Sources seem to indicate that MLB Division Series games have begun

Pregame news

• David Robertson is out after jumping up and down celebrating a Bryce Harper home run.
• Yankees reliever Scott Effross needs Tommy John.
• Phil Maton fractured his finger “punching his locker in disappointment after his final regular-season outing Earlier in the day, Phil “surrendered a single to his brother, Nick.”

Phillies 7, Braves 6

• Ranger Suárez (pictured) got the start for Philly, and went the same 3.1 innings that Max Fried went. Suárez unexpectedly outpitched Fried, who allowed six runs. Suárez would have likely allowed more but his manager knew when to take him out of the game.
• Nick Castellanos was the star of this one, though, banging out three hits and making a surprisingly nice catch in the outfield. No nuclear bombs fell in the prior minutes.
• That says 7-6 up there, but this one wasn’t that close until the very end. The Phillies bullpen is still bad. Also, Bryce Harper bunted.

Astros 8, Mariners 7

• No. 44 Julio Rodriguez was great in this game, making a longshot bid at hitting for the cycle to get Seattle out to a 7-3 lead.
• But No. 44 Yordan Álvarez was better, and got the final say, hitting a walk-off three-run homer off of Robbie Ray. Ray is a starting pitcher who has been pitching worse lately, so he was obviously(?) Seattle’s choice for the highest leverage pitches of the game.

Yankees 4, Guardians 1

• People are saying that the Yankees won a playoff game yesterday. Surprising that it’s getting any press. More correctly, the Guardians lost a playoff game yesterday.
• Gerrit Cole was a little better than Cal Quantrill, but the box score makes it appear that he was drastically better. The latter was left in too long by a manager who also didn’t see any reason to have his bad outfielder DH, have his good outfielder not DH, or pinch hit for his catcher who can not hit.

Dodgers 5, Padres 3

• This is another game that didn’t really seem as close as the score. This game was boring and I don’t have much to say about it. The Dodgers are so good that they have been boring all damn season.
• Every time they succeed, it’s in a completely normal way that anybody with half a brain expected to happen. More teams need to spend the money needed to try to win.