Love old-school aces? You're in luck tonight

Plus: Skubal authors masterpiece in Cleveland

Tuesday, September 30 View Online Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, postseason edition! We'll keep you up to speed on everything you need to know every weekday throughout the 2025 MLB playoffs. Thanks for being here.   The MLB postseason is underway, and if you are a fan of marquee matchups between top-flight starting pitchers, tonight's final two games will have exactly what you want.   Every playoff team would love to have its No. 1 starter ready to go in Game 1. That's not always possible for the clubs that have to fight for a spot in the dance in the last days of the regular season, but fortunately for the Red Sox, Yankees, Reds and Dodgers – and for any fan who loves old-school pitching duels – they each have a bona fide ace on the bump tonight. Here's a quick look at these two tantalizing mound matchups.   Garrett Crochet (BOS) vs. Max Fried (NYY), 6 p.m. ET on ESPN If not for Tigers Game 1 starter Tarik Skubal, Crochet would be the favorite for the American League Cy Young in his first year with the Red Sox. The MLB leader in K's (255), Crochet also paced the junior circuit in innings pitched (205 1/3) and finished third among AL hurlers in ERA (2.59) and second in FanGraphs WAR (5.8). This will be his fifth start against the Yankees this year, and Boston hopes the end result is the same as the previous four: a Red Sox victory.   But Boston will have to overcome Fried, who picked up one of his MLB-high 19 victories when he last faced the Red Sox, allowing two runs over 5 1/3 frames on Sept. 13. He finished directly behind Crochet on the AL leaderboard in ERA (2.86), innings (195 1/3) and fWAR (4.8). Fried should also get plenty of love on Cy Young ballots after a year in which he got a record-breaking contract and then gave the Yankees everything they could have asked for.   Hunter Greene (CIN) vs. Blake Snell (LAD), 9 p.m. ET on ESPN Greene and Snell had their seasons sidetracked by injuries, but both showed in September that they are ready to dominate in the postseason. The fireballing Greene, who finished among the top 10 in NL Cy Young voting last year, allowed one hit and struck out 12 batters over seven innings against the Mets on Sept. 7. Then, in his penultimate start of the season, he carried a no-hitter into the seventh against the Cubs and ultimately had to settle for a one-hitter in a complete-game shutout.  Snell wasn't the Dodgers' top starter on the whole this season -- that title belonged to Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Los Angeles' Game 2 starter for this series -- but he was sublime down the stretch. The two-time Cy Young Award winner allowed just nine hits and one earned run over his final three starts (19 innings). That included outings on Sept. 10 and Sept. 17 with double-digit K's.   But there's no need to wait to get your fix of postseason baseball: The Padres have a 1-0 lead against the Cubs as we hit send on this newsletter. Watch on ABC!   -- Brian Murphy TIGERS SURVIVE GAME 1 THRILLER We didn't have to wait until the evening to get a classic postseason pitching duel. The Tigers and Guardians gave us one right out of the chute today.   Tarik Skubal showed why he is arguably the best pitcher in the sport by dealing 7 2/3 innings of one-run ball and striking out a career-best 14 batters in the Tigers' 2-1 win in Game 1 of their American League Wild Card Series. The 14 K's matched Detroit's postseason record and tied for the eighth-most in a single game in playoff history. Guardians starter Gavin Williams was stellar, too, permitting two runs (none earned) over six-plus frames.    Skubal allowed only three balls to leave the infield in his start. Even the game-tying run the Guardians scored against him in the fourth came on a chopper that traveled just past the pitcher's mound. But the Tigers countered small ball with small ball, scoring the eventual winning run in the sixth with one of their two sacrifice bunts on the day, something Detroit did only five times during the regular season.   The tying run was 90 feet away in the bottom of the ninth with no outs after José Ramírez hit a leadoff infield single and reached third on a two-base error, but Tigers closer Will Vest locked in, getting a strikeout, a grounder back to the pitcher and a popout to end the game.   -- Brian Murphy ROKI'S NEW ROLE It may be easy to forget about the kind of impact Roki Sasaki can have on a game, given that he threw just 36 1/3 innings in his debut MLB season, but the Dodgers don't need a reminder.   After missing all but a few weeks of this year with a right shoulder impingement, Sasaki made the roster for L.A.'s Wild Card Series vs. the Reds, who will see the 23-year-old out of the bullpen rather than as a starter. If he can bottle the dominance of his relief audition last week, when he flashed an uptick in fastball velocity to go with his trademark splitter, Sasaki could be a major weapon for a Dodgers bullpen in need of reinforcements. Sonja Chen has more on Sasaki's transformation from non-factor to potential X-factor as the Wild Card Series gets underway at Chavez Ravine tonight (9 ET on ESPN).   -- Tom Vourtsis MANAGER BUZZ While 12 clubs geared up for the postseason, Monday marked the start of the offseason for the rest -- and, as usual, the day came with some managerial news.   Perhaps the most intriguing development of the day? The Rangers' announcement that Bruce Bochy would not be returning as manager in 2026, which came a short time after the Giants dismissed Bob Melvin.   Naturally, those moves fueled chatter about Bochy potentially returning to the Giants' dugout. Bochy spent 13 years at the helm for San Francisco, where Buster Posey -- the starting catcher for much of Bochy's tenure -- is now the president of baseball operations tasked with selecting the Giants' next manager. As for the Rangers, the frontrunner to be Bochy's successor in Texas appears to be former Marlins manager Skip Schumaker, who joined Texas' front office as a senior advisor to president of baseball operations Chris Young last November.   The Twins also announced a managerial shake-up on Monday, parting ways with Rocco Baldelli after seven seasons, and the Angels won't pick up Ron Washington's 2026 option (per source), meaning they'll also be looking for a new skipper. Other clubs with managerial vacancies include the Orioles, Nationals and Rockies, each of whom finished the regular season with an interim skipper at the helm.   The Mets, on the other hand, have opted to stay the course. Despite a precipitous collapse that saw the team go from the best record in baseball on June 12 to falling out of the playoff field entirely, Carlos Mendoza will be returning as New York's manager for the 2026 season.   You can follow all of the latest managerial rumblings here.   -- Thomas Harrigan MAKE YOUR ALL-MLB PICKS The postseason is underway, but it's never too early to think ahead to awards season. Make your voice heard and cast your vote for the 2025 All-MLB Team presented by MGM Rewards until Oct. 10 at noon ET.    The All-MLB Team, which recognizes the top players at each position during the regular season with First and Second Team honors, will be announced on Nov. 13 during the MLB Awards in Las Vegas. © 2025 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. MLB trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. Visit MLB.com. Any other marks used herein are trademarks of their respective owners. Please review our Privacy Policy. 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