The 2024 Major League Baseball postseason got underway on Tuesday with the opening games of each of the four Wild Card Series. The opening round is a best-of-three series in MLB, which means Tuesday's winners are all one game away from advancing to the Division Series. Meantime, Tuesday's losers are one loss away from seeing their seasons end. Coming into this postseason, the team that won Game 1 of the Wild Card Series has gone on to win all eight series to date under the present format. Seven of those eight series ended in two-game sweeps.
Let's start with the scores.
Tuesday's Wild Card Series scores
Now for some takeaways from Tuesday's playoff action.
Skubal was dominant vs. Astros
The upstart Tigers got vintage results from their ace and the AL Cy Young frontrunner. Tarik Skubal worked six shutout innings and allowed four hits. He struck out six of the 23 batters he faced and issued only one walk. He averaged an impressive 97.4 mph with his fastball and recorded 13 swinging strikes against Houston. Here's a sampling of his afternoon at Minute Maid Park:
Skubal's day ended after just 88 pitches, but after the game Tigers manager – and former Astros manager – A.J. Hinch revealed that his ace had been battling cramps. If the Tigers are indeed able to advance, then Skubal would be lined up to pitch Game 2 of the ALDS against the Guardians on full rest.
Let it be noted that the Astros very nearly mounted a ninth-inning comeback. Yainer Diaz's RBI single made it 3-1, and then the Astros had bases loaded with two outs when Jason Heyward scalded a liner directly into the glove of Tigers first baseman Spencer Torkelson. Heyward's lineout had an expected batting average of .570.
For the Astros, it was their sixth straight playoff loss at home.
The Orioles' hard postseason luck continues
Kansas City got six strong innings from Cole Ragans on their half of this pitchers' duel, and 24-year-old superstar shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. drove in the only run. With two outs in the sixth inning, Witt put a 95-mph Corbin Burnes cutter through the left side to plate Maikel Garcia and make it 1-0 Royals:
Witt Jr. is thus continuing his regular-season excellence. During the regular season, he put up an OPS+ of 171 to go with 374 total bases, 31 steals, and standout defense at short. He figures to finish second in the AL MVP balloting to Aaron Judge of the Yankees.
On the Baltimore side, ace Burnes did his part with eight innings of one-run ball, but the offense was unable to break through. The O's made some noise in the ninth with Ryan O'Hearn's lead-off walk. Then, however, Adley Rutschman was punched out on a 2-2 pitch that appeared to be below the zone:
Two outs later, the Royals notched the first postseason road shutout in franchise history. As for Baltimore, they've now lost nine straight postseason games. If that streak reaches 10 on Wednesday, their season is over.
Mets' bats and bullpen carry the day
The Mets' win over the Brewers was a back-and-forth affair at first, but that changed in the middle innings thanks to a contrast in bullpen performance.
Neither starting pitcher was particularly effective. The Mets' Luis Severino and the Brewers' Freddy Peralta combined for 10 innings of work and seven runs allowed on 10 hits and three walks. Critically, though, Severino worked six of those 10 innings, thus somewhat sparing the Mets' bullpen. That didn't seem a likely outcome after Severino permitted four runs in as many frames to start the game. However, he was able to – industry-mandated terminology forthcoming – settle down and hold the Brewers scoreless in the fifth and sixth innings. Not spared was the Brewers' bullpen. Four relievers combined to work the final five frames, and they fared worse than Peralta did. The Mets in contrast used just two bullpenners, closer Edwin Díaz not among them.
A five-run fifth inning at the expense of that Brewer bullpen gave the Mets some separation, and the big hit came off the bat of veteran slugger J.D. Martinez, who came through as a pinch-hitter:
The clutch knock was a surely welcome one for Martinez, who struggled badly in the second half and particularly in September.
Back to the pitching side, Mets moundsmen retired the last 17 batters they faced and sucked the drama out of what had been a compelling punch-counterpunch game early on.
One mostly cold comfort for Milwaukee is that 19-year-old phenom Jackson Chourio, who appeared to take the next step toward stardom, became the youngest hitter every to record multiple hits in his first postseason game.
Michael King dominated the Braves
The first home run of the 2024 postseason didn't come until the fourth game of the 2024 postseason. Fernando Tatis Jr. of the Padres ended the drought with the first blow of what would be a 4-0:
The story, though, would be the dominance of right-hander Michael King, whom the Padres acquired from the Yankees as part of the Juan Soto blockbuster.
King's stuff was in peak form for his first ever playoff start, and he twirled a gem and made some history:
And here's just a taste of his stuff on this night:
While the Braves on occasion put some traffic on the bases, they were mostly baffled by King's velocity and late, crisp movement. He averaged 95.1 mph with his fastball in Game 1, and overall he threw five different pitches – each at least 10% of the time. He earned 15 swings and misses on Tuesday, with seven coming on a sweeper that was in peak form coming out of King's low-ish arm slot. In the sixth inning, King became the first Padres pitcher to strike out 10 or more batters in a playoff game since Kevin Brown in 1998.
Manager Mike Shildt opted to lift King after seven innings and 89 pitches and turn it over the bullpen in what was still a three-run game thanks to the effectiveness of the Atlanta bullpen. Kyle Higashioka pushed the margin to 4-0 Padres with a solo shot in the eighth, and that score would hold.
