The winners of the American League Championship Series (ALCS) and the National League Championship Series (NLCS) play each other in the best-of-seven World Series. The current system allows for up to 54 postseason games and at least 32 games.
The new, 12-team playoff format
The Wild Card Game has been replaced by the best-of-three Wild Card Series, which functions as the first round of play. The higher seed in each Wild Card Series will host all the games of that series, be it two or the maximum three games.
The top two seeds of the American and National leagues will receive first-round byes into the Division Series (DS) and the other two division winners will be the third seed in their respective league. The three Wild Card teams will be the fourth, fifth and sixth seeds.
The top two division winners in each league will receive byes to the Division Series. The other four teams in each league will play best-of-three series in the Wild Card round, with the higher seed hosting all three games.
NLCS (best of seven): Oct. 18, 19, 21, 22, with remaining games Oct. 23-25 if necessary. ALCS (best of seven): Oct. 19, 20, 22, 23, with remaining games Oct. 24-26 if necessary. World Series (best of seven): Oct. 28, 29, 31, Nov. 1, with remaining games Nov. 2, 4 and 5 if necessary.
The Divisional Series is a best-of-five series, featuring the three division winners and a wild-card team. Typically, the wild-card team plays the division leader with the best winning percentage in one series, and the other two division leaders play the other series.
The top two wild card teams in each league will play each other in a best-of-three series. In each series, all three games will take place at the same ballpark. The high seed will be home for all three games. All four Wild Card Series will take place on three consecutive days between October 7 and October 9.
The new format will do away with the single wild-card game, and instead pit the third-best division winner against the last team in while the best and second-best wild-card winners play each other. These games will all be played in a three-game series’ hosted by the team with the better record.
Baseball is America’s National Pastime. And no time is more exciting in baseball than when the playoffs roll around in October. In 2022, Major League Baseball announced an expanded playoff format that will now feature 12 teams (two more than in previous years).
The World Series pits the champion of the American League against the champion of the National League to determine an overall winner. Each league is divided into three divisions each – West, Central and East. The team with the best record in each division gets an automatic playoff berth.
There are six wild card team in the MLB playoffs. Under the new MLB collective-bargaining agreement, the postseason was expanded starting in 2022.
A team’s magic number represents the combination of wins needed by that team and losses by its closest competitor to clinch a given goal. Every time a team wins, its magic number decreases by one.
The magic number for a Cardinals’ clincher is down to six. Copyright 2022 KMOV.
The winners of the ALCS and NLCS – the American League champions and National League champions – then advance to the World Series. The World Series is also a best-of-seven, and the first team to win four games is declared champions for that year.
Since then each league has conducted a League Championship Series (ALCS and NLCS) preceding the World Series to determine which teams will advance, while those series have in turn been preceded by Division Series (ALDS and NLDS) since 1995 and by wild card games in each league since 2012.
The Division Series is the quarterfinal round of the Major League Baseball playoffs. Four series are played in this round, two each for both the American League and the National League.
The 2021 National League Division Series were two best-of-five-games series in Major League Baseball (MLB) to determine the participating teams of the 2021 National League Championship Series.
The first team in each series to three wins takes the series and moves on to the NLCS. As in a typical best of five series, the number of wins dictates the number of games in the series. Note that one series may take all five games to determine a winner while the other series establishes a winner in three games.
The new, 12-team playoff format
The postseason field grows from 10 teams to 12 teams with the addition of an extra wild-card entrant in each league. The Wild Card Game has been replaced by the best-of-three Wild Card Series, which functions as the first round of play.
Golden State Warriors (3) vs. Dallas Mavericks (4)
Boston Celtics (2) vs. Milwaukee Bucks (3)
Miami Heat (1) vs. Philadelphia 76ers (4)
Memphis Grizzlies (2) vs. Golden State Warriors (3)
Phoenix Suns (1) vs. Dallas Mavericks (4)
Miami Heat (1) vs. Atlanta Hawks (8)
Boston Celtics (2) vs.
Milwaukee Bucks (3) vs.
16-21, 2022, and Panama City, Panama, Sept. 30-Oct. 5, 2022. Twelve teams, six from the American League and six from the National League, will compete in an elimination tournament for Major League Baseball’s ultimate prize — a World Series championship.
The Wild Card Series (formerly known as Wild Card Game prior to 2022) are games that serve as the opening round of the Major League Baseball (MLB) postseason. A single wild card game was first instituted in 2012; best-of-three playoff wild card series were adopted for the 2022 season.
In short, the three teams with the best record in each conference outside of the teams that won their division are given the Wild Card spots. This can get a little complicated if teams have the same record and need tiebreakers to decide the final one or two spots.
The 1980 Raiders were the first wild card team to win the Super Bowl, beating the Eagles in Super Bowl 15. The most recent team to accomplish the feat was the 2020 Buccaneers, who beat the Chiefs in Super Bowl 55.
World Series Champions
Year | Winner | Runner-Up |
---|---|---|
2022 | – | – |
2021 | Atlanta Braves | Houston Astros |
2020 | Los Angeles Dodgers | Tampa Bay Rays |
2019 | Washington Nationals | Houston Astros |