{"id":821217,"date":"2026-10-04T08:00:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T08:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/821217\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T08:00:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T08:00:25","slug":"2026-mlb-playoffs-division-series-game-1-winners-and-losers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/821217\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 MLB playoffs: Division Series Game 1 winners and losers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 MLB<\/a> postseason resumed on Saturday with Game 1 of all four Division Series matchups. Since the best-of-five Division Series became a thing in 1995, the team that wins Game 1 has gone on to win the series 73% of the time, and 32% of the time the series ended in a sweep. Winning Game 1 doesn’t guarantee a Division Series win, but it is a big advantage. <\/p>\n

Here are the final scores and schedule for Saturday’s playoff action: <\/p>\n

To sum up all the Game 1 action, we’re here to declare a winner and loser from each of the four games. You can find those authoritative and inarguable declarations just below.<\/p>\n

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Winner: Drew Rasmussen Rays ace flirts with playoff no-hitter in win over Yankees <\/p>\n

Drew Rasmussen<\/a>, the 31-year-old linchpin at the front of the Tampa Bay rotation, has pitched like an ace over the last two seasons. This year, he took it to career-best levels, as he notched a sub-3.00 ERA, a sub-2.00 FIP, and an AL-leading K\/BB ratio of 5.44 in 172 innings. He’s headed for a high finish in the AL Cy Young vote, and he deserves it.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

A fitting follow-up to Rasmussen’s excellence in the regular season was the absolute gem he spun against the Yankees<\/a> in Game 1 of their ALDS clash:\u00a0 <\/p>\n

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Those 10 strikeouts tied a Rays postseason record. Most tellingly, he earned a jaw-dropping 23 whiffs on 54 swings for a 43% swing-and-miss rate.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Rasmussen set the dominant tone early. In the top of the fourth, he responded to the Rays’ taking the lead on a Jonathan Aranda<\/a> homer with a nine-pitch shutdown inning. He walked a pair of batters along the way, but at one point, he retired 15 batters in a row and carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning. After getting two outs, Yankees catcher Austin Wells<\/a> ripped a double down the line to end the no-hitter, but he was thrown out foolishly attempting to make third base.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

In the first postseason start of his career, Rasmussen earned a Game Score<\/a> of 88. That’s dominance at just the right time, and it’s just what the Rays needed to take a 1-0 lead. — Dayn Perry<\/p>\n

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Loser: Austin Wells Yankees catcher tries to be a speed merchant at just the wrong time <\/p>\n

Austin Wells, for a few seconds, came up huge in the eighth inning of Game 1. Rasmussen had a no-hitter intact with two outs in the eighth with the Rays caring for a 1-0 lead. Wells ripped a 1-0 sinker from Rasmussen for a 107.8 mph double down the right field line. Had he stopped at second, he might have ended Rasmussen’s night. Rays manager Kevin Cash might have gone to a lefty to face Ryan McMahon<\/a>, and in response, Yankees manager Aaron Boone might have summoned Giancarlo Stanton<\/a> for a platoon-advantaged pinch-hitting appearance in a clutch spot.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Wells, though, negated all those possibilities by inexplicably trying to stretch that double into a triple. What ensued was as unsurprising as Wells’ base-running decision was surprising:\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Wells is a catcher, and in keeping with the standards of his guild, he ranks in the 16th percentile in sprint speed among MLB hitters. Yankees third base coach Luis Rojas was giving Wells the stop sign before he even reached second:\u00a0 <\/p>\n

That Wells did this with two outs and his team down by one run in the eighth inning makes the decision impossible to justify.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

“Two outs there, trying to make something happen, be aggressive with not much going on in the game,” Wells told reporters after the game (via SNY<\/a>). “Obviously, would love to be safe there or standing on second base.” <\/p>\n

Wells didn’t hit a triple in the regular season, and for his career, he has two three-baggers in 382 career games. He picked precisely the wrong time to try to add to that meager tally.\u00a0— Dayn Perry<\/p>\n

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Winner: The Brewers’ powerThey didn’t have much during the regular season, but they did in Game 1<\/p>\n

The Brewers during the regular season were tied for 28th in MLB with just 154 home runs. They were the best team in all of baseball, but their weakness was a lack of home run power. That’s potentially critical right now because hitting home runs is a common trait among teams that play deep into October. Against the Padres in Game 1 of the NLDS, though, the Milwaukee lineup found some of that power it had been missing.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

First, rising young superstar Jackson Chourio<\/a> in the third hit a game-tying two-run home run off Padres starter Robbie Ray<\/a>. During the regular season, Chourio had a ridiculous OPS of 1.248 when jumping on the first pitch of a plate appearance, and that’s what he did here, ambushing a slider from Ray and sending it 420 feet:\u00a0 <\/p>\n

That blast made Chourio, who’s still just 22 years old, the Brewers’ all-time postseason home run leader with five. <\/p>\n

The score remained tied 2-2 until the bottom of the seventh. With two outs and a full count, William Contreras<\/a> saw a fourth straight sinker from lockdown lefty Adrian Morejon<\/a> and did this to it: <\/p>\n

That was a 406-foot home run, and that was a 3-2 Brewers lead at the expense of the best bullpen in baseball. <\/p>\n

Speaking of bullpens, the Brewers’ relief corps made that slim lead hold up on a night when ace Jacob Misiorowski<\/a> didn’t find his way to vintage results. Thanks to the Brewers’ timely power, though, it didn’t matter in the end.\u00a0— Dayn Perry<\/p>\n

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Losers: Robbie Ray and the American Family Field roofOne failed to keep runs off the board and the other controversially may have succeeded<\/p>\n

The Padres don’t have a lot of good rotation answers right now after their top two of Michael King<\/a> and Nick Pivetta<\/a>. Deadline acquisition Robbie Ray came over after showing some strong run prevention chops with the Giants<\/a> in his age-34 season. However, there were always concerns under the hood, and indeed, he regressed on the Padres’ watch. He entered the playoffs with a FIP of 4.69 and a K\/BB ratio of 1.67 — both marks solidly below average.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Ray’s outing in Game 1 was in keeping with those low expectations, as he permitted two runs on four hits in 2 \u2154 innings with one strikeout and a pair of walks. That Ray couldn’t give the Padres any length at all forced manager Craig Stammen<\/a> to work his bullpen hard in Game 1. When you’re as bullpen-reliant as the Padres are, that’s not how you want to start a series, especially in a losing effort. That all flowed from Ray’s ineffective start.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

As for our second loser, well, let’s just roll tape:\u00a0 <\/p>\n

According to the American Family Field ground rules, a batted ball is in play if it strikes the roof, a roof truss, or a roof cable over fair territory, which was the case here. The question is whether Ty France<\/a>‘s blast would’ve left the ballpark had it not struck the roof. It left the bat at 105.3 mph and a launch angle of 49 degrees. And in the Statcast era, a batted ball as such has never once resulted in a home run. It was a towering blast, and even after hitting the roof, it went 325 feet and, per Statcast estimates, would’ve still been a home run at Daikin Park in Houston.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So did the American Family Field roof save the game for the Brewers? The answer is a resounding “maybe.”\u00a0— Dayn Perry<\/p>\n

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Winner: Playoff Teo Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez has 11 homers in 38 career playoff games <\/p>\n

Despite the scorching hot weather — game time temperature was 100 degrees in the second-hottest playoff first pitch ever — the offenses were pretty quiet in this one. It was a scoreless tie in the middle of the fourth inning. A one-out walk to Freddie Freeman<\/a> set the table for one of the more prolific playoff home run hitters in recent history, and Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez responded by going deep to give the Dodgers a 2-0 lead.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

That was the 11th career playoff home run for Hern\u00e1ndez, including at least one in each of his last six postseason series. He’s been especially productive in the divisional round. He’s now 12 for 37 (.324) with four home runs and 12 RBI in 10 career NLDS games.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

As for this season, this game continued a trend of a scorching Hern\u00e1ndez at the plate recently. He was faced with the possibility of losing playing time in a platoon situation in late August (manager Dave Roberts even pondered it out loud) and then something inside him woke up. In his last 25 regular-season games, Hern\u00e1ndez hit .352\/.433\/.582 with four doubles, a triple, five home runs, 20 RBI and 15 runs.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

It should be noted that despite a rough season overall, Kyle Tucker<\/a> got hot down the stretch as well. In his last 22 games, he hit .284\/.365\/.595 with six homers and 12 RBI. He added a two-run homer for insurance in the bottom of the sixth inning in Game 1. — Matt Snyder <\/p>\n

Losers: All the teams that let the Dodgers get Skubal Dodgers deadline acquisition Tarik Skubal dominated on Saturday <\/p>\n

The Dodgers are the two-time defending World Series champions. Two-time defending AL Cy Young winner\u00a0Tarik Skubal<\/a>\u00a0landed on the trade block in July when the Tigers<\/a>\u00a0threw in the towel. Surely the rest of the league wouldn’t let the Tigers trade him to the Dodgers, right? Boy, were we naive to ignore how strongly some teams wanted to hug prospects instead of doing whatever it took to make sure the champs didn’t get the best pitcher in baseball (let alone add him to their own rotation). <\/p>\n

Skubal went out and made his first Dodgers playoff start in Game 1 on Saturday and did not disappoint. His changeup was filthy to the point that it felt unfair, inducing eight whiffs out of the 15 swings he drew with that offering. His regular ol’ 98 mph heater was there, too, along with his three lesser-used breaking pitches.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

He absolutely cruised through five scoreless innings, giving up just one hit. In the sixth, he did get touched up for a solo home run and walked two before relocating his release point and stranding those men on base. <\/p>\n

In all, Skubal struck out seven in six innings of very fine work.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

It bears repeating what we mentioned in the days following the Dodgers’ acquisition of Skubal: The move wasn’t just big in that the Dodgers landed him, it was doubly big in that they also prevented other teams from getting him. Had the Braves, for example, traded for Skubal, the Dodgers could well have been facing him on Saturday. Instead, he was working for them. — Matt Snyder <\/p>\n

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Winner: Munetaka Murakami Murakami overcame a rough Wild Card Series with a game-changing home run on Saturday <\/p>\n

There were questions<\/a>, not unreasonably, about Munetaka Murakami’s<\/a> chances to succeed in the big leagues given his low contact rates and high strikeout rates in Japan. He didn’t completely answer those questions this season — Murakami hit .207 during the regular season and .198 after April — but the 35 home runs and 130 OPS+ were plenty good enough to make up for the strikeouts. <\/p>\n

Murakami had a tough Wild Card Series against the Astros<\/a>, going 1-for-8 with five strikeouts in the two games, but he had his “welcome to the postseason” moment in Game 1 against the Guardians. He launched a 440-foot two-run home run in the third inning to give the White Sox the only runs they would need on the afternoon. Please enjoy the Japanese call of Murakami’s monster homer: <\/p>\n

Murakami’s homer came immediately after the Guardians wasted a base- loaded opportunity in the bottom of the third. They wasted another bases-loaded opportunity in the bottom of the fourth inning too. The Guardians had chances to get on the board and really bust the game open, but they didn’t do it. Murakami gave the White Sox the big swing they’ll need to win this ALDS<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Chicago made it through the Wild Card Series without Murakami contributing much, but they’ll need him against Cleveland and throughout the playoffs. Your best players have to be your best players in October, and, in Game 1, Murakami was the White Sox’s best player thanks to his go-ahead home run. His game-changing power indeed changed the game. — Mike Axisa <\/p>\n

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Loser: Regular-season demons Turns out what happens from March to September means little in October <\/p>\n

White Sox righty Grant Taylor<\/a> closed out Game 1 of the Wild Card Series with a masterful seven-out, 54-pitch performance against the Astros. It earned him our hypothetical Wild Card Series MVP award<\/a>. That won’t even go down as Taylor’s best performance of the postseason though. In Game 1 of the ALDS, he turned in a four-inning save to finish off a 3-0 win over the Guardians. <\/p>\n

Taylor struck out six and threw 42 pitches in Game 1, and generated an incredible 12 misses on 23 swings (52%). That is a preposterous whiff rate, especially since Cleveland had the fifth-lowest strikeout rate in baseball during the regular season. <\/p>\n

Taylor’s four-inning Game 1 save came after the Guardians beat him up pretty good during the regular season. They tagged him for eight runs on nine hits and six walks in only 6 \u2154 innings spanning six appearances. Twice the Guardians walked Taylor off — Brayan Rocchio<\/a> had the hit both times — and once they beat him in extra innings in Chicago. Ouch. <\/p>\n

Given that regular-season track record, you couldn’t blame the Guardians if they felt confident when Taylor entered Game 1. They’ve had his number all year. Instead, Taylor shut them down and earned the first four-inning postseason save since former Astros righty Lance McCullers<\/a> Jr. against the Yankees in Game 7 of the 2017 ALCS. <\/p>\n

Keep in mind Sunday is an off-day for the two ALDS matchups. Taylor will get to rest after Game 1 and could be right back out there in Game 2 on Monday. — Mike Axisa <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 MLB postseason resumed on Saturday with Game 1 of all four Division Series matchups. Since the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[12051,46,1217,5,6199,49,919,51,54201,1999,815,310,11613,3875,11714,307,29,5175,57,2328,2304,87,59,4,2305,2303,73,62,45,34644,1822,1494,18,68,382,3197,3801],"class_list":["post-821217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-postseason","tag-adrian-morejon","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-austin-wells","tag-baseball","tag-brayan-rocchio","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-chris-sale","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-craig-stammen","tag-drew-rasmussen","tag-freddie-freeman","tag-giancarlo-stanton","tag-grant-taylor","tag-jackson-chourio","tag-jacob-misiorowski","tag-jonathan-aranda","tag-kyle-tucker","tag-lance-mccullers","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","tag-michael-king","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-mlb-postseason","tag-munetaka-murakami","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-nick-pivetta","tag-parker-messick","tag-robbie-ray","tag-ryan-mcmahon","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tarik-skubal","tag-ty-france","tag-william-contreras"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}