The final Bases Covered Live of the season comes to a broadcaster near you this Saturday evening, and boy is it shaping up to be a doozie. The opening games of this year’s Division Series sees the Cubs face the Brewers in Milwaukee, before the Yankees take on the Blue Jays in Toronto. Here are five things to know before you tune in.
1. The big question around this year’s Division Series remains: Can the teams with a Wild Card bye make the most of the extra rest? Since the three-game Wild Card Series was introduced in 2022, six of the 12 teams to have received a bye were knocked out at the first hurdle. In this case, the Blue Jays and Brewers will be desperate to avoid adding to that number.
2. For the Cubs, omens are good: They just won their first postseason series on home soil since 2016, when they went all the way. While they trailed the Brewers in the NL Central by five games at the end of the regular season, the Cubs edged their opponents 7-6 in the head-to-head matchup. One of the main narratives coming into this series -- the first time that the two clubs have faced each other in the postseason -- is the return of Cubs manager Craig Counsell to Milwaukee, his former ballclub.
This one could get tasty.
3. Hoping to carry their electric brand of baseball into October, the Brewers will be banking on their ace on Saturday. Freddy Peralta had a career year in Milwaukee, notching 204 strikeouts with a 2.70 ERA and picking up 17 wins. He faced the Cubs four times in the regular season, with the Brewers victorious in three of them. However, he is yet to win a postseason game: In six appearances (three starts), he is 0-1 with a 4.00 ERA.
4. The Yankees became the first team in the current Wild Card Series era to overturn a Game 1 defeat and advance. After downing old rivals the Red Sox, another AL East foe awaits in this Division Series as they go up against the Blue Jays. The two teams finished the regular season with identical records, but an 8-5 head-to-head record in Toronto’s favor was enough to clinch a first-round bye. To add an extra bit of spice to the occasion: this is the first time these two sides have ever met in the postseason.
5. The Blue Jays have been in the postseason four of the last six seasons, and they are yet to win a game in any of them. Swept by the Rays in 2020, the Mariners in 2022 and the Twins in 2023 -- all in the Wild Card Series -- it’s a drought they need to end this time around. With two games at Rogers Centre to kick off the best-of-five series, they have to fancy their chances of doing just that.