Wednesday’s ESPN doubleheader brings two playoff races into sharp focus, with the White Sox and Guardians opening the day at 1:10 p.m. ET at Progressive Field and the Orioles and Mets following at 7:10 p.m. ET at Citi Field.
In Cleveland, the stakes are straightforward: first place in the AL Central. The Guardians pulled themselves to within a half-game of the White Sox with a wild 7-6 win on Tuesday, and they did it the hard way. Down a run and down to their final strike, Brayan Rocchio lifted a fly ball to left that dropped in for a walk-off two-run double.
That comeback didn’t just swing the division race. It also kept Cleveland firmly in the AL Wild Card mix, where the Guardians hold a 1 1/2-game lead over the Rangers for the third spot.
The offense came with plenty of pop. Cleveland hit three home runs in the win, and rookie Travis Bazzana accounted for two of them. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 Draft is in the middle of a scorching stretch, with five homers and a 1.467 OPS over his past 11 games, spanning 42 plate appearances.
Now the Guardians turn to another rookie arm. Left-hander Parker Messick is scheduled to start Wednesday, while the White Sox have not yet announced a probable pitcher for the series finale.
The later game in New York carries its own postseason weight. The Orioles enter three games behind the final AL Wild Card spot, and they matched Cleveland’s result Tuesday by escaping with a road win over the Mets. That one took 11 innings and a pair of big swings.
The first belonged to Pete Alonso. In his first trip back to his old home since signing with the Orioles as a free agent this past winter, the Mets’ all-time home run leader delivered a game-tying homer in the ninth inning. The New York crowd stayed with him all series, and when he pulled the Mets even with Baltimore just two outs from victory, he got a curtain call.
Alonso’s blast was his 300th career home run and forced extras. After both teams scored in the 10th, Coby Mayo delivered the knockout punch for Baltimore with an inside-the-park, three-run homer in the 11th. Mayo has now homered five times in his last eight games, and the Orioles rode that swing to a 7-5 win.
Baltimore will try to finish off a three-game sweep with veteran right-hander Chris Bassitt on the mound. The 37-year-old will be opposed by 36-year-old Robert Stock.
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The more pressing concern, though, may be the health of the pitching side, where Kyle Bradish has been diagnosed with a sports hernia. Baltimore also has Shane Baz dealing with a swollen elbow, though he is expected to be ready to pitch soon. With the offseason instructional camp for top prospects also part of the Orioles broader calendar, the club suddenly has a few medical storylines to monitor at once, and the Bradish diagnosis adds a different kind of urgency than Hollidays latest setback. [Read more 🡒]
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Orioles Collapse Put This Roster Debate Front And Center
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Instead, the bottom fell out. Baltimore dropped six straight, including a four-game sweep by Boston, and the conversation around the club has shifted from standings math to how this roster was managed, especially in the bullpen, and how injuries and uneven recent play helped sink the postseason bid. What once felt like a team trying to survive the stretch now looks like one whose biggest internal debates were exposed by the collapse. [Read more 🡒]