History of the MLB Postseason (Part IV: Double Wild Card Era - 2012-present)

The 2011 Major League Baseball season ended with not one, but two surprising collapses in the postseason race. The Boston Red Sox and the Atlanta Braves each had big leads in their respective league's Wild Card races, but the month of September saw both teams lose their leads, bit by bit, until the final day saw them surpassed and eliminated from contention. After the St. Louis Cardinals (who came back on the Braves) won the World Series, MLB got together and came to the following decision: a second Wild Card must be added.

This modification to the MLB postseason began on the following season, and it was simple. Since 1995, the best non-division winner qualified as a Wild Card, but beginning with the 2012 season, the two best non-division winners will enter the postseason as Wild Cards in each league. This addition increased MLB's playoff field to 10 teams, making them the last of the four main leagues to reach double digits (NBA and NHL each have 16 playoff teams, while the NFL has 14). The two Wild Cards will face each other in the Wild Card Game, which serves as a play-in game that kicks off the postseason. The winners of the Wild Card Games will play their respective league's top seed, and it is regardless of division, meaning that divisional rivals can face each other in the Division Series.

I still say that the way the 2011 season ended led to this change; I just can't help but think that MLB's higher-ups saw that exciting finish and thought, "I wish there were two Wild Cards, that was amazing!"; and that's exactly what happened. Another reason for the extra Wild Card: to make it difficult for Wild Cards in the postseason. In the 17 seasons that took place during the single Wild Card era, the Wild Card teams had the same opportunity as the division winners, and several seasons saw them pull off major upsets and eventually go on to win the World Series. With the second Wild Card added, it makes winning the division more important, as the East, Central, and West winners in each league go straight to the Division Series, while the Wild Cards have to face each other and use their top pitchers to try to advance.

2012's first Wild Card Games pitted the Baltimore Orioles against the Texas Rangers in the American League, while the National League's game pitted the St. Louis Cardinals against the Atlanta Braves. That year was the beginning of the Orioles' rise to becoming a top team in the American League, while the Rangers were coming off back-to-back appearances in the World Series. The Cards were the defending champions, and the Braves were coming off their embarrassing collapse from the previous year. In addition, the Rangers had a choke job of their own to end the 2012 regular season. With a two game lead in the AL West over the Oakland Athletics, all the Rangers had to do was win one of the games against Oakland to win the West. The A's ended up sweeping the series and winning the West, relegating the Rangers to the Wild Card Game.

The first Wild Card Game was the American League affair between the Orioles and Rangers, with the Orioles winning 5-1 to advance. In the National League, the Cardinals defeated the Braves, 6-3, to advance to the NLDS. That year saw a first, as all four Division Series went the maximum five games, with one of the series being a battle between the Orioles and the New York Yankees--the first LDS between division rivals. The Orioles lost the LDS, but the Cardinals made it to the NLCS, only to be defeated by the eventual World Champions, the San Francisco Giants.

The following year featured Game 163 for the 2nd Wild Card spot in the American League between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Texas Rangers. Regarding tiebreakers, before 2012, any tiebreakers for division titles were only played if only one team could qualify for the postseason. After 2012, they are played regardless of postseason status. Regarding 2013, the Rays defeated the Rangers, 5-2, to advance to the American League Wild Card game, which they won, 4-0, over the Cleveland Indians. The National League Wild Card featured the Cincinnati Reds against the Pittsburgh Pirates, with the Pirates reaching the postseason for the first time since 1992. The Pirates won, 6-2, but they were defeated by the Cardinals in the NLDS. As for the Rays, they lost the ALDS to the eventual World Champions, the Boston Red Sox.

Remember when I said that the current format would put Wild Cards at a disadvantage? The 2014 postseason would like a word with you. That year, the Kansas City Royals won an extra-inning thriller against the Oakland A's, while the Giants shut out the Pirates in their game. Those same two teams would end up facing each other in the World Series, marking the second time in MLB history that the Fall Classic featured two Wild Cards. The Giants, who were the National League's #5 seed (the road team in their Wild Card Game), defeated the Royals in seven games. The Giants had to start Madison Bumgarner in the NL Wild Card Game just to advance. They later had to use him in a long save situation in Game Seven of the World Series, and it all worked out.

Now, 2015 was interesting for this fan. Why? Because the New York Yankees made the postseason as one of the American League's Wild Cards. As a Yankees fan, I was happy, because the Yankees were in the postseason, and I got to watch them participate in the Wild Card Game for the first time. Unfortunately, it did not work out; the Yankees were blanked by the Houston Astros, who went on to be defeated by the defending AL Champions, and the eventual World Champions, the Kansas City Royals. In the National League, the Cubs defeated the Pirates, and went on to sweep the Cardinals in their first-ever postseason meeting, but ended up swept by the New York Mets in the NLCS. That year was the beginning of an uprising from Chicago's North Side club, as the following year would be the ultimate dream season, as the Cubs won the World Series for the first time since 1908. Regarding 2016's Wild Card Games, the National League's saw the Giants defeat the Mets, while the American League's saw the Blue Jays win in extras over the Orioles--mainly due to a bad pitching decision by manager Buck Showalter.

By this time already, there were complaints about the Wild Card Game. I myself enjoy the games, but I do understand that a season ending after one postseason game, for lack of a better word, sucks. When the Yankees returned to the Wild Card Game in 2017, fans of the Bronx Bombers were complaining about the team having to play in the game. My philosophy regarding that is simple: win the division. Want to avoid the one-and-done Wild Card Game? Win the division. Otherwise, just win the game. The Yankees did that; a 8-4 win over the Minnesota Twins, and it became a long run that nearly resulted in an American League pennant.

2018 was very interesting. While the American League's Wild Card Game was set in stone (Yankees/A's), the only thing that was certain in the National League was that the Braves were the Eastern Division Champions. Both the Central and West needed tiebreakers, marking the first time ever that two tiebreaker games took place in the same season. In both cases, all of the teams involved qualified for the postseason, meaning that the losing teams would have to play in the Wild Card Game. In the NL Central, the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Chicago Cubs, 3-1, and in the NL West, the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Colorado Rockies, 5-2. As a result, the Rockies and Cubs ended up facing each other in the Wild Card Game, which was a 13-inning affair that saw Colorado win 2-1. The Yankees defeated the A's in the American League's game, but both teams fell in the Division Series.

2019 saw the Rays defeat the A's in the AL Wild Card game, but the story was the National League's game. The Washington Nationals returned to the postseason that year as one of the National League's Wild Cards, and in the game, they defeated the Milwaukee Brewers by a score of 4-3. In their entire history as the Montréal Expos, they only made the postseason once: in the strike-hampered 1981 season. The one series they won was one that, technically, didn't exist yet, so as a result of this win, the Nationals advanced in the postseason and won a true postseason round for the first time in franchise history. The Nationals later defeated a Dodgers team that won 106 games, doing so in five games in the NLDS--their first official postseason series win, and fitting that it was against the team who beat them for the pennant in 1981. They later swept the Cardinals in the NLCS, giving them their first pennant in franchise history, and it ended up becoming their first World Championship in team history, as they defeated the Astros in a World Series that saw the road team win every single game.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected the 2020 MLB season early on, as the season ended up starting in the summer, with 60 games played. At that same time, a temporary playoff format was approved, which allowed eight playoff teams from each league, totalling 16 in all. The rules were as follows: the division winners were seeded 1-3, the 2nd place teams in each division were seeded 4-6, and the Wild Cards were #7 and #8, regardless of division. This expanded postseason format resulted in the Wild Card Series, which was a best-of-three series involving all of the teams. Each series was played in the home field of the better seed, and out of the eight matchups, only two of them went the full three: the series between the A's and White Sox, and the series between the Padres and Cardinals.

The true Wild Card spots (the 7 and 8 seeds) went to the White Sox and Blue Jays in the American League, and the Reds and Brewers in the National League. None of them advanced to the Division Series; in fact, only the White Sox won a postseason game. In spite of the expanded field, the result saw both #1 seeds face each other in a thrilling World Series, with the Dodgers winning over the Rays.

I do love this current format of two Wild Cards. I enjoy the Wild Card Game, and I have also enjoyed the fact that the Yankees have played in three of them as of this point. Again, the Wild Card Game makes winning the division important, because winning the division keeps a team from that one-and-done round. If said team is in that game, one has to win it. I have also said for a while that I do believe that they'll turn the Wild Card round into a two-out-of-three series, but until that time comes, I will continue to enjoy that one-and-done game.

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