A bandwagon fan’s guide to baseball

The Toronto Blue Jays have advanced to the American League Championship Series for the first time in nearly a decade, and the bandwagon is officially rolling. 

The Toronto Blue Jays have advanced to the American League Championship Series for the first time in nearly a decade, and the bandwagon is officially rolling.

But those new to the sport might need a primer on how exactly it works, from the sequence of the playoffs to the rules of the game.

Below, we parse through the basics.

WHAT’S THE STRUCTURE OF THE POST-SEASON?

Major League Baseball’s post-season has four rounds. MLB actually used to be two organizations, the National League and the American League, but they have been jointly holding the World Series since 1903 and were formally merged in 1999. Both leagues follow the same playoff format. The Blue Jays are in the American League.

The post-season starts with wild-card rounds, which are a best-of-three series of games played between the four lowest-ranked teams that qualified for each league’s playoffs.

The Blue Jays won the American League East division title during the regular season, so they got to skip the wild-card round.

After the wild cards, the teams play in the Division Series, where the first team to win three games advances to the Championship Series, which is best-of-seven.