Major League Baseball Divisions and Playoff Format

National League

American League

The Major League Baseball playoff format is pretty straightforward.  A total of 4 teams from the National League and a total of 4 teams from the American League make the playoffs.  The 4 teams that make the playoffs from each league are the winners of each of the 3 divisions and a “wild card” winner.  The wild card winner is the team in each league that has the best record among the non-division winners.  After the 4 teams from each league is determined the playoffs begin.  The wild card winner will play the division winner with the best regular season record and the remaining two division winners will play each other.  The only time the wild card won’t play the team with best record is if they are in the same division.  That will actually take place this season in the American League.  The Boston Red Sox won the wild card and the New York Yankees had the best record in the American League, but since they are both in the same division they can’t meet until the second round.  In this situation, Boston will play the division winner with the next best record, in this case it will be the Los Angeles Angels.  The first round of baseball’s playoffs is referred to as the Division Series and it is a best 3 of 5 series.  In other words the first team to win 3 games will advance to second round of the playoffs.  In both the National and American Leagues there are two Division Series.  The second round of the playoffs is called the League Championship Series or LCS.  Both the National League and American League Championship Series are best 4 of 7.  The first team to win 4 games then advances to the World Series.  The World Series is also best 4 of 7.  Home field advantage in both the Division Series and the League Championship Series is determined by which team had the better record in the regular season.  Home field advantage in the World Series is determined by which league won the All-Star Game which is played in July.  This season the American League won the All-Star Game, so the American League champion will have home field advantage in the World Series this season.  Home field advantage simply means that the team that has it will have one more game on their home field if a given series goes either the full 5 games in the Division Series or the full 7 games in the League Championship Series or World Series.