Baseball's wild card round is almost over

The Yankees beat the Red Sox 9-0, then 9-2, and needed only two games to end Boston's season. Read more: Baseball's wild card round is almost over

A few hours later, the Padres did almost the same thing to the Cubs, winning 8-0 and then 4-1. Two sweeps in one night. The wild card round is nearly finished, with one game left to decide who joins the field.

New York needed Max Fried to get there. He went six innings in Game 2, allowed three hits, struck out six, and picked up his first postseason win since Atlanta's 2021 World Series run.

Cody Bellinger did the rest. He drove in four runs, including a three-run homer off Erik Miller in the sixth that put Game 2 away at 8-1. New York did it all without Aaron Judge, who sat out the series with a calf injury.

The Yankees now face Tampa Bay in the ALDS. Tampa Bay won the AL East and enters as the league's top seed. The Rays beat New York 7-6 in the regular-season series. Game 1 is Saturday in Tampa.

San Diego's own sweep

Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado had already done the scoring, homering off Matthew Boyd in the first. Michael King made it stand up, carrying a no-hit bid into the seventh inning of Game 1 and allowing just one hit over seven innings in an 8-0 win.

Related: White Sox sweep Astros out of October

Game 2 needed a surprise. Gavin Sheets, playing through a plantar plate tear in his foot, came off the bench and hit a pinch-hit, two-run homer off a 100.8 mph fastball. San Diego won 4-1.

The Padres move on to face Milwaukee, which finished 103-59, the best record in baseball, with Cy Young candidate Jacob Misiorowski starting Game 1.

Four other series are now set. The White Sox finished off their own sweep of the Astros Wednesday, winning 6-3 and 7-3, and open the ALDS at Cleveland. The Dodgers, who reached 100 wins in their regular-season finale, have the NL's second seed and will host whoever survives Philadelphia and Atlanta.

One winner-take-all left

The Phillies and Braves split the first two games of their series. Bryce Harper's tying homer in Game 2 was answered by Alec Bohm's go-ahead shot in the 10th, and Philadelphia held on for a 4-3 win that forced a third game.

Game 3 is tonight at Truist Park, 8:15 p.m. Eastern, loser gone, winner on a plane to Los Angeles. Whoever survives opens a best-of-five series against the Dodgers on Saturday, the only unclaimed date left on October's calendar before the real baseball starts.

Cubs manager Craig Counsell summed up his team's week after Game 1 alone. "They had a lot to cheer about tonight," he said, "and we didn't give them anything to be quiet about."