MLB playoffs 2025: Blue Jays eliminate Yankees while Cubs, Tigers and Phillies all survive in Division Series

[Live blog | Mariners-Tigers | Brewers-Cubs | Blue Jays-Yankees | Phillies-Dodgers]

For the final time in 2025, MLB fans got four games of playoff baseball in a single day. Wednesday featured all eight remaining teams in action as the division series approaches its conclusion.

Here’s how it all went down.

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The Phillies shook off two tough home losses to get on the board in the NLDS, breaking through Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto and successfully holding down a dangerous lineup in Game 3.

The winning runs came in the fourth inning after three easy frames for Yamamoto. Kyle Schwarber announced that the Phillies were back with a 455-foot monster of a home run that cleared the right-field pavilion at Dodger Stadium, and after that, the hits just kept coming. Alec Bohm and Brandon Marsh each batted in a run, contributing to Yamamoto’s shortest start since July 7.

More runs arrived in the eighth inning to all but end the contest at the expense of Clayton Kershaw, who made his 2025 postseason debut and allowed four earned runs, including a second Schwarber homer, in two innings.

Meanwhile, the Phillies went to extreme lengths to hide a bullpen that has struggled in this series. They surprisingly started Aaron Nola after a rough regular season and got two scoreless innings from him. Then they had previously projected Game 3 starter Ranger Suarez throw five innings as the bulk guy out of the bullpen.

The Phillies had closer Jhoan Duran on tap for a potential two-inning save, but the offensive explosion in the top of the eighth inning let them take their foot off the gas and use other bullpen arms instead.

Game 4 is scheduled for Thursday at 6:08 p.m. ET, with Tyler Glasnow and Cristopher Sánchez taking the mound.

With an ALCS berth at stake, Blue Jays manager John Schneider put trust in his bullpen, and that trust was rewarded. Eight Blue Jays pitchers combined to limit the New York Yankees to two runs and just six hits as Toronto secured a series-clinching 5-2 win over the New York Yankees in Game 4 of the ALDS.

With the win, the Blue Jays advance to the ALCS, where they’ll face the winner of Friday’s Game 5 between the Detroit Tigers and Seattle Mariners. For the Yankees, the defending AL champions, the season ends in disappointment.

The Blue Jays won Games 1 and 2 in Toronto thanks to offensive outbursts of 10 and 13 runs. There was no need for such fireworks Wednesday. Toronto started the game with reliever Louis Varland on the mound, and its bullpen yielded only a solo home run to nine-hole hitter Ryan McMahon in the third inning and a meaningless run in the ninth.

Aside from that solo shot, the Yankees didn’t put a runner on second until the sixth inning. Aaron Judge went 2-for-4 with an intentional walk, but around him, New York’s vaunted lineup featuring Cody Bellinger, Giancarlo Stanton and Jazz Chisholm Jr. failed to mount a threat.

The Yankees went into the bottom of the eighth facing a 5-1 deficit with the heart of the order due up. Judge struck out, and Bellinger flied out. The Yankees then loaded the bases with two outs on a Stanton single, Chisholm walk and a walk of pinch-hitter Ben Rice. But closer Jeff Hoffman extinguished the fire by inducing an inning-ending flyout from Austin Wells. That was New York’s last, best chance. Hoffman closed out the ninth while allowing a single run.

The game was close early, however, as rookie Yankees starter Cam Schlittler yielded just two runs through 6 1/3 innings. But a Chisholm error on a would-be double-play ball in the seventh opened the door for Toronto to plate two unearned runs that made it 4-1 Toronto. From there, the Yankees never recovered. —Jason Owens

The location changed for Game 3 of the NLDS between the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs, but the scoring cadence didn’t. There were first-inning fireworks in the Friendly Confines, too.

In an NL Central division showdown that produced 13 first-inning runs in the first two games, the Cubs put up a four-spot in the opening frame Wednesday, igniting the Wrigley Field fans desperate for more playoff baseball.

They’re getting it. The Cubs maintained that lead the rest of the way, even as the Brewers chipped away, and staved off elimination with a 4-3 victory. Milwaukee’s series lead is down to 2-1, and Game 4 is Thursday at Wrigley.

In Game 3, the Brewers took a 1-0 lead after loading the bases in the top of the first inning, but the Cubs immediately countered in the bottom of the frame. Michael Busch blasted a leadoff homer for the second time this series, and then Pete Crow-Armstrong smacked a two-out, two-RBI single with the bases loaded. That chased Brewers starter Quinn Priester early, forcing Brewers manager Pat Murphy into a bullpen game.

After one more first-inning run, the Cubs didn’t score again, and the Brewers chipped away at the three-run deficit throughout the night. Jake Bauers delivered an RBI single to center in the top of the fourth, and in the seventh, he teed off on reliever Andrew Kittredge’s first pitch, sending a solo shot over the left-center wall and cutting the Cubs’ lead to 4-3.

Milwaukee threatened to break hearts in the eighth, loading the bases with two outs, and Bauers came up again with the tying run 90 feet away. Fortunately for Chicago, Brad Keller blew by Bauers with a 97-mph, four-seam fastball up in the zone for a clutch strikeout. With that, Keller secured the four-out save in the ninth and extended the Cubs’ playoff run at least one more day. — Andy Backstrom

Through four innings Wednesday, the Tigers looked dead in the water. But then they rallied back to force Game 5 with an explosive, 9-3 victory in Game 4.

Seattle took a 3-0 lead through four innings, with a chance to close the series out. And a lifeless Detroit home crowd was nowhere to be found.

Everything changed in the fifth. The Tigers chased Mariners starter Bryce Miller with a Dillon Dingler RBI double to plate their first run. They finished the frame with four hits and three runs to tie the game 3-3 and spark life back into the home crowd.

Then they opened things up in the sixth. Riley Greene led off the inning with a home run for a 4-3 advantage and Detroit’s first lead since Game 1 of the ALDS. Zach McKinstry added an RBI single. Then Javy Báez blew the game open with a two-run home run for a 7-3 Tigers lead.

The Mariners never recovered. Detroit’s bullpen shut down Seattle’s offense for the rest of the game, and the Tigers tied the series 2-2 to force a decisive Game 5 on Friday (4:40 p.m. ET, FS1). The series will shift back to Seattle, and the winner will claim a berth in the ALCS. — Owens

MLB division series live blog

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MLB playoffs 2025: Blue Jays eliminate Yankees while Cubs, Tigers and Phillies all survive in Division Series

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