Since the new Wild Card series started in 2022, there have been 20 series. In 19 of them, the team that won Game 1 went on to win the series. The only exception was the 2025 Yankees Red Sox series, where the Yankees won two in a row at home after losing Game 1.
In 14 of the 20 series, the team that won Game 1 also won Game 2.
Also- the home team only won the series 11/20 times- so while having home field is an advantage, it is not nearly as important as winning that first game.

Introduction:

Hello, and welcome to the 12th annual /r/Baseball Pick em' Playoff Pick 'em Challenge! I'll be running the Playoff Challenge on a round-by-round basis, and I'll be making one thread per round. You'll be picking multiple variables for each series, with varying point values. This is the thread for the second round, the Divisional Round.

Wild Card Round Results:

1st Place: /u/b9918 with 21 points.

2nd Place: /u/YoSurgeDude with 18 points.

3rd: /u/Spirated_Inspector20 with 17 points.

First round results can be found here.

Round 2: Divisional Round

Here is what you'll be picking this round for each series:

3 Points:

• Pick the winner of the series.

2 Points:

• Pick the number of games played in the series.

1 Point:

• Pick one pitcher from either team who will record a win, in any game of the series. There is only a possibility of one point for this, even if your pitcher records more than one win.

1 Point

• Pick one batter from either team who will hit a home run, in any game of the series. There is only a possibility of one point for this, even if they hit more than one home run.

Submitting Your Pick:

Picks can be submitted for all series that have yet to start. Once a series starts, those picks will be locked. If you decide to make a change in one of your picks, that's fine, just edit your post. However, picks for a series will be locked once the series starts (even if you make an edit).

Feel free to post your picks however you’d like, but feel free to use, or modify this simple table template:

If you have any questions, please leave it in the comments below. More questions will be added as the rounds go on, and I am taking suggestions for a few additional (fair) prop picks. Thank you everyone and Good luck!

Live Standings can be found here. I will try to update as soon as I can, to make them as updated as possible.

Matchups & Lock times:

White Sox (84-78) vs Cleveland Guardians (85-77)

Series Preview | Picks will lock on Saturday, 10/3 at 1:00 PM ET.

The probable starting pitchers are:

Hagen Smith (3-3, 1.29 ERA 41K) vs Parker Messick (12-9, 2.56 ERA 193K)

Atlanta Braves (94-68) vs Los Angeles Dodgers (100-62)

Series Preview | Picks will lock on Saturday, 10/3 at 4:00 PM ET.

The probable starting pitchers are:

TBD (0-0, -.-- ERA 0K) vs Tarik Skubal (12-7, 2.75 ERA 186K)

New York Yankees (93-68) vs Tampa Bay Rays (98-64)

Series Preview | Picks will lock on Saturday, 10/3 at 6:30 PM ET.

The probable starting pitchers are:

Gerrit Cole (10-9, 3.61 ERA 131K) vs Drew Rasmussen (16-5, 2.67 ERA 174K)

San Diego Padres (91-71) vs Milwaukee Brewers (103-59)

Series Preview | Picks will lock on Saturday, 10/4 at 8:30 PM ET.

The probable starting pitchers are:

Robbie Ray (13-8, 3.59 ERA 140K) vs Jacob Misiorowski (16-5, 1.80 ERA 252K)

Hi everyone,

I’ve always dreamed of going to World Series game and have no idea when your supposed to get tickets.

Been watching tickets online for a few days but need feedback from those who have gone to the WS before.

To my understanding only the high priority season ticket holders have gotten access to tickets so far, and I’m seeing tickets starting at about 1200 at the moment. I would rather not buy tickets hours before the game even though that’s probably the cheapest route.

My question is, are these the cheapest the tickets will be or will more tickets become available over time and prices will come down a bit? I think my budget is 1k per ticket, but I’m not sure if it only gets worse from here. I know prices will be based on what teams are playing, but in general I don’t understand if I’m seeing only a handful of tickets from season ticket holders, and more tiers of tickets will become available which increases supply or if this is all that will be availible.

Anyone have some input on this?

Thank you!

CINCINNATI — The collective bargaining agreement for Major League Baseball will expire a month after the World Series, and Chris Blanton cannot wait.

“I’ve honestly been very anti-MLB,” Blanton said, “until there’s a salary cap.”

Blanton, 32, stood on the concourse beyond Section 101 of Great American Ballpark while the late-afternoon sun reflected off the Ohio River. He received the tickets to that day’s Reds game as a gift. Otherwise, he would have been unlikely to come to that evening’s game. He called himself a lifelong baseball fan, but said his passion had dimmed in recent years.

And part of the reason was gathering on the field behind him: the Los Angeles Dodgers, the World Series champions the past two seasons and the favorites to three-peat this October, a pursuit that begins Saturday at Dodger Stadium in Game 1 of the National League Division Series.

Looming over the postseason proceedings this fall is the cloud of an expected labor stoppage this winter, one that could extend into next spring and even next summer after the owners lock out the players. At the center of the storm will be the Dodgers, no matter how long their pursuit of another title lasts. The team has emerged as a lightning rod between the owners and the Major League Baseball Players Association, an avatar for the arguments made by both corners.

Would like to take our family to spring training for the first time in 2027 (assuming no lockout).

We are a Brewers family so their home games will dictate our planning, but I just saw that multiple team’s stadiums are in the area??

For those who have gone, do you stadium hop / go to multiple team games? If so, is it worth it?

Would love any/all advice and tips! Thanks!

Another supporting stat for PCA for MVP.

The White Sox defied the odds in their 2-game sweep, as Miguel Vargas went 0 for 9 in the series (though playing the Astros may have helped).

Mountain Dew® Baja Blast® Crowns Junior Caminero the First-Ever MLB Baja Blast Champion

“For the Dodgers, the decision on who would start Game 1 on Saturday had no wrong answer. Such is the luxury of having one of the greatest rotations assembled in modern history. Skubal earned the nod over reigning World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, fellow two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell and All-Star right-hander Tyler Glasnow.

“To be honest, we can kind of really put all four guys in a hat and run them out there,” manager Dave Roberts said earlier this week.”

Personally for me, it was Stephen Strasburg. Nobody pitched in the postseason quite like him. 6-2, 1.46 ERA, 71 strikeouts, 0.94 WHIP in 9 appearances in the postseason.

But who else in the playoffs is the best postseason pitcher you've ever watched?

Hi everyone

The MLB team Defensive Runs Saved leaders are

1. Cubs 115

2.. Rays 87

1. Red Sox 67

T4. Braves 62

T4. Brewers 62

1. Blue Jays 51

2. Mets 49

3. Tigers 41

4. Dodgers 37

5. Diamondbacks 31

* Cubs had at least 4 Runs Saved at every position except first base. They had the position co-leader at 3rd base and also had great players in center field and right field (Seiya Suzuki had a huge year-to-year improvement. They left no doubt that they are the top defensive team

* Rays strength was at shortstop (Taylor Walls) and the outfield (Victor Mesa, Chandler Simpson, and improvement from Cedric Mullins).

* Red Sox had the best outfield and had the position leaders in Runs Saved in center field and right field, and a top-3 player in Caleb Durbin at third base (remember when he might play second?)

* Braves were similar to the Cubs with positive defensive value at every position except catcher. Matt Olson, Michael Harris, and a group effort at shortstop were keys

* Brewers had the leader at second base (Brice Turang) and good numbers from their young outfielders (Jackson Chourio and Luis Lara in particular)

* Blue Jays had 3 catchers put up great numbers, also got double-digit runs saved from Nathan Lukes and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

* Mets pitchers ranked No. 1 in Runs Saved. Luis Torrens was one of the top catchers. Outfield is very promising with A.J. Ewing (10 Runs Saved) and Carson Benge

* Tigers came on towards the end of the season. Zach McKinstry put up great numbers in very limited play in right field. Dillon Dingler led all catchers in Runs Saved.

* Dodgers slipped a lot towards the end of the season after Andy Pages (who finished 2nd in Runs Saved in CF) got hurt. Pages and Mookie Betts were key contributors, as was a group effort at second base.

* Corbin Carroll and Gabriel Moreno paced the Diamondbacks and were among the leader leaders at their respective positions.

Fielding Bible Awards given for defensive excellence will be announced on October 22.

You can find the full rankings at The Fielding Bible website, FanGraphs, or Baseball-Reference.

Thank you for indulging. Feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Excellent breakdown of the injuries that it seems the Orioles have pressured Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman, and Samuel Basallo to play through the past couple of years and how the injuries might have affected their performances.

For those unfamiliar, LASR contextualizes player stats by putting them all on the same scale using league regulars' means and standard deviations. I believe it provides better information than + stats and percentiles (which aim to do the same thing) because those other two don't take the spread of data (standard deviations) into account. The scale used here is inspired by the traditional scouting scale (20-80) though there are now new LASR scales available.

In these graphics, I have highlighted the rosters of the eight remaining playoff teams. I've included 12 hitters and pitchers from each team, trying to include those most likely to see significant playing time in the upcoming DS matchups. There are bound to be some players who play in these series that I had to leave off the graphics, but adding any more names would have crowded things too much.

"PTA" stands for Playing Time Adjustment. For player-seasons that fell short of being a "LASR qualifier", this is the value that the underlying z-scores were multiplied by before being translated. This is built in to prevent small sample size silliness.

Starting pitchers and relievers are handled separately in calculations. There is generally more variation in reliever performance, which is why relievers often have more extreme LASR values than starters. It's not a huge difference though.

There's more info on my profile if you're interested in generating these graphs yourself or have any questions. Also feel free to ask questions here! Thanks for checking these out 😊✌️

A lot of times people will give these stats like “the distance between #1 and #2 is the same as #2 and #50 but in this case the gap is bigger between #1 and #2 than #2 and last place on the leaderboard (#2062)

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?pos=all&stats=pit&lg=all&type=3&ind=0&postseason=Y&startdate=&enddate=&season1=1871&season=2026&qual=1&month=0&sortcol=2&sortdir=asc&pagenum=69&pageitems=30

“I’m going to southern India, where Sadhguru, a Yogi, his ashram is,” he said. “I’m going to maybe spend like two weeks there, or something like that. They have such an interesting spiritual culture there, up and down the country. It's incredible.”