MLB Wild Card Series 2025: Live Scores, Instant Analysis, and Starting Lineups for Day 1

Tuesday - 30/09/2025 20:15
Eight teams enter wild-card week; only four can make it out. We've got it all covered for you.
  • ESPN
Oct 1, 2025, 04:21 AM

Let the MLB playoffs begin!

After a wild conclusion to the regular season, all eight wild-card teams are in action Tuesday as the best-of-three round begins -- with division rivalries dotting this year's matchups.

The Game 1 action kicked off with the AL Central champion Cleveland Guardians falling to the Detroit Tigers, followed by the Chicago Cubs taking the first game at home against the San Diego Padres thanks to back-to-back blasts.

The Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees renew their own rivalry in the later AL matchup. Afterward, the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers host a Cincinnati Reds team that secured the final playoff spot on the last day of the regular season.

We've got you covered with pregame lineups, sights and sounds from the ballparks and postgame takeaways as each Day 1 matchup ends.

Key links: Mega-preview | Passan's take | Bracket | Schedule

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Sights and sounds | Takeaways | Lineups

Sights and sounds

We've got you covered with all the best moments from the ballparks on the first day of the playoffs.

Red Sox at Yankees

Follow live with pitch-by-pitch coverage

The crowd goes wild for Anthony Volpe's solo home run

A look at Yankee Stadium ahead of Game 1

Padres at Cubs

Seiya Suzuki's son is excited about the Cubs' win

Cubs applaud fans, atmosphere after Game 1

Chicago's dugout and Wrigley are ROCKING after back-to-back home runs

Wrigley is ready for some playoff baseball

Cubs players are arriving to Wrigley in style.

Tigers at Guardians

Gritty Tigs take Game 1

Count it! 14 K's for Tarik Skubal

Skubal ends his day with 14 strikeouts in 7⅔ innings, putting him in some elite postseason company:

• He ties Joe Coleman (14 K's in 1972 ALCS) for the most strikeouts in a postseason game in Tigers franchise history.

• Skubal is the eighth different Tigers pitcher with 10-plus strikeouts in a playoff game, and the first since Justin Verlander in the 2013 ALCS.

• His 34 strikeouts in his first four career postseason games are the second most in MLB history, behind only Bob Gibson's 41 K's.

• Skubal's 11 pitches of at least 100 mph today are the second most by any Tigers pitcher in a playoff appearance since 2008 (as far back as pitch-tracking data is available) behind Justin Verlander's 16 in the 2011 ALDS.

A glass-shattering moment

The first run of the playoffs is on the board!

Takeaways

Chicago Cubs 3, San Diego Padres 1

Chicago leads series 1-0

San Diego's Nick Pivetta was rolling at the top of the strike zone against the Cubs in Game 1 -- until he wasn't. Seiya Suzuki and Carson Kelly made the necessary adjustments, taking Pivetta deep in the fifth inning while helping secure the 3-1 win for Chicago. The Cubs didn't plan that flamethrower Daniel Palencia would take the mound in the middle innings, just when the shadows started to hover over home plate, but it worked to their advantage as he was lights out, striking out two in 1 2/3 clean innings. The theme of Game 1 highlighted what we saw from the Padres throughout the regular season: They can be pitched to. That includes the bottom of the order, which went 1-for-12. San Diego needs a better showing at the plate in Game 2. -- Jesse Rogers

There is always urgency in a postseason series, but even more so in the best-of-three wild-card series, and Cubs manager Craig Counsell played it that way when he brought in Daniel Palencia -- the team's closer most of the season -- in the fifth inning with a runner on to face Fernando Tatis Jr. and Luis Arraez. Palencia, who had missed two weeks in September with a shoulder strain, got out of that inning, watched Seiya Suzuki and Carson Kelly hit back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the fifth and then cruised through the 3-4-5 spots in the lineup in the sixth inning. Drew Pomeranz, Andrew Kittredge and Brad Keller then closed it out for Chicago, making the story of Game 1 the Cubs bullpen -- and not the much vaunted Padres pen. -- David Schoenfield

Detroit Tigers 2, Cleveland Guardians 1

Detroit leads series 1-0

If you're facing the Tigers' Tarik Skubal in this postseason in an elimination game, be very afraid. Skubal has arguably been baseball's best pitcher going back to last season, but rarely has he -- or anyone -- looked as dominant as he did in Tuesday's Game 1. A Tigers' postseason-record-tying 14 strikeouts, a career-high 11 pitches over 100 miles per hour and only three balls out of the infield over 7 2/3 innings. The game was straight out of 1976, with Cleveland's Gavin Williams allowing only a pair of unearned runs and working until the seventh inning, and all three runs scoring small-ball style, including a go-ahead sacrifice bunt from Detroit's Zach McKinstry in the seventh. Skubal didn't get much help from his offense but he didn't need much. Pure filth. -- Bradford Doolittle

It's hard enough beating Skubal with a great lineup, but it's basically impossible beating him with a playoff lineup that features a sub-.200 hitter batting cleanup. Yep, Cleveland hit Johnathan Rodriguez fourth -- a player who had just 77 plate appearances all season and hit .197. Then, when the Guardians used a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning with the tying run in scoring position, manager Stephen Vogt went to ... Bo Naylor, who hit .195. As inspiring as Cleveland's all-time September comeback to win the division was, it's still a team that has trouble scoring runs. Unfortunately, the Guardians blew their last chance after Jose Ramirez reached third with nobody out in the bottom of the ninth following an error, but he tried scoring on a bouncer back to pitcher Will Vest, a colossal blunder from one of the best baserunners in the league. -- Schoenfield

Lineups

Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees

6 p.m. ET on ESPN

Game 1 starters: Garrett Crochet vs. Max Fried

Red Sox

1. Rob Refsnyder (R) DH
2. Trevor Story (R) SS
3. Alex Bregman (R) 3B
4. Romy Gonzalez (R) 1B
5. Carlos Narvaez (R) C
6. Nate Eaton (R) RF
7. Jarren Duran (L) LF
8. Ceddanne Rafaela (R) CF
9. Nick Sogard (S) 2B

Yankees

1. Paul Goldschmidt (R) 1B
2. Aaron Judge (R) RF
3. Cody Bellinger (L) LF
4. Giancarlo Stanton (R) DH
5. Amed Rosario (R) 2B
6. Trent Grisham (L) CF
7. Anthony Volpe (R) SS
8. Austin Wells (L) C
9. Jose Caballero (R) 3B

Cincinnati Reds at Los Angeles Dodgers

9 p.m. ET on ESPN

Game 1 starters: Hunter Greene vs. Blake Snell

Reds

1. TJ Friedl (L) CF
2. Noelvi Marte (R) RF
3. Miguel Andujar (R) DH
4. Austin Hays (R) LF
5. Spencer Steer (R) 1B
6. Elly De La Cruz (S) SS
7. Tyler Stephenson (R) C
8. Ke'Bryan Hayes (R) 3B
9. Matt McLain (R) 2B

Dodgers

1. Shohei Ohtani (L) DH
2. Mookie Betts (R) SS
3. Freddie Freeman (L) 1B
4. Max Muncy (L) 3B
5. Teoscar Hernandez (R) RF
6. Tommy Edman (S) 2B
7. Andy Pages (R) CF
8. Enrique Hernandez (R) LF
9. Ben Rortvedt (L) C

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