Four Wild Card series are finished, and three of them took only two games. The Braves needed a third, beating the Phillies 6-2 on Thursday at Truist Park. The Division Series open Saturday, Oct. 3.
How lopsided the series were
By Plainly Now’s arithmetic from the scores, the run totals were Yankees 18, Red Sox 2; Padres 12, Cubs 1; White Sox 13, Astros 6; and Braves 14, Phillies 9. The Yankees won 9-0 and 9-2. The Padres won 8-0 and 4-1. The White Sox won 6-3 and 7-3, both in Houston. Only the Braves-Phillies series was close: Atlanta won Game 1 5-3, Philadelphia took Game 2 4-3 in extra innings, and Atlanta closed it out.
Baseball America’s Matt Eddy wrote in 2023 that “Seven out of eight WCS—or 87.5%—have ended in 2-0 sweeps, no third game necessary,” counting the 2022 and 2023 series. That is dated context, not a 2026 figure.
Records and results
The Astros finished 81-81 and won the American League West, and the 84-78 White Sox swept them. Houston’s run differential for the season was minus 32; Chicago’s was plus 56. The White Sox and Cubs clinched playoff spots on the same day, as our earlier report noted, but their series ended differently. The Cubs had a plus 147 run differential, higher than the Padres’ plus 41, and scored one run in two games. They were shut out 8-0 in the opener and lost the second 4-1.
Some of the home runs
By Plainly Now’s arithmetic from the play-by-play, the nine games produced 23 home runs. Ben Rice homered in the fifth inning of the Yankees’ opener, then hit a grand slam in the eighth, with Ryan McMahon, Spencer Jones and Paul Goldschmidt scoring on the play for a 9-0 lead.
Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado homered in the first inning of the Padres’ opener, and Gavin Sheets’ two-run homer in the fourth inning of Game 2 made it 4-1. For the White Sox, Colson Montgomery homered in Game 1 and Chase Meidroth hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning of Game 2.
Examples from the other games include Xander Bogaerts’ fourth-inning homer in the Padres’ opener and Cody Bellinger’s three-run homer in the sixth inning of the Yankees’ 9-2 Game 2 win. The Astros’ Jeremy Peña, Cam Smith and Jose Altuve homered in the first four innings of Game 2 but trailed 4-3 after four.
The Phillies’ Game 2 win included three late swings. Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper hit back-to-back home runs in the eighth to tie it 3-3, and Alec Bohm homered in the tenth for the 4-3 win. In Game 3 the Braves hit three of their own: Michael Harris II’s three-run homer in the first, Ozzie Albies’ two-run shot in the fourth and Matt Olson’s solo homer in the seventh.
What Game 3 looked like
Ray Kerr opened for Atlanta and allowed no earned runs in 3 1/3 innings. Aaron Nola, Philadelphia’s first pitcher, lasted 1 2/3 innings, gave up three earned runs and took the loss. Zack Wheeler later pitched four innings in relief for the Phillies and allowed two earned runs. Grant Holmes got the win, and Chris Sale pitched 1 1/3 innings for the Braves. The Phillies scored on a Bohm groundout in the sixth and a Trea Turner sacrifice fly in the eighth. The crowd at Truist Park was 41,731.
Saturday’s four openers
By Plainly Now’s conversion from the schedule’s UTC start times, the Game 1s are: White Sox at Guardians, 1 p.m. ET; Braves at Dodgers, 4 p.m. ET; Yankees at Rays, 6:30 p.m. ET; and Padres at Brewers, 8:30 p.m. ET. Cleveland, Los Angeles, Tampa Bay and Milwaukee are the hosts. The Dodgers-Braves series is listed to move to Atlanta for Games 3 and 4 on Oct. 6 and 7.