First four games of the wildcard round were played yesterday. Three of the road teams won.
The Mets appeared to suffer no ill effects from playing a doubleheader on Monday, handing the Brewers their 10th loss in their last 11 playoff games, 8-4. New York scored 5 in the fifth, all with two outs, to take the lead and never looked back.
Detroit scored 3 runs in the second and hung on to beat the Astros 3-1 behind the stellar pitching of Tarik Skubal. Houston scored their run in the ninth and had the bases loaded with two out before the game ended a lineout to first.
Bobby Witt, Jr. drove in the game’s only run in the sixth inning as the Royals blanked the Orioles 1-0. Four KC pitchers combined on the franchise’s first playoff road shutout in team history. Each team had only five hits.
San Diego scored two in the first and one in the second on their way to a 4-0 victory over the Braves. Starting pitcher Michael King struck out 12 in seven innings. The game lasted just two hours and nine minutes.
Tigers now play Cleveland. Guardians won the season series, but just 7 games to 6. Cleveland better be ready, because Detroit is playing as good as anybody.
I (Giants and Tigers fan) quit paying attention to baseball back in early August when it was apparent that neither team was going anywhere good this year. But that was a hell of a finish to the Tigers’ regular season, and so far it seems to be continuing in October. I guess I better pay attention.
If Detroit can get a couple wins from Skubal in the next round they could make it to the ALCS. Probably not enough pitching to win a best of seven series.
A nice story, whatever happens.
Since my crystal ball is generally crap, ignore my prediction that the Brewers will shut out the Mets 5-0 tonight to tie that series.
The Brewers rallied late in Game 2 against the Mets, behind two home runs from rookie Jackson Chourio. Milwaukee has made the playoffs in six of the past seven seasons, but their win tonight is only their second win in a playoff game since 2018.
The Mets-Brewers series is the only one of the four WC series which will go to Game 3, as the Royals, Tigers, and Padres all swept their opponents.
The Tigers are the first team to make the playoffs in a 162-game season while having no players with 150+ hits, 75+ RBI, 25+ HR, or 25+ SB, according to OptaStats.
as a fan of the Dodgers and since mom was born and raised in Lower mich the Tigers were her AL team I say in the voice of nelson “HA HA !” so the cheatstros are out of it altogether?
So Yanks & KC are about equal at home but KC is a .500 road team and the Yanks played at .617 away. It appears the Yanks went 5-2 vs. KC this season. Outscored them 42-24 also. If Clay Holmes isn’t tasked as the closer, the Yanks odds of winning seem even higher.
Yanks are well rested and healthy enough, only Rizzo is down of the starting position players. He only played 92 games this year, so not a huge hit.
It looks like Weaver might be the closer over Clay Holmes, this is the biggest question in the series I think. At least the fans have more confidence in Weaver.
Starters for Yanks should be Cole (R), Rodon (L) and Schmidt (R) moving Stroman & Luis Gil to the bullpen. Nestor Cortes won’t be available for this series at least.
Austin Wells & Jose Trevino C
Ben Rice 1b
Gleyber Torres 2b
Anthony Volpe SS
Jazz Chisholm Jr., 3B
Outfield will be Judge and Soto and maybe the Martian? Jasson Dominguez? otherwise Alex Verdugo.