With four squads purged from the MLB playoffs in the Wild Card Series, the post-season has settled into a comfortable eight-team bracket.<\/p>\n
Although much of Canada\u2019s attention will be justifiably directed to the Toronto Blue Jays-New York Yankees series, that battle isn\u2019t the only compelling matchup in the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, MLB\u2019s best team in the regular season \u2014 the Milwaukee Brewers<\/a> \u2014 finds itself in an NL Central showdown with a feisty Chicago Cubs<\/a> club it went 6-7 against during the regular season.<\/p>\n Every ALDS and NLDS matchup is brimming with intrigue, so let\u2019s dive in:<\/p>\n No. 2 Seattle Mariners (90-72) vs. No. 6 Detroit Tigers (87-75)<\/p>\n What\u2019s working for the Mariners:\u00a0Seattle is well-rested and healthy after entering the playoffs on a 17-4 heater. The Mariners can boast an excellent rotation and some intimidating leverage arms, but the thing that stands out the most about the team is a multi-faceted offensive attack that ranked third in the majors in home runs (238), stolen bases (161) and wRC+ (138) during the regular season.<\/p>\n What\u2019s working for the Tigers:\u00a0Not much was working for Detroit in the latter half of the season, and the team hit just .218\/.325\/.287 in its wild-card series with the Cleveland Guardians. That said, the Tigers\u2019 pitching staff shut down the Guardians outside of Troy Melton’s meltdown in Game 2. Detroit\u2019s starters conceded just three earned runs in 15.1 innings, in large part due to the mastery of Tarik Skubal. The best thing the Tigers have going for them is the ability to roll out the superstar southpaw twice in a five-game series.<\/p>\n Potential Achilles heel for the Mariners:\u00a0Seattle is a well-rounded team in most facets, but it doesn\u2019t play good defence. According to Statcast\u2019s\u00a0Outs Above Average<\/a>, only the Los Angeles Angels and Washington Nationals were worse in the field than Seattle during the regular season. If the Tigers can put the ball in play, they could catch a break or two.<\/p>\n Potential Achilles heel for the Tigers:\u00a0Detroit\u2019s bullpen produced a lower fWAR total (1.4) than any playoff team, and its K\/9 (7.71)\u00a0ranked dead-last<\/a>\u00a0in the majors. The Tigers are heavily reliant on middling veterans like Kyle Finnegan, Rafael Montero, and Tommy Kahnle to build a shaky bridge to closer Will Vest. Look for Seattle to break through late in at least one game in this series.<\/p>\n It\u2019ll all come down to:\u00a0Detroit\u2019s success when Skubal isn\u2019t on the mound. During the regular season and playoffs, the team is 22-10 when he pitches and 67-66 when he doesn\u2019t. The Mariners have the Tigers overmatched without the 2024 Cy Young winner, and Detroit needs to steal at least one game without him.<\/p>\n No. 1 Milwaukee Brewers (97-65) vs. No. 4 Chicago Cubs (92-70)<\/p>\n What\u2019s working for the Brewers:\u00a0The consistency up and down the Brewers’ lineup has been the team\u2019s trademark all year, and that\u2019s unlikely to come to an abrupt halt in the playoffs. That said, Milwaukee\u2019s best weapon in this series might just be its bullpen. The back-end quartet of Abner Uribe, Trevor Megill, Jared Koenig and Aaron Ashby gave Milwaukee 255 innings of 2.26 ERA ball in 2025. That bullpen core will be joined by Jacob Misiorowski, a compelling wild card whose fastball averaged 99.3 mph as a starter.<\/p>\n What\u2019s working for the Cubs:\u00a0Chicago\u2019s season-long strength was a position player group that was well above-average at the plate, on the bases, and in the field. Some of that shone through in the wild-card series (perhaps most notably\u00a0the defence of Dansby Swanson<\/a>), but the unit that came through the most was the Cubs bullpen. While no pitcher gave Chicago more than 4.1 innings in any of its three games, the relievers (and opener Andrew Kittredge) combined for 14.2 frames with just two earned runs allowed.<\/p>\n Potential Achilles heel for the Brewers:\u00a0Part of what made Milwaukee so effective during the regular season was a lack of glaring weaknesses, and a lack of raw star power seems more likely to sink the Brewers than a fatal flaw. Beyond the absence of truly elite players \u2014 a description that will likely soon fit Jackson Chourio, to be fair \u2014 there isn\u2019t much to dislike about Milwaukee. A nitpicker might point to a rotation that is relatively unproven behind Freddy Peralta, but to Chad Patrick and Quinn Priester\u2019s credit, the duo\u00a0combined to produce a 3.41 ERA<\/a>\u00a0in 277 innings with solid peripherals.<\/p>\n