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MLB playoffs: Padres shut down Dodgers in NLDS Game 3, combine with Phillies to push NL favorites to the brink

MLB's 12-team postseason bracket has already been whittled down to eight contenders. Now, the top two seeds from each league have joined the fray in the Division Series. After advancing directly to their ALDS and NLDS slots via byes, the Astros, Yankees, Dodgers and Braves are taking on challengers.

Friday is shaping up as an unexpectedly busy day of baseball. ALDS Game 2 between the New York Yankees and Cleveland Guardians had been scheduled for Thursday, but was postponed to Friday afternoon because of rain in the Bronx. That means a three-game day as the Phillies and Padres return home to host crucial Game 3s against the Braves and Dodgers. In Philadelphia, there's extra intrigue thanks to the return of Spencer Strider, Atlanta's rookie phenom (or one of them) who will take the mound after missing a month with an oblique injury. He will oppose Aaron Nola, the Phillies starter who has been nearly untouchable in recent starts.

Here's the slate:

Game 2: Guardians (Bieber) at Yankees (Cortes) - 1:07 p.m., TBS (Yankees lead series, 1-0)

Game 3: Braves (Strider) at Phillies (Nola) - 4:37 p.m., FS1 (Series tied, 1-1)

Game 3: Dodgers (Gonsolin) at Padres (Snell) - 8:37 p.m., FS1 (Series tied, 1-1)

[Full updated MLB playoff TV schedule]

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Padres top Dodgers behind Blake Snell, spotless bullpen

It's getting late early for the NL powerhouses. Hours after the Phillies took a 2-1 series lead on the No. 2 seed Braves, the Padres seized the advantage on the No. 1 seed Dodgers, winners of 111 regular season games. San Diego, playing a postseason game in front of their home fans for the first time since 2006, got the good version of Blake Snell. The lefty allowed just one run over 5 1/3 innings, then gave way to a bullpen that has been the story of the series thus far.

The Padres bullpen has yet to allow a run in the NLDS. On Friday night, Nick Martinez, Luis Garcia, Robert Suarez and Josh Hader combined for 3 2/3 scoreless frames, allowing just one hit and striking out six.

The Padres kept pressure on Dodgers starter Tony Gonsolin early, and manager Dave Roberts went to an early hook to bring in Andrew Heaney. Overall, it worked: Gonsolin allowed a run on a Jake Cronenworth single, but Heaney got through three innings allowing only a solo shot to a rejuvenated Trent Grisham. Usually, that wouldn't be enough to beat this Dodgers lineup. But with the Padres' high-powered bullpen arms all performing at the top of their games, it was.

Hader, after struggling mightily in his first days with San Diego, is seemingly back to his dominant Milwaukee form. He hasn't allowed an earned run since Sept. 5, a span of 13 2/3 innings.

The Padres now have a 2-1 series lead on the Dodgers, and could eliminate them with a win Saturday night. That, however, is a story the Dodgers are familiar with. The San Francisco Giants shut them out, 1-0, in NLDS Game 3 last season, before they roared back to win in five games.

Phillies take flight in front of home fans, blast Braves in NLDS Game 3 

The Phillies have the defending champion Braves on the brink. Rhys Hoskins and Bryce Harper crushed massive homers in a rollicking third inning, Aaron Nola went six sparkling innings and the Phillies won NLDS Game 3, 9-1. The blowout came in the first postseason game at Citizens Bank Park since 2011.

Hoskins — whose homer sent the Philadelphia crowd into a delirium it never came down from — finished his swing with a bat spike. The barrage chased Braves starter Spencer Strider, the stellar rookie who was making his return from an oblique injury. Then Harper crushed the first pitch from the Atlanta bullpen way, way over the right field fence.

Nola took it from there. After scoreless starts to clinch the Phillies' postseason spot, and then in their wild-card series against St. Louis, Nola kept rolling. The 29-year-old right-hander who had led the Phillies rotation since 2015 quieted the Braves bats. He allowed only one run, and even that was unearned after a pumped Hoskins dropped a throw that would have completed a double play.

The Phillies could close out the Braves and end their bid to repeat in Saturday's Game 4.

Guardians scratch out Game 2 win over Yankees, even up ALDS

Excellent starters Shane Bieber and Nestor Cortes Jr. dueled to a draw, and it stayed that way for the full nine innings in the Bronx. But in the 10th, sparked by José Ramírez's dash to third base on a double extended by an error, the Guardians outlasted the Yankees to notch a Game 2 win.

Emmanuel Clase, the Cleveland closer who logged a 1.36 ERA and MLB-best 42 saves this season, pitched 2 1/3 innings to lock down the key win. The Yankees scored on a first-inning, two-run homer by Giancarlo Stanton, but never again.

Cleveland got two bloop singles and a loud double off the bat of Josh Naylor in the 10th inning, logging two runs off Jameson Taillon, the Yankees starter turned playoff relief option.

The Guardians now return home for Games 3 and 4, series tied at one, with a chance at pulling the upset. They will have Triston McKenzie starting Game 3 opposite the Yankees' Luis Severino. After that, the Yankees will turn to Gerrit Cole and Cleveland skipper Terry Francona's options will get interesting. With the rest of the series to be played on consecutive days, the Guardians may have an edge on the Yankees' injury-depleted bullpen.

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