MLB wild-card series Day 1: Best moments, analysis

The MLB playoffs are here!

After a wild conclusion to the regular season, all eight wild-card teams were in action Tuesday as the best-of-three round began -- with division rivalries dotting this year's matchups. 

The action kicked off with the American League Central champion Cleveland Guardians falling to the Detroit Tigers, followed by the Chicago Cubs taking Game 1 at home against the San Diego Padres thanks to back-to-back blasts. Then the rival Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees battled in a pitchers' duel that saw Boston come out on top, while the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers put on an offensive showcase, outslugging the Cincinnati Reds 10-5.

We've got you covered with sights and sounds from the ballparks and postgame takeaways from each Day 1 matchup.

Key links: Mega-preview | Passan's take | Bracket | Schedule

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Takeaways | Sights and sounds

Takeaways

Los Angeles Dodgers 10, Cincinnati Reds 5

Los Angeles leads series 1-0

The Dodgers' offense was in full force against Hunter Greene, one of the game's best pitchers. And L.A. starter Blake Snell dominated, delivering the type of postseason performance his team dreamed of when he signed a $182 million contract early last offseason. It looked as if the Dodgers would cruise to a Game 1 victory, validating their belief that when it mattered most, the championship squad from 2024 would show up.

Then the Dodgers' bullpen checked in -- a reminder that if that unit is not right, this team might not advance much further. Alex Vesia, Edgardo Henriquez and Jack Dreyer combined to allow four walks and record just three outs, turning a laugher into what briefly felt like a nail-biter. The Dodgers still had enough to beat Cincinnati, but if they advance, the opponents will get tougher, and the games will get tighter. -- Alden Gonzalez

In their first wild-card game, Blake Snell and the Dodgers sent an early message for this postseason:

This is not the Dodgers team that entered the 2023 postseason with a broken-down rotation and found itself quickly eliminated. This is not even the Dodgers team that entered the 2024 postseason with a broken-down rotation and somehow scratched and slugged its way to a World Series title. No, this is a team with a healthy Snell, who cruised in Game 1 until tiring in the seventh inning. A healthy Yoshinobu Yamamoto, ready to go in Game 2. A healthy Tyler Glasnow. Oh, and a healthy Shohei Ohtani, who also happens to be pretty good with the bat. -- David Schoenfield

Boston Red Sox 3, New York Yankees 1

Boston leads series 1-0

This was a pitchers' duel between Max Fried and Garrett Crochet -- two of baseball's best hurlers -- until it wasn't. Manager Aaron Boone, with his Yankees nursing a 1-0 lead, chose to pull Fried with one out and the bases empty in the seventh inning. Disaster ensued. Luke Weaver issued an 11-pitch walk to Ceddanne Rafaela and soon exited after giving up two runs without getting an out. On the other side, Boston manager Alex Cora stuck to his starter for 7⅔ innings. Crochet's career-high 117th and final pitch was a 100.2 mph fastball that caught Austin Wells looking for strike three. Cora then summoned Aroldis Chapman for a four-out save. The first out came easy. The next three did not. Chapman surrendered three straight singles to begin the ninth inning before retiring the next three hitters -- Giancarlo Stanton, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Trent Grisham. In the end, Boston's pitching plan won out. -- Jorge Castillo

It was a tale of two arms.

First, Chapman, the most dominant closer in baseball this season, escaped a no-out, bases-loaded jam in the ninth to close it out. The key sequence: An 0-2, 101 mph fastball that Chapman left over the middle of the plate to Giancarlo Stanton that Stanton just missed and fouled off, followed by a splitter to strike out Stanton for the first out.

Then there was Aaron Judge's arm -- or lack of it, due to his shoulder injury that has left him unable to air it out. Nick Sogard took advantage on his base hit in the seventh, stretching a single into a double on Judge then scoring the go-ahead run. It's enough to ask: Do the Yankees consider DHing Judge and benching Stanton? -- Schoenfield

Chicago Cubs 3, San Diego Padres 1

Chicago leads series 1-0

San Diego's Nick Pivetta was rolling at the top of the strike zone against the Cubs in Game 1 -- until he wasn't. Seiya Suzuki and Carson Kelly made the necessary adjustments, taking Pivetta deep in the fifth inning while helping secure the 3-1 win for Chicago. The Cubs didn't plan that flamethrower Daniel Palencia would take the mound in the middle innings, just when the shadows started to hover over home plate; but it worked to their advantage as he was lights out, striking out two in 1⅔ clean innings. The theme of Game 1 highlighted what we saw from the Padres throughout the regular season: They can be pitched to. That includes the bottom of the order, which went 1-for-12. San Diego needs a better showing at the plate in Game 2. -- Jesse Rogers

There is always urgency in a postseason series, but even more so in the best-of-three wild-card series. Cubs manager Craig Counsell played it that way when he brought in Daniel Palencia -- the team's closer most of the season -- in the fifth inning with a runner on to face Fernando Tatis Jr. and Luis Arraez. Palencia, who had missed two weeks in September with a shoulder strain, got out of that inning, watched Seiya Suzuki and Carson Kelly hit back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the fifth and then cruised through the 3-4-5 spots in the lineup in the sixth inning. Drew Pomeranz, Andrew Kittredge and Brad Keller then closed it out for Chicago, making the story of Game 1 the Cubs bullpen -- and not the much vaunted Padres pen. -- Schoenfield

Detroit Tigers 2, Cleveland Guardians 1

Detroit leads series 1-0

If you're facing the Tigers' Tarik Skubal this postseason in an elimination game, be very afraid. Skubal has arguably been baseball's best pitcher going back to last season, but rarely has he -- or anyone -- looked as dominant as he did in Tuesday's Game 1. A Tigers' postseason-record-tying 14 strikeouts, a career-high 11 pitches over 100 miles per hour and only three balls out of the infield over 7⅔ innings. The game was straight out of 1976, with Cleveland's Gavin Williams allowing only a pair of unearned runs and working until the seventh inning, and all three runs scoring small-ball style, including a go-ahead sacrifice bunt from Detroit's Zach McKinstry in the seventh. Skubal didn't get much help from his offense but he didn't need much. Pure filth. -- Bradford Doolittle

It's hard enough beating Skubal with a great lineup, but it's basically impossible beating him with a playoff lineup that features a sub-.200 hitter batting cleanup. Yep, Cleveland hit Johnathan Rodriguez fourth -- a player who had just 77 plate appearances all season and hit .197. And when the Guardians used a pinch hitter in the eighth inning with the tying run in scoring position, manager Stephen Vogt went to ... Bo Naylor, who hit .195. As inspiring as Cleveland's all-time September comeback to win the division was, this is still a team that has trouble scoring runs. Unfortunately, the Guardians blew their last chance after Jose Ramirez reached third with nobody out in the bottom of the ninth following an error, as he tried scoring on a bouncer back to pitcher Will Vest, a colossal blunder from one of the best baserunners in the league. -- Schoenfield

Sights and sounds

We've got you covered with all the best moments from the ballparks on the first day of the playoffs.

Reds at Dodgers

Dodgers' bullpen struggles again, but L.A.'s offense gets the win