Strong starting pitching defines first day of MLB Postseason, except for the Reds

The first day of the 2025 MLB Postseason is in the books, and that leaves us with four teams facing do-or-die elimination games today. Boy, did that escalate quickly. We’re only on the first day of October and already the Cinderella Guardians and powerhouse Yankees are being pushed to the brink. How did this happen?

Well, Cleveland ran into an ace at the top of his game in Tarik Skubal. The Cy Young favorite struck out 14 Guardians in seven and two thirds innings with three walks and just one run allowed when Angel Martinez raced around from second base to score on an infield single by Gabriel Arias in the fourth inning.

Martinez’s mad dash evened the score after the Tigers used a pair of two-out hits and an error to get a run across in the first. Detroit would score the winning run in the seventh when Riley Greene led off with a double and was driven in by a safety squeeze bunt perfectly executed by Zach McKinstry. That type of play is how you win games when your ace is shoving on the mound and you know just one run can make a big difference.

That run only held up because of Will Vest getting out of trouble in the ninth, though. Jose Ramirez led off with a ground ball up the middle and ended up on third base when Javy Baez made a diving stop and saw his throw to first get by Spencer Torkelson at first base. However, Vest buckled down and struck out George Valera before getting a comebacker from Kyle Manzardo that got Ramirez stuck between third and home. Vest tagged out Ramirez easily, which set up the game-ending pop-up by C.J. Kayfus and a 2-1 victory for the Tigers.

Detroit might have blown the AL Central in a massive collapse, but now it is one win away from eliminating Cleveland and putting the regular season in the past. That is how quickly things can change in October. It’s a tough loss to swallow for Cleveland because zero earned runs were scored off of starter Gavin Williams. Johnathan Rodriguez booted Kerry Carpenter’s line drive single in the first, which allowed him to reach second base and score the first run of the game on Torkelson’s subsequent single. McKinstry’s RBI bunt was set up Jhonkensy Noel’s failure to get his foot on first base after a ground ball by Wenceel Perez. Because of Noel’s error, there was only one out when McKinstry stepped to the plate, which set the stage for the safety squeeze. With tighter defense, Cleveland might have won this game 1-0 and dealt another heartbreaking blow to Detroit’s world title hopes.

Back-to-back home runs by Seiya Suzuki and Carson Kelly in the fifth inning lifted the Cubs to a 3-1 win over the Padres even though Chicago starter Matthew Boyd only lasted four and a third. A phenomenal bullpen effort led by Cubs closer Daniel Palencia closed the game with 14 straight outs to give Chicago a 1-0 series lead.

San Diego should have taken advantage of the opportunities it had against Boyd earlier in the game. Back-to-back doubles by Jackson Merrill and Xander Bogaerts put the Padres on the board in the second inning and put a runner on third with no outs due to an error by Pete Crow-Armstrong. Ryan O’Hearn had a great chance to put a crooked number on the board, but his sharp ground ball was stopped by Dansby Swanson in a diving effort to keep a second run off the board. O’Hearn had another opportunity to extend San Diego’s lead in in the fourth after a single by Bogaerts put runners on the corners with one out, but Swanson thwarted him again by running down and snagging his flare to shallow center field.

Nick Pivetta was the tough-luck loser in this one. He struck out nine Cubs with no walks in his five innings of work, but the two home runs in the fifth doomed the Padres after they missed two big chances to add to their 1-0 lead. Once they fell behind, there was nothing going against the Chicago bullpen.

That brings us to our poor, sweet Yankees and their quest for a 28th world championship. Just like San Diego, New York went up 1-0 in the second inning only to lose the game 3-1. Unlike the Padres, the Yankees were playing at home against their top rival and they had a massive opportunity to turn the game around in the ninth inning. Aroldis Chapman has had a big comeback season and returned to the elite ranks of relief pitching, but he looked quite ordinary when he took the mound to put away the Yankees last night. Paul Goldschmidt, Aaron Judge, and Cody Bellinger all hit singles to load the bases with nobody out. Fans in the Bronx were ready to celebrate a comeback, but it was then that Chapman returned to his top form with a strikeout of Giancarlo Stanton before getting Jazz Chisholm to fly out feebly and finishing the game with a strikeout of Trent Grisham.

One more hit by the Yankees would have spoiled a brilliant performance by Boston ace Garrett Crochet, who struck out 11 batters with zero walks in his seven and two thirds innings. The only run scored off of Crochet was Anthony Volpe’s opposite field solo shot in the second inning. Boston didn’t have an answer until the seventh inning thanks to some great pitching by Max Fried. The southpaw was rolling along until Aaron Boone lifted him at 102 pitches with one out and nobody on base. The Red Sox immediately rallied off of Luke Weaver with Ceddanne Rafaela walking and moving to third on a double by Nick Sogard. Both guys came home on a clutch pinch-hit single by Masataka Yoshida, and that gave Boston all the runs it needed to win the game.

The difference in this game was pretty simple. Boston manager Alex Cora allowed his left-handed ace to throw 117 pitches and not relinquish the ball until it was time for the closer to take over. Yankees skipper Aaron Boone was still worried about pitch counts in the most crucial game of the season. Fried didn’t begin to struggle on the mound to prompt Boone to replace him. He merely hit a pitch threshold and Boone couldn’t bring himself to buck the analytics.

Analytics didn’t come into play much during the Dodgers’ 10-5 stomping of the Reds on Tuesday night. Los Angeles scored five runs in three innings off of Cincinnati ace Hunter Greene thanks to home runs from Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez, and Tommy Edman. The Dodgers would go up 7-0 after six innings before Alex Vesia and Edgardo Henriquez spearheaded a bullpen meltdown that led to the Reds loading the bases in the eighth and putting the tying run on deck before Jack Dreyer finally put out the fire.

As a Mets fan, I have no interest in seeing a magical run by the Reds, so it was great to see the Dodgers take care of business in Game 1. I’m expecting a similar performance on Wednesday. As for the rest of these series, I’m predicting that the Cubs finish the Padres in two games, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Guardians and Yankees bounce back and force Game 3.

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