Scoreboard Watching: NLWC Chaos (Oct 2, 2025)

Thankfully, the Dodgers can launder their beer-soaked shirts today, before flying on a plane to Philadelphia for the NLDS. But the six other teams in Wild Card games are still alive, so we can keep tabs on these while we wait for the dryer cycle to finish:

• Tigers at Guardians, 12n. Harvard-Westlake's own Jack Flaherty (8-15, 4.64), who helped the Dodgers hoist their 2024 World Series Championship trophy, now tries to stop Detroit's late-season collapse. He faces off against the resurgent Guardians' Slade Cecconi (7-7, 4.30), who has the same first name as Deathstroke.
• Padres at Cubs, 2p. 2017 Dodger Yu Darvish (5-5, 5.38) tries to lead the upstart Padres, the four seed, against the #5 seed Cubs' Jameson Taillon (11-7, 3.68). The Padres' bullpen has been formidable in Games 1 and 2, but both Mason Miller and Adreian Morejon have thrown a lot of pitches in both games (Robert Suarez was only used in Game 2). The Cubs had three runs Tuesday and were shut out yesterday (the only team to be shutout so far this postseason); do they have enough offense to fromage the Friars?
• Red Sox @ Yankees, 5p. Better get up (Connelly) Early (1-2, 2.33), who had only four career starts and 19.1 IP this season (his MLB debut), yet takes the mound against the Yankees' Cam Schlittler (4-3, 2.96). Not exactly the big-name matchup we'd expect in a winner-take-all game between storied rivals, but here we go anyway. There's been a lot of talk about Alex Cora's overuse of the bullpen yesterday, but Yankees manager Aaron Boone will be right with Cora in the dissection about his in-game decisions, if the Yank-Mes lose tonight.

Post-2025 NLWC Game 2 Thread: Dodgers Advance to NLDS @ Philadelphia

Here's what Dodger pitchers see for the strike zone in the eighth inning.

DODGERS 8, REDS 4
DODGERS WIN NLWC 2-0

The other Wild Card series today were pure chaos. Cleveland rose from the dead, scoring five in the bottom of the eighth inning, to tie their series 1-1. San Diego punched back in Chicago, with Manny Machado hitting a key two-run HR in the fifth, to tie their series 1-1. And then Jazz Chisholm's speed saved the Yankees' bacon, with New York downing Boston 4-3, to tie their series 1-1.

That left the Dodgers/Reds series, with the Dodgers up 1-0 in the series. It sure looked like the baseball gods wanted another WC series tie, when Teoscar Hernandez boffed a lazy fly ball in the first inning to put the Reds up 2-0 and drive Yoshinobu Yamamoto's pitch count up by almost double.

But the Dodgers battled back to take a 3-2 lead in the fourth, and then opened up for four runs in the sixth to make it 7-2 Los Angeles. In the seventh inning, Mookie Betts doubled in another run; Betts went 4-for-5 with 3 RBI and was the player of the game. Betts batted .667 with a 1.700 OPS in this NL Wild Card series, which is just unreal, even with the small sample size.

Meanwhile, despite being behind from the start, Yamamoto perservered and had an outstanding outing: 113 pitches, 6.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 2 BB and 9 Ks. The 113 pitches was his season high.

Leave it to the Dodgers to crumble in the eighth--again!--with Emmet Sheehan getting only one out and giving up two ER (and two walks), before Alex Vesia (who was hopeless last night) came in mid-AB and got a one-pitch striekout before striking out TJ Friedl (the tying run!) to escape a bases loaded jam.

I think I heard Rick Monday say that the Dodgers used 100 pitches to get through the two eighth innings in this NLWC series. That is just not going to cut it.

Roki Sasaki had a clean ninth inning to close out the game, which is a good sign. The Dodgers had three errors in this game: Teosscar Hernandez' error, then Kiké Hernandez and Ben Rortvedt joined the sloppy parade.

That lousy bullpen and lazy fielding ain't gonna cut it in Philadelphia. We need to regroup, fast.

And I'm not even going to talk about Andy Pages being 0-for-9 with 2 Ks this series.

2025 NL Wild Card Game 2 Rally Towel: LET'S DO THIS!

2025 NL Wild Card Game 2 Thread: Oct 1 vs. Reds, 6p

I love how the Dodger Stadium field is beautified in the postseason.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs. Zack Littell.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto had a 5.0 WAR this season (second highest on the team, only to Shohei Ohtani). Yamamoto pitched against Cincinnati on July 28, going 7.0 IP (4 H, 1 ER, 2 BB and 9 Ks), earning his ninth victory of the season.

Zack Littell (3.2 WAR) was picked by the Reds at this year's trade deadline from the Rays. He went 2-0 with the Reds across 10 starts, sporting a 4.39 ERA which was a bit worse than his 3.58 ERA with Tampa Bay (where he went 8-8). He did not face the Dodgers this season.

I've got mixed feelings about last night's victory, given it showed our clear strengths (starting pitching and the home run firepower) as well as our weaknesses (most of the bullpen). Let's get the win today so we can wrap this up; I'd realy hate for a Game 3 to happen.

Random MLB Wild Card Series Statistics

I was curious this morning as to what happens to Wild Card series and its participating teams after Game 1. Since the MLB Wild Card expanded to its current format in 2022, the team that wins Game 1 has won the series 100% of the time (12 out of 12 possible outcomes).

The Wild Card series has gone to a decisive third game only twice (both in the NLWC), and in both cases, the team that won Game 1 prevailed.

Five out of the six Wild Card series involving a #6 seeded team have been decided in a two-game sweep. The #6 team has won four of the #6 - #3 series, though in the National League Wild Card series, the #6 seed has advanced (over the worst divisional winner and #3 seed) all three times.

Yikes.

Like the Dodgers in their 10-5 win yesterday, only one other team has scored 10 runs in a Wild Card game (current format): the Seattle Mariners, in a 10-9 victory over Toronto in G2 of the 2022 ALWC. Seattle advanced based on that game.

Let's go, Dodgers!