2025 Wild Card Round

Red Sox - Yankees

Tigers - Guardians

Padres - Cubs

Reds - Dodgers

Shoutout to the Cubs for having day games I can watch, however I will be hoping the Padres paste them for Shaw & Busch reasons.

As a Jays fan, I'm a lot more interested in the outcome of the AL series. Both feel like coin flips.

I will never root for the Yankees in any form or context, no matter the opponent, but other than that I'm OK with any outcome for any of these four series.

Greene vs Snell is a great Game 1 matchup, I can see the Reds winning and scoring a huge upset. And obviously Francona knows how to manage his way through a long postseason.

yanks-sox feels like a close one. already counting game 1 as a crochet-induced loss, but the yankees have the pitching advantage for games 2 and 3. i have never experienced a wild card series as a fan, excited for an entirely new type of stress

Absolutely amazed at the Guardian's hitting ability. The lowest team batting average to make it to the postseason was, I believe, the 1906 White Sox with a .230 BA. The Guardos are batting a cool .226.

damn .226 !

rooting red sox, tigers, and cubs. i don't care enough about the reds to root for an unlikely upset of the dodgers.

Rooting: Sox, don't care, Pads, Reds
Expecting: too close to call x 3, Dodgers

If I was a betting man:
Yanks > Sox
Tigers > Guardians
Cubs > Padres
Dodgers > Reds

Red Sox - Yankees - NYY (hot)

Tigers - Guardians - CLE (hot)

Padres - Cubs - pickem (cubs i guess?)

Reds - Dodgers - LAD (because)

Red Sox, Guardians, Padres, Dodgers imo.

As I watch Tarik Skubal, a six foot three ace who dominates the mound toss yet another scoreless inning I have the same thought I’ve been having every time I see this man mountain dominate: where on earth does he get pants to fit him

Red Sox - Yankees

Tigers - Guardians

Padres - Cubs

Reds - Dodgers

No shit he’s safe

Skubal might smash all the cameras if it’s overturned

Guardians score the only way they know how. High chopper!

xp gavin williams is actually taller than skubal and not skinny-tall either

“Fucking bloop merchants” - Skubal probably

xp Skubal is not skinny tall he fills his pants out

oh yeah i just mean gavin williams is thicc in the same way that skubal is thicc

also i believe cleveland are the slap hitting shit goblins, not bloop merchants

https://i.postimg.cc/DwX4YYNP/G2-Dahj-Hbw-AEVYJr.jpg

all signs pointing to a dodgers loss

https://i.postimg.cc/kMKZqnbn/IMG-1904.jpg

god i love small ball

User Sharivari perked up on realising that Bo Naylor’s walkup song is Metallica’s For Whom The Bell Tolls. He ground out.

tork has to stop that

Who in the world is this good ol' boy in the Pads/Cubs broadcast?

are you kidding me ;_;

Jfc Jram

Who in the world is this good ol' boy in the Pads/Cubs broadcast?

Ben McDonald I think? Does commentary for the Orioles, I’ve heard him sometimes and wondered “Who put Will the Thrill’s dick in a blender?”

Kevin Brown will be on play-by-play. He'll be joined by Jessica Mendoza and Ben McDonald as analyst. Jesse Rogers will be reporting. ESPN Radio will feature Mike Couzens and Chris Burke.

Still haven't decided if I want the Yankees or Red Sox. I supect Boston is the tougher team for the Jays, but I also dread facing Judge/Stanton if they happen to be on fire.

Sorry, been out all day--didn't realize one game's already finished and second is underway.

The Padres should have three runs, now it comes back to bit them

happy that mason miller gets to play in the offs :)

watched an orioles broadcast for the first time in a long time today; jim palmer is still great at 79 -- what hall-of-fame player also has a voice that good? it just sounds like baseball -- and i quite like kevin brown. i'll assume ben mcdonald is an acquired taste

― mookieproof, Thursday, April 3, 2025 9:05 PM (five months ago)

Why is Eddie Vedder there wearing a cubs shirt when the vedder cup is famously Padres-Mariners

Fuck was that throw

Have we talked about how ridiculously handsome Max Fried is yet on ILB? Hard to root against beauty

Max Fried looks like a man who's been at sea for 6 months but im also not here to yuck your yum as the kids say

he's no dansbae

Fried is very handsome but that facial hair is awful

He looks so slim on the mound I was really surprised he was like 6’4”, built like an F1 driver and not, like, Lincecum sized

xxxp finding it really hard to conceive that in anyway being a negative statement. Dansbae is too 80s-coming-of-age-movie-jock-antagonists-nicer-best-friend-coded. But yeah, yuck yum or whatever

The facial hair is what has my eyes wandering back just when I think it's time to move on. What are those little hairs doing there? So wrong yet so right

Lucas Giolito is out til 2026.

Leave Crochet in? He had a 6 pitch 7th inning.

this is hot

Crazy, can the Yankees come back?

I’m not one to cheer for the Yankees - but don’t mind one bit watching Chapman struggle here

Was manifesting a Bellibomb but I'll take it

oooooh big strike out

yup, hope this doesn't end in a double play, too fun of an inning

Why are you complaining, it was a strike

chapman vs the yankees. I’ll let you guys sort that out

lol

Good game

Didn’t expect them to nobletiger

Fuck Aroldis Chapman

yeah but also fuck the yankees and there are more of them

Yeah but you can rely on them to shit the bed anyway. Fuck Aroldis Chapman and his many, many apologists

it's crazy to me in retrospect that the sox were able to just trade for crochet, that dude is the real deal

Nah they traded a really high ceiling prospect (Braden Montgomery) who’s a while away, Kyle Teel, who is going to be pretty good in a couple of years and Chase Meidroth was a throw-in who’s been really good for them. The Montgomery-Teel package was huge.

But yes he’s a fucking stud. Worried about how many he threw tonight though cos he’s been fatigued looking down the stretch but if you have to empty the tank for one start…

Also shout out to Masataka Yoshida, for whatever reason he just kills the Yankees and it’s really funny

Also if you manage to walk Ceddanne who has something like a 45% chase rate and a 1% walk rate you should be optioned sorry Luke Weaver but HOW

fried had that game completely under control. had a couple of rough ball fours

yankee fans pivoting from hating volpe to hating weaver

They should also hate everyone involved in that NOBLETIGER (and lmao why do you not pinch run for Goldy there)

master tactician aaron boone

My that was a flat slider

350 million vs 119 million, whoever thought this would be close?

It's just frustrating after three good games today that this one isn't even a contest. It will probably be for the series as well.

Dodgers bullpen woes will make this an interesting playoffs. They have Kershaw warming up lol.

tying run on deck lmao

i guess this is a save situation?

already 4 walks this inning, why not one more...

the very worst part about this is that the stadium is empty by the 8th inning, nobody is there to suffer through this.

:-(

Gotta love that bullpen

70 pitches in the top of the 8th inning is the new moneyball.

This bit from Posnanski made me laugh:

Here’s one of those facts that SOUNDS impressive on the surface.

FACT: The New York Yankees had FOUR MVPs at the top of their lineup on Monday.

Paul Goldschmidt (2022 MVP)
Aaron Judge (2022 and 2024 MVP)
Cody Bellinger (2019 MVP)
Giancarlo Stanton (2017 MVP)

I mean, that’s unquestionably an impressive group — you’ve got at least two Hall of Famers in there, Giancarlo has hit 453 home runs already, Bellinger was a 5-win player this year, I mean, that’s $112 million in baseball gold.

But you know what it’s like? It’s a bit like saying this movie has four Oscar winners and the four are:

F. Murray Abraham
Leonardo DiCaprio
Cher
Jean Dujardin

That’s an impressive cast. But probably not what you think when you hear “Four Oscar Winners.”

Guards starting three AAA call-ups today ;_;

Wild. What's going on there?

Welcome to the bigs 😭

User Sharivari: Who dropped that?
Me: ahhhhh *looks for lineup*
User Sharivari: they said he’s never played in mlb before?
Me: they called up Chase DeLauter?
User Sharivari: *pause* He should have chased deball

David Fry is injured and, let's face it, no one else can hit that was on the roster so why not. Literally starting a guy who is making his debut today (DeLauter)

Tanner Bibee will not let that rookie suffer on his watch

George Valera going to make me cry

gyac, i'm very sorry you missed the top of the 8th in last night's LAD-CIN game. It had the all the makings to be one of the most spectacular meltdowns I've ever seen.

3R + 3LOB on.... 2 hits.

gyac, i'm very sorry you missed the top of the 8th in last night's LAD-CIN game. It had the all the makings to be one of the most spectacular meltdowns I've ever seen.

I’m still getting over my crushing disappointment that the NYY managed a NOBLETIGER tbffff

UK broadcast talking about how Cal Raleigh has “touched and influenced the rest of his team”. Yeah I’ve read that fic too.

quite a pivotal instant replay challenge

He looked safe

Wow, they overturned that?

wow huge!

run doesn't count :-0

lord this center fielder is going to kill me

Guardians making every fly ball an adventure.

feels like kyle tucker should not be playing maybe. or at least not batting fourth. he does not look comfortable at all.

dude is broken

Wow

WOW

More runs in that inning than the rest of the series

yup. def going to game three.

Save some for tomorrow!

oh man

imperial frfr (Steve Shasta)
Posted: 1 October 2025 at 04:49:39
tying run on deck lmao

They’re pulling Cease already???

Crazy

PCA tagged the ump with a foul ball and he jumped up yelling lol

did he look shaky or something? i'd only been paying half attention.

Cease was dealing and now the Padres bullpen has to cover 5.1 innings.

He looked sharp to me but also working, watching other game.

Xpost

There goes that man again

There goes that man again

🤨

mason miller just threw a ball at 104 mph

painted the corner with it too

pittsburgh kid

What a catch, that probably saved a run

Good game!

WTF

Gets out of it

I’m sweating

Crazy game but fun

david bednar, also a pittsburgh kid

Important thing to remember is that Alex Cora had a gold glove RFer sitting on his bench until the 9th. Oh, and Duran is a terrible LFer.

MLB really hit it out of the park with this Wild Card format. One and done wasn't this compelling. Three out of four teams? Plus, these games have been a blast.

Lux should have scored

Didn't cost them

I have watched three games today and also yesterday. I'm done but will check watch the score.

MLB really hit it out of the park with this Wild Card format. One and done wasn't this compelling. Three out of four teams? Plus, these games have been a blast.

― Bee OK, Wednesday, October 1, 2025 9:16 PM (thirty-one minutes ago)

the thing that annoys me is the 3rd best division winner has to play a WC round. i feel like they should have done 2 WC teams only - so 1 WC series, the winner plays the top division winner, division winners 2 and 3 play each other.

hooo boy big at bat here

Yeah I like that. They are currently penalizing a division winner too heavily based on overall record. xp

pretty brutal sequence of events for Cinci right here

welp

alas, tito

From a NOBLETIGER to this

What's the record for intentional walks in a post season inning?

Reds could maybe make a game outta this

Lots of chances, no follow through

the thing that annoys me is the 3rd best division winner has to play a WC round. i feel like they should have done 2 WC teams only - so 1 WC series, the winner plays the top division winner, division winners 2 and 3 play each other.

We had this format, but with the WC game rather than a series. Except that there were only five playoff teams, and MLB wanted six so...

They could always expand to seven teams like the NFL and give the bye to the one seed, while the other six teams play in a WC round. At this point, why not? The playoffs are watered down enough, what's wrong with watering them down a little more.

I don’t really have a problem with a division winner having to earn it further. some years, that division winner is going to have 83 wins or w/e

I think they should change the format of this round to win-and-you’re-in for the higher seed though. higher seed has two home games to win once, lower seed has to win both to advance

I agree, that's more interesting than the current format.

Noticing some significant arbitrage voltility between Vegas odds & Fangraphs WS odds.

Does frogbs lurk here? Curious his thoughts. (as always: should probably verify the veracity of fangraphs' quants).

#freeippei

oh Wenceel-paws

(why on earth are the Tigers batting him 3rd and Riley Greene 5th?)

well you can't bet against fangraph odds, can you?

George Valera had patellar tendon surgery last year and he was running to home there no matter what lol

Jram is a stud

And then he gets thrown out

Chase deLauter has a great head of hair

i'm disappointed the tigers can guards can't both advance

(why on earth are the Tigers batting him 3rd and Riley Greene 5th?)

Hinch said something pre-game about spreading out the hitters to complicate the Guardians' decision making, or some similar nonsense.

Nice to be finally be able to watch some of this series live, though all the LOBs and 63-pitch José Ramírez ABs would have driven me crazy.

Nice to be finally be able, yes indeed.

Wencel Perez huh

Cleveland again failing to clinch a playoff series with an opportunity at home.

Oh well. Try again next year.

Riley Greene huh

Good night!

Foghorn leghorn commenting on Darvish: They’re probably trying to run on him, he’s a big guy, 6’5” 225 pounds, it takes him a while to…

My brain automatically fills in “get drunk, yeah”
https://i.postimg.cc/tCyDf38h/IMG-2095.jpg

think i made this point last year but they should get rid of the 3 batters faced rule for the playoffs. gaddis shouldn't have been left in there for that long

That's a good point, they do get rid of the ghost runner so changing that works too

https://awfulannouncing.com/mlb/buster-olney-reds-tipping-pitches-against-dodgers.html

Lol, of course

i think you agreed with me last year when i made the same post bee!

Why would you throw a pitch where hitters slug over 900 against it twice

Gaddis pitched 1.2 innings on Tuesday, 0.2 innings on Wednesday (yesterday) & 0.1 innings today... the results were as expected (good, eh, and yikes).

It's almost as if CLE doesn't have any other relievers.

They did pretty well for a team where their highest leverage bullpen arms just stopped being available for some reason

Darvish is going through it rn

What an unbelievably shit throw to the cutoff man. Who even was the cutoff man?

“Pete Crow-Armstrong is unbelievably comfortable with letting people see all of him”

Darvish out!!

Darvish out, Padres pen pulled pork but pressed to prevail

insane bottom of the 8th for the gourds

The TPUSA twins blow the opportunity to blow it open

Padres got lucky to only give up the two

yeah I'd take it but 7 bullpen innings might be a challenge

Michael King might be available from the pen?

are morejon and miller available today?

I suspect everyone whose arm isn’t hanging off by a literal thread is

Sorry why is kevin brown here is he up for a veterans committee vote or something

man...Cubs defense is playing outta their minds

I don’t think they were as good this year but wasn’t that long since Dansby-Nico up the middle was a lethal combo

Crazy catch, xp otm

"the padres are right where they want to be"

cubs showing us mets fans why defense matters :(

Typo of the day: "Nogaerts"

wow

Was in the wrong thread, this is fun

I don't know about that

Charges mind

robo umps when? this is embarrassing:

https://i.imgur.com/1TWzPcK.png

well, five runs in three games isn't gonna get it done

(tbf six shouldn't either)

Padres just can't get out of their own way

alternate robo-ump universe:

jmerrill hr (1-3)
bogaerts walks on 6 bbs
ohearn hbp
bjohnson hbp (bases loaded no outs)
bogaerts scores on the bobble (2-3)
1 out, runners on second and third
ohearn scores on fermin's sac fly to CF
3-3 tie game

It was a ball. Definitely sacks that it probably cost them

Feels like the first chance I've had to settle down and watch one of these games...still not sure who I want to win. I've never felt older than right now, looking at this Boston starter.

Can the Sox not afford to take him out? Not even a mound visit, feels weird

never root for the yankees, clemenza

I mean a bit of bad babip luck for Early, but there's been a lot of bat on ball this inning

seems like they left Early in...

(•_•)
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)

...a little too late

Hard, I know, I just feel like Boston will be tougher--Crochet twice in a five-game series would be daunting. (The radio guys today said he'd start twice, I don't know how accurate this is.) Anyway, Cora better be careful, this game is on the verge of getting out of hand.

Hmm

I think he's a little late on being careful

Ya Buck was saying the Red Sox would be a harder team for the jays to face. Neither team is perfect (BOS or NY) - but the Yankees make me more nervous than the Sox. Esp now that Giolitto is out.

I don't know if a guy can become a legend in a WC series, but Schlittler's giving it a go.

i don't really think that matchups matter so much in a five-game series? play well and you win.

i'd just hate to see any otherwise neutral fan support the yankees

Dreaming, I know, but I hope Boone sends him out for the 9th.

my back of the envelope match has schittler with a game score of 89, which would be in the top 25 ever in a playoff game

espn says

Game Scores: C Schlittler 84

(which is pretty damn good!)

If the Jays-Yankees were to go 5, I'll set the over-under for how many official AB Judge gets at 12.

Schlittler was born/raised BoSox fan which makes this kinda 🙃

Schlittler was born/raised BoSox fan which makes this kinda 🙃

Schlittler and Rice, both MA natives. Brutal combo.

Hopefully the Jays roll these Yankees over now, too bad there wasn’t a guy who famously killed the Yankees on the Sox who might have made a difference this series!

yeah, i heard that mentioned during the pregame on the radio - Schlittler's never getting a warm family reunion welcome from here on out!

Great series for the Jarren Duran hatewatch crowd (me)

Nb I did not watch this game, I had to go to sleep early to get up early but I just woke up

Man I'm glad this game was on too late for me to get sucked into

Red Sox very mid team this year with all the injuries, trading away their best hitter etc - this is the ceiling of what I could have expected. I'm not a big fan of the Jays but of course I'm hoping they trounce los Yanks

Lotta small-ball teams left and I have this horrible feeling this could be Judge's year. All he and Stanton have to do to beat these teams is hit a few home runs. But man I wouldn't mind, say, Brewers-Tigers or Brewers-Mariners

But they were tremendously locked in!

Turns out you can’t outvibe talent.

check out these fuckin babies: https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/san-diego-padres/news/padres-players-coaches-get-heated-altercation-umpires-after-season-ending-loss-cubs/81ddd64251307adf7e195abc

do you guys start a real playoffs thread now?

i do feel bad for the padres though. they are the small market team that spent big and went into debt to do so. top 5 fanbase. they are the dads who stepped up.

they have Manny Machado on their team so fuck them

not seeing anybody give jose ramirez grief for not legging out second base on that bad throw in the bottom of the 8th yesterday. what's up with that?

do you guys start a real playoffs thread now?

I’ll do that later today, catch all division series threads or a thread for every match in case any of them attract hatewatchers?

1 rolling offs thread is fine

K

rolling CS/DS thread is fine... maybe even tag on WS based on low traffic round these parts.

No way, WS should always have it's own thread.

Low traffic? Considering the posters here, I'm expecting 500+ posts on Yanks vs Jays, particularly if it goes five.

look i'm going to come clean i don't want to see the word "Yankees" at the top of SNA if i don't have to

No way, WS should always have it's own thread.

Agree--think there's been an unbroken string of WS threads since I came on here in 2010.

Looked at the 2010 WS thread vs. last year's...the drop-off in posting is clear, but actually not as drastic as I expected (which probably says more about how drastic a drop-off I expected): 877 posts ---> 611 posts. (The great 2011 WS generated 1,081 posts.)

TOR NYY - TOR
SEA DET - SEA

MIL CHC - MIL
LAD PHI - pickem but PHI i think