NEW YORK (AP) — The World Series could end in November for the third straight time, and it will start on a Friday for the second year in a row.
Major League Baseball said Tuesday the Series will start on Oct. 27, putting a possible seventh game on Nov. 4. The Series went into November for the first time in 2001, when the 9/11 terrorist attacks caused the regular season to end a week later than originally scheduled. The latest a Series game has been played was Nov. 5, when Houston beat Philadelphia in Game 6 last year.
Before last year, the World Series had not started on a Friday since 1915.
All four best-of-three Wild Card Series are scheduled for consecutive days from Oct. 3-5.
The new format that started last year has 12 teams making the playoffs, up from the 10 in place from 2012-21, except the 16 used in the 2020 playoffs that followed a regular-season shortened to 60 games because of the coronavirus pandemic. The top two teams in each league get first-round byes, while the No. 3 seed faces No. 6 and No. 4 plays No. 5. The higher seed will be home in each best-of-three series.
In the best-of-five Division Series, the top seed plays the 3-vs.-6 winner and the No. 2 seed plays the 4-vs.-5 winner. The Division Series will have the familiar format of the higher seed home for Games 1 and 2, and, if necessary, Game 5.
AL Division Series start on Oct. 7-8, then have a day off before switching to the other cities on Oct. 10-11. Game 5s would be played Oct. 13 after another day off.
NL Division Series also will start Oct. 7 but will have an extra off day between Game 1 and Game 2s, which will be played Oct. 9. After a travel day, the series switch to the other sites for games on Oct. 11-12. Game 5s would be Oct. 14.
The AL Championship Series starts Oct. 15 and the NL Championship Series the following day, with off days after Game 2s and Game 5s.
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