The Wild Card round has added excitement to MLB‘s stretch run.
More teams get to the final month, and even the final week, with a real chance of making the postseason.
We are seeing it right now: with the exception of the first Wild Card, in which the Philadelphia Phillies and the Tampa Bay Rays have a firm hold in the National and American League, respectively, everything else is up for grabs.
The Wild Card series are best-of-three matchups that will complete the Division Series bracket.
The two best division winners have a bye to the Division Series round, but the Wild Card round will see the worst of the division winners battling a Wild Card team, and the other two WC squads playing each other.
ESPN is already hyping up these matchups, ones that will take place between October 3-5.
The 2023 #MLB Postseason begins in 2 weeks with the MLB Wild Card Series, exclusively on Disney platforms
🗓️ Oct. 3-5
⚾️ Matchups TBD
📺 @ABCNetwork, ESPN, ESPN2, @ESPNDeportes pic.twitter.com/IiRsVw6000— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) September 19, 2023
In the National League, the Phillies can’t win their division anymore but have a comfy four-game lead over the last Wild Card spot.
You could say the Phillies are almost in.
What about the two remaining spots?
There are 2.5 games separating five (!) teams: the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Chicago Cubs, the Cincinnati Reds, the Miami Marlins, and the San Francisco Giants.
In the American League, the Rays already qualified for the postseason but unlike the Phillies, they can still take down their division leader, the Baltimore Orioles.
After the Rays, things get a bit trickier, as there is just one game separating the Toronto Blue Jays, the Texas Rangers, and the Seattle Mariners.
There are still about a dozen games left to play for each team, so things are bound to happen.
The MLB playoffs are right around the corner.
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