All Division Series tied 1-1 for the first time in MLB history

For the first time in Major League Baseball (MLB) history, all eight teams in the Division Series are tied at one win apiece after two games. The postseason Division Series, a best-of-five format, has seen each match-up end in a 1-1 tie through Game 2.

On Tuesday, the American League (AL) Division Series saw the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Guardians, winning their respective Game 1 matchups, fall to the Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers. One day earlier, in the National League (NL), the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Mets, both Game one winners, lost to the San Diego Padres and the Philadelphia Phillies. This marks the first time in MLB Division Series history that no team has taken a 2-0 lead after two games, with all four series tied across both leagues.

Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, who went hitless in Game 1 with a 0-for-4 performance, notched his first hit of the postseason in Game 2, going 1-for-3 with a walk. However, the Yankees still fell 2-4. Judge is now 1-for-7 with three strikeouts and two walks through the first two games and has yet to drive in a run. Despite his regular-season OPS of 1.010, Judge continues to struggle in the postseason, where his career batting average stands at .208 with an OPS of .760.

In the same game, Detroit broke a 0-0 tie in the ninth inning with a three-run homer from Kerry Carpenter, sealing a 3-0 victory over Cleveland. Tigers starter Tarik Skubal delivered a strong outing, pitching seven innings and allowing only three hits while striking out eight. Historically, lower-seeded teams that return home with the series tied 1-1 have a slight advantage. Teams that start the Division Series on the road and return home tied 1-1 have won the series 66% of the time (29 out of 44 instances).


Bo-Mi Im bom@donga.com