In November 2011, baseball announced that they would have two wild card teams make the postseason starting in 2012. The concept behind adding a second wild card winner was to set up a one-game wild-card game between the two wild card teams. Whoever won that one-game sudden death game would advance to the division series playoffs. Sunday was the final day of the regular season in Major League Baseball.
The National League field is almost complete, with the NL East race standing as the only unfinished battle. The Dodgers, Brewers, Giants and Cardinals have snagged four playoff spots, while Atlanta's magic number to clinch the NL East is now at one. As for the American League, the Rays and White Sox have clinched their respective divisions in the American League, and the Astros enter Thursday night with a magic number of one. Winning the one-game playoff game would immediately set you up for a disadvantage in the first round. Not only does the winning team have to fly directly to the first round location, but they probably used their baseball ace to pitch the previous day. Not having their ace go immediately in game one puts the wild card winner at a disadvantage, which is fair since they did not win their division.
The 2020 MLB playoffs are just a couple of days away, and the 16-team postseason field is set. The MLB Standings has a section called the MLB Wild Card Standings. When the playoffs begin, the three division winners from both the American League and National League are given automatic spots into the postseason. The MLB decided to award playoff opportunities to other teams, starting with one in 1994 and then two in 2012.
Each season, two clubs from both the AL and NL will meet in a one-game playoff and the loser is eliminated while the winner advances to face the top seed in the Divisional Series. Initially, the wild card expansion started in 1994, but the baseball strike removed the 1994 playoffs. In 1995, the rules were pretty basic for the wild card winner and game. The team with the best record who did not win their division would play against the best record during the playoffs.
Initially, that meant that a wild card team could not play against a division rival, but that later changed. For example, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox would not play each other back in the day in the first playoffs since they are in the same division. This race has been thrilling to watch these last couple of weeks with the two best teams in baseball duking it out for the chance to avoid a one-game playoff. The Giants entered the day in the driver's seat, and leaned on their pitching to keep the wins coming.
Alex Wood tossed six shutout innings while the bullpen followed up with three more, allowing San Francisco to beat Arizona by a slim 1-0 margin. They were trailing the Padres 9-6 heading into the bottom of the eighth, but they hit four homers in that inning to take the lead and ultimately win. The Giants still hold a two-game lead with a magic number of three to clinch. St. Louis will almost certainly be the road team for the wild card game, after winning 16 straight games through Sunday.
The Cardinals lead the Phillies and Reds by six games for the second wild card spot, with only six games to play. Another division that draws intrigue in the American League baseball standings is the American League Central. The MLB wild card adds an exciting twist to the long 162 game season of baseball.
Before 1995, most teams would give up during the trade deadline because the MLB magic number to win their division wouldn't happen. Now with the expansion of two wild cards in the AL and NL, more teams have a chance to make the playoffs. MLB fans can experience the playoffs like never before with the exciting tie-breaker game now in the mix.
For the 2020 postseason, due to the shortened season, MLB expanded the postseason number of teams. Not only did you have three division winners per league, but you also had three second-place teams in that same division and two more teams with the best record. There was a best of three wild card series, but this was an experiment with the shortened season. Despite a change to the playoff structure in 2020, normality has resumed for 2021. The three division winners from the National League standings make the postseason.
Of the remaining teams, the two with the best records matchup in a wildcard game. This one-off game provides the fourth playoff team in the National League. The Red Sox are in a tight race with the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees for the two wild card spots as all three teams fight to make the Major League Baseball postseason.
Boston was on the outside looking in last week slightly due to percentage points, but the script has flipped after it picked up its fifth straight win. Unlike in the NL East race, both of the top teams in the NL West will be in the postseason. The second-place team in the NL West will have the second-best record in the National League, and likely the majors, but will have to host the wild card game to even get into postseason series play. This is the part where fans of teams in playoff spots — or those just outside — really start to get out the calculators.
The magic number is the combination of a team's wins and/or losses by its closest competitor needed to clinch a playoff spot. Today, the White Sox battle it out in a competitive division that features other contenders such as the Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Indians. All three of those AL Central teams have gone onto the playoffs in the recent history of the league, with Cleveland getting to multiple World Series. The Major League Baseball standings are a vital barometer to a team's success over the course of the MLB season.
In order to make the playoffs, teams have to finish at the top of their division or with a record that is good enough to earn a Wild Card spot. In each division, there are teams that gravitate toward the top, with each division in the MLB standings having its own perennial contenders. Four teams will advance from division play to the league championship series.
Following division play, the American League Championship Series will begin on Friday, Oct. 15, and the National League Championship Series will begin on Saturday, Oct. 16. These series are best of seven and will determine who is competing for the 2021 World Series title. Game 1 of the World Series is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 26. Teams have won the World Series by sneaking into the playoffs as wild card winners. Winning the wild card during the season becomes dangerous because that team may have gotten hot right before the postseason, which can be a big momentum swing.
Adding a second team into the mix meant more teams had a fighting chance to sneak into this wild card game, which meant more free agency moves. Instead of teams selling players before the trade deadline because they felt they could not make the playoffs, now more teams are trying to make the playoffs. This switch in mentality is great for players and, more importantly, fans to continue watching their team play. The National League Playoff Picture table presents the probabilities that a team will win each playoff spot. All future unplayed games are assumed won/lost with a probability based upon relative team strengths.
Click a team name to proceed to the team playoff picture page. The Phillies have stayed alive by winning seven of their past 10 games. They have beat up on some of the worst teams in baseball during that stretch, and that could continue this weekend as they will host a four-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Wild Card Standings only show 12 teams from each league as the division winners are omitted, since they receive the automatic spots. Similar to the MLB standings, the columns shown are Win, Loss, Percent and GB .
The Home and Away records, and Streak feature is not included in the MLB WC Standings. The Brewers clinched the NL Central on Sunday, making the playoffs for the fourth straight year, a first in franchise history. Milwaukee is locked into the No. 2 seed in the NL, and will host the NL East winner in the first two games of the NLDS. The loser would then face the third team the next day, with the winner of that matchup earning the second wild-card spot. The National League Central has produced some of the best stories in baseball history.
Both the Yankees and Red Sox look to use the regular season standings as a springboard into the postseason. And both teams have gone from being atop the division standings to winning championships in October. But the Tampa Bay Rays have been a consistent contender and a thorn in the side of New York and Boston for many years. The Twins clinched their third postseason appearance in the past four seasons. Last year, they were swept by the Yankees in the division series, extending their postseason losing streak to 16 games since their most recent win in Game 1 of the 2004 AL Division Series. The Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays and Mariners came into the final day of the 2021 MLB regular season vying for the two spots with multiple tiebreaker scenarios very much in play.
Already at the bottom of these standings, the Athletics have no home games remaining and play two winning teams. This is the little division that could, one that seems as though it could be clinched early in the week but was still alive heading into Wednesday. Houston just needed a win or a Seattle loss to finish this one up. The Rays had absolutely no trouble taking down the Astros, winning a 7-0 blowout with four pitchers combining to give up just three hits all night. Meanwhile, Seattle refuses to quit and is just beating up on the Athletics.
They finished their second straight sweep over Oakland on Wednesday, winning 4-2 with all of the runs being scored in the final four innings. With time running out in the regular season, the races around the league are coming down to the wire. That does include the American League wildcard, in which the Red Sox are stuck in a tight race, but also the rest of the league as well. For those interested in that league-wide picture, we'll be providing a daily update the rest of the season on the state of races around baseball. The 2021 MLB season is rapidly winding down, and as it nears its finish several postseason races have drawn most of the focus.
The other ALDS series will be between the Tampa Bay Rays and the winner of the Red Sox-Yankees wild card game. Even before they finished their game against the Marlins on Tuesday, the Braves clinched their third straight NL East title when the Phillies were swept in their doubleheader against the Nationals. In both of the previous two seasons, the Braves failed to advance beyond the division series. The San Francisco Giants still are holding off the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West up two games with six to go. The 100-win Dodgers already have clinched a Wild Card, and if that's what they end up with then they'll have to deal with the St. Louis Cardinals in a one-game playoff.
St. Louis clinched a tie for the second NL Wild Card on Sunday with its 16th win in a row, a franchise record and longest in the majors since the Cleveland Indians ripped off 22 straight in 2017. The Padres' sudden fall from grace is one of the more compelling stories of this season and will undoubtedly lead to major changes during the winter. They could be formally eliminated from playoff contention this weekend versus the Braves. The Reds looked like the favorite for that second spot about a month ago, but they have lost 16 of 23 games since Aug. 28. That stretch included series losses to also-ran teams such as the Miami Marlins, Detroit Tigers, Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates. They will face another sub-.500 team in the Washington Nationals this weekend.
Of course, Cincy dropped the first game of that four-game series on Thursday, 3-2. For this weekend, the schedule is certainly in the Dodgers' favor. Will see the last-place Arizona Diamondbacks, a team they have beaten 14 out of 16 games this season. Meanwhile, the Giants will head to Coors Field for three games versus the Rockies. The Giants are 12-4 against Colorado this year, but the Rockies' record at home is the third-best mark in the NL.
The winner of this group will host the second-place finisher in a one-game playoff, with that winner moving on to the divisional round against the Tampa Bay Rays. There's only one week left in Major League Baseball's regular season, and the playoff races are dwindling. The Phillies' situation was not looking good even before Wednesday's game, as they were facing the Braves and needed a sweep to still have a realistic shot at this division. Instead, they lost on Tuesday, and then they followed it up with another loss Wednesday. Max Fried was fantastic, and the Braves won by a comfortable five-run margin. The division is still technically not over, but the two teams play another game on Thursday with the Braves' magic number at one.
They can clinch on Thursday, and if not they clinch with either a win or a Phillies loss. In a five-inning game played on ice skates in Brooklyn, Chicago White Stockings ace pitcher Larry Corcoran leads his team of mostly amateurs to a win over a team composed of mostly professionals. Corcoran's team was assembled by veteran sportswriter Henry Chadwick. In four days, the pros will beat Corcoran and another group of amateurs, 16-8.
The NL Wild Card game will be on Tuesday, October 2nd regardless of the matchup. There is also the possibility that one or both of the teams will have played in a playoff game for their division the night before. Tuesday's and Wednesday's game will determine which teams move into the division series for both leagues.
It added another exciting round of MLB playoffs as a one-game do-or-die situation. One do-or-die game situation is like the NFL playoffs, making this change exciting for baseball fans and players. This one-game format means that every pitch, every at-bat, and run matters, which is rare for baseball since the season is 162 games. As has been the case with so much this season, the playoffs will have a new look, with an expanded format that includes 16 teams for the first time in MLB history. The team with the best record in the final 81 games of the season, ignoring inter-league play. Meanwhile, the Braves will continue their road trip out west, where they have won four of their past five games.
They will battle the struggling San Diego Padres for three games this weekend. Well, three and a half, really; the teams will finish a previously suspended game on Friday, beginning in the bottom of the fifth inning. Update, Saturday AM — The Phillies picked up a half game on the Braves since Friday and have two games against the Pirates this weekend. The next series against the Braves will likely decide the division and we could see the two teams tied or Phillies ahead by the end of the weekend. The American League Championship Series is a best-of-seven matchup that awards the American League Pennant to the best team in that league and that winner will play in the World Series. This format was created in 1969 and the New York Yankees have captured 11 titles since the league made the switch.
The Oakland Athletics, Boston Red Sox have both won the pennant six times. Of the current 15 teams in the American League Standings, the Seattle Mariners are the only team not to win the pennant and earn a trip to the World Series. The Last 10 column is clear-cut, just the record of the last 10 games for each team. The most resourceful feature is the Streaks column, which shows you how many consecutive wins or losses a team currently has going into their next matchup.
The most common fields in the Streak column are W-1 or L-1 which means the team Won or Lost its previous game. If the MLBseason ended on Sept. 19, 2021, the playoff field would be decided by season-changing wins and losses on Sunday. The Brewers have already clinched the NL Central and locked themselves into the No. 2 seed in the National League, so how much will they throw at the Dodgers that final series? Right now, Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta are scheduled to start the final two games, but they might be on short leashes as Milwaukee lines up its playoff rotation.
