The 2020 Major League Baseball League kicked off with three of the best wild card series on Tuesday. For this year’s playoffs, there will be an expanded field in which sixteen teams will take part. Now, Wednesday brings to us a schedule with games on both sides of the American League and National League of Brackets.
There will be a total of eight games, starting early in the afternoon and lasting until late at night. Since all the wild card series games are being played on the ballpark of high-seed teams, there will be no day off during this round, which means there will be many games on Thursday as well.
Dodgers and rays are the top seeds in NL and AL, respectively. The Yankees are battling Cleveland in the first round, while the Marlins, Pedres and White Sox ended a long postseason drought until October. Here is the full schedule of three of the three Wild Card series on Wednesday. Games on ESPN and ESPN 2 can be streamed via FuboTV (try for free).
Schedule of the Wild Card Series for Wednesday
(All time is US / Eastern)
Now, here’s what you need to know for each matchup:
Reds-Braves Game 1
RHP Trevor Bauer (5-4, 1.73) vs. LHP Max Fried (7-0, 2.25 ARA)
The Reds and Braves will feature two of the best pitchers in the Wild Card series Bezab in Lama. While Brave III is entering the postseason following a straight National League East title, he will need to file his offense against Barr as soon as possible.
Astros-Twins Game 2
RHP Jose Urquidi (1-1, 2.73 ERA) vs. RHP Jose Barrios (5-4, 4.00 ERA)
The Twins will turn to Barrios, now a moving game and another attempt to pull the club’s record, a 17-game long postseason losing streak, 2004 ALDS time. The already lost postseason was the longest in MLB history.
Marlins-Cubs Game 1
RHP Sandy Alcantara (3-2, 3.00 ERA) vs. RHP Kyle Hendrix (6-5, 2.88 ERA)
Young Marlins p in Wednesday’s series opener. Will play with cubs. This is Marlins’ third postseason appearance; They have never lost a postseason series in franchise history. The previous two in Miami – 1997 and 2003 – they won the World Series title. The Cubs – making their fifth postseason trip in six years – hope their full lineup stays warm after the club has scored 25 runs in the final three games of the regular season.
White Sox-Athletics Game 2
LHP Dallas Cachel (6-2, 1.99 ERA) vs. RHP Chris Basit (5-2, 2.29 ERA)
With Keushell on the mound, the White Sox have a chance to make another early exit action in that postseason. In Game 1, Lucas Giolito flirted with a full game before combining with three hitters and three relievers on a 4-1 win.
Blu-ray Game 2
LHP Hyun-Jin Ryu (5-2 2.69 ERA) vs. RHP Tyler Glass (5-1, 4.08 ERA)
Rays of Glass will keep an eye on Black Snail’s Game 1 performance, as it seeks to stop Toronto’s high-powered offense. In the meantime, Blue Jazz Ruey hopes his big off-fashion acquisition – can do the best of the three series.
Cardinals-Pedres Game 1
LHP Kwang-Hyun Kim (3-0, 1.62 IRA) vs. RHP Chris Paddock (4-5, 4.73 IRA)
Paddock was allowed to play in Game 1 after Danielson Lamet and Mike Clevinger were injured. The cards went over Jack Flaherty with Kim, in part because the San Diego lineup struggles against left-handers. Pedres won his first post ason Sun Berth since 2006 with a strong 37-23 final regular season record. Meanwhile, the Cardinals had a coronavirus outbreak that sidelined the club for 15 consecutive days. To get to the playoffs, the cards were forced to play 53 games, including 11 doubleheaders, in 44 days.
Yankees-Cleveland Game 2
RHP Masahiro Tanaka (3-3, 3.56 ERA) vs. RHP Carlos Carresco (3-4, 2.91 ERA)
Game 1 was hailed as the best pitching duel of the season against Shane Bieber with Garrett Cole, but instead, Cleveland got out of the Yankees’ offense. It’s possible that Game 2 could fight a non-existent pitching battle with Tanaka and Kerasco to take the mound in a game of potential elimination for Cleveland. The Tanaka posts have been light-out in the Ason Sun, and the P-Ran owns 1.76 Iranians with 37 strikeouts in eight playoffs.
Brewers-Dodgers Game 1
LHP Brent Sutter (2-0, 3.13 ERA) vs. RHP v Walker Buhler (1-0, 3.44 ERA)
Milwaukee has decided to go with a bullpen game in the opener of the wild card series. Sutter and his fellow bullpeners will face the best offense in the baseball.
