MLB Wild Card Series: Analysis and takeaways from a FOUR-sweep day!
Well, that was fast!
On the second day of Wild Card week, all four series were decided: The Texas Rangers kicked off the day by eliminating the Tampa Bay Rays with a dominant 7-1 win, and the Minnesota Twins won their first playoff series since 2002 by sweeping the Toronto Blue Jays.The Arizona Diamondbacks knocked off the NL Central-winning Milwaukee Brewers, and the Philadelphia Phillies dominated the Miami Marlins in front of a raucous home crowd.
We’ve got you covered with our takeaways on each series — and what’s next for the four teams eliminated Wednesday.
Key links: Day 1 | Everything you need to know | Bracket | Picks | Watch on ESPN, ABC
Takeaways
Twins 2, Blue Jays 0: Sometimes the analysis is simple: The Twins pitched well, the Blue Jays didn’t hit well — and the Twins swept two low-scoring games for their first postseason series win since 2002. Give credit to a Minnesota pitching staff that has ability to make a deep postseason run. Pablo Lopez and Sonny Gray were both excellent in their starts and match up favorably with any team’s top two starters. The bullpen has several guys who can pump it up into the upper 90s. That relief corps has the ability to be dominant this October (although manager Rocco Baldelli’s insistence on using Louie Varland in high-leverage situations may bite him at some point). The question is whether the Twins can score enough runs — but don’t discount their chances of knocking off the Astros in the ALDS. As for the Jays, they remain without a postseason win in the Vladimir Guerrero Jr./Bo Bichette era, and you have to wonder whether the team needs a major offensive overhaul in the offseason. — David Schoenfield
Rangers 7, Rays 1: Give the Rangers credit: They lost that last series of the season in Seattle, costing them the AL West title, and then had to fly cross-country to play a tough Rays team that had the best home record in the AL. We saw the best version of the Rangers, especially with Jordan Montgomery and Nathan Eovaldi combining to allow just one run in 17⅔ innings. We saw a lineup that has power up and down the lineup — including rookie Evan Carter, who is having an October breakout.
What we didn’t learn: Can the bullpen close out a tight game? The starters went deep and the games weren’t close. And manager Bruce Bochy’s decision to bat Robbie Grossman third against right-handed starters, with some other good hitters to choose from, remains more than a little questionable given Grossman has hit .182 with a .569 OPS against righties the past two seasons. We’ll see if that continues in Baltimore. — Schoenfield
Arizona 5, Brewers 2: What we witnessed during a very brief NL wild card round in Milwaukee might well have been a young, talented team embarking on a new chapter in its history. Arizona’s sweep was impressive — not because its flashy athleticism was on full blast but because the team showed the big stage was not too big. It’s a cliched observation to be sure, but it fits.
The Diamondbacks displayed professional, disciplined at-bats in both games. The quality of their at-bats improved as the games progressed, and they got to Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta the second time through the order. They did it with power, too, always a good formula for postseason winning.
The Arizona bullpen was impressive in the two games, with manager Torey Lovullo showing no compunction about trotting out a parade of guys you’ve probably never heard of. But Kevin Ginkel, Joe Mantiply, Miguel Castro and others have all gotten rolling late in the season — and when a bullpen gathers steam in the playoffs, anything can happen.
To be sure, it’s a gut-punch loss for Milwaukee, which squandered numerous scoring chances with multiple runners on base and so come away from a 94-win season with little to show for it. But credit for that perhaps goes to Arizona too, which did an outstanding job managing situations. If the D-Backs keep that up over the next week, this matchup against the heavily favored Dodgers might be an awful lot of fun. — Bradford Doolittle
Phillies 7, Marlins 1: The Phillies dominated in all phases of the game in their sweep of the Marlins. In Game 2, Aaron Nola cruised through seven scoreless innings and the offense ripped out six extra-base hits, including a 110-mph home run from J.T. Realmuto and a Bryson Stott grand slam to break the game open. Can we read too much into these two games? Not really, as the Marlins had the weakest offense of any of the playoff times. Still, the Phillies certainly look like the team that rolled through the NL side of the bracket last season — except this team is a little deeper, better defensively and still has that raucous home crowd behind them. This sets up what could be the most exciting series of the postseason: Phillies versus Braves. The Braves won the season series 8 to 5, including four out of seven in September. You can throw that out the window. It’s 0-0 now. — Schoenfield
Relive the day
All signs pointed to the Florida Panthers finishing off the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 4, but the Canes kept the series rolling with a 3-0 win on Monday.
Will the Panthers finish the story in Game 5? Or will the Hurricanes send the festivities back to South Florida again?
Here are matchup notes heading into Wednesday’s Game 5 from ESPN Research, as well as betting intel from ESPN BET:
More on Game 4: Recap | Grades
Matchup notes
Florida Panthers at Carolina Hurricanes
Game 5 | 8 p.m. ET | TNT
The Panthers’ odds to win the series are now -1600, adjusted from -5000 heading into Game 4. The Hurricanes’ odds have shifted to +750 (adjusted from +1500) after their win. The Panthers’ odds to win the Cup are now +105 (previously -110), while the Canes’ are now +1800. Sergei Bobrovsky is the leading Conn Smythe candidate in this series at +200, followed by Aleksander Barkov (+800).
Game 4 was the Canes’ first win in the round since Game 7 of the 2006 Eastern Conference finals against the Buffalo Sabres, snapping a 15-game conference finals losing streak. It was the longest losing streak in NHL playoff history for a team in the round preceding the Stanley Cup Final. The Hurricanes are now 4-4 all-time in Game 4s when trailing 3-0 in a best-of-seven series.
Frederik Andersen made 20 saves for his fifth career playoff shutout, his second with the Hurricanes. He joins Cam Ward (four), Kevin Weekes (two) and Petr Mrazek (two) as goaltenders with multiple playoff shutouts in Whalers/Hurricanes Stanley Cup playoffs history.
Carolina’s Logan Stankoven scored playoff goal No. 5 in the second period. He joins Erik Cole (six in 2002) and Warren Foegele (five in 2019) as the only rookies in Whalers/Hurricanes history to score at least five goals in a single Stanley Cup playoffs year.
Sebastian Aho scored an empty-net goal in the third period, his 32nd career playoff tally. That extends his own franchise record for career goals in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Panthers were shut out for the second time this postseason; both games were at home — the other instance was Game 6 of the second-round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Florida went 0-4 on the power play in Game 4, and the team is now 0-8 with the man advantage in the last two games of this series after going 4-for-5 in Games 1 and 2.
Though he hasn’t scored a goal in the past two games, Sam Bennett has a team-leading nine this postseason. That is two shy of the franchise record in a single playoff year, currently held by Matthew Tkachuk (2023) and Carter Verhaeghe (2024).
Scoring leaders
GP: 16 | G: 6 | A: 9
GP: 14 | G: 5 | A: 9
Houston Astros right-hander Ronel Blanco will have surgery on his right elbow and will miss the remainder of the 2025 season, the team announced Wednesday.
The starter had sought a second opinion after being placed on the injured list last week with inflammation in the elbow.
The Astros said Blanco — who is 3-4 with a 4.10 ERA, 48 strikeouts and 20 walks in nine starts this season — is anticipated to return at some point during the 2026 season.
Blanco, 31, is among a long list of starting pitchers on the injured list for the Astros. Right-hander Hayden Wesneski underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery last week, while right-hander Spencer Arrighetti has been out since April after breaking his right thumb in a batting practice mishap.
Houston is also without right-handers Luis Garcia and Cristian Javier, who are both still recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Blanco is in his fourth major league season, all with the Astros. In 2024, he finished 13-6 with a 2.80 ERA in 30 games (29 starts). He threw his only career complete game in his season debut on April 1, no-hitting the Toronto Blue Jays in a 10-0 win.
The Associated Press and Field Level Media contributed to this report.
The Breeders’ Cup world championships are returning to New York in 2027 at the rebuilt Belmont Park, following a massive renovation project to revitalize one of the most important horse racing tracks in the country.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, along with officials from the Breeders’ Cup and the New York Racing Association, announced Wednesday that the track on the edge of Queens and Nassau County on Long Island will stage the event in the fall two years from now.
“We wrote the governor of New York a letter in 2023 that simply said, ‘If you build it, we will come,'” Breeders’ Cup Limited president and CEO Drew Fleming said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. “And so we’re very honored to keep our word and have a wonderful Breeders’ Cup world championship here in 2027 to showcase the new development and investment in Belmont Park to our fans from across the globe.”
Keeneland in Lexington was revealed as the 2026 host.
Belmont Park was last home to the Breeders’ Cup in 2005, the fourth time in two decades after also being there in 1990, 1995 and 2001. A goal of the $455 million teardown and reconstruction was to attract the major event.
“It was always part of the plan: We weren’t going to redevelop Belmont Park without Breeders’ Cup in mind, so it was always part of the initial goals,” NYRA president and CEO David O’Rourke told the AP by phone. “Getting the championships back to New York is big from an economic point of view and probably one of the most important [things], if not the most important. It gives our trainers and horsemen a chance to compete on their home tracks. I think it’s great. It’s been over 20 years.”
Hochul said in a statement that the redevelopment is bringing thousands of jobs and $1 billion in long-term economic activity to Long Island.
“Thanks to the investments we are making at Belmont Park, the long held dream of bringing the prestigious Breeders’ Cup back to New York will soon be a reality,” Hochul said.
The Breeders’ Cup has been at a Kentucky or California track every year since 2008. Del Mar outside San Diego has it this year as a back-to-back host and for the fourth time since 2017.
Santa Anita outside Los Angeles, Keeneland and Churchill Downs in Louisville — home of the Kentucky Derby — have become the regular sites for the two-day festival featuring the best thoroughbreds in the world and tens of millions of dollars’ worth of races. It’s shifting back to the Eastern time zone for the next two years.
“California is and has always been a wonderful spot to have the Breeders’ Cup with Santa Anita Park and Del Mar, but one of the missions of the Breeders’ Cup is to grow the sport, and one of the ways we do this is hosting world championships at various venues across the United States,” Fleming said, adding that he expects the event to generate $100 million for the New York economy.
While NYRA has not announced a location for the 2026 Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the Triple Crown is set to return to its old home by 2027, after a multiyear stint at historic Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York during renovations.
With the Belmont at Belmont Park shifting back to an annual occurrence, it is possible the track known for greats like Secretariat and Seattle Slew rumbling down the stretch to the finish line with fans roaring might get back in a regular rotation.
“The best part about working for the Breeders’ Cup is that nothing is off the table,” Fleming said. “New York City has some of the finest accommodations and restaurants and entertainment in the world, so it’d be a natural fit that we would be at Belmont Park frequently.”
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