After a weirdly timed off day, the Tigers, Guardians, Yankees, and Royals get back into action tonight.
While nobody could blame Orioles fans for not wanting to watch the rest of the playoffs after their team’s untimely exit, there has been some extremely entertaining baseball this October. The two NL Division Series have pitted division rivals against each other, with tensions boiling over between the Dodgers and Padres last night while the Phillies and Mets have played two incredible ballgames, both decided in the eighth inning or later.
With the NL teams off today for travel, the American League is back in action after a day of rest between Games 1 and 2.
4:08 ET – Tigers at Guardians, Game 2, TBS (CLE leads 1-0)
Starting pitchers: LHP Tarik Skubal vs. LHP Matthew Boyd
The Tigers’ amazing run to the postseason — with a miraculous comeback in the second half of the season that allowed them to claim a wild card spot, followed by a sweep of the perennial October powerhouse Astros — hit its first speed bump on Saturday. The AL Central champ Guardians, unimpressed by Detroit’s late-season magic, handed them a 7-0 thumping in the series opener.
The Tigers will try to answer back in Game 2, and they certainly have the right guy to do it, with likely AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal taking the mound. Skubal tossed six scoreless innings in Houston in his postseason debut last week. He faced the Guardians once during the regular season and had a weird outing in which he allowed a season-high 10 hits but still held them to only one run in seven innings.
Detroit will face a familiar foe in the southpaw Boyd, who spent eight years pitching for the Tigers before landing with Cleveland late in the 2024 season. This will be his first start ever against his longtime team, and what a time for it to happen. Boyd’s only previous postseason experience was a short relief outing for Seattle in 2022.
7:38 ET – Royals at Yankees, Game 2, TBS (NYY leads 1-0)
Starting pitchers: LHP Cole Ragans vs. LHP Carlos Rodón
It’s an all-lefty showdown in both games today. Ragans will be making his first start since dominating the Orioles in the Wild Card Series in his postseason debut. He threw six shutout innings and likely could’ve gone a couple more if not for leg cramps that forced an early exit. How will Ragans fare against a New York lineup that includes Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, as opposed to a lifeless Orioles lineup that barely seemed aware that it was the postseason?
For the Yankees, Carlos Rodón bounced back from his horrific first year in pinstripes in 2023 to post a 16-9 record and 3.96 ERA this season. He was a smidge better than league average, which might not be quite what the Yanks were looking for when they signed him to a six-year, $162 million deal, but it beats being awful.
Rodón has had very little postseason success in his career. In 2020 for the White Sox, he faced three batters in the Wild Card Series and retired none of them. In 2021, his Division Series start against the Astros lasted just 2.2 innings, with three hits, two runs, and two walks. The White Sox lost both those games.