A blitzkrieg of raucous, roller-coaster playoff baseball is about to reach its zenith: A quadrupleheader featuring a pair of potential closeout games and two more pivotal Division Series Game 3s. From the moment the greet a Comerica Park crowd awaiting its first playoff game in 10 years until the and exit the stage – perhaps for good in the Dodgers’ case – some nine hours of taut, tense postseason play will unfold. It’s the last day there’ll be so many games to track until 2025, and for the first time, all four Division Series began with 1-1 splits.
As this day of reckoning arrives, USA TODAY Sports breaks down what to watch in these pivotal hours: After two games at Cleveland’s Progressive Field, which can feel claustrophobic, the Guardians and Tigers return to the spacious confines of Comerica Park, their ALDS tied 1-1. And the Tigers are surely thrilled with the chance to not only play in front of their home fans, but stretch their legs on the base paths. Detroit led the major leagues with a 49% rate taking extras bases in 2024, and since third base coach Joey Cora that touted the upside of aggressive baserunning, the Tigers have gone first-to-third more than any team in the majors.
And after they took Cleveland’s best punch in Game 1 – the Guardians scored five runs before the Tigers recorded an out – the series has settled down considerably. Cleveland has scored just two runs in 17 innings since that breakout, while Detroit managed just one run-scoring .