The Wild Card Round of the Baseball Playoffs Has Been Wild

This is the first post season that baseball’s Wild Card playoff round has been a two out of three series, and so far it’s been exciting to say the least.

In the St. Louis Cardinals-Philadelphia Phillies series opener on October 7th, the Cardinals took a 2-0 lead into the ninth inning, with their closer Ryan Helsley on the mound. St. Louis had played in 94 post season games with a two run or more lead going into the ninth, and had won every time. Until now. The Phillies scored six runs in the top of the ninth to take a 6-2 lead. St Louis added one in the bottom of the ninth but that was it as the Phillies took Game 1 6-3.

In New York, Mets ace Max Scherzer was pounded for four home runs and seven earned runs in 4 2/3 innings and the San Diego Padres beat the Mets 7-1 in Game 1 of that series. This was supposed to be a pitching duel between Scherzer and San Diego’s Yu Darvish, but this one was all Darvish. He allowed just one run in seven innings pitched on his way to the victory.

In Cleveland, the Guardians and Tampa Bay Rays were actually involved in a pitcher’s duel between Cleveland’s Shane Bieber and Tampa Bay’s Shane McClanahan. The Rays’ ace was good—two runs in seven innings of work—but Bieber was better, allowing just one run in 7 2/3 innings. Cleveland took Game 1 2-1. But that was nothing compared to the pitcher’s duel in Game 2. The game was scoreless until the bottom of the 15th inning when Guardians’ rookie Oscar Gonzalez hit a leadoff homer for a 1-0 Cleveland win, sweeping the series (that putting a runner on 2nd base in extra innings thing isn’t done in the post season). Cleveland advances to play the New York Yankees in the next round.

The Seattle Mariners shut out the Blue Jays in Toronto 4-0 in that series opener on October 7th, but during Game 2, it looked like this series was a lock to go all three games. The Jays led the Mariners 8-1 after five innings. Seattle put four runs on the board in the sixth, and the Jays added one in the seventh to make it 9-5, but the Mariners tacked on another four runs in the top of the 8th to tie it 9-9. Seattle’s Adam Frazier drove in Cal Raleigh from second with a two out double in the top of the ninth to give the Mariners a 10-9 lead. Rookie George Kirby, normally a starting pitcher, tossed a scoreless ninth to earn a save and Seattle advances to play the Houston Astros in the Division Series.