<
        >

          MLB Wild Card Series Day 3 takeaways: Padres steamroll Mets to advance to LDS

          AP Photo/Frank Franklin II
          • ESPN
          Oct 9, 2022, 12:34 PM

          MLB's first-ever wild-card series weekend concluded with just one Game 3: the San Diego Padres at New York Mets.

          And unfortunately for New York's postseason hopes, the Padres of Game 1 showed up. San Diego shut out the Mets 6-0 to move on to a date with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the next round.

          The playoff field expanded to 12 teams for the 2022 postseason -- four best-of-three series to determine which teams will advance to the ALDS (against the Houston Astros or the New York Yankees) and NLDS (against the Atlanta Braves or Dodgers).

          Well, all but one of the wild-card series ended in a sweep. The Cleveland Guardians swept the Tampa Bay Rays and will meet the Yankees in the next round. The Seattle Mariners swept the Toronto Blue Jays and will move on to face the Astros. And the Philadelphia Phillies will battle the Braves after sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals.

          Below is all the action from the final day of the Wild Card, including our experts' pregame picks, in-game highlights and post-game takeaways.

          More: Everything you need to know about the 2022 MLB playoffs | Greatest postseason ... ever? | Ace rankings (ESPN+)| Bracket, results and more

          San Diego Padres 6, New York Mets 0

          Padres win series 2-1

          Game 3 takeaways

          Simply put, Joe Musgrove shut down the Mets -- and the New York lineup had no answer. Throughout the evening, Musgrove was in complete control, allowing just one hit while walking one and striking out five batters. Complete and utter domination. Meanwhile, the Padres took advantage of some early shakiness from Chris Bassitt, with a second-inning Austin Nola single knocking in Josh Bell and Ha-Seong Kim and a fourth inning single from Trent Grisham scoring Kim again. Bassitt certainly didn't look bad, but on an evening where Musgrove looked as good as he's ever pitched, the Mets starter had very little room for error and the Padres took advantage of every opportunity. -- Joon Lee

          All San Diego

          Musgrove threw HEAT

          Grisham kept rolling against the Mets

          2 outs? No problem for Nola

          Our experts' pregame picks

          Lee: Bassitt recovers from his struggles during last Sunday's pressure-packed loss to the Atlanta Braves and comes through with a strong start -- and Mets squeak out enough production from the top of their lineup to inch past the Padres in a tight game from start to finish. Mets 4, Padres 2

          Bradford Doolittle: After the Padres split the Max Scherzer/Jacob deGrom starts, the edge in pitching matchup swings in their favor with Musgrove going against Bassitt. More importantly, we saw the challenge Buck Showalter faced in piecing together high-leverage outs on Saturday. That happened while the Padres had Hader cooling his heels and resting up for Sunday. Padres 4, Mets 2

          Alden Gonzalez: Bassitt was made to pitch in New York, made to thrive in moments like these. With everything on the line, he'll ride a frenzied home crowd to a close win over Musgrove. Mets 3, Padres 1

          Jeff Passan: In an all-hands-on-deck game, I go with the team that has the superior hands: New York. The Bassitt-Musgrove matchup is something of a wash, which leaves the bullpens. New York's is slightly better, though a fresh Hader vs. Edwin Diaz coming off 28 pitches -- the last time he went back-to-back with so many was June 2018 -- is a touch scary for the Mets. In the end, their lineup depth prevails. Mets 3, Padres 2