{"id":184525,"date":"2025-10-02T07:47:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T07:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/184525\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T07:47:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T07:47:13","slug":"mlb-playoffs-2025-dodgers-finish-off-reds-while-yankees-padres-and-guardians-force-game-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/184525\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB playoffs 2025: Dodgers finish off Reds, while Yankees, Padres and Guardians force Game 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Tigers-Guardians<\/a> | Padres-Cubs<\/a> | Red Sox-Yankees<\/a> | Reds-Dodgers<\/a> | Live blog<\/a>]<\/p>\n

After an exciting first day of action<\/a>, the MLB playoffs were back in full force Wednesday. Eight teams once again took the field, fighting to advance or remain in contention for a World Series title.<\/p>\n

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And they delivered a fantastic day of baseball.<\/p>\n

Not every series is going to a Game 3. In nearly an exact repeat of Game 1<\/a>, the Dodgers beat the Reds and advanced to the NLDS, in which they will face the Phillies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Once again, the Dodgers’ offense knocked around the Reds’ pitching staff. Once again, the Dodgers’ starter pitched into the seventh inning and looked excellent. And once again, the much-maligned Dodgers’ bullpen nearly made it a game again with an unwatchable eighth inning.<\/p>\n

In this case, Mookie Betts drove the offense<\/a>, tying a Dodgers postseason record with three doubles. Yoshinobu Yamamoto was masterful outside of a first inning that saw two unearned runs score off a Teoscar Hernandez error. And then Emmet Sheehan and Alex Vesia combined to allow five baserunners before finally exiting the eighth.<\/p>\n

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On the bright side, converted starter Roki Sasaki looked nasty in the ninth inning<\/a> in his MLB postseason debut after returning from a months-long stint on the IL.<\/p>\n

All told, the Dodgers performed like a caricature of themselves. It worked against a team with limited offense in the Reds. We’ll see how it plays against the Phillies.<\/p>\n

A back-and-forth game between MLB’s most historic rivals ended with a 4-3 Yankees victory to force a third Game 3 on Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A matchup between Carlos Rodon and Brayan Bello was ultimately decided by the bullpens, with a two-out single from Austin Wells and a dash to home plate by Jazz Chisholm Jr. scoring the winning run<\/a> in the eighth off former Yankee Garrett Whitlock. Bello lasted only 2 1\/3 innings, getting a quick hook the day after Garrett Crochet’s eight-inning gem in Game 1.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Ben Rice began the scoring by sending the first postseason pitch of his career into the right-field stands. He’s the sixth player since 2000<\/a> to homer on the first pitch he’s seen in the playoffs. Aaron Judge plated another Yankees run with an RBI single in the fifth inning.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Trevor Story knocked in all three runs for the Red Sox, whom he led in RBI during the regular season, with a bases-loaded single and a solo homer.<\/p>\n

The Padres blanked the Cubs in Game 2 to force a deciding Game 3 on Thursday<\/a>. San Diego came out with its back against the wall, down 1-0 to Chicago in this three-game wild-card series, and answered the call. Dylan Cease got things off to a solid start for the Padres, going 3 2\/3 innings while giving up 3 hits and 0 runs and striking out 5 batters.<\/p>\n

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The Padres’ offense also did its part<\/a>, scoring in the first inning on a Jackson Merrill sacrifice fly that brought in Fernando Tatis Jr. and tacking on with a fifth-inning blast from Manny Machado that made it 3-0. The Cubs\u2019 bats had no pop Wednesday, as they managed just four hits in the contest.<\/p>\n

Chicago went through six pitchers in the game, with Shota Imanaga relieving opener Andrew Kittredge and lasting 4 innings while giving up 2 earned runs on 3 hits, with 3 strikeouts on 67 pitches.<\/p>\n

Mason Miller was brilliant in 1 2\/3 relief innings for San Diego, notching five straight strikeouts and the fastest postseason pitch<\/a> in pitch-tracking history. Robert Suarez finished the game with a four-out save, giving up just one hit on 18 pitches.<\/p>\n

In the MLB postseason, an unknown player can become a legend with one swing. Despite being the No. 9 hitter, it was Brayan Rocchio who rose to the occasion Wednesday<\/a> and lifted the Guardians in Game 2. In what \u2014 to that point \u2014 had been a game bereft of offense, Rocchio smacked a 99.9-mph fastball from Troy Melton into the right-field bleachers for a go-ahead solo home run in the bottom of the eighth.<\/p>\n

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That hit sparked a Guardians rally. Steven Kwan added a double, and Daniel Schneemann followed with a double of his own to give the Guardians a late 3-1 lead. A few batters later, Bo Naylor smacked a three-run homer to put the game out of reach. Guardians closer Cade Smith kept the Tigers off the board in the ninth to secure the 6-1 victory.<\/p>\n

Until that offensive explosion, it was a tight, low-scoring affair in Game 2. That should make for an excellent winner-take-all Game 3 on Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Follow along with Yahoo Sports as we cover all the action on Day 2 of the 2025 MLB playoffs.<\/p>\n

MLB wild card Game 2 live blog<\/p>\n

Follow along with Yahoo Sports for live updates, highlights and more from the wild-card round:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Tigers-Guardians | Padres-Cubs | Red Sox-Yankees | Reds-Dodgers | Live blog] After an exciting first day of action,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[6097,12424,33140,64,22731,63,61898,102026,30848,117619,16828,91954,5127,105111,5138,6108,53315,10217,54362,6104,118015,16077,16061,54363,10682,591,64736,6590,5137,16088,13506,33451,6110,5886,118014,16073,85,16082,10222,13507,79846,117620,6114,47542],"class_list":["post-184525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-aaron-judge","tag-alex-vesia","tag-andrew-kittredge","tag-au","tag-austin-wells","tag-australia","tag-ben-rice","tag-bo-naylor","tag-brayan-bello","tag-brayan-rocchio","tag-cade-smith","tag-carlos-rodon","tag-chicago","tag-daniel-schneemann","tag-dodgers","tag-dylan-cease","tag-eighth-inning","tag-emmet-sheehan","tag-fernando-tatis-jr","tag-garrett-crochet","tag-garrett-whitlock","tag-jackson-merrill","tag-jazz-chisholm-jr","tag-manny-machado","tag-mason-miller","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-mookie-betts","tag-phillies","tag-red-sox","tag-reds","tag-robert-suarez","tag-roki-sasaki","tag-san-diego","tag-seventh-inning","tag-shota-imanaga","tag-sports","tag-steven-kwan","tag-teoscar-hernandez","tag-the-reds","tag-trevor-story","tag-troy-melton","tag-yankees","tag-yoshinobu-yamamoto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}