Today begins one of my favorite times of year, playoff baseball. Now that the MLB regular season is finished, we finally have a schedule and seeding for October baseball.
Tonight, we will have the American League Wild Card Game in New York between the Twins and Yankees, with a 8:09 EST first pitch on ESPN. Ervin Santana is scheduled to start for the Twins, while Luis Severino gets the starts for the Yankees. The Yankees won the home-and-home regular season series 4-2.
Wednesday will be the National League’s turn, with an NL West matchup of the Colorado Rockies traveling to Arizona to take on the Diamondbacks. First pitch is scheduled for 8pm EST on TBS. Colorado will send Jon Gray to the mound to face Cy Young candidate, Zack Grienke. The Diamondbacks won the regular season series 11-8.
On Thursday, Tuesday night’s winner will travel to Cleveland for a Best-of-five game set against the Indians, with a 7:38 EST first pitch. The other division winners, Houston and Boston, start their series in Houston with a 4:08 EST first pitch.
Friday features both the ALDS Game 2’s, as well as the Rockies/Diamondbacks winner against the NL West Champion Dodgers. The Cubs will also be traveling to Washington DC to play the Nationals. TBS will cover the NLDS games, and FS1 and the MLB Network will be broadcasting the ALDS games. As per usual, the LDS games will each play two, then use a travel day.
The ALCS best-of-seven series is scheduled to start Friday, October 13th, at the highest remaining seed. The NLCS will start the following day, Saturday, October 14th. TBS will carry the National League Championship Series games, while Fox/FS1 will carry American League Championship games.
Lastly, the World Series best-of-seven American League Champions taking on the National League Champions. For the first time since 2002, the team with the better regular season record will host the first two games. Game one is scheduled to begin Tuesday, October 24th. Of other note, the Chicago Cubs will try to do what no team since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees have done, and that’s repeat as World Series Champs. Enjoy the most wonderful time of the year.
Post your postseason predictions in the comments!
