The bullpen’s Tarik Skubal led the Tigers to their first playoff win in 11 years

Tarik Skubal continued his phenomenal season with a sensational playoff debut, and the Detroit Tigers reached Framber Valdez early with a 3-1 victory over the Houston Astros in Tuesday’s AL Wild Card Series opener.

The Tigers, who won the 2014 American League Division Series in their last trip to the playoffs, picked up their first postseason victory since Game 4 of the 2013 AL Championship Series against Boston.

The second game of the best-of-seven series will take place on Wednesday in Houston.

Skubal, the AL Triple Crown winner, allowed just four singles and walked one in six innings. The Astros’ only hard hit was the one that hit him – the lefty was hit on the right wrist by the returning Diaz in the second inning.

“It was a good challenge,” Skubal said. “It was great fun. Great fun. I liked it. He’s probably the most nervous I’ve been since my debut. It was also fun to deal with. What a game. It was fun, I’m glad I could come out with the win.”

The AL West champions were hurt after another playoff loss for Valdez, who finished 0-3 in the postseason last year. Houston’s ace finished third in the AL with a 2.91 ERA during the regular season, but on Tuesday he allowed three runs and seven hits in just 4 1/2 innings.

It was a return to Houston for Detroit manager AJ Hinch, who led Houston to a championship in 2017 and last played a postseason game during the Astros’ Game 7 loss of the 2019 World Series.

The following January, he was suspended for a year by Major League Baseball and fired the same day for his role in the Houston sign-stealing scandal.

Houston left three-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander out of the lineup for this series, but included injured shortstop Yordan Alvarez.

Verlander has had trouble returning to the field after missing nearly two months with a neck injury this summer. The 41-year-old right-hander went 2-2 in five starts in September, with a runs scored average of 9.26.

Astros manager Joe Espada said Verlander acted professionally when told of the decision and said he could be on the roster for future innings if the team advances. Verlander last pitched on Saturday, allowing three runs in six innings against Cleveland.

Alvarez missed the regular season with a right knee sprain and has not played since September 22. The 27-year-old, who is in Tuesday’s lineup as the designated hitter, is a career .295 hitter with 12 runs scored and a .000 career goal percentage. 949 on-base plus slugging percentage in 58 postseason games.

Mets gain momentum in victory over Brewers

Mark Vientos hit a game-tying two-run single during a five-run fifth inning as the tireless New York Mets continued their exciting week by defeating the Milwaukee Brewers 8-4 on Tuesday in the National League Wild Card Series opener.

The Mets didn’t clinch a playoff berth until they overcame a three-run deficit to win the opening game of a double-header in Atlanta on Monday, the day after the regular season was scheduled to end.

Now they are victorious after traveling to Philadelphia to play in the NL.

Since Major League Baseball moved to its current postseason format in 2022, which features four best-of-three wild-card series, the winner of Game 1 has advanced in each of the eight series. Only one of those eight series even made it to the third winner-takes-all game.

Milwaukee has lost 10 of its last 11 playoff games, a stretch that began with a Game 7 home loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2018 NL Championship Series.

Jesse Winker and pinch hitter J.D. Martinez each had two runs for the Mets. Winker, who hit .199 with a .567 OPS for the Brewers last year before returning to action this season, drew a chorus of boos every time and appeared to exchange words with Milwaukee shortstop Willy Adames after hitting a two-run triple in game two.

The Mets played in Milwaukee just 22 hours after Monday’s doubleheader in Atlanta. They clinched a postseason berth by scoring every run in the final two innings of an 8-7 victory over the Braves.

Witt Jr. joins Royals Blank Os

Bobby Witt Jr. made the most of his long-awaited playoff debut, driving in Tuesday’s only series, backing up Cole Ragans for six sharp innings and helping the Kansas City Royals return from a nine-year postseason absence with a 1-0 victory over the Baltimore Orioles in the opener game of the AL Wild Card series.

“I thought, ‘This is where you want to be,’” Witt said later. “This is where you want to be. And that makes you a baseball player. This is what you dream of.”

Witt, a 24-year-old who led the major leagues with 211 hits and a .332 batting average this season, was moved to left field after the 2021 NL Cy Young Award winner’s 95 mph first pitch. Corbin Burnes with two outs in the sixth.

“It’s quite appropriate that (Witt Jr.) is on the run. He was the leader of the offense – him and (Salvador Perez) – all year long,” KC’s Michael Massey said. “Putting him in that situation is what we want as a team.”

They couldn’t keep extending the lead, but that didn’t matter, thanks to Ragans, who was as good, if not better, as Burnes before he left after 80 pitches with left calf cramps, and the bullpen was KC’s weakness during the regular season, but on Tuesday everything was fine.

Now they can end this best-of-three series and advance to the AL Division Series against the New York Yankees by winning Game 2 in Baltimore on Wednesday, when KC will send All-Star Seth Lugo to the mound. Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said he would not announce his starter before Tuesday’s game, although it was expected to be Zach Elfin.

Baltimore has lost its last nine postseason games, capping a skid that began in 2014.

Tatis Jr. drives the Padres instead of the Braves

Fernando Tatis Jr. scored an impressive two runs in his first playoff swing in four years, and Michael King scored 12 in his first postseason start as the San Diego Padres defeated rookie AJ ​​Smith-Shawver and the Atlanta Braves 4-0 in We The first game in the NL Wild Card Series league will take place on Tuesday evening.

Tatis’ 415-foot shot landed on the second deck in left field at Petco Park and sent the towel-waving, sellout crowd of 47,647 into a frenzy. The 25-year-old star, who has missed just over 2 1/2 months this season with a stress reaction in his right femur, watched the ball fly away, tossed his bat aside, pointed to the home field and began to stammer “miss third base.”

The second game of the best-of-seven playoffs will be played on Wednesday evening. If the Padres win the series, they will face their biggest rivals, the NL West champion Los Angeles Dodgers, in the National League Division Series. The Padres eliminated the 111-win Dodgers in the 2022 NLDS.

King performed admirably, becoming the first pitcher to have 12 strikeouts with no runs or walks in his first career postseason start. He joined Kevin Brown and Sterling Hitchcock as the only Padres pitchers with double-digit hits in playoff history. He allowed five hits and walked none.

King made his playoff debut with the New York Yankees in the 2020 AL playoffs in an eerily empty Petco Park, where the only “fans” were a few thousand cardboard cutouts. He pitched two innings, losing in the third game of the division, which Tampa Bay won in five games.

Tatis homered on a 94-mph four-seat homer to 21-year-old Smith-Shawver, one of the Braves’ top prospects, who was making his first playoff start this season and only his second this season.

Tatis experienced his first playoff game with fans in the stands. Its first playoffs took place in 2020, after a pandemic-shortened season. He missed the 2022 National League Championship Series appearance after receiving an 80-game PED suspension from MLB in August.

His home run came on the anniversary of his two home runs in 2020 in a Wild Card Series game against St. Louis Cardinals. Mike Shildt, who was in his first season managing the Padres, was then captain of the St. Louis.

Kyle Higashioka singled in the eighth and scored a sacrifice fly in the second. Against Atlanta, he is 3-for-30 with three goals scored.

The average game time drops to 2 hours and 36 minutes

In its second year, the average time for a nine-inning major league baseball game dropped to two hours and 36 minutes, the lowest since 1984.

The average dropped by four minutes compared to 2023 and 28 minutes compared to 2022. It has not been this low since 2:35 in 1984.

MLB reduced the clock with runners on base by two seconds to 18 ahead of the 2024 season, keeping it at 15 seconds without runners on base.

In 2016, the average game time was 3 hours for the first time. He achieved a record time of 3:10 in 2021 before the introduction of the PitchCom electronic calling device helped lower it to 3:04 in 2022.