With fall just beginning, baseball fans across the country all have the same question: Will there be a World Series this year? The answer, as of right now, is yes. Major League Baseball announced in mid-September their plans for the 2020 MLB Postseason. This year, however, presents a major difference in the format from previous years. The MLB’s regular season was reduced to only 60 games this year, causing most teams to either have close to a .500 record or a losing record. This gave the MLB the idea to let 16 teams, rather than 8 teams, make the playoffs this year, having 8 from the American League and 8 from the National League. The MLB’s usual postseason bracket consists of one Wild Card play in game for each league, followed by a Division Series and Championship Series for both leagues. The winner from each league would then move on to go head to head in the World Series. This year, however, the 8 teams from each league all play in what is called the Wild Card Series. The Wild Card Series decides the teams that move on to the Divisional Series, giving more teams a chance to win the World Series after quite a hectic regular season. This best of 3 series started this past Tuesday and has already sent multiple teams to the Divisional Round. 

Along with the extra round and 8 teams in the postseason this year, the MLB was still faced with the problem of traveling during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the Wild Card round, the higher seed has home field advantage, despite there being no fans. After the Wild Card round, they decided to set up a playoff bubble in certain hub cities for the rest of the playoffs. The National League Division Series is scheduled to play in both Arlington, Texas and Houston, Texas, while the American League Division Series is scheduled to play in San Diego, California and Los Angeles, California. The National League Championship Series will be played in Arlington, Texas and the the American League Championship Series will be played in San Diego, California. With the health and safety of the players and coaches, the MLB required each coach and player to quarantine for a week before the postseason began. 

With the start of the postseason, baseball fans’ prayers have been answered. Earlier this season, the chances for the regular season to continue looked slim. The Miami Marlins experienced a COVID-19 outbreak in their clubhouse with 18 out of the 30 players testing positive. The MLB cancelled all of Miami’s games for the next week and postponed some of the Phillies’ games, the opponent of the Marlins when 18 players tested positive. After this scare, fans were glad that everything was back to normal with no cases in the MLB. However, this did not last long. The St. Louis Cardinals were left in disarray after a staff member infected 9 players and 7 other staff members. The Cardinals were forced to postpone all of their games for 2 weeks. This left the team with an almost impossible goal of making it to the playoffs, having to play 11 doubleheaders in 44 days. After being presented with the problem, Cardinals president John Mozeliak said, “I haven’t slept in days.” With the seasons of both the Cardinals and the Marlins on the line, both teams fought until the very end of the season, still trying to reach the playoffs after their year full of challenges. Ultimately, both teams clinched their spot in the final days of the season. Though the chances looked slim at the beginning of the season for the MLB to have their playoffs, their planning has allowed for them to continue the Fall Classic.