NEW YORK — Major League Baseball’s 2024 regular season is going extra innings.
While the final details of the American League playoff picture cleared up Sunday, the National League remained muddled heading into what was supposed to be an off day before the postseason.
The third-seeded Houston Astros, who won the AL West Division, host the sixth-seeded Detroit Tigers while the fourth-seeded Baltimore Orioles are at home against the fifth-seeded Kansas City Royals in best-of-three series in the wild-card round starting Tuesday afternoon. The divisional round begins Saturday with a pair of best-of-five series: The Astros-Tigers winner faces the second-seeded Cleveland Guardians, the AL Central champs, while the Orioles-Royals winner plays the top-seeded New York Yankees, the AL East champs.
In the wild-card round, the better seed hosts the entire series, with travel between cities beginning in the divisional round and continuing through the World Series.
The NL is still uncertain because of two rainouts last week that kept the New York Mets and the host Atlanta Braves from finishing up a three-game series at Truist Park. Both of those NL East teams and the NL West’s Arizona Diamondbacks are vying for the final two wild-card spots in the 12-team playoffs. The Mets beat the Milwaukee Brewers 5-0 on Sunday, then traveled back to Atlanta and will play their makeup doubleheader against the Braves on Monday afternoon.
Arizona finished 89-73 and the Braves and Mets are both 88-72. If either team sweeps the doubleheader, the Diamondbacks reach the playoffs. But if the twinbill is split, the Braves and Mets advance while Arizona is out because the Diamondbacks lost their season series to both Atlanta and New York.
“It’s weird. We don’t even know who to root for,” Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll said. “You just wait to see who wins the first game and root for them in the second. We’ll work out here and be ready to go.”
Arizona can only be the No. 6 seed if it reaches the postseason and would visit the third-seeded Brewers, the NL Central champions, in a best-of-three series that starts Tuesday.
“It sucks,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “But there’s nothing we can do about it. We made this bed. We’ve got to sleep in it, but we’re going to hope for the best. They’re two great franchises, two great managers, and I don’t think either have the gene of laying down.”
If the Braves win either game of the doubleheader, they would visit the fourth-seeded San Diego Padres, an NL West team that lost 11-2 to the Diamondbacks in a regular-season finale Sunday.
“Sure, it’s not an ideal situation, but it’s what we got,” Atlanta first baseman Matt Olson said. “Show up and win.”
If the Mets sweep the doubleheader, they become the No. 5 seed and play at San Diego beginning Tuesday. If they split and are the No. 6 seed, they go right back to Milwaukee to face the Brewers, who went 5-1 against the Mets during the regular season.
“I wish MLB would kind of push the playoffs back a little bit,” New York designated hitter J.D. Martinez said. “It’s an unfair advantage for the teams we’re going to play, us and Atlanta, just because we know what’s on the line. You’re going scratch to win those games. You have to. That’s the only way in, and then you’ve got to turn around and be on a flight and you’re already blown out the day before.”
The Los Angeles Dodgers, who won the NL West, are the top seed and will face the winner of the wild-card matchup involving the Padres. The Philadelphia Phillies, who won the NL East, are seeded second and will face the winner of the wild-card matchup involving the Brewers.