[Tigers-Guardians | Padres-Cubs | Red Sox-Yankees | Live blog]
The 2025 MLB playoffs continued Thursday, and the wild-card round concluded with wins by the Detroit Tigers, Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees in a trio of winner-take-all games.
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Here’s how it all went down.
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In a clash between historic rivals, in a winner-take-all game, it was a 24-year-old rookie who etched his name in Yankees lore.
Cam Schlittler became the first pitcher — not rookie, pitcher — in the history of the postseason to post 12 strikeouts, zero walks and eight scoreless innings in an utter domination of the Red Sox. Pumping triple-digit heat at the start of the game and still hitting high 90s in his final inning of work, Schlittler managed to stay in through the eighth inning with a pitch count of 107.
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Pretty good for a pitcher who began the season in Double-A and made his MLB debut in July.
Without much to worry about from the Boston offense, the Yankees got all the runs they needed in a four-run rally in the fourth inning, starting with a Cody Bellinger double. New York will next face the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALDS. The Red Sox’s season is over.
A low-power Padres offense went dark against a strong Cubs defense as Chicago advanced to the NLDS, where the division rival Milwaukee Brewers await.
Jameson Taillon, Caleb Thielbar, Danny Palencia, Drew Pomeranz, Brad Keller and Andrew Kittredge combined to hold the Padres to a single run, with plenty of help from one of the best defenses in MLB. Gold Glovers Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner in particularly made some huge plays.
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The Cubs could’ve scored a lot more runs, but the damage was limited in rallies in the second and seventh innings. Still, Chicago scored all the runs it needed against a gassed Padres pitching staff. Yu Darvish lasted only one inning and left the bases loaded with no outs and two runs scored in the second. It’s an accomplishment that the vaunted San Diego bullpen allowed only one more run, but that’s small consolation for the Padres.
The ending was far from comfortable for the home team, though. Keller allowed a homer to Jackson Merrill to lead off the ninth, then hit back-to-back batters to put the tying run on base. Even so, the bottom of the Padres’ order couldn’t close the gap.
The Guardians spent most of September chasing down the Tigers and beat them on the final day of the regular season for the biggest comeback in the standings in MLB history. Fate conspired to pit the two teams against each other in the wild-card series, which naturally went to a winner-take-all Game 3.
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And because this is baseball, the team that spent the past month in an embarrassing free fall got the last laugh. The Tigers advanced with a 6-3 win, setting up an ALDS matchup with the Seattle Mariners.
A competitive game turned into a rout in the seventh inning, when the Tigers batted around to take a five-run lead. Dillon Dingler provided the go-ahead run one inning earlier with a solo homer, the wind-up of a gut punch for the Progressive Field crowd.
The loss ends what had been a magical run for the Guardians until Thursday, extending their MLB-longest World Series drought to 76 years.
MLB wild-card Game 3 live blog
Follow along with Yahoo Sports for live updates, highlights and more from the final matchup of the wild-card round: