{"id":265179,"date":"2026-09-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/30\/mlb-playoffs-begin-with-four-thrilling-wild-card-games-the-gist\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T00:00:00","slug":"mlb-playoffs-begin-with-four-thrilling-wild-card-games-the-gist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/30\/mlb-playoffs-begin-with-four-thrilling-wild-card-games-the-gist\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB playoffs begin with four thrilling Wild Card games | The GIST"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>The GIST: <\/strong>Playoff baseball has arrived, with yesterday\u2019s best-of-three Wild Card Game 1s in the books and elimination on the line in today\u2019s Game 2s. Under this format, only one squad has ever come back to win the series after losing Game 1. No pressure, no diamonds, right?<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83c\udf51 Atlanta Brave Austin Riley homers late in 5\u20133 win over the Philadelphia Phillies: <\/strong>What started as a pitchers\u2019 duel between Atlanta ace Chris Sale and Philadelphia\u2019s Jes\u00fas Luzardo was defined by Riley\u2019s massive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/video\/jhoan-duran-in-play-run-s-to-austin-riley-kkhhvg-x2885\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">three-run eighth-inning home run<\/a>. The Braves could sweep today at 2 p.m. ET, but not if Phillies All-Star pitcher Cristopher S\u00e1nchez has anything to say about it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83e\udde6 No starter, no problem as Chicago White Sox beat Houston Astros 6\u20133: <\/strong>After both squads leaned on their starting pitchers to clinch playoff spots, yesterday was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/white-sox-bullpen-game-in-game-1-al-wild-card-vs-astros\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a battle of the bullpen<\/a>. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Dd4nzj3l_4s\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;stkn=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">blessed White Sox<\/a> jumped out to an early lead and are now one dub away from their first playoff series win since 2005 \u2014 see if they can get the job done today at 5 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83c\udf4e NY Yankees ace Cam Schlittler strikes out 10 Boston Red Sox: <\/strong>The American League Cy Young Award favorite was exactly as advertised, holding the Sox to just two hits and tossing a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Yankees\/status\/2105122932838085011?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\">career-high 117 pitches<\/a> before the Yanks ran away with a 9\u20130 win. And the Bronx Bombers boast another lights-out hurtler: left-hander Max Fried, who can seal the deal tonight at 8 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83e\udd0e San Diego Padres homer early, beat Chicago Cubs 8\u20130: <\/strong>Outfielder Fernando Tat\u00eds Jr. set the tone with his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/Dd5QTybtTAi\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;stkn=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">leadoff blast<\/a>, and the Padres never looked back. Their defense was stellar too as starter Michael King had a no-hitter into the seventh inning, racking up eight strikeouts. These Cubbies won\u2019t go quietly, though \u2014 the best offense in baseball has a chance to respond tonight at 10 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\n  n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\n  document,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n  fbq('init', '1716705275141133'); \/\/ Insert your pixel ID here.\n  fbq('track', 'PageView');\n      <\/script><script async defer src=\"https:\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegistsports.com\/article\/mlb-playoffs-begin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The GIST: Playoff baseball has arrived, with yesterday\u2019s best-of-three Wild Card Game 1s in the books and elimination on the line in today\u2019s Game 2s. Under this format, only one squad has ever come back to win the series after losing Game 1. No pressure, no diamonds, right? \ud83c\udf51 Atlanta Brave Austin Riley homers late [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":265180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6805],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-265179","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-womens"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}