One storyline for every Division Series Game 1

Every day throughout this postseason, I’ll be previewing the next day’s action, game-by-game, with the major storyline from each one.

Here’s the top storyline from each of Saturday’s Division Series openers.

1:08 p.m. ET, TBS
SP: Tyler Holton (DET) vs. Tanner Bibee (CLE)

Will the Guardians recognize these Tigers at all?

Much has been written about how the Tigers became a dramatically different team following the Trade Deadline. After shipping out veterans Jack Flaherty, Mark Canha, Andrew Chafin and Carson Kelly (and losing Javier Báez to injury), Detroit somehow turned its season around, going an AL-best 34-19 (.642) after July 30.

But you know who didn’t see any of that transformation? The AL Central-champion Guardians. Despite being in the same division, Cleveland hasn’t played Detroit since a 5-0 win on Deadline Day itself, July 30. That’s a wild coincidence, right?

One of the primary reasons for the Tigers’ shocking run has been what manager A.J. Hinch calls “pitching chaos,” which is basically a Johnny Wholestaff bullpen game every time AL Cy Young Award favorite Tarik Skubal isn’t pitching. Skubal won’t go until Game 2 of this season, so the Guardians will get to see that firsthand, and for the first time, in Game 1. They’ll be seeing a lot of things firsthand, and for the first time, this series. Will that dynamic help the Tigers?

4:08 p.m. ET, FOX
SP: TBD (NYM) vs. Zack Wheeler (PHI)

Can Wheeler shut down the Mets’ vibes?

The past week has been among the most historic and transcendent runs in Mets history. I’m pretty sure when Pete Alonso hit that home run in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series in Milwaukee, I saw multiple Mets fans ascend into the astral plane. But, alas, this team still has to win 11 more games for its first World Series title since 1986, and the first three of those will have to come against the hated Phillies, who have a roster built specifically to win a championship right here, right now.

If you believe the old baseball idea that “Momentum is as good as the next day’s starting pitcher,” well, the Mets’ momentum may be about to come to a screeching halt. Wheeler, a former Met, has been one of the best pitchers in baseball for the last month or so, going 6-2 with a 1.89 ERA in his final 11 starts. He’s also a fantastic postseason pitcher, with a lifetime 2.42 ERA in the playoffs. The Mets are floating on air right now. But if anyone can send them crashing back to Earth, it’s Wheeler.

6:38 p.m. ET, TBS
SP: Michael Wacha (KC) vs. Gerrit Cole (NYY)

How will the Royals scrap together enough runs?

The Royals got terrific pitching against the Orioles in their Wild Card Series sweep, and it’s a good thing they did. Over two games, they were only able to scratch together three runs and one extra-base hit (a double), and nobody on this team not named Bobby Witt Jr. is doing much of anything with the bat right now. This wasn’t a new issue, either, as Kansas City batted .204/.275/.302 and averaged three runs per game in September.

That’s a problem not just because the Royals are facing Gerrit Cole in Game 1, but also because the Yankees, as you may have heard, have Aaron Judge and Juan Soto. Three runs in two games isn’t going to cut it this time. The Royals pitchers, including a well-rested Wacha, will have to be essentially perfect to make up for an offense as feeble as the Royals’ has been over the last month. And it’s awfully difficult to be perfect when Judge and Soto keep coming to the plate.

Will anyone in this K.C. lineup step up in a way no one has been able to for weeks and weeks? And if not: Why should anyone with the Yankees pitch to Witt Jr. at all?

SP: Dylan Cease (SD) vs. Yoshinobu Yamamoto (LAD)

There’s a lot going on in this series, including the Padres’ surprising rotation advantage over the Dodgers’, Freddie Freeman’s health questions, Fernando Tatis Jr. getting hot of late and the long history these two SoCal rivals have with each other. But let’s not overcomplicate matters.

Shohei Ohtani has played 869 games in his career. According to Elias, that’s the second most of any active player without appearing in the postseason, behind only the 957 played by the Padres’ Nick Ahmed (who was on the team’s Wild Card Series roster but didn’t see action).

Ohtani’s streak will end with this game, which is, of course, one of the primary reasons Ohtani signed with the Dodgers this offseason in the first place. Ohtani is a baseball creation like nothing any of us have ever seen in our lifetimes. And now we get to see it on the grandest possible stage, with everything on the line. These are the Ohtani moments we have been waiting for.