Shohei Ohtani and Tarik Skubal shine on opening day of MLB postseason

Shohei Ohtani (Joe Glorioso/All-Pro Reels for Washington Times Sports, Wikimedia Commons)

The opening day of the 2025 MLB postseason took place on Tuesday, and we saw remarkable greatness from two of the game’s biggest stars. Detroit’s Tarik Skubal proved why he is one of the best pitchers in the game today and Los Angeles’s Shohei Ohtani proved why he is one of the best hitters in the game today.

Skubal of Hayward, California got the start for Detroit and was flawless, as he threw seven and two thirds innings pitched and had 14 strikeouts in a 2-1 Tigers win over the Cleveland Guardians. The 14 dingers tied a Tigers franchise record for most strikeouts in a postseason game. The previous record belonged to the late Joe Coleman of Boston, Massachusetts, who died at age 78 in July. Coleman only pitched one postseason game in his career, but it was memorable. It came in game three of the 1972 American Championship Series, a 3-0 Tigers win over the Oakland Athletics.

Ohtani of Oshu, Japan homered twice. He now has five career postseason home runs in 17 games, but this was the first time he had a multi-home run game in the playoffs. Teoscar Hernandez also hit two home runs in the Dodgers win, a dominant 10-5 Los Angeles victory over the Cincinnati Reds.

In other action, we saw great starting pitching too from Garrett Crochet of Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Crochet threw 7 2/3 innings, and was just as good as Skubal (maybe even better) when you take a look at the Yankees lineup. He had 11 strikeouts, and only gave up one earned run and four hits in a 3-1 Boston win. Meanwhile, at Wrigley, Seiya Suzuki and Carson Kelly hit back-to-back home runs in a 2-1 Chicago Cubs win over the San Diego Padres.