Major League Baseball announced its tentative playoff schedule, with the post-season slated to begin on Tuesday, Oct. 3, with a potential World Series finale a month later, on Saturday, Nov. 4.
The four wild-card series will all be best-of-three affairs played over three days. If the post-season began tomorrow, the Toronto Blue Jays would be looking at a three-game set against the Astros in Houston, while the Tampa Bay Rays would get a less-daunting match-up against the American League Central’s Minnesota Twins.
In the National League, the Reds would play in Philadelphia, while the Giants would travel to Milwaukee to face the NL Central-leading Brewers.
Of course, there is still a lot of baseball left to be played and none of the match-ups are set yet. The NL wild-card race is particularly tight, with the Cubs, Marlins, Diamondbacks and even the Padres all vying for the final playoff spot and within four games of qualifying.
In the AL, the Blue Jays (64-50) hold the final wild-card spot, but are only a half game back of the Astros (64-49), which is the difference between hosting the series. The Mariners are three games back of the Jays and have won five straight. The Red Sox and Yankees are five and five-and-a-half back, respectively, but struggling.
Once the wild-card winners are determined, the division series will begin on Saturday, Oct. 7.
