MLB division series: Live updates, analysis on Day 5

Four games, one Super Wednesday in the 2025 MLB playoffs.

The division series in both the American League and National League could have all ended today — but the Detroit Tigers put an early stop to that.

Detroit kicked off all the fun Wednesday by overcoming an early deficit en route to a dominant win over the Seattle Mariners, sending the series back to Seattle for a decisive Game 5 on Friday. The Chicago Cubs followed suit, eking out a close win over the Milwaukee Brewers to force Game 4 on Thursday in Chicago.

Here’s how the rest of the day’s schedule plays out: Next up, another Game 4: The Toronto Blue Jays, up 2-1, look to bounce the New York Yankees in the Bronx (7:08 p.m. ET, FS1). Finally, fans at Dodger Stadium will have their brooms out as the Los Angeles Dodgers host the Philadelphia Phillies (9:08 p.m. ET, TBS).

We’ll have all the day’s action covered — from lineups before first pitch to in-game analysis and postgame takeaways.

Key links: Mega-preview | Series outlooks | Bracket | Schedule

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Live analysis

Follow live on Gamecast: TOR at NYY

Takeaways

Milwaukee leads series 2-1

This was a fascinating game, as the Cubs once again took an early lead, exploding for four runs off Quinn Priester in the bottom of the first after the Brewers had scored once in the top of the inning. In the end, however, the game came down to one crucial high-leverage at-bat: Chicago’s Brad Keller facing Milwaukee’s Jake Bauers, bases loaded, two outs, top of the eighth. If Bauers gets a base hit, two runs score and the series is likely over, given the dominating late-game Milwaukee bullpen.

On the first pitch, Bauers stepped out, but the umpire didn’t grant time, and Keller’s pitch was a ball outside. It was shaping up as a Brewers moment. Instead, Keller delivered a 97 mph fastball for a strike, got Bauers looking at a changeup low and in and then blew him away with another 97 mph heater. Keller’s season has been remarkable. Last year, he had a 5.44 ERA with the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox, spending much of the season in the minors. The Cubs signed him, and then he added 4 mph to his fastball and had a great year, taking over as the closer down the stretch. After striking out Bauers, Keller got through the ninth. The Cubs are still alive. — David Schoenfield

Series tied 2-2

Say what you will about the way the Detroit Tigers finished the regular season, but this is one resilient bunch. They barely avoided collapsing their way out of the playoff field. But whereas missing the playoffs has a definite finality to it, squeezing in opens up all sorts of possibilities. The Tigers’ offense began Wednesday with the lowest WOBA of any playoff team, including those already eliminated. But despite that, Detroit has scrapped and fought to win the close ones, winning games with no margin for error.

Finally, in the middle of Game 4, the hitters broke out. Riley Greene, who was removed for a pinch hitter during the wild-card series in Cleveland with tough lefty Tim Herrin on the mound, launched the go-ahead shot in the sixth, just Detroit’s third homer of the playoffs, as the Tigers roared back from a 3-0 deficit. Javier Baez and Gleyber Torres followed up with two more home runs to round out the Game 4 win.

The moment was huge for the Tigers, and Greene — their best position player. Now Detroit turns to its best player period, ace Tarik Skubal, for Game 5. Just hours after everything was swimming Seattle’s direction after Game 3, the Tigers have once again fought back from the brink. — Bradford Doolittle

For the Seattle Mariners, this was like the old Clint Eastwood movie. The first half of the game was good — very good, as the Mariners built a 3-0 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth. Then it turned bad. Then it turned ugly. The analysis will certainly revolve around Dan Wilson’s decision with starter Bryce Miller, except Wilson will hear it from both sides: should have pulled him sooner, should have left him in. Miller was not good this year (5.68 ERA and one of the most homer-prone starters in the majors) and was starting only because Bryan Woo was injured.

The Mariners probably should have been happy to get four scoreless innings out of him considering he allowed an 0.923 OPS the second time through the order. But Wilson let him start the fifth and Miller allowed two hits, initiating the Detroit comeback. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Gabe Speier and Eduard Bazardo, excellent in the regular season, were not excellent on this day. For some reason, the Mariners continue to struggle to get out Javier Baez, one of the worst hitters in the majors in the second half.

Now they have to beat Skubal in Game 5. The Mariners won Game 2 when Skubal started, leading 2-0 when he left the game, blowing the lead and then scoring the winning run against the Detroit bullpen. Beating Skubal again feels unlikely. Except Cleveland faced this scenario last year in Game 5 of the ALDS and scored five runs off the Cy Young winner, including a grand slam, winning 7-3. The more likely hope is Seattle pulling out another low-scoring victory. Good luck. — Schoenfield