Two Division Series Game 5s on deck before Championship Series begin on Sunday

The GIST: Chaos also abounds in the best-of-five Division Series and it’ll only intensify with two decisive Game 5s on deck over the next 48 hours. Batter up.

NY Yankees clinch American League (AL) Championship Series showing, Cleveland Guardians extend series: One half of the ALCS is set after the Yanks eliminated the Kansas City Royals in last night’s benches-clearing 3–1 Game 4 win behind another dazzling outing from Pinstripers ace Gerrit Cole, giving the Bronx Bombers their third ALCS appearance in the last five seasons.

• Their opponent? Either the Guardians or Detroit Tigers, after Cleveland claimed Game 4 5–4 yesterday to send this AL Central series back to the Land for Game 5 tomorrow at 4:38 p.m. ET.

• The Guardians have home-field advantage and third baseman José Ramírez finding his swing, but the Tigers have their best player — top pitcher Tarik Skubal — on the mound. Shaping up to be another instant classic.

NY Mets advance to National League (NL) Championship Series, waiting on opponent: OMG is right — the scrappy Grimace–powered Mets used a shortstop Francisco Lindor grand slam to eliminate their NL East foe Philadelphia Phillies in a 4–1 Wednesday Game 4 win, punching a ticket to their first NLCS since 2015.

• The Kings of Queens now await the victor of tonight’s 8:08 p.m. ET winner-take-all Game 5 between the San Diego Padres and LA Dodgers, who’ve been trading statement games all series long.

• LA rolled 8–0 in Game 4 thanks to the explosive bats of superstars Shohei Ohtani and outfielder Mookie Betts, but the Padres will send ace Yu Darvish, who silenced the Dodgers in Game 2, to the hill tonight. Can’t-miss is an understatement.