Who can forget Roy Halladay's no-hitter over the Reds in 2010? 5 seed in the NL, and they still have a shot at the NL East title. The X-factor in this one is whether the Padres still have anything to play for at that point. Since 2013, the Division Series uses the 2-2-1 format previously used.[4].
Get up-to-date MLB scores from today’s games, as well as scores from all the 2020 MLB season games. The Divisional Series is a best-of-five series, featuring the three division winners and a wild-card team. Visit ESPN to view the 2020 MLB Standings. Should another format be used? Welcome to MLB.com, the official site of Major League Baseball. [5][6] Conversely, when games on the West Coast are played at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, many fans on the East Coast are unable to watch a game in its entirety, due to work or school the next day and games ending around 1 a.m. ET/10 p.m. PT, while most West Coast fans are able to watch the entire game as it will not end as late on the West Coast. [7][8], 1993–1994: Proposal, realignment, and cancellation of 1994 postseason, https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Division_Series, Owner Approve to Expand Playoffs to 8 teams, "Addition of Wild Card berths finalized for 2012", "Blame it on TV — but not always Baseball, too, wants top draw for prime time", "TV'S COVERAGE OF PLAYOFFS A 'WHO'S ON?' It also allowed the disadvantaged teams the unusual luxury of starting a series at home, possibly having home field advantage in a three-game series, and a guarantee that they play the maximum of 2 games at home. Total Zone Rating and initial framework for Wins above Replacement calculations provided by Sean Smith. 6-keys: media/spln/mlb/reg/free/stories, at With one more win, the Tampa Bay Rays can celebrate a division title 10 years in the making. However, this expanded playoff format would not return until the following year, because a players' strike, which began on August 12, 1994, led to the cancellation of that season's playoffs and World Series (and caused the 1995 regular season to have 18 fewer games for each team than normal). copyright=new Date(); The American League Division Series and National League Division Series have given birth to many memorable moments. Those tandem aces have combined for a 2.78 ERA in 2020. As a result, the winners in each division were now required to play each other in a best-of-five League Championship Series to determine who would advance to the World Series. Originally, the Eastern, Central and Western Division champions rotated home-site priority, with the two of them getting the extra home game and the third one and the wild card not. The teams with the better winning percentage get homefield advantage (home team for games 1, 2 and 5). The three-game set in Cincy between the Brewers and Reds, however, could obviously change all of that. The winner of this game automatically faces the number 1 seed in the league in the Division Series, regardless of whether or not they are in the same division. The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball. Why? Thanks in part to the expanded 16-team postseason, we've got multiple playoff spots still up for grabs, and bear in mind there are no tiebreaker games for 2020. While this prevented the issue of afternoon games (and did, as planned, increase viewership), the plan drew ire from critics for not allowing viewers to choose the games they want to watch during the post-season. Speaking of which, yes, the Brewers and Cardinals have five head-to-heads yet to play, and they'll knock those out to end the regular season. As a result, West Coast teams generally have to play on the road in the afternoon, when many of their fans are unable to watch the game because they are at work or school. Every Sports Reference Social Media Account, Site Last Updated: Friday, September 25, 7:04AM.
The Padres' status bears monitoring with regard to this series.
All Rights Reserved by Baseball Almanac, Inc.Hosted by Hosting 4 Less. The Rays have a magic number of four to clinch the AL East, so it's possible they'll be in "just stay healthy" mode for this series. section: | slug: mlb-playoff-push-the-five-most-important-series-in-last-week-of-2020-regular-season | sport: baseball | route: article_single.us |
Much of the play-by-play, game results, and transaction information both shown and used to create certain data sets was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by RetroSheet. 1993–1994: Proposal, realignment, and cancellation of 1994 postseason Division Series Summary The Division Series has only been in existence since 1995, but has already seen its share of drama. October belongs to Major League Baseball. In 1993, the owners approved the reintroduction of the Division Series, this time on a permanent basis[1], given the fact that three of the four series in the one-off 1981 Division Series went to a game 5. Bonus: Cardinals at Tigers doubleheader, Sept. 28 (maybe).