How Many Playoff Games In Baseball?
Contents
The MLB playoffs are a best-of-seven affair in every round except the World Series, which is a best-of-seven.
How the Playoffs Work
Rules for the playoffs have changed slightly over the years, but the general idea is the same. The playoffs are a chance for teams to prove they are the best in their league. In order to make it fair, the playoffs are usually structured so that the team with the best record gets to play the team with the worst record.
The Regular Season
Major League Baseball is divided into two 15-team leagues—the American and the National. Each team plays 162 games (this used to be 154 games, until 1961), which are organized into a kind of round-robin schedule: every team plays every other team in its own league at least once and usually four or six times. In addition, each team also has interleague games against rivals in the other league. Let’s say the Red Sox are in the American League East and the Yankees are in the American League East. They would play each other 18 times during the regular season (six three-game series, three two-game series, and one four-game series). As of 2019, there were 30 teams in Major League Baseball: 29 in the U.S. and one in Canada (the Toronto Blue Jays).
The Wild Card
In order to make the playoffs more fair, baseball has implemented a system where teams are now placed into two different brackets. The team with the best record in each league will automatically advance to the championship series. The other two teams that advance to the championship series will be determined by a two-game playoff, which is commonly referred to as the Wild Card.
The top two teams in each league (determined by record) will play each other in a best-of-seven series to determine who goes to the World Series. The team with the better record will have home field advantage.
The Division Series
The first round of the playoffs is known as the Division Series (ALDS and NLDS). The Division Series is a best-of-five series. That means that whoever wins three games first advances to the next round.
Home-field advantage in the Division Series goes to the team with the better record. So, if the Yankees have a better record than the Red Sox, they would get to host Games 1, 2, and 5 (if necessary) in their ballpark.
The two division winners with the best records also get to host Games 1 and 2 of their respective League Championship Series (ALCS and NLCS). After that, the series heads to the city of the team with the worst record for Games 3, 4, and 5 (if necessary).
The League Championship Series
The League Championship Series (LCS) is a best-of-seven playoff and one of two League Championship Series in Major League Baseball (MLB), the other being the American League Championship Series (ALCS). It is played by the winners of the National League’s (NL) two Division Series.
The LCS began in 1969 as a best-of-five playoff and used this format until 1985, when it changed to its current best-of-seven format. The NLCS hasused this format since its inception in 1969. A single champion emerges from each series to play in the World Series, MLB’s championship series.
The winners of the ALCS and NLCS advance to the World Series, baseball’s championship series. The World Series begins October 24 and is a best-of-seven game series played between the champions of the American League and National League.
How Many Games are in the Playoffs?
The playoffs are a best-of-seven series. The team that wins four games wins the series. There are a maximum of seven games in the playoffs. If a team wins the first four games, then that team is the winner and the series ends. If both teams win three games each, then a seventh and final game is played to determine the winner.
The Wild Card
In both the American League and the National League, there are four teams that make the playoffs via the Wild Card. These are the two teams with the best records in each league who did not win their division. The two Wild Card teams in each league play each other in a one-game playoff to determine who moves on to the next round.
The Division Series
The Division Series is a best-of-5 playoff that takes place at the end of the Major League Baseball season. The two teams with the best record in each division (American League and National League) advance to the Division Series.
The League Championship Series
The League Championship Series (LCS) is a best-of-seven playoff and one of two League Championship Series in Major League Baseball (MLB), the other being the American League Championship Series (ALCS). It is played by the winners of the National League’s (NL) two Division Series. The winner of theLCS advances to play the winner of the ALCS in the MLB World Series, Major League Baseball’s championship series.
The World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in North America, contested since 1903 between the American League (AL) champion team and the National League (NL) champion team. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff, and the winning team is awarded the Commissioner’s Trophy. As the series is played in October, during baseball’s warm weather season in North America, it is sometimes referred to as the Fall Classic.
