MLB Wild Card Roundup: Yankees, White Sox, Padres Sweep; Phillies Force Game 3

The second day of the MLB playoffs brought our first set of eliminations from the postseason, while one team extended its season by at least one more day. The White Sox finished off a sweep of the Astros for their first playoff series win since 2005, and the Phillies forced a decisive Game 3 behind back-to-back homers and an extra-inning win in Atlanta. Max Fried, meanwhile, shut down the Red Sox in the Bronx as the Yankees completed a sweep to advance past their rivals. The Padres stayed hot to send the Cubs packing. The White Sox now face the Guardians in the American League Division Series, with the Yankees taking on the Rays. The Padres will get the Brewers, owners of the best record in baseball. The Braves and Phillies will play a winner-take-all Game 3 on Thursday for the right to take on the two-time defending champion Dodgers in the NLDS. Here is everything you might have missed on Day 2 of the MLB Playoffs: Biggest Moment The White Sox got a letter of support from Pope Leo XIV and have not looked back since. The White Sox scored four first-inning runs on two Astros errors and beat Houston 7-3 to sweep the AL Wild Card Series, their first playoff series win since the 2005 World Series. Munetaka Murakami knows how to party. Last week, the rookie first baseman went viral for his clubhouse interview after the White Sox clinched a playoff berth, answering in English that he’d rate the celebration a “100” on a scale of 1 to 10. On Wednesday, he was enjoying himself again after Chicago swept the Houston Astros in the AL Wild Card Series: Chase Meidroth’s three-run homer in the sixth inning pushed the lead to 7-3. The White Sox lost 100 games in each of the last three seasons and are the only team in MLB history to follow consecutive 100-loss seasons with a playoff berth. Second-year manager Will Venable’s club now visits AL Central champion Cleveland in the division series beginning Saturday. The Astros, who went 81-81, lost their ninth straight home playoff game. Best Hitters Bryce Harper’s night turned on two swings. In the seventh inning, with the Phillies trailing 1-0 in what had become a pitchers’ duel, Drake Baldwin’s drive glanced off Harper’s glove as he leaped at the warning track in right field. The double drove in the go-ahead run, and Matt Olson added a sacrifice fly to make it 3-1 Atlanta. Harper was not charged with an error, but he owned it. “Probably should have been caught, obviously,” Harper said afterwards. An inning later, Kyle Schwarber hit a 447-foot homer off Dylan Lee, and Harper followed with a 418-foot shot to tie the game at 3-3. Alec Bohm’s two-out, 357-foot homer in the 10th inning put the Phillies ahead for good in a 4-3 win that forces a decisive Game 3 on Thursday. Philadelphia has a history of beating Atlanta in October, including the 1993 NLCS as well as the 2022 and 2023 NLDS. Philadelphia has won each of its past three playoff series against the Braves: the 1993 NLCS and the 2022 and 2023 NLDS, taking 10 of 14 games. Best Pitcher Max Fried had a strong outing on the mound as the Yankees finished off a sweep of the Red Sox with a 9-2 win at Yankee Stadium. He allowed one run over six innings with six strikeouts, and he was one strike from six scoreless innings when Willson Contreras clubbed a high fastball into the first row of the right-field bleachers. That homer was Boston’s first run of the series. Fried stranded a runner at second in the third inning and stayed ahead of a lineup that had managed just three hits the night before. Fried and Cam Schlittler combined to allow one run over 12⅓ innings with 16 strikeouts as the Yankees outscored Boston 18-2 over both games. Fried had a 0.77 ERA in two starts against the Red Sox this season, and he threw 6⅓ scoreless innings against them in last year’s Wild Card opener. Cody Bellinger’s three-run homer capped a six-run sixth inning that broke the game open, and New York now faces the Tampa Bay Rays in a division series beginning Saturday. Honorable mention goes to the Phillies’ Andrew Painter, a starter in the regular season, who threw three scoreless innings in relief to close out the win. He ended the game by striking out Dominic Smith on an 0-2 fastball that was initially called a ball, then confirmed as a strike on a challenge. It was the first time a postseason game ended on a strike-zone appeal. What’s Next The White Sox, Yankees and Padres have punched their tickets to the division series, with those matchups beginning Saturday. That leaves the Braves and Phillies, who play a winner-take-all Game 3 on Thursday night. Here’s how it will play out: