NEW YORK — The Chicago Cubs' return to the playoffs has drawn the largest television audience in the short history of baseball's wild-card game.

The Cubs' 4-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night in the NL wild-card game on TBS averaged 8.3 million viewers, topping the previous high of 7.6 million set a night earlier for the Astros' win over the Yankees in the AL game on ESPN.

The viewership is up 48 percent from the 5.6 million for last year's NL game between the Giants and Pirates on ESPN and 60 percent from the 5.2 million for the AL game on TBS between small-market Kansas City and Oakland.

It's the most for a Major League Baseball game on cable since the 2011 NL Division Series between the Cardinals and Phillies.

Baseball added the wild-card round in 2012.

PITTSBURGH — It's all good between Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Sean Rodriguez and the water cooler he TKO'd in the dugout during Pittsburgh's wild-card loss to the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night.Rodriguez was ejected in the seventh inning when the benches cleared and decided to take out his frustrations on an unsuspecting water cooler. Rodriguez worked several combinations on the cooler before it tumbled to the ground.The one-sided bout drew an avalanche of meme's and GIFs as well as a (at)Piratescooler parody Twitter account that quickly gained over 8,000 followers. Rodriguez took to Twitter to apologize on Thursday “for allowing my emotions to control my actions in a negative manner.”

INCHEON, South Korea — The International team went from all square to 2 up by just playing one hole in a bizarre incident involving Phil Mickelson at the Presidents Cup.Mickelson used a different type of golf ball on the seventh hole of his fourballs match with Zach Johnson. Players cannot switch models during the round. The penalty is known as a one-hole adjustment to the match.However, the referee was wrongly told that Mickelson was disqualified from the hole for using a different ball. In fact, Mickelson should have been allowed to finish the hole and then the adjustment would be made.Jason Day, playing with Adam Scott, made birdie and won the hole to go 1 up. And then the one-hole adjustment made it 2 up.

CONCORD, N.C. — Matt Kenseth won the pole Thursday night for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.Kenseth turned a lap at 194.532 mph to edge fellow Chase contender and teammate Kyle Busch and sweep the poles at Charlotte this season.