The 2024 MLB post-season has had no lack of storylines through two days of wild-card action.
On Wednesday, the upstart Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals stunned their respective opponents, snapping the Houston Astros‘ run of seven straight trips to the ALCS and sending the Baltimore Orioles to another disappointing playoff exit.
Over in the National League, the Milwaukee Brewers staved off elimination at the hands of the New York Mets with some late-game heroics. Meanwhile, the San Diego Padres cruised into an NLDS matchup with the Los Angeles Dodgers thanks to an early offensive onslaught against Max Fried and the Atlanta Braves.
So, as the Tigers, Royals and Padres all celebrate their series victories, here are some takeaways from another exciting day of October baseball.
“Pitching chaos” helps Tigers complete improbable sweep
A.J. Hinch has pressed all the right buttons in turning the Tigers from playoff afterthought into an ALDS participant, and Wednesday’s win was a heat check of sorts for Detroit’s skipper against his former club.
Entering the wild-card series against the Astros, Hinch told reporters that his pitching plan was “Tarik Skubal tomorrow and pitching chaos the rest of the way… Being unpredictable got us here, and we want more of that.”
Well, the Tigers covered nine innings with seven different pitchers — none of whom recorded more than five outs — throwing a handful of different looks at Houston’s hitters.
The ‘Gritty Tigs” run over the past two months has been fuelled by embracing that chaos. After selling at the trade deadline, Detroit’s pitchers posted the lowest ERA in baseball, as a staff made up of unheralded arms and Skubal stepping up in any situation to pitch their club through the first round of the playoffs.
Even when 22-year-old stud pitching prospect Jackson Jobe faltered in the seventh, giving up a 1-0 lead, his bullpen mates picked him up. Lefty Sean Guenther entered with runners on first and third before forcing Kyle Tucker to ground into an inning-ending double play to give the Tigers offence a chance to respond.
It’s that steely attitude and resilience that could have Detroit playing deeper into October. And outside of the reliability of Skubal, if there’s one thing we can continue to expect from these Tigers, it’s that chaos will continue to reign supreme.
Orioles’ offence comes up short in another playoff disappointment
In a season that was supposed to be the Orioles’ arrival among MLB’s elite, Baltimore will enter the off-season thinking about what could have been after getting swept out of the playoffs for a second straight year.
With all the struggles of Baltimore’s bullpen and the attempts to fortify the rotation, holding Kansas City to three runs over two games should have been enough for a Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman-led offence to get the job done.
But just as it did last year at home against the Texas Rangers, the top of the Orioles’ lineup didn’t put up much of a fight. The top-five in Baltimore’s lineup went 3-for-36 in the series, good for a .083 average, while striking out 14 times.
As a team in the series, the Orioles combined to go 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position, a problem that haunted Baltimore as it laboured to a sub-.500 record over the final three months. Perhaps the most damning example came after the Orioles loaded the bases with no outs Wednesday and failed to score.
After being shut out through the first 14 innings of the series, a playoff stretch that extended to 18 straight scoreless frames going back to last year’s ALDS, Cedric Mullins’ solo shot saved Baltimore from the embarrassment of being shut out for the entire series.
While the Orioles’ window is far from closed, with Corbin Burnes and Anthony Santander set to become free agents this off-season, there are going to be more questions than answers about getting over the hump in Baltimore after Wednesday’s loss.
Jackson Chourio has arrived
The youngest player in MLB might have had the largest singular impact on Wednesday.
With the Brewers facing elimination yet again, the 20-year-old rookie rose to the occasion with two opposite-field home runs, including a game-tying blast in the eighth inning that breathed life into the crowd in Milwaukee.
The multi-homer game makes Chourio just the second-youngest player to leave the yard twice in a post-season game — Andruw Jones was just 19 when he did it in the 1996 World Series.
Garrett Mitchell’s two-run shot later in the eighth proved to be the difference, but it was Chourio’s swing that shook the sense of impending doom for the Brewers.
Chourio signed an eight-year, $82 million deal with Milwaukee before the season — the largest deal ever handed out to a player with no major league experience, which appears to be money well spent.
After a second half that had Chourio grading as a top-10 position player in baseball, the six-foot-one outfielder has carried that success into the post-season, where he’ll have a chance to further stamp his status as the future of Brewers baseball in Game 3 on Thursday.
Padres solve one of their biggest weaknesses
San Diego rolled into the wild-card round without much going wrong. It posted the best record in MLB post-trade deadline and had been getting solid performances from its lineup, rotation and bullpen.
But one area the Padres have struggled all year is finding offensive success when facing left-handed pitchers. Since the deadline, San Diego had a .671 OPS against lefties, down from its .784 total against right-handers. So, when the Braves had southpaw Max Fried lined up for Game 2, it looked like one game where Atlanta might have a leg up.
Yet, the Padres seemed pretty comfortable against Fried, who might have donned the Braves colours for the last time. San Diego racked up eight hits and five runs through two innings against Fried. The 30-year-old took a comeback off the hip in the second inning and departed in part due to the injury and ineffectiveness after just 45 pitches.
All five of the Padres’ runs came with two outs in the second, as Kyle Higashioka went deep again, Manny Machado doubled in two runs and Jackson Merrill capped the rally with a two-RBI triple of his own.
While the Braves pushed the Padres to a final out with some late pressure, San Diego enters the NLDS with all the momentum a team could ask for. It will be no easy task for Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers to dispatch their division rivals.