The MLB wildcard just finished up and there were a lot of upsets. 

The Wildcard consists of eight teams—four from the National League, and four from the American League. The teams battle it out in a 3-game series to determine who moves on to the next round. 

Starting in the National League, the number 6-seeded Philadelphia Phillies played against the number 3-seeded St. Louis Cardinals. The Phillies led by the great Bryce Harper swept the Cardinals 2-0. The Cardinals led 2-0 in Game 1, but then let up 6 runs in the 9th inning to ultimately lose the game 6-3. A day later, the Cardinals were shut out in Game 2, 2-0, to lose the series. 

Next up we have the number 4 seeded New York Mets versus the number 5 seeded San Diego Padres. The Padres, led by 3rd baseman Manny Machado and right fielder Juan Soto, helped the Padres upset the Mets 2-1. The Mets, who had one of their best regular seasons in recent times, just didn’t look as good as they did in the regular season. 

The two games the Mets lost are the ones Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt pitched. Scherzer and Bassitt got shelled in these games while the Mets struggled to do much on offense, scoring a combined 1 run in the losses.

Moving into the American League, we have the number 6 seeded Tampa Bay Rays who faced off against the number 3 seeded Cleveland Guardians. The Guardians swept the Rays 2-0 in the series with the help of 3rd baseman Jose Ramirez, who hit a 2-run home run in the 6th inning. This eventually led the Guardians to a 2-1 win in Game 1. 

Game 2 of this series was the craziest game of the wildcard. This game went all the way up to 15 innings due to the stellar pitching from both sides. In heroic fashion, right fielder Oscar Gonzalez hit a walk-off home run to advance the Guardians to the next round. 

Finally, we have the number 5-seeded Seattle Mariners versus the number 4-seeded Toronto Blue Jays. Seattle ended up sweeping this series 2-0. Seattle shut out the Blue Jays in Game 1, 4-0, behind a dominant pitching performance from Luis Castillo. 

Game 2 was the game to watch. After taking an 8-1 lead, the Blue Jays looked like they were going to force a Game 3. Then out of nowhere the Mariners rose from the dead and started rallying runs together. The Mariners ended up defeating the Jays with a final score of 10-9 to advance to the divisional round of the playoffs.