If you’ve lost the plot of MLB’s playoff format changes over the last few seasons, you wouldn’t be alone. First, there was the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign. Things went back to relative normalcy for 2021 before the postseason expanded in 2022 to include six teams per league. It’s a lot to track.
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Here’s a reminder of how things now work and what to expect:
How many teams reach the postseason, and how?
As mentioned, the playoffs now include six teams from each league, up from the previous five. The three division winners still advance, with the change being that three wild-card teams per league now qualify for the postseason.
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How do tiebreakers work?
We won’t be seeing a Game 163 between teams with identical records this year. All ties will be broken by math. The tiebreaker order is as follows:
What about the Wild Card Game?
Love it or hate it, the controversial single-elimination Wild Card Game is no longer. It was replaced by a best-of-three Wild Card Series last year.
The series is scheduled over three days, hosted by the higher seed.
How are teams seeded?
- No. 1 seed: Best league record
- No. 2: Second-best division winner
- No. 3: Third-best division winner
- No. 4: Best record among wild-card teams
- No. 5: Second-best record among wild-card teams
- No. 6: Third-best record among wild-card teams
Note that it does not matter for seeding if a wild-card team has a better record than a division winner from another division — the seeding order remains as listed.
The No. 1 and 2 seeds receive first-round byes and advance directly to the Division Series. The No. 3 seed faces the No. 6 seed and the No. 4 seed faces the No. 5 seed in the Wild Card Series.
The No. 1 seed will then play the winner of the Nos. 4/5 Wild Card Series in the Division Series and the No. 2 seed will face the winner of the Nos. 3/6 series. There will be no re-seeding after each round, with the schedule following a bracket format.
Full playoff bracket
AL Wild Card Series (No. 1 Orioles and No. 2 Astros have byes)
NL Wild Card Series (No. 1 Braves and No. 2 Dodgers have byes)
AL Divison Series
- Rays or Rangers vs. Orioles
- Twins or Blue Jays vs. Astros
NL Divison Series
- Phillies or Marlins vs. Braves
- Brewers or Diamondbacks vs. Dodgers
Any other changes to the Division Series?
Nope. It’s still best-of-five in a 2-2-1 format with the higher seed having home-field advantage.
What about the rest of the format?
Nothing new to report. The League Championship Series and World Series are still best-of-seven in a 2-3-2 format. Home-field advantage in the World Series goes to the team with the better regular-season record (regardless of their playoff seeding) — the aforementioned tiebreaker rules apply if the teams happen to have the same regular-season records.
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How many games total in the MLB playoffs?
Depending on how deep each series runs, there will be between 32 and 53 games in the postseason. To recap, the breakdown is as follows:
- Wild Card Series (4) — best-of-three format
- Division Series (4) — best-of-five
- Championship Series (2) — best-of-seven
- World Series — best-of-seven
Do they use the pitch clock and ‘ghost runner’ in the playoffs?
The use of MLB’s new pitch clock in the postseason has been the subject of much debate. As of now, the timer will be in use during the playoffs.
Commissioner Rob Manfred said in July he was continuing to talk with players about their concerns, however.
Manfred said he understands “it’s a possibility” the clock negatively impacts a postseason game, but added that “in general (he thinks) you ought to play the postseason the way you play the regular season.”
MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark said at the time that players want pitch-clock adjustments in the postseason “that will afford them and those watching a chance to take a few extra seconds here and there and a deep breath.”
Earlier this summer, The Athletic polled more than 100 MLB players to get their opinion of the game’s new rules (banning the shift, bigger bases and the pitch clock). Overall, they thought the changes were good for the game. On a scale of 1 to 5, where 5 is the best, all three rules scored around a 4. But despite the positive reviews, 60.7 percent of players thought the pitch-clock rule should be different for the postseason.
Suggestions included adding five seconds, not enforcing it after the seventh inning and completely getting rid of it.
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Although MLB’s Joint Competition Committee voted to make the rule automatically placing a runner at second base at the start of every extra inning in regular-season games — otherwise known as the “ghost runner” — permanent before this season, the rule does not apply in the playoffs.
2023 MLB postseason schedule, TV channels
- Wild Card Series Game 1s: Tuesday, Oct. 3, on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2.
- Division Series Game 1s: Saturday, Oct. 7. ALDS games will air on Fox or FS1, NLDS on TBS.
- ALCS Game 1: Sunday, Oct. 15 on Fox or FS1
- NLCS Game 1: Monday, Oct. 16 on TBS.
- World Series Game 1: Friday, Oct. 27, on Fox.
View the full game-by-game schedule by round.
(Top photos: Harry How / Getty Images, Erik Williams / USA Today)
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