Pirates place Braxton Ashcraft (arm) on 15-day IL

Zuber was placed on the injured list during the final week of the season with a right elbow sprain. At the time, the team did not believe surgery would be needed, but that has obviously not borne out to be true. The 31-year-old will now miss the entire 2027 season as he recovers from surgery.

Marsee played in 155 games for the Marlins this season, so this is a bit of a surprise. Clearly, he was not playing healthy for a portion of those. The estimated recovery time for that injury is six months, which would be the middle of May. That means Marsee looks likely to miss at least the first month of the 2027 season, if not more.

Peete is a 2023 first-round pick of the Seattle Mariners who was traded to the Cardinals in the Brendan Donovan deal. He has gone 6-for-14 in three games in the AFL with a home run, two RBI, and three steals. On the season, he hit .296/.359/.549 in 66 games across two levels while registering 13 home runs and 16 steals. He ended the season with 21 games at Double-A and will likely begin 2027 there as well.

The league’s top two seeds will meet in the NLCS, with the Brewers getting home-field advantage over the Dodgers. Even bigger than his offensive contribution tonight was Mitchell taking away a two-run homer from Manny Machado in the eighth. He finished the series 4-for-15.

It wasn’t clear until this afternoon whether Gasser would get a start in the series, but he did and came through nicely in his first appearance since Sept. 25. Based on this and the way he ended the regular season — he had a 1.67 ERA in his final six starts — he probably ought to be ahead of Dustin May in line for a potential Game 3 start against the Dodgers.

Ashby has his first postseason victory after collecting 11 during the regular season. He pitched in three of the four games against the Brewers, turning in 5 2/3 scoreless innings.

Megill threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings in the series, picking up a victory and two saves. He’s allowed just one run in 10 2/3 innings during his postseason career.

As he did all year, Buehler kept the Padres in the game, which he exited with the score tied 1-1. He ended the regular season with a 4.63 ERA, but he was 9-6 anyway and the Padres were a particularly impressive 22-10 in his starts. One imagines they’ll have some interest in bringing him back in free agency this winter.

Garrett Mitchell prevented the homer. Machado didn’t have a great regular season, but he was the standout performer for the Padres this October, going 7-for-20 with a homer, two doubles and five walks. That was good for a 1.080 OPS, well ahead of Xander Bogaerts at .824 for the best mark on the team.

Smith draws the opening assignment after throwing 21 pitches in relief during Wednesday’s Game 3 loss to the Guardians. He walked a pair of batters and gave up on hit during the abbreviated outing. The 23-year-old southpaw has been a revelation this season and has allowed just one run over 6 1/3 innings this postseason. Ideally, the White Sox would like to jump out to an early lead before turning the ball over the Grant Taylor with a chance to wrap up the series and advance to face the Rays in the ALCS this weekend.