In true baseball fashion, the last-place team had a 4-inch chance of winning. Three underdogs beat three top dogs in the first game of the Wild Card Series.
Major League Baseball kicked off its month-long postseason schedule on Thursday with Game 1 of the Wild Card Series in both leagues.
Before the game, the wild card series was expected to be won by the Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Blue Jays, Milwaukee Brewers, and Philadelphia Phillies.
MLB Network had Tampa Bay 64% – Texas Rangers 36%, Toronto Blue Jays 71% – Minnesota Twins 29%, Milwaukee Brewers 62% – Arizona Diamondbacks 38%, and Philadelphia Phillies 74% – Miami Marlins 26%.
In the first round, however, three of the top dogs lost except for Philadelphia. Tampa Bay with 99 regular-season wins, Toronto regardless of regular-season results, and Milwaukee with a first-round bye.
The Wild Card Series is a best-of-three, best-of-two series. Winning Game 1 is crucial. In Game 1 of this wild card series, three top dogs took a knee.
First, Texas cruised to a 4-0 win over Tampa Bay behind a dominant performance from starter Jordan Montgomery. The Tampa Bay bats could do nothing.
Then, Minnesota won its first postseason game in 19 years, thanks to a walk-off home run by Royce Lewis. It ended an 18-game postseason losing streak.
Also starting for Minnesota was Pablo Lopez, who pitched 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball and proved why he was traded for Luis Arajuez.
As for Arizona, despite being heavily favored in the starting matchup, they still managed to take game one thanks to a Corbin Carroll home run and a super catch by Evan Longoria.
Arizona, still without Zach Gallon and Merrill Kelly, and Milwaukee, without Brandon Woodruff. This was never the scenario Milwaukee envisioned.
The only other team to take Game 1 as expected before the postseason began was Philadelphia, which defeated the Miami Marlins behind a strong outing from starter Zack Wheeler.온라인카지노
With Willer-Aaron Nola in the starting lineup and Bryce Harper at the top of the order, the Phillies are a force to be reckoned with against any team.
The eight teams in the Wild Card Series will now play Games 2 and 3 on April 4 and 5. They will then move on to the Division Series (DS) to face the first-place team from each district.
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