Major League Baseball and its players’ union will follow in the NBA footsteps when it comes to postseason play. According to ESPN, both parties agreed to have the playoffs in bubble settings. On Friday, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported under the bubble settings plan the World Series would start on Oct. 20 in Arlington, Texas and would end no later than Oct. 28.
The playoffs will start at the end of this month with the top four seeds in each league hosting games in a best-of-three wild card series. The American League will start on Sept. 29 and the National League will start on Sept. 30. The highest remaining seed in the NL will then travel to Arlington to play in its division series while the next highest seed will host games at Minute Maid Park in Houston. The top seed from the AL host games at Petco Park in San Diego, while the other series will be played at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. San Diego will host the AL Championship Series, while the National League Championship Series will be played in Arlington. And as for fans being allowed to watch the games, that remains up in the air.
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“I’m hopeful that the World Series and the LCS we will have limited fan capacity,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said as reported by CBS Sports.”I think it’s important for us to start back down the road. Obviously it’ll be limited numbers, socially distanced, protection provided for the fans in terms of temperature checks and the like. Kind of the pods like you saw in some of the NFL games. We’ll probably use that same theory.”
Back in July, MLB decided to expand the playoffs to 16 teams this year. There will be three divisional winners from each league, and they will clinch a playoff spot. The reaming spots will come from the second-place teams in each division and the teams with the best record remaining.
“We are excited to announce the expansion of the 2020 Postseason,” Manfred said in the statement. Manfred also said the 2020 postseason “will allow more fans to experience playoff baseball. We look forward to a memorable Postseason concluding a year like no other and appreciate the continued partnership and enthusiasm of ESPN and TBS.”
