Tarik Skubal is the best pitcher in baseball: What we learned in MLB wild-card Game 1s

October is here, and the only thing certain in baseball is that it will be wild. Fittingly, the postseason commenced Tuesday with four wild-card games.

Day 1 certainly hasn't disappointed thus far, with the Tigers, Royals and Mets all winning on the road.

FOX Sports MLB writers Deesha Thosar and Rowan Kavner will be offering their top takeaways from all the action.

Let the games begin!

PADRES 4, BRAVES 0

Michael King isn't slowing down

This was the opportunity King always wanted.

And if there was any concern about how the converted reliever might hold up in October, having already shattered his previous career high in innings, Tuesday's gem might have quelled it.

King always saw himself as a starter, even as he excelled the past few years in the Yankees bullpen. After finally moving to the rotation late last year in New York, San Diego afforded him the full-time opportunity as a starter that he craved, making him the headliner in the package for Juan Soto. King not only starred in his new role, he somehow got better as his innings mounted and the 2024 season progressed.

And the best was still ahead.

In the first playoff start of his six-year career, King delivered a performance for the ages, tearing the Braves lineup to shreds in a 4-0 Game 1 win. He struck out 12 — the most strikeouts any pitcher has recorded in a playoff game since the 2020 postseason, when Clayton Kershaw, Trevor Bauer and King's former Yankees teammate Gerrit Cole all reached the mark — in seven shutout innings.

The Padres lineup always had firepower. But between the moves made to solidify the bullpen at the deadline and the work of King and Dylan Cease in a revamped rotation, this San Diego pitching staff looks like a juggernaut, too. — Rowan