MLB postseason schedule starts on September 29

Even with the advent of an entirely new round of the playoffs, the MLB postseason schedule and the entirety of the playoffs are set to end before Halloween.

Playoff teams this season increased from 10 to 16, and instead of two wild card games in each league we will have an entire wild card round, with eight best-of-three series. The wild card round begins on Tuesday, Sept. 29 with American League games, followed by the four National League wild card round series starting the next day.

The World Series is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, Oct. 20, with Game 7 set for Wednesday, Oct. 28.

After the wild card round at home stadiums, the leagues will play at neutral sites in separate bubbles, as has been reported for a few weeks. The National League will play division series games at Globe Life Field in Arlington and Minute Maid Park in Houston, with the NLCS and World Series in Arlington. The American League will play the division series at Dodger Stadium and Petco Park, with the ALCS in San Diego.

Dodger Stadium will host the ALDS between the 3/6 and 2/7 winners.

Houston gets the 3/6 vs. 2/7 NLDS, so it’s likely that the Dodgers, should they win their wild card round series, will play the remainder of their postseason games at Globe Life Field in Arlington.

The most notable schedule difference is no off days within series until the World Series. With the division series and championship series involving no travel, it makes the off days unneeded.

ESPN will televise seven of the eight wild card round series. TBS will televise one wild card series.

Fox and FS1 will televise the NLDS, NLCS, and World Series, with a few division series games kicked over to MLB Network. TBS has the ALDS and ALCS this year.