The Rays send Shane McClanahan to the mound in Cleveland against Shane Bieber and the Guardians to kick off the 2022 post-season. The game is scheduled for noon EDT. McClanahan followed up his rookie season with 43 more innings and an ERA of 2.54, 89 points lower than his 2021 mark. Despite the higher inning total, he walked just one more batter and allowed four fewer hits. Bieber posted his best full season, coming very close to cutting his walk rate in half from last year. Base runners may be scarce in this game.

At 2 PM EDT, the Phillies visit the Cardinals with Zack Wheeler facing Jose Quintana. Since joining Philadelphia in 2020, Wheeler owns the tenth best ERA in the majors (minimum 300 IP). It’s an impressive list with three other of today’s starters in the top ten, including the aforementioned Shane Bieber at six. Wheeler is extremely stingy with walks and home runs. Quintana came over from the Pirates at the trade deadline. In twelve starts with St. Louis he posted a 2.01 ERA in 62 2/3 innings allowing just one home run. He does not go deep in games, so expect to see the bullpen in fairly early.

The 4 PM game pits the Mariners against the Blue Jays, the Mariners making their first post-season appearance since their 116 win season in 2001. Luis Castillo takes on Alek Manoah. Castillo came over from the Reds at the trade deadline and produced a 3.17 ERAin 65 1/3 innings. He struck out 77 batters, limiting the opposition to 55 hits. Manoah is at the top of the ERA leaderboard above, with a 2.60 ERA in his first two MLB seasons. His three true-outcomes are good, but none are outstanding. He is really good at limiting hits. Balls in play against him do not find holes.

Finally, the Padres visit the Mets with Yu Darvish squaring off against Max Scherzer. At seasonal age 35, Darvish posted his second highest single season inning total with an ERA of 3.10. He limited hits and walks, holding batters to a .207/.256/.331 slash line. The home runs don’t hurt as much when there is no one on base. Scherzer comes in second on the three-year ERA leaderboard at 2.62. Injuries limited the seasonal age 37 pitcher to 145 1/3 innings, so his 2.29 ERA was not among the league qualifiers. Like Clayton Kershaw, Scherzer doesn’t pitch as much as he used to, but he’s great when he does.

Enjoy!