MLB Wild Card Series Day 1: Previews, live results, takeaways

MLB's first-ever wild-card series weekend is here.

As the playoff field expands to 12 teams for the 2022 postseason, four best-of-three series starting today will determine which teams will advance to the American League Division Series (against either the Houston Astros or the New York Yankees) and National League Division Series (against either the Atlanta Braves or Los Angeles Dodgers).

Friday's festivities begin with the Tampa Bay Rays at the Cleveland Guardians, followed by the Philadelphia Phillies at the St. Louis Cardinals. Then it's the Seattle Mariners at the Toronto Blue Jays, and finally, the San Diego Padres at the New York Mets.

Follow the action below all day long with start times, pitching matchups and starting lineups as they're announced, followed by in-game updates and takeaways after each game is concluded.

More: Everything you need to know about the 2022 MLB playoffs | Could this be the greatest postseason… ever? | Bracket, results and more

Series tied 0-0

Rays starter: Shane McClanahan (12-8, 194 K, 2.54 ERA)

Guardians starter: Shane Bieber (13-8, 198 K, 2.88 ERA)

Starting lineups:

RAYS

TBD

GUARDIANS

TBD

What to watch for: Expect a low-scoring series, if only because pitching and defense is what got these teams to this point. Game 1 features a marquee starting-pitching matchup in Cy Young candidate McClanahan against perennial awards contender Bieber. But because runs should be hard to come by into the late innings, expect this to turn into a battle of the bullpens.

If and when that happens, those who overlooked Cleveland during the regular season will get a glimpse of what makes this Guardians squad dangerous. The group includes lights-out closer Emmanuel Clase, Trevor Stephan, Sam Hentges and Eli