Yankees eliminate Boston with rookie Schlittler as hero

With rookie Cam Schlittler emerging as the unlikely hero, the New York Yankees blanked the Boston Red Sox 4x0 on Thursday in the Major League Baseball wild-card tiebreaker.

The Bronx Bombers, who dispatched their archrivals 2x1 overall, will face the Toronto Blue Jays in the divisional round starting Saturday.

Earlier, the Detroit Tigers and Chicago Cubs also emerged victorious from their playoff games, condemning the Cleveland Rangers and San Diego Padres to elimination.

At Yankee Stadium, the hosts earned their second straight win turn around a series in which they had been on the ropes since Tuesday's opening loss.

On Wednesday they survived thanks to a a clutch run by Jazz Chisholm Jr., on Thursday they relied on a colossal performance by an in form Schlittler, a 24-year-old pitcher who grew up a Red Sox fan.

The right-hander born in Walpole (Massachusetts), 25 miles from Boston, dominated from the mound for eight full innings, in which he gave up five hits but no runs and no walks.

Schlittler also became the first Yankees rookie to strike out 12 batters in a postseason game.

In the fourth inning, the Dominican hit a single to left field bringing Cody Bellinger home.

The Yankees saw their chance and scored the other three runs in that same fourth inning.

The 48,000 fans at Yankee Stadium, including TV comedian Jimmy Fallon in the front row, jumped for joy as their team took enough of a lead to avoid any more upsets in the long-suffering playoffs.

Tigers vs. Mariners

In Cleveland, the Tigers defeated the Guardians 6x3 in the culmination of three months of fierce rivalry between the two franchises.

Detroit exacted revenge after the Guardians snatched the divisional title from them in September with one of the most impressive comebacks in regular-season history.

The Tigers, who enjoyed a 15.5-win lead at the start of July, also lost five of six regular-season games to Cleveland in September.

But on Thursday it was the Tigers who prevailed in the game that counted most, decanted with a blistering four-run seventh inning.

A single by Dominican Wenceel Perez brought Puerto Rican Javier Baez and American Parker Meadows to the plate and other hits by Spencer Torkelson and Riley Greene widened the gap for Detroit.

The Tigers will now clash with the Seattle Mariners, who boast one of the majors' most fearsome battery of gunners led by Venezuelan Eugenio Suarez, Dominican Julio Rodriguez and American Cal Raleigh, the course's home run leader with 60.

San Diego says goodbye

In Chicago, the Cubs beat the Padres 3x1 to seal their first postseason series win since 2017.

A single by Pete Crow-Armstrong, a base on balls by Dansby Swanson and a home run by Michael Busch drove in the winning runs for the hosts and their pitching staff defended the lead.

The Padres barely closed the gap in the final inning via a home run by Jackson Merrill.