The playoffs consist of 12 teams, six from the American League, and six from the National League. The two teams with the best records in their respective conference, who also won their division, get a first-round bye, meaning they do not play in the wildcard round. The teams with the first-round byes included the Baltimore Orioles, the Houston Astros, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Atlanta Braves. 

Wild Card Series:

The Wild Card Series is a best two-out-of-three styled round, with the winners advancing to the divisional round. The matchups include the Texas Rangers versus the Tampa Bay Rays, the Minnesota Twins versus the Toronto Blue Jays, the Arizona Diamondbacks versus the Milwaukee Brewers, and the Philadelphia Phillies versus the Miami Marlins. This round went by fast, as all four series resulted in a sweep, where the team wins all the games in the series without suffering a loss. The Phillies, Twins, Diamondbacks, and Rangers all advanced past this round and made it to the next round, the divisional round. 

Divisional Series:

This round did not go as most people would have thought. The two number-one seeds were the Baltimore Orioles and the Atlanta Braves, with both teams winning over 100 games, but their playoff runs were more short-lived than they had hoped. The Orioles ended up being swept by the Rangers, and for the O’s this was their first time being swept in over 500 days, the longest streak since the 1940s. The Braves faced their division rivals, the Phillies, who eliminated them from the playoffs last year. They had high hopes for revenge, but only recorded one playoff victory after having a historic season, scoring the most runs in a season in their franchise’s history and having multiple MVP candidates in Ronald Acuna and Matt Olson. The Dodgers, who held the two seed, met a similar fate as the Orioles and got swept by their divisional rivals in the Diamondbacks. At the end of this round, the five teams with the best regular season records were all eliminated from the postseason, with these teams collectively winning only one playoff game. The defending champs in the Astros were the only team who had a bye to make it past this round, with the Phillies, Rangers, and Diamondbacks being the other teams to make it to the next round, the championship series. 

Championship Series: 

Despite the name, this round is not the end of the playoffs, but it will be the end of two teams’ seasons, as the other two will advance to the World Series. The matchups in this round include a divisional matchup between the Rangers and the Astros, and the Phillies against the Diamondbacks. Both series started out similarly, with both the Rangers and Phillies winning their first two games of the series. But just as fast as they got those leads, they lost them, as both the Diamondbacks and Astros won the next two games to tie both series at two apiece. Both series went to game 7, with the winner of each series advancing to the last round. The Rangers, fueled by an excellent performance from their right fielder Adolis Garcia, jumped out to an early lead against the Astros and never looked back. Garcia hit two home runs in game 7 and propelled his team to their first World Series since 2011 with an 11-4 victory. This series was only the second time in MLB history that the away team had won every game of the series, with the 2019 World Series being the only other. The Phillies looked to return to the World Series after losing it last season, but unfortunately for them, the Diamondbacks had other plans. The D-Backs were able to hold the Phillies’ four highest-paid players to just one single hit over the last two games of the series and went on to win this game 7 matchup 4-2, earning the franchise’s second-ever trip to the World Series. 

World Series: 

The MLB’s 119th World Series began last Friday. The best-of-seven matchup features the least amount of regular season wins between the two teams ever in a World Series, with both teams winning a combined 174 games. Make sure to tune in to find out who will be crowned the MLB champion this year!