After a day of rest, the postseason is back and has all eight remaining teams in action. The Brewers, Phillies, Blue Jays, and Mariners will all see their first bit of October after waiting through the Wild
Card Series on a bye, and the Yankees will see Toronto first hand as they kick off their first-ever postseason matchup with their rivals north of the border. They narrowly lost out on defending their division crown thanks in large part to the poor performances they put on against the Jays, many of them coming in Toronto, so today could spell revenge for the Bombers or the continuation of a season-long trend. Considering that they just exercised the same kinds of demons against Boston, perhaps there’s hope for the former.
We’re loaded with playoff content for you ahead of the games getting started, beginning with Jeremy and Sam delivering playoff previews of our last two uncovered teams: the Phillies and Brewers, respectively. Josh shares his thoughts on Cam Schlittler and the weight of having a legacy this early in one’s career, while Michael dives into what made so many of those previous bouts with the Blue Jays end up as losses — the Yankees’ suspect defense. Kevin covers the 2000 Yankees getting their first win of the postseason OTD for our Diary series, and I’ll be around to answer this week’s mailbag. Be on the lookout for lineups getting posted early in the afternoon, and then it’ll be time to reset and jump into another meat grinder of a matchup.
Division Series Game 1 Schedule:
Milwaukee Brewers vs. Chicago Cubs
(RHP Freddy Peralta vs. LHP Matthew Boyd)
Time: 2:08 p.m. ET
TV: TBS
Venue: American Family Field (Milwaukee, WI)
Toronto Blue Jays vs. New York Yankees
(RHP Kevin Gausman vs. RHP Luis Gil)
Time: 4:08 p.m. ET
TV: FOX
Venue: Rogers Centre (Toronto, ON)
Philadelphia Phillies vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
(LHP Christopher Sanchez vs. RHP Shohei Ohtani)
Time: 6:38 p.m. ET
TV: TBS
Venue: Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia, PA)
Seattle Mariners vs. Detroit Tigers
(RHP George Kirby vs. RHP Troy Melton)
Time: 8:38 p.m. ET
TV: FS1
Venue: T-Mobile Park (Seattle, WA)
Questions/Prompts:
1. Would you rather be in the Yankees’ shoes coming off of their thrilling win over Boston, or Toronto’s getting to rest and set their rotation for this series?
2. Give us your predictions for the other three series, who wins and in how many games?
