The Major League Baseball playoffs open Tuesday with four wild-card matchups.
In the American League, the sixth-seeded Toronto Blue Jays are at the No. 3 Minnesota Twins, while the No. 5 Texas Rangers are at the No. 4 Tampa Bay Rays. In the National League, the No. 6 Arizona Diamondbacks are at the No. 3 Milwaukee Brewers, while the No. 5 Miami Marlins are at the No. 4 Philadelphia Phillies.
The Houston Astros, last year’s World Series champions and the No. 2 seed in the AL this postseason, get five days off until the division round of the playoffs start, as do the top-seeded Baltimore Orioles and the NL’s No. 1 Atlanta Braves and No. 2 Los Angeles Dodgers.
There will be a lot of familiar faces in October, particularly in the NL.
Speedy and strong right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. — the one and only member of the 40-70 club — will lead the Braves as they try to win their second World Series title in three years. The Dodgers, with Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman in the lineup, also look like a tough out.
Over in the AL, the upstart Orioles will try to build on their 100-win season with a deep run in the playoffs. The franchise lost 110 games just two seasons ago.
Houston will try to become the first repeat champion since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees won the World Series three times in a row.
Here’s a look at what’s coming this month.
HOW DOES MLB’s WILD-CARD ROUND WORK?
The best-of-three format is in its second season. It was changed in 2022 from the sudden death one-game format that was in place since 2012 (with the exception of the COVID-19 pandemic-affected 2020 season).
Six teams from each league qualified for the postseason, including the three division winners in each league. The three wild-card teams in each league are the teams with the best records that didn’t win their division.
The top two division winners with the best records in each league got a bye and don’t have to play in the wild-card round. One big advantage for the higher seed in those wild-card series is they get to host all three games.
The Rangers-Rays winner faces the Orioles in one AL Division Series, while the Blue Jays-Twins winner plays the Astros in the other; the Marlins-Phillies winner faces Atlanta in one NL Division Series, while the Diamondbacks-Brewers winner plays the Dodgers in the other.
Those series are all best-of-five; the AL Championship Series and NL Championship Series are both best-of-seven matchups, just like the World Series.
RULE CHANGES
Many of MLB’s recent rule changes will still be in effect during the postseason, including the pitch clock, a ban on extreme infield shifts and a limit to how many times a pitcher can disengage from the rubber. The pitch clock was a huge change for the sport and widely celebrated, cutting the average game time by more than 20 minutes during the regular season that wrapped up Sunday.
There is one rule that won’t make the postseason cut: the automatic runner in extra innings.
During the MLB regular season, if a game goes to extra innings, a runner is placed at second base to start the 10th inning when each team bats. That won’t happen in the postseason. Extra innings will be played just like the previous nine.
BETTING FAVORITES
The Braves are the current betting favorites to win the World Series at +260, followed by the Dodgers (+420) and Orioles (+700), according to FanDuel Sportsbook.
HOW TO WATCH
The wild-card rounds will be broadcast on ABC, ESPN and ESPN. The later rounds will be split among Fox, FS1 and TBS.
POSTSEASON SCHEDULE
Wild-Card Series: Oct. 3-5
Division Series: Oct. 7-14
League Championship Series: Oct. 15-24
World Series: Oct. 27-Nov. 4