I played baseball of my life all of the way up to the collegiate level. Baseball can be very boring just as it can be very exciting. I never looked at the sport as a "complicated chess match."
I always looked at it as a "game of moments." The games are rather long so a exciting/good game consists of a string or several patches of exciting/good moments.
"Routine plays" usually refer to the defense successfully making a play with a low level of difficulty.