Brandon Pfaadt goes five in shutout of Padres

The Brewers were tied for 28th place in the majors in homers this year, but they got two to account for their runs tonight, with Jackson Chourio hitting a two-run homer off Robbie Ray in the third and William Contreras breaking the tie off Adrian Morejon in the seventh. Contreras’s homer was his third in 19 career postseason games. The two teams will play again Sunday, with Michael King and Logan Henderson expected to start.

He struck out six. The Padres succeeded in fouling off a whopping 30 pitches in Misiorowski’s four innings, driving up his pitch count and leading to an early exit. Both runs scored in the second, an inning that featured that featured three straight singles with one out. The inning could have turned into a disastrous one after first baseman Jake Bauers tried and failed to get an out at home on a grounder., but Misiorowski was able to prevent further damage by getting Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado to ground out. Misiorowski figures to get the ball again in Game 5 if the NLDS goes the distance.

It looked like he might have given up a go-ahead homer to Ty France in the bottom of the ninth, but the ball hit a cable attached to the roof at former Miller Park and dropped into Jackson Chourio’s glove. Statcast indicated that it wouldn’t have left the park anyway, even though it seemed pretty majestic off the bat. Megill was the Brewers’ primary closer last year, but since he was returning from injury last October, he worked as a setup man and even opened once in his five appearances last postseason. With the nice showing tonight, he’s allowed a total of one run in 8 2/3 innings in nine postseason appearances.

Ray retired six of the seven batters he faced in the first and second innings, but the third started with an infield single and then a homer from Jackson Chourio with one out. The Brewers kept rallying from there with two walks and a single. Ray, though, retired Christian Yelich for the second out, and Bradgley Rodriguez got Cooper Pratt to ground out to end the inning. The start tonight was Ray’s third career in the postseason; he had one for the D-backs in 2017 and one for the Mariners in 2022. Between the three, he’s pitched a total of 10 innings and allowed 10 runs.

Peralta was one of the most effective starters in baseball during the closing month of the regular season where he posted a 0.96 ERA and 23/9 K/BB ratio across five starts in the month of September. The 30-year-old former Brewers ace will be making his seventh career postseason start and 10th appearance overall since 2018.

Aranda connected on a third-inning changeup from Yankees starter Gerrit Cole, sending a majestic 417-foot blast into the right-center field seats for his first career playoff round-tripper. It wound up being the lone run for either side in a low-scoring pitcher’s duel at Tropicana Field to kick off the best-of-five series. The two teams return to action with Game 2 in Tampa Bay on Monday evening.

After clobbering the Red Sox for 18 runs in a pair of contests during the AL Wild Card Series, New York’s offense never got in sync against Rays ace Drew Rasmussen, who allowed just three baserunners and took a no-hit bid into the eighth inning. Chisholm figures to start every game for the remainder of the series with right-handers Freddy Peralta and Nick Martinez set to follow for Tampa Bay.

Baker got the call to protect a narrow one-run advantage in the final frame following eight dominant frames from Rays ace Drew Rasmussen to open the best-of-five series. The 31-year-old All-Star stopper, who notched a career-high 41 saves during the regular season, struck out pinch-hitter Giancarlo Stanton before fanning Ben Rice and coaxing a game-ending ground ball from Cody Bellinger.

Rasmussen authored one of the most dominant starts in Tampa Bay history, carrying a no-hit bid into the eighth inning before Austin Wells doubled to right field with two outs on his 101st pitch of the contest. The 31-year-old ace cruised through the early innings, retiring 15 consecutive batters after issuing a two-out walk to Ben Rice in the third. He generated an astronomical 23 swinging strikes, including 10 on his changeup alone, while allowing just seven batted balls with exit velocities over 95 mph. It’s not hyperbolic to suggest that Rasmussen, who remains relatively unknown to casual baseball fans, is the most underrated starter in baseball. He finished the regular season with a pristine 2.67 ERA across a career-high 172 innings over 30 starts and looked nearly unhittable in his first postseason outing since appearing in relief against the Guardians in 2022. He’s in line to take the ball for Game 4 of the best-of-five series, if necessary, at Yankee Stadium on Thursday.

Cole looked extremely sharp in his first postseason outing since Game 5 the World Series back in 2024. The 36-year-old veteran surrendered only five hits with a third-inning solo blast by Jonathan Aranda representing the lone tally against him. He finished with five strikeouts and only issued one walk before being lifted at just 82 pitches (58 strikes) over five strong frames. He figures to get the ball for Game 4 of the best-of-five series at Yankee Stadium on Thursday.