MLB playoffs 2025: Division Series scores, news, live updates as Tigers beat Mariners, Brewers, Blue Jays, Dodgers win Game 1
After three days of exciting wild-card action, including three elimination Game 3s, the MLB Division Series began Saturday, with four matchups on the day.
First, the No. 1 seed Brewers bombarded the Cubs with a hot start in a 9-3 victory. It was then the Blue Jays' turn to go wild on offense, as they scored eight runs in the seventh and eighth innings en route to a 10-1 win over the Yankees. The Dodgers then came back from an early 3-0 deficit to take a 5-3 victory over the Phillies.
Lastly, the AL West champion Mariners host the Tigers, who vanquished the Guardians in their wild-card series to salvage an epic end-of-season collapse.
[Yahoo Sports TV is here! Watch live shows and highlights 24/7]
Tigers pull off narrow win over Mariners in extras
It took 11 innings and a combined 15 pitchers to reach a conclusion in Game 1 of Tigers vs. Mariners. But in the end, the Tigers came out on top with a 3-2 road win in Seattle.
Both teams were scoreless through three innings in the defensive battle. Julio Rodriguez broke through in the bottom of the fourth, putting the Mariners on the board with a solo homer. In the next inning, Mariners starter George Kirby allowed a two-run homer from Kerry Carpenter, pulling the Tigers to a 2-1 lead.
Detroit held that lead for an inning before Rodriguez struck again with a sixth-inning RBI single that sent Randy Arozarena home for the game-tying run.
The score stayed at 2-2 for the next three innings and through to extras. Andrés Muñoz, Seattle's All-Star closer, got six straight outs in the ninth and 10th, but the Mariners weren't able to deliver on offense, with Tigers reliever Will Vest making it difficult.
In the 11th, the Tigers finally cashed in on an opportunity, with Zach McKinstry's RBI single bringing Spencer Torkelson home for the go-ahead run. Keider Montero, the seventh reliever for Detroit on the night, held on for the save to give the Tigers a key victory to start the series. Game 2 begins at 8:03 p.m. ET Sunday.
Dodgers stun Phillies with Teoscar Hernández homer
For a good while, Citizens Bank Park got what it wanted. The Phillies struck for three runs in the second inning against Shohei Ohtani making his postseason pitching debut, and Cy Young candidate Cristopher Sánchez shut down a dangerous lineup for nearly six innings.
Then Teoscar Hernández turned the game around with one swing.
After opening the game with three strikeouts in three at-bats and a bad misplay in that three-run second inning, the Dodgers' slugger gave his team the lead with a three-run homer in the seventh inning of a 5-3 Game 1 win.
Ohtani's start and Hernández's homer were two major components of the victory. The third was the Dodgers' bullpen keeping it together for three innings after an extraordinarily shaky wild-card series. The unit got some help from Tyler Glasnow, scheduled to start Game 4 for the Dodgers, but Alex Vesia got the biggest out of the game with a bases-loaded, two-out flyout in the eighth inning, and Roki Sasaki closed it out. Game 2 begins at 6:08 p.m. ET Monday.
Blue Jays' bats, pitching stifle Yankees
The Toronto Blue Jays used good pitching and continuous hitting to rout the New York Yankees 10-1 in Game 1 of the ALDS. Yankees starter Luis Gil didn't reach the fourth inning, as the Blue Jays recorded four hits off him, two of them solo home runs from Alejandro Kirk and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. that gave Toronto an early 2-0 lead.
Through five innings, the Yankees had no answer for Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman, who kept the aggressive Bronx Bombers' bats quiet. It wasn't until the top of the sixth that he finally got into trouble, loading the bases with no outs. He managed to strike Aaron Judge out in an eight-pitch at-bat, and then he walked Cody Bellinger to give New York its only run of the contest. Not clear of trouble yet, Gausman got Ben Rice to pop out before he was relieved by Louis Varland, who faced Giancarlo Stanton with two outs and the bases still loaded. Varland dialed up the speed and struck out Stanton with a 101-mph fastball to end the threat.
The Yankees' bullpen, on the other hand, couldn't keep the Blue Jays off the board. Luke Weaver failed to record an out while facing three hitters, and then Fernando Cruz and Paul Blackburn got rocked over the final two Toronto innings, with seven more runs scoring on seven hits.
During the Blue Jays' scoring spree in the seventh and eighth innings, Kirk hit a second home run to increase the lead and add to the Yankees' misery. Toronto is now 72-4 this year when scoring at least five runs. Game 2 begins at 4:08 p.m. ET Sunday in Toronto.
Brewers smack Cubs 9-3 behind hot start
The No. 1 seed in the National League sure looked like it Saturday, with the Milwaukee Brewers crushing the Chicago Cubs 9-3 behind a red-hot first and second inning.
Although Cubs first baseman Michael Busch led off the game with a solo homer, it didn’t take long for the Brewers to build an insurmountable lead. They raced to a 6-1 score after the first inning, thanks to five RBI doubles and singles, and expanded that lead to 9-1 in the second.
Ian Happ and Nico Hoerner added solo home runs of their own in the sixth and eighth innings, but it was far too little, too late for the Cubs to undo the damage of Milwaukee's opening two frames. It didn't help Chicago that Brewers starter Freddy Peralta had a stellar game in his own right, with nine strikeouts and just four hits allowed in 5 2/3 innings.
Milwaukee finished the game with a whopping 13 hits and eight RBI. Three of those came off the bat of left fielder Jackson Chourio, who was pulled from the game after the second inning due to hamstring tightness. Game 2 for Chicago and Milwaukee begins at 9:08 p.m. ET Monday.
MLB divisional round live blog
Follow along with Yahoo Sports for live updates, highlights and more from Day 1 of the division series: