Saturday marked the first day of the divisional series, a round the Red Sox have not reached since 2021. For those tuned out of the playoffs since Boston’s exit, there are still plenty of storylines to watch. If you’re on team “I root for the Red Sox and whoever is playing the Yankees” you likely had a good day yesterday.
Munetaka Murakami is electric to watch this postseason already. The series opener in Cleveland was pretty devoid of much offense, but Murakami’s two-run shot was the defining point of the game among the White Sox using six pitchers, including Jordan Hicks, for a combined three-hit shutout. This includes Chicago’s 24-year-old Grant Taylor recording a twelve-out save in which the 3-0 lead never felt in jeopardy.
This is why, if you’re the Dodgers, you go out and grab the reigning Cy Young winner at the trade deadline if you have the chance. Skubal didn’t disappoint in his first postseason start as a Dodger. He went six strong innings allowing just two hits. Although one of those hits was a solo shot to Sean Murphy in the sixth, he finished his last inning strong with a 3-1 lead (thanks to a Teoscar Hernandez home run) and Kyle Tucker answered that Murphy shot with a home run of his own to bring the lead back to three. Max Muncy would get one of his own also in the sixth to put it on ice.
Those calling the Yankees’ lineup hapless without Aaron Judge were justified, but it simply took until the divisional series for that retort to have any land legs. And, wouldn’t you know, Drew Rasmussen took his second no-hit bid in as many weeks far into an outing against the Yankees in Game 1. Rasmussen was flirting with history Saturday night before Austin Wells got to him, but that lead was held steady because, in case you think baserunning errors are exclusive to the Red Sox, Wells inexplicably ran to third on a ball he was clearly going to be thrown out on. That ended the inning and, effectively, any threat for the Yankees to win Game 1 even with Gerrit Cole pitching a great five innings of his own despite giving up the game’s only run, a Jon Aranda homer.
In Jacob Misiorowski’s first playoff start (and fourth overall appearance) he looked a bit shaken early as he let guys into long counts and neared 60 pitches through two innings. He even let folks respect the offspeed pitches, as he “slowed down” to 98-99 during his fourth inning. Still, he made it through four innings and struck out six. Jackson Chourio hit a mammoth two-run shot to ease Misiorowski’s struggles and make it so that he left the game in a tie, but the defining moment of perhaps the entire day came on William Contreras’ late go-ahead homer.
