MLB wild-card round Day 1 takeaways, keys to Game 2
It’s MLB playoff time!
After a bonus Monday of action to decide the final two National League postseason spots, eight teams were in action Tuesday as the 2024 MLB playoffs began with the best-of-three wild-card round.
The Game 1 action started with the Detroit Tigers defeating the Houston Astros, and the Kansas City Royals followed with a shutout of the Baltimore Orioles. Then, in a game with multiple lead changes, the New York Mets came out on top over the Milwaukee Brewers. The San Diego Padres capped the night with a commanding 4-0 win over the Atlanta Braves.
We’ve got you covered with takeaways, live updates and analysis from the Day 1 games, as well as one thing to know for each Game 2.
Key links: Everything you need to know | Bracket | Picks | Watch on ESPN, ABC
Jump to: Takeaways | Live updates
Today’s matchups
* All times Eastern
Detroit leads series 1-0
Before Jason Heyward sent a line drive whizzing into the glove of Spencer Torkelson, before the Astros’ bats came alive in the final inning and before the Tigers teetered on the brink of losing their playoff opener in heartbreaking fashion, there was Tarik Skubal, the soon-to-be Cy Young winner, doing what he has done all season — attacking with his fastball, perplexing with his changeup, befuddling with his slider and carrying an upstart team that nobody expected to see here. Skubal kept the potent Astros scoreless through six innings, scattering four hits, walking one, striking out six and throwing 64 of his 88 pitches for strikes. He was struck in the wrist by a liner in the second inning, he dealt with cramping in his left side in the sixth, and none of it mattered. In his first postseason start, the best pitcher in baseball pitched like it.
One thing to know for Game 2: Tigers manager A.J. Hinch promised “pitching chaos” after Skubal, and at the moment, there’s pitching mystery. No announcement has been made, but Reese Olson seems a likely candidate — to pitch the bulk of the innings, at least, with an opener coming in before him. The Astros will turn to young right-hander Hunter Brown, which means Yusei Kikuchi will follow in a potential Game 3. — Alden Gonzalez
Kansas City leads series 1-0
Over a four-game sweep in the American League Championship Series in 2014, the Kansas City Royals outscored the Baltimore Orioles by six runs. It was a dastardly series for Baltimore, one that still stings, and one brought to mind Tuesday afternoon when the Royals again nosed out a crucial postseason win against the Orioles.
Kansas City’s 1-0 victory in Game 1 of their wild-card series at Camden Yards was textbook Royals. They are a team that manufactures runs more than they slug them in, and they are a team that rides excellent starting pitching to victories. A Maikel Garcia walk and stolen base followed by a Bobby Witt Jr. single accounted for the lone tally. Six brilliant innings from Cole Ragans followed by three relievers cobbling together three more scoreless took care of the pitching.
One thing to know for Game 2: It’s easy to forget how bad the Royals were a year ago. Though Baltimore was en route to a 101-win season, Kansas City lost 106 games, an unseemly sum, the kind of losing that tends not to go away in a hurry. Now the Royals have two cracks at one win to send them on to the division series at Yankee Stadium, with Seth Lugo — their co-ace with Ragans — going in Game 2 against Baltimore’s trade-deadline savior, Zach Eflin. –– Jeff Passan
New York leads series 1-0
The Mets were in clutch mode with their playoff-clinching classic win over Atlanta on Monday and they remained there a day later in Milwaukee. New York withstood Milwaukee’s burst of early energy, clipping off potentially huge innings with limited damage. That was thanks to Luis Severino, who persisted through six innings despite traffic on the bases l throughout his outing.
That was clutch enough, but the Mets went way clutch in the fifth, registering five two-out runs against the dominant Milwaukee bullpen. New York went 5-for-7 with runners in scoring position overall. Almost everyone pitched in, but the key blows were Jesse Winker‘s thumb-nosing, two-run third-inning triple and Mark Vientos‘ two-run, go-ahead single in the fifth. Clutch all around.
One thing to know for Game 2: Now the Mets can end things Wednesday when Sean Manaea takes the mound looking to upend a lot of bad postseason history. In three playoffs outings for Oakland and San Diego, he went 0-3 with a 15.26 ERA. That’s a lot to upend — but, then again, that’s precisely the kind of history the Mets have been turning over since early in the season. — Bradford Doolittle
The Braves hitters must’ve felt like they were facing a pitcher throwing a Wiffleball at 95 mph, because Michael King was throwing sweepers and sinkers and other pitches all from the same slot — and the ball was moving and darting all over the plate. He was so good with his command, throwing 73% of his pitches for strikes, that he got ahead in the count consistently and forced the hitters to swing; there were a couple of instances of right-handed hitters hacking at pitches in the left-handed batters box. Although King had good performances for the Yankees, this was really his first big moment on a national stage, and he owned Game 1, striking out 12 and walking none.
One thing to know for Game 2: Because of the dominoes caused by the Chris Sale injury and Monday’s doubleheader, the Braves knew they would probably be very fortunate to win Game 1 — A.J. Smith Shawver was making his first appearance in a big-league game in 131 days. The Braves have a much better shot in Game 2, with Max Fried starting. In his last outing, he was totally dominant in eight innings against the Royals. If the Braves lose this series, this will likely be Fried’s last game with Atlanta. He’ll be a free agent this fall.
Live updates
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Greg Wyshynski
RALEIGH — Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said his players have to be smarter about retaliating against the Florida Panthers‘ trademark agitation.
“We know that’s how they do things,” he said on Wednesday, after Florida took a 1-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals with a 5-2 win. “Find a way not to let that get to you. Stick to what is going to win us games.”
At issue for the Hurricanes in Game 1 was center Sebastian Aho‘s roughing penalty against Florida’s Anton Lundell at 6:59 of the first period, which negated a Carolina power play and led to Carter Verhaeghe scoring the first goal of the game on a Panthers’ power play. Aho took a swing at Lundell after the Panthers center cross-checked him. The referees whistled the retaliation but not the initial stickwork that provoked it.
“I mean, the first penalty is bad call, right? You’re going to have those. But that’s my thing: Retaliation penalties are not going to get it done,” Brind’Amour said. “We did a pretty good job with [retaliation], but it just takes one. That’s my point. You can’t have that one, because that really puts you behind the game and now it’s different.”
The Hurricanes are 5-0 when scoring first in the playoffs and 3-3 when they don’t. Carolina’s penalty kill had stopped 14 of 15 power plays at home and 28 of 30 overall in the playoffs until Game 1, when Florida went 2-for-3 with the man advantage.
“They made us pay. It’s a good team that knows how to score goals and finds way to win games when you make mistakes,” Carolina captain Jordan Staal said. “We’ve got to limit those mistakes.”
Another example of the Hurricanes’ retaliation, though a less costly one for Carolina, came in the third period when defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere deliberately shot a puck at Florida forward Brad Marchand. In this case, the Panthers got the worst of it, as Marchand was given a double minor for roughing and a 10-minute misconduct.
“Just heated. I was pretty pissed off. He tried to take a run at me. I shot the puck at him. We had a little [tussle],” Gostisbehere said.
After Game 1, neither Panthers players nor coach Paul Maurice would discuss the incident in detail.
“It happens. It’s what it is. I mean, we block shots all the time, so what’s the difference?” Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad said.
That attitude extends to the Panthers’ composure on the ice. While the Panthers have earned their reputation as an irritating, physical opponent — attributes that helped them win the Stanley Cup for the first time last season — they can dish it out and take it.
Look no further than the Florida crease in Game 1, where the Hurricanes crashed the net of goalie Sergei Bobrovsky with frequency. At one point, forward Andrei Svechnikov‘s hip collided with Bobrovsky’s head. But the goalie wasn’t knocked off his game and his team didn’t retaliate.
“It’s OK. It’s the playoffs. They try to get under the skin. I just focus on my things and try not to think about that,” Bobrovsky said after his Game 1 win.
Maurice praised his netminder’s composure.
“Sergei’s not a kid. He’s been through it. He’s been bumped. He’s just developed a skill set that it just doesn’t bother him,” the coach said. “No one likes getting elbowed in the head, but it won’t be the first time or the last time.”
Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals is Thursday night in Raleigh. The Hurricanes have now lost 13 straight games in that round of the playoffs, including five straight to the Panthers.
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