2026 Wild Card Series Preview

You know what's one thing that fascinates me about the baseball season? It's a 162 game season. One hundred and sixty-two games. A lot of swings, pitches, balls, strikes, fly balls, you name it. Even wilder, all of that is played with very few days off. The longest break teams have is the All-Star Break, but even that is about four days long. And all of that gets crammed into six months.

But once it's over, the real season starts. 162 games are played, and then, it all starts over at zero.

There are so many reasons why I enjoy MLB's Postseason, but the two main ones are as follows: One, it's a sprint and always has been. A six month regular season is followed by a postseason that lasts about four or five weeks, because unlike the NBA and NHL, MLB's playoff series don't stretch out so far. And two, chronologically, MLB has the last postseason of the year. NFL's playoffs are in January, with the Super Bowl on the second Sunday in February. The NBA and Stanley Cup Playoffs last from April to June, while MLB's run to the championship takes over October.

It all starts with the Wild Card Series, which is now in its fifth year, though the overall Wild Card round is in its 15th season. The round was played under a single game format from 2012 until 2021, and was officially extended to a best-of-three format in 2022 (the same format we saw in the COVID-shortened 2020 season). While the top two teams in each league go straight to the Division Series, the teams seeded #3 to #6 will face off in the opening series. One series will see the #3 seed (the lowest-seeded division champions) against the #6 seed, with the winner facing the #2 seed. The other series will see the #4 seed against the #5 seed, with the winner facing the #1 seed. The #3 and #4 seeds have home field during the entire series.

So let's take a look at all four series:

ALWCS: White Sox @ Astros

Amazing. The American League West saw what the NFC South had been doing for a few years and decided to top it. The division had been a mess all year, but someone had to win it. So who ended up being the equivalent of Patrick Star's rock at the finish line? None other than the Houston Astros. Of course it's the Astros. At 81-81, an even .500, the Astros set the new mark as the worst division champion in MLB history (surpassing the 2005 Padres, who won the NL West at 82-80), and the first to win the division without a winning record. Yordan Alvarez has served as Houston's only bright spot, with his quest for the Triple Crown ending with him leading in batting average, but being surpassed in HR and RBI by Pete Alonso.

As for the White Sox, what a story. 324 losses. That's how many losses they had combined in their last three seasons. An average of 2/3 of their season lost. Yet this year, they had the magic tough, in the form of three 30+ HR hitters: Colson Montgomery with 31, Miguel Vargas with 33, and the leader, rookie Munetaka Murakami with 35. This is a huge turnaround for the White Sox, who went from losing 121 games in 2024, to being part of the postseason and almost winning the American League Central.

This is the third postseason meeting between these clubs. The most notable one was in 2005, when the two teams actually met in the World Series (the Astros were in the National League back then), with Game One being attended by the current Pope. The White Sox swept that series, but their 2021 meeting in the ALDS was won by the Astros. The winner of this series will face the Cleveland Guardians in the ALDS.

ALWCS: Red Sox @ Yankees

The greatest rivalry in baseball adds yet another chapter. It's been tough for the Yankees. We had to deal with a lot of injuries this year. Gerrit Cole didn't return to the rotation until June. Max Fried was in and out of the IL. The main ones that hurt the most: Judge and Stanton. Judge ended up out after June, but returned in September, only to be out again. As for Stanton, he's been out since April. Yikes. Despite it all, we still had a chance at the American League East, until we didn't. Ben Rice led the way for the Yankees--41 HRs and 97 RBI, both in the top five in the American League. Cody Bellinger and Jazz Chisholm Jr. have also delivered, but the big name who has really come through is Cam Schlittler. Schlitter took that great performance in Game Three of last year's Wild Card series and ran with it. With an ERA of 1.90, Schlittler's name should definitely be put on the AL Cy Young Award.

And then there's the Red Sox. Oh boy. Remember when this team was dead to rights when summer started? Yeah, a sixteen game winning streak is the perfect revival, and the winning stretch continued on. And to think, all they had to do was get rid of dead weight crybaby Rafael Devers last season. Now they have players like Ceddanne Rafaela and Willson Contreras leading the way, as well as ex-Yankee Sonny Gray dominating on the mound. The Red Sox's resurrection was no exaggeration. It's real, they're in the playoffs for the second straight year, and that streak's continuing after this season.

These two rivals will meet in the postseason for the seventh time since 1999, and each team has won three times in this whole thing. The most recent meeting was in last year's Wild Card Series, which the Yankees won in the maximum three games. The winner of this series will face off against the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS.

NLWCS: Phillies @ Braves

You know, the Phillies really cut it close this season. They were five games up in the Wild Card race entering the season's penultimate weekend. Entering Game 162, that lead was down to one game. They had been losing left and right, and it looked like they would actually miss the postseason, but the Phils managed to win their final game to get in. The team is loaded; they have a great one-two punch in the form of Bryce Harper (in his eighth season with the Phils) and Kyle Schwarber (who finished tied for the ML lead in HRs with 45), and they have hitters such as Luis Arraez, Alec Bohm, and Brandon Marsh helping out.

So the Phillies are in, and they'll face off against the Atlanta Braves, who finished on top of the National League East this season. The Braves are still looking for their first postseason series win since winning the World Series back in 2021, and they managed to rebound and get back to the postseason following a disastrous 2025 season, and this bounce back was due to the amazing efforts of Ronald Acuna, Jr., Austin Riley, Sean Murphy, and of course, Ozzie Albies.

This is the fourth postseason meeting between these two teams, and the Phillies have won all of the past three meetings. They defeated the Braves in the 1993 NLCS, and they won both Wild Card Series meetings in 2022 and 2023 on the road. The winner of this series will face off against the back-to-back defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS.

NLWCS: Cubs @ Padres

The San Diego Padres are one of three teams in this year's postseason looking to win their first championship, and they're the only one of the three in this Wild Card Series. We all knew that San Diego would not win the NL West, but we didn't think they'd have such a tough time to start this season. The toughest part was Fernando Tatis, Jr. going homerless for the first 1/3 of this season. Yikes. Here's the scary part. Despite that drought, Tatis' 25 homers are third on the team. Only Manny Machado (30) and Jackson Merrill (27).

The Cubs have a loaded roster, but it's been the PCA Show this year. Pete Crow-Armstrong has not only been leading the team this year, he's been making a case for MVP of the NL this year. It's a good case; he is leading the Cubs in all offensive categories, and his 45 home runs are tied with Kyle Schwarber for the MLB lead. PCA also has plenty of help from Alex Bregman, Seiya Suzuki, and 2021 champion Dansby Swanson.

This is the third postseason meeting between the clubs; the Padres defeated the Cubs in the 1984 NLCS, while the Cubs defeated the Padres in last year's Wild Card Series. The winner will face the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLDS.

For the first time, the entire Wild Card Series will air on the NBC networks. Under the single game format, ESPN and TBS aired the Wild Card Game, usually swapping leagues every year, and since the round increased to a best-of-three format, the entire round aired on ESPN and ABC until the end of last year. NBC and Peacock will air the entire series; all Game Ones take place on Tuesday, September 29, all Game Twos take place on Wednesday, September 30, and any and all Game Threes will take place on Thursday, October 1. I absolutely love the MLB Postseason, and now, we have arrived at this fantastic sprint! I am so, so ready!