Much of the past decade was dominated on the mound by the likes of Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, and others.

2024 has shown that time is coming to an end and the new crop of young superstar starters were on full display in Monday’s opening game of the Wild Card Round.

The Royals, Tigers, and Padres all used strong pitching performances to win low-score games and take the all-important game one in the three-game Wild Card Series.

In the first game of the day, Detroit upset the postseason-veteran Houston Astros 3-1, thanks to six shutout innings from AL Cy Young favorite Tarik Skubal.

After cruising through the first few innings, Skubal would end the day allowing just four singles and a walk before being pulled from the game due to cramps.

“It was a good challenge,” Skubal said. “It was fun, it was a ton of fun, I enjoyed it. It’s probably the most nervous I’ve been since my debut. That was also fun to deal with. What a game. It was fun, glad to come out with a win”.

On the other side of the bracket in the AL, the Kansas City Royals had an upset win of their own taking Game One over the Baltimore Orioles 1-0 behind a strong performance from their ace.

Cole Ragans also tossed six shutout innings allowing just four hits before he was removed from the game with left calf cramps 80 pitches in.

Ragans struck out eight Orioles in those six innings and is expected to be ready to go if the Royals advance to the ALDS to take on the Yankees.

The major difference between the Royals and Tigers is that Kansas City has an elite number two starter in Seth Lugo who they will turn to in Game Two as they look to send Baltimore home in a sweep in two straight years.

With the NL Side of things also getting underway, we saw the San Deigo Padres continue their hot stretch with a 4-0 win over the Atlanta Braves.

Padres ace Michael King announced himself to the baseball world after firing seven shutout innings while striking out an astonishing 12 batters.

“I think I dreamed of a perfect game instead of a few hits that I gave up” King joked after the game. “But I mean to get up 1-0 in a three-game series is huge. That was the goal and we accomplished that. We’ve got our horse Joe (Musgrove) tomorrow and I’ve got a lot of confidence in us”.