still April!!!!!!!!! It just seems they are making us play more games, even though the patch notes said nothing about this. I hate posts where one or two experiences end up with a "have you noticed this" post ... but has anyone else noticed this?

It's not just you. I've also done many MTOs all year, and I've noticed something different since the patch. Before, you'd go a week until the next game on high momentum, it now stops you every 2-3 games.

I’ve been logging all of my runs this year and it seems pretty consistent. About 20 encounters before all star break. About 12-15 after. The first month is tonight because you have to play the first game from early in the game, your team hasn’t really progressed, and you haven’t read learned your team.

Same experience. Played a ton in September then ended up being down 5-0 to start a playoff game. This was the one mode I was really enjoying this year so guess makes sense they would have to ruin it.