Major League Baseball released the postseason schedule for 2020 on Tuesday, and it is different than any other October the sport has ever seen.
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With the number of playoff participants increasing from 10 teams to 16, an extra, wild card round was added to the postseason, which begins on Tuesday, Sept. 29.
More teams is not the only quirk this year, though it does have the added benefit of wall-to-wall baseball with eight wild card round games scheduled for Sept. 30 and potentially Oct. 1 as well.
After the wild card round will be played at the home ballpark of the higher-seeded team, after that the postseason shifts to neutral sites. The American League will play division series games at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and Petco Park in San Diego, while the National League will shift to Globe Life Field in Arlington and Minute Maid Park in Houston. The ALCS will be in San Diego, and the NLCS in Arlington.
For the Angels, should they overcome long odds and make the postseason, it will most likely be at the No. 6 seed, the worst second-place team in the AL. If we extend this scenario further and have the Angels winning their wild card round series, their division series would be played at Dodger Stadium, which will host the 3/6 vs. 2/7 winners.
Another big shift this year is no off days for travel in both the division series and championship series. The AL division series is set for October 5-9, with the NL division series Oct. 6-10.
The ALCS is scheduled from Oct. 11-17, and the NLCS is set for Oct. 12-18, which means the first three rounds of the postseason will more closely approximate a regular season schedule, unlike previous years.
The off days return for the World Series, which will be held at Globe Life Field, after Games 2 and 5. Game 1 is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 20, and should it reach Game 7, that would be played on Oct. 28.