How Twelve Teams Become Two, the MLB Postseason Bracket Explained
How Twelve Teams Become Two, the MLB Postseason Bracket Explained
By the time the Brewers and Dodgers met in the National League Championship Series, each had already survived at least one round of a bracket that looks simple from a distance and has a few rules that surprise people up close. Here is how the field narrows from twelve teams to the two that play for the World Series.
Who gets in
The current format arrived in 2022, when MLB expanded the field from 10 teams to 12. Each league sends six. The three division winners qualify, and so do the three best remaining records, which are the Wild Card teams.
The expansion also ended the single Wild Card Game, a one-night elimination that had been used for most of the previous decade. Tiebreaker games for playoff positions went away at the same time, with ties now settled by formula rather than an extra game.
The bye and the opening round
The two division winners with the best records in each league are seeded first and second, and they skip the first round entirely. They go straight to the Division Series.
Everyone else plays a best-of-three Wild Card Series. The third seed hosts the sixth, and the fourth hosts the fifth. All three games are played at the higher seed's park, which gives the better team a real edge in a very short series.
The Division Series and beyond
The Division Series is best-of-five, with home field going to the higher seed in a 2-2-1 pattern. The top seed faces the winner of the four versus five series, and the second seed faces the winner of the three versus six series.
That bracket is fixed. MLB does not reseed after the first round, so if a lower seed wins, the top seed does not get to face the weakest team left. This is one of the rules that surprises people, since the NFL, for one, does reseed its playoff bracket.
The League Championship Series and the World Series are both best-of-seven. Home field in the World Series goes to the team with the better regular season record, regardless of which league it comes from.
The argument about the bye
The bye is meant to be a reward, and it does guarantee a top seed avoids the most random round of the tournament. It also means several days without a game while the Wild Card Series is played.
Whether that layoff hurts has been argued every October since the format began. Some managers worry about lost timing for hitters. Others value the rest for a pitching staff. Short postseason samples make it hard to settle either way, and anyone claiming a firm answer should be asked for the numbers.
Why the format shapes a series like this one
A seven game series is long enough for the better roster to usually win, and short enough for one night to swing it. That is the setting for performances like William Contreras's three tying and go-ahead hits in Game 2, which gave Milwaukee a 2-0 lead heading to Los Angeles.
The format rewards the regular season with seeding, byes and home field, then hands the outcome to a sequence of short series where a single hitter can decide a game. That combination is what makes October feel different from the 162 games before it.