Yankees Heroics Tie Series, Set Up Wild Thursday In MLB Playoffs
Cleveland, San Diego and New York all win elimination games to force Thursday showdowns
Three teams entered Wednesday afternoon fighting for their lives in the Major League Baseball wild card round.
The Cleveland Guardians lost to Tarik Skubal and the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday. The San Diego Padres lost 3-1 to the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley. And the New York Yankees blew a massive opportunity in the ninth inning against Aroldis Chapman and the Boston Red Sox, failing to score a run with the bases loaded and nobody out in a 3-1 loss.
Then Wednesday happened.
Cleveland exploded in the eighth inning at Progressive Field, with Brayan Rocchio launching a go-ahead homer to take a 2-1 lead.
The Guardians just kept scoring, adding a third run, before Bo Naylor launched a three-run homer to secure a 6-1 win. Cleveland became the first team of the day to force a winner-take-all game three. They wouldn't be the last.
San Diego entered game two with a disastrous recent record of postseason offense. Starting in game four of the 2024 NLDS against the Los Angeles Dodgers, they'd scored just one run in their last 33 postseason innings. While they didn't score much more on Wednesday, a two-run Manny Machado homer and some ridiculous Mason Miller pitching was enough to get a 3-0 win.
The New York Yankees were next up, adding some postseason heroics of their own.
NEW YORK - New York Yankees first baseman Ben Rice rounds the bases after hitting a two run home run during the first inning against the Boston Red Sox during game two of the Wildcard round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Yankee Stadium on Oct. 1, 2025. Photo: Brad Penner-Imagn Images
Yankees Fight Back Against Boston Red Sox
As you'd expect for two rivals, the Yankees and Red Sox were locked in a tight, hard-fought game that went back and forth. But Jazz Chisholm, who'd been extremely upset to be left out of the starting lineup on Tuesday, played a central role in the late innings. Impacting the game offensively, defensively, and maybe even more importantly, with his baserunning.
In the top of the seventh, Boston had first and second with two outs and Masataka Yoshida up. Yoshida hit a grounder towards second base, with Chisholm making a spectacular diving stop to prevent a run from scoring.
One inning later, he proved decisive.
On first with two outs thanks to a walk, Chisholm took off as soon as Austin Wells served up a bloop single into right field. And he never stopped running.
David Bednar had an uneventful ninth inning, securing the save and forcing a decisive game three on Thursday.
Three games, three series, all going to a winner-take-all game three on Thursday afternoon. Must-see postseason television. 18 of 20 times, the team that has won the first game of a best-of-three has won the series. All of a sudden, that seems a lot less likely.