The MLB playoffs begin Tuesday with all four wild-card series on the board, and the day is loaded from the first pitch to the last. It starts in Philadelphia, shifts to Houston, moves to the Bronx, and finishes late in San Diego.
The Phillies earned their spot by winning their final regular-season game, and now they get the Braves in Game 1 of a rivalry series. Atlanta cruised to the NL East title and will turn to Chris Sale to open the series.
Philadelphia used Zack Wheeler in Sunday’s season finale and will hand the ball to Jesús Luzardo for the opener. The winner moves on to face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS.
In the afternoon, the White Sox visit the Astros. Houston is hosting after winning the AL West with an 81-81 record, while Chicago finished 84-78 but ended up a game behind the Guardians in the AL Central. The winner of that matchup gets the Cleveland Guardians in the ALDS.
Night baseball brings another familiar heavyweight clash: Red Sox vs. Yankees.
It’s the second straight year these two meet in the wild-card round, and the Yankees took last year’s series in three games after losing Game 1. Boston’s season took a sharp turn thanks to a 15-game winning streak in July, but the offense vanished in September, when the Red Sox scored the fewest runs in MLB with 71.
The Yankees also had the upper hand in their most recent meeting, taking three of four in late August and finishing that set with a 16-1 win. The winner here advances to play the Tampa Bay Rays.
The nightcap should have plenty of juice too, with the Cubs and Padres closing out the wild-card slate. Chicago is led by likely NL MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong, who hit 45 home runs and stole 41 bases.
San Diego, meanwhile, has been the hottest team in baseball over the past two months, going 41-18 over its final 59 games. The reward for the winner: a date with the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLDS.
Elsewhere, Andy Nesbitt also laid out the day’s top non-baseball moments, with Jalen Hurts, LeBron James, Payton Tolle, Stephen Curry and Case Keenum all making the list.
The full Tuesday slate also includes Aces at Fever at 6:30 p.m. ET on Prime, with Indiana back home facing elimination, and Lynx at Liberty at 8:30 p.m.
ET on USA Network and CNBC, as the league’s top seed tries to avoid a sweep on the road. In the NHL, the Panthers visit the Hurricanes at 5 p.m.
ET on ESPN, with Carolina set to raise its championship banner before the season opener.
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Yankees Face A Brutal Center Field Call At The Worst Time
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Spencer Jones has put himself into the conversation as a possible starter in center field, thanks in part to his strong work against left-handed pitching. The issue is that the rookie comes with defensive questions, and in a postseason setting there is very little margin for a mistake, which is why Boones balancing act could end up being one of the most important choices the Yankees make this week. [Read more 🡒]
Yankees Added A Familiar Red Sox Twist To This Playoff Roster
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A-Rods Latest October Promo Got Upstaged By A Brutal Family Comment
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Natasha Rodriguez had other ideas about how the post should land. Her comment on the video cut through the marketing polish by calling out the fact that the clip was AI-generated, a blunt family-level reality check that upstaged the promo itself. For FOX, the bigger picture still points toward a heavyweight October presence, but Rodriguezs latest social-media moment showed how quickly the conversation can shift when the audience includes people who know the star beyond the broadcast booth. [Read more 🡒]