Major League Baseball Wild Card Game

The Major League Baseball Wild Card Game is a play-in game that was added to the Major League Baseball (MLB) postseason in 2012. The playing of the Wild Card Game marks the beginning of the playoffs for both the American League and National League.^[1] The addition of a play-in game essentially maintained the three-tiered format used from 1995 through 2011, while adding a second wild-card team. Two wild card teams in each league play each other in a single-game playoff after the end of the regular season. The winner of each league's Wild Card Game advances to face the top-seeded team in that league's Division Series.

The home team for the Wild Card Game is the team with the better regular season winning percentage; if the two teams have identical winning percentages, MLB tie-breaking procedures are used to determine the home team, with no additional games being played. This is in contrast to teams tied for a division title, which, since the introduction of the Wild Card Game in 2012, do play a one-game tiebreaker for the division title, even if both teams are already qualified for the postseason. This differs from previous tie-breaking; for example, at the conclusion of the 2005 regular season, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox tied for first place in their division but didn't play an additional game since both teams were already qualified for the postseason.

If two teams tie for the second wild card berth, a tie-breaker game is played to determine which team advances to the Wild Card Game. This has happened four times, most recently in 2013 in the American League. If more than two teams were to tie, multiple tie-breaker games would be played.

In the Division Series, the winner of the Wild Card Game faces whichever division champion has the best record. Before 2012, a wild-card team could not face the winner of its own division in a Division Series. It's now possible for the two teams with the best record in a league to face each other before the League Championship Series if the Wild Card Game winner has the second-best record in the league and the top seed is from the same division. From 1995 to 1997 the matchups for the Division Series were determined by an annual rotation between divisions.

For the 2020 postseason, following a shortened 60-game regular season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, MLB held Wild Card Series with eight teams in each league. Division champions were seeded 1-3 by record, the second-place teams seeded 4-6 by record, and the two teams with the next-best records were seeded seventh and eighth.^[2] Matchups were contested as best-of-three series rather than individual games. MLB returned to the usual format of one Wild Card Game per league for the 2021 postseason.

As of the beginning of the 2021 postseason, 26 of the 30 MLB franchises have reached the Wild Card round of the postseason (either a Wild Card Game or the 2020 Wild Card Series). The New York Yankees have the most appearances with five. The Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays have the most wins during the Wild Card round with three each. The Oakland Athletics have the most losses during the Wild Card round, having lost three of their four appearances.

Purpose[]

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A second wild-card team was added in each league for several reasons:^[3]

• It adds importance to division races. Before 1994, only division-winning teams advanced to the playoffs, creating excitement when teams within a division competed for the best record in that division. From 1994 to 2011, the urgency of a division race was somewhat reduced as one second place team from each league made the playoffs as a wild card. In addition, the winner of the wild-card game can be at a disadvantage in the next series since it must make strategic decisions that weaken its chances in order to avoid immediate elimination, e.g., playing its best available pitchers without regard for future playoff games.
• It penalizes wild-card teams. In the four-team postseason format from 1994 to 2011, the wild-card team had to win the same number of postseason games, seven, as a division winner in order to reach the World Series. Now, a wild-card team must win an additional, single-elimination game.
• It increases postseason interest and revenue. With an additional playoff spot at stake, more teams are competing at the end of the regular season for a place in the playoffs. A sudden-death match at the start of the playoffs adds tension, similarly to tie-breaker games held to resolve regular season ties—examples of this were seen in tie-breaking games in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2018 NL Central, and 2018 NL West.

Implementation[]

With the adoption of MLB's new collective bargaining agreement in November 2011, baseball commissioner Bud Selig announced that a new playoff system would begin within the next two years; the change was ultimately put into place in 2012.^[4]

The 2014 San Francisco Giants won the National League Wild Card Game and went on to win that season's World Series.

Through the 2021 postseason, Wild Card Game winners have gone on to compile an overall 9-9 record in League Division Series, with Wild Card Game winners going 4-5 in the ALDS and 5-4 in the NLDS. Two Wild Card Game winners have gone on to win the World Series (the 2014 Giants and the 2019 Nationals). The 2014 postseason featured the first series sweeps involving a Wild Card Game winner; both in favor of the AL Wild Card Kansas City Royals, who swept the Los Angeles Angels in the ALDS and the Baltimore Orioles in the ALCS. The Royals then met the San Francisco Giants in the 2014 World Series, the second all-Wild Card fall classic, which the Giants won in seven games. The first all-Wild Card World Series had also involved the Giants, who lost the 2002 World Series to the then-Anaheim Angels in seven games.

In the sixteen games played since the new Wild Card system began in 2012, five have been shutouts. In eight of the eleven others, the losing team scored three or fewer runs. Only the 2014 AL Wild Card game between the Kansas City Royals and Oakland Athletics and the 2017 NL Wild Card game between the Colorado Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks featured high scoring by both teams,^{[clarification needed]} with the Royals eventually winning 9-8 in 12 innings and the Diamondbacks winning 11-8 with the most runs scored in a Wild Card game. The margin of victory has been four runs or more in eight of the sixteen games played, and one run only three times—in the 2014 Royals-Athletics game, the 2018 Rockies-Cubs game, and the 2019 Nationals-Brewers game.

Results[]

Through the 2021 postseason, visiting teams and home teams have each won nine of the 18 games played. There have been five shutouts, each of which has been won by the visiting team, including three consecutive shutouts in the 2014–2016 NL editions. Two of the three extra innings games have been won by the home team. Three games have ended in walk-off victory for the home team, with the 2021 NL edition being the only one in regulation.

American League[]

National League[]

2020 Wild Card Series[]

After the shortened 60-game regular season of 2020, the first round of the MLB postseason consisted of four Wild Card Series in each league, each series being a best-of-three hosted by the higher seed. Eight teams from each league participated: three division winners, three division runners-up, and two wild card teams (the two remaining teams with the best records, based on winning percentage). Thus, while each league's Wild Card Series featured a total of eight teams, there were still only two wild card qualifiers per league.

American League[]

National League[]

Appearances by team[]

In the sortable tables below, teams are ordered first by number of wins, then by number of appearances, and finally by year of first appearance. These records reflect series outcomes of the 2020 Wild Card Series, not individual games. In the "Season(s)" column, bold years indicate winning appearances.

American League[]

National League[]

Game results by team[]

Updated through the 2021 postseason. These records reflect individual game results of the 2020 Wild Card Series.

Joe Maddon has managed both the Tampa Bay Rays and Chicago Cubs to Wild Card Game victories.

The following current MLB teams have not yet appeared in a Wild Card playoff:

American League: Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Angels, Seattle Mariners

National League: Philadelphia Phillies

Records[]

Single team

• Most runs scored: 12, New York Yankees vs. Cleveland Indians, Game 1 of the 2020 ALWC^[5]
• Most hits: 17, Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Colorado Rockies, 2017 NLWC^[6]

Both teams

• Most runs scored: 20, St. Louis Cardinals (9) vs. San Diego Padres (11), Game 1 of the 2020 NLWC^[5]
• Most hits: 30, Colorado Rockies (13) vs. Arizona Diamondbacks (17), 2017 NLWC^[6]

Other

• Largest run differential: 9, New York Yankees (12) vs. Cleveland Indians (3), Game 1 of the 2020 ALWC^[7]
• Longest game, by time: 295 minutes (4:55), Colorado Rockies vs. Chicago Cubs, 2018 NLWC^[8]
• Longest game, by innings: 13, shared by:
  • Colorado Rockies vs. Chicago Cubs, 2018 NLWC^[9]
  • Cincinnati Reds vs. Atlanta Braves, Game 1 of the 2020 NLWC^[10]

Notes[]

See also[]

• List of Major League Baseball Wild Card Game broadcasters

References[]