There’s nothing quite like postseason baseball.<\/p>\n
It’s the stage where Reggie Jackson<\/a> earned the nickname “Mr. October” after a historic three-home-run performance in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series. It’s where Derek Jeter<\/a> became “Mr. November” after hitting a walk-off homer in Game 4 of the 2001 World Series just after the stroke of midnight on Nov. 1.<\/p>\n While the World Series is Major League Baseball’s<\/a> grand finale, the wild-card series is the opening act of the postseason. Check out key facts about the MLB wild-card process and history below.<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n 2 Related<\/p>\n What is a wild card?<\/p>\n A wild card is given to MLB teams in each league (American League and National League) that qualify for the postseason despite not winning their division. The wild-card teams are the clubs that finish the regular season with the best winning percentages after the three division winners.<\/p>\n How many teams earn a wild-card spot?<\/p>\n Since 2022, three teams in each league earn a wild-card spot, bringing the total number of playoff teams to 12: three AL division winners, three AL wild-card teams, three NL division winners and three NL wild-card teams.<\/p>\n What is the format of the wild-card series?<\/p>\n The third-best division winner in each league (as the No. 3 seed) hosts the third-best wild-card team (the No. 6 seed) in a best-of-three series. The other two wild-card teams (No. 4 and No. 5 seeds) play each other, with the higher-seeded team hosting all three games.<\/p>\n When was the wild card introduced?<\/p>\n MLB introduced the wild card in 1995 along with the realignment of three divisions per league. Back then, a single wild-card team in each league earned a postseason berth and played the team with the league’s best record in a best-of-five series, unless the two teams were in the same division. In which case, the wild-card team would face the second-best division winner.<\/p>\n A second wild-card team was added to each league in 2012, and the two clubs began the postseason with a one-game playoff. Two wild-card teams from the same division were allowed to play each other.<\/p>\n During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the postseason field was expanded to 16 total teams (eight per league): three division winners, three second-place teams and two additional teams with the next-best record. The 2020 postseason marked the debut of the best-of-three wild-card series.<\/p>\n The postseason format reverted to two wild-card teams in each league facing off in a single-game playoff in 2021 before switching to the current format in 2022.<\/p>\n Who were the first wild-card teams?<\/p>\n The Seattle Mariners (AL)<\/a> and Cincinnati Reds (NL)<\/a> were the first wild-card teams in 1995. The Mariners defeated the New York Yankees<\/a> in the ALDS in five games, while the Reds swept the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> in the NLDS. Both teams lost their respective league championship series.<\/p>\n How many wild-card teams have reached the World Series?<\/p>\n A total of 16 wild-card teams have advanced to the World Series:<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e Texas Rangers<\/a>, 2023<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a>, 2023<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e Philadelphia Phillies<\/a>, 2022<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e Washington Nationals<\/a>, 2019<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e San Francisco Giants,<\/a> 2014<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e Kansas City Royals<\/a>, 2014<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e St. Louis Cardinals<\/a>, 2011<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e Colorado Rockies<\/a>, 2007<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e Detroit Tigers<\/a>, 2006<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e Houston Astros<\/a> 2005<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e Boston Red Sox<\/a>, 2004<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e Florida Marlins, 2003<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e San Francisco Giants, 2002<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e Anaheim Angels, 2002<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e New York Mets<\/a>, 2000<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e Florida Marlins, 1997<\/p>\n How many wild-card teams have won the World Series?<\/p>\n A total of eight wild-card teams have won the World Series:<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e Texas Rangers, 2023<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e Washington Nationals, 2019<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e San Francisco Giants, 2014<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e St. Louis Cardinals, 2011<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e Boston Red Sox, 2004<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e Florida Marlins, 2003<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e Anaheim Angels, 2002<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0e Florida Marlins, 1997<\/p>\n Check out the ESPN MLB hub page<\/a> for stats<\/a>, scores<\/a>, schedules<\/a>, standings<\/a> and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There’s nothing quite like postseason baseball. It’s the stage where Reggie Jackson earned the nickname “Mr. October” after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-166573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}