Major league baseball divisional standings

October is here and the postseason bracket is set for Major League Baseball. Five teams clinched playoff spots on Saturday night, and the matchups were finalized on Sunday as the Astros jumped the Rangers to win the AL West.

The Major League Baseball playoff picture becomes a bit clearer with every passing day now that the calendar has turned to September. Sunday was another full slate of games with a number of contenders taking the field with positioning hanging in the balance. Here is a look at the latest standings, as well as what the playoff bracket would look like if the season ended at this point:. While there were a number of important games, there was no bigger series than the one between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves. After all, it was a potential National League Championship Series preview between two teams that are in cruise control in their respective division races. And the Braves made quite the statement. The four-game set was in Los Angeles, but the Braves managed to win three of four.

Major league baseball divisional standings

In order to make the playoffs, teams have to finish at the top of their division or with a record that is good enough to earn a Wild Card spot. In each division, there are teams that gravitate toward the top, with each division in the MLB standings having its own perennial contenders. Perhaps the most watched section of the American League standings each year is the AL East standings. There, two of the most beloved franchises in all of American professional sports look to finish ahead of each other every year. Both the Yankees and Red Sox look to use the regular season standings as a springboard into the postseason. And both teams have gone from being atop the division standings to winning championships in October. But the Tampa Bay Rays have been a consistent contender and a thorn in the side of New York and Boston for many years. Another division that draws intrigue in the American League baseball standings is the American League Central. This division was responsible for the winningest regular season team of all-time in the s when the Chicago White Sox finished with a better performance in the standings than any team in history to that point. Today, the White Sox battle it out in a competitive division that features other contenders such as the Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Indians. All three of those AL Central teams have gone onto the playoffs in the recent history of the league, with Cleveland getting to multiple World Series.

The AL West standings are one of the most unpredictable in all of baseball, with multiple teams rising to the top of the division in the recent past. Kansas City Royals KC.

The season was also celebrated as the th anniversary of professional baseball, honoring the first professional touring baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings of This year saw the adoption of rule changes to counteract the dominance of pitching in recent seasons. The mound was lowered and the strike zone adjusted. This was also the first season of the "Divisional Era". With each league expanding from 10 teams to 12 teams, both leagues were divided into two six-team divisions. Teams continued to play game schedules, in place since , by now playing the other five teams in their own division 18 times each 90 games and playing the six teams in their league's other division 12 times each 72 games. The winners of each division would advance to the postseason and face each other in a League Championship Series , then a best-of-five series, to determine the pennant winners that would face each other in the World Series.

Formed in and , respectively, the NL and AL cemented their cooperation with the National Agreement in , making MLB the oldest major professional sports league in the world. They remained legally separate entities until , when they merged into a single organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball. Baseball's first all-professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings , was founded in The first few decades of professional baseball saw rivalries between leagues, and players often jumped from one team or league to another. The period before was the dead-ball era , when home runs were rarely hit. Professional baseball survived the Black Sox Scandal , a conspiracy to fix the World Series , then rose in popularity in the following decade. Shortly after the war, Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier. The s and s saw the AL and NL add clubs; some moved around the country. Modern stadiums with artificial turf surfaces began to change the game in the s and s.

Major league baseball divisional standings

T he tension is palpable. You could feel the excitement in the air. The wait for October baseball is nearly over. But before we willingly dive head first into all of the MLB playoffs madness, there is still some business to take care of in the final days of the regular season. Aside from a razor-tight NL East race, the campaign offered little in the way of last-minute drama and suspense. This year, though, is headed towards a wild conclusion.

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Kansas City Royals. Giants SF. In what manager Dave Roberts called a "permanent, for now" move, the Dodgers announced Gavin Lux is being moved to second base after his struggles at shortstop. Houston Astros HOU. However, it is not as closely followed as in baseball, because more teams qualify for the NBA playoffs, and the divisional statistics are not as important for playoff qualification. The Houston Astros have won the World Series out of this division, but that is just the tip of the iceberg of the success that this division has had this century. New York Yankees [16]. Retrieved November 9, NY Mets. Contents move to sidebar hide. Instant replay Team uniforms Stadiums Mascots Rivalries. But there are multiple teams looking to knock the Dodgers from their perch atop the NL West standings.

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Retrieved September 8, Game called for rain; the game was not suspended and resumed later because of its proximity to the end of the season and that it had no bearing on the standings. A consortium led by Dewey Soriano and William Daley won the bidding for the Seattle franchise, and named it the Seattle Pilots , a salute to the harbor pilots of the Puget Sound maritime industry and to the city's place in the aviation industry. The Houston Astros were the first to drop out of the race, losing 8 of Search query. The winners of each division would advance to the postseason and face each other in a League Championship Series , then a best-of-five series, to determine the pennant winners that would face each other in the World Series. The legal fallout of the battle would lead eventually to another round of expansion for the AL in the season , with Seattle getting a new team called the Mariners. San Diego Padres. December 20, Mariners SEA. September 29,