MLB Playoff Bracket 2024: Explaining the Wild Card Format, Divisional Series and More | News, results, highlights, statistics and rumors

Major League Baseball's postseason begins Tuesday with four wild-card round series.

The three-game Wild Card Series will advance two American League and National League teams to the Division Series.

The current playoff format has benefited wild card teams the past two years, with three of the four World Series participants starting in this round.

A handful of top teams would like to end the wild-card trend by reaching the Fall Classic, but the top two teams in each league will have to wait until Saturday to get back on the field.

No. 6 Detroit at No. 3 Houston

No. 5 Kansas City at No. 4 Baltimore

Detroit/Houston winner vs. No. 2 Cleveland

Kansas City/Baltimore winner over No. 1 New York Yankees

Atlanta/NY Mets/Arizona at No. 3 Milwaukee

Atlanta/NY Mets/Arizona at No. 4 San Diego

Winner of the Milwaukee series against No. 2 Philadelphia

Winner of the San Diego series against the No. 1 Los Angeles Dodgers

The bracket will be set on Monday during a doubleheader between the Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets.

A split would send both teams into the postseason. A win for either side would put the winning team in the playoffs along with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Milwaukee Brewers and San Diego Padres are the two playoff teams to be determined by Monday's games.

Milwaukee, San Diego, the Houston Astros and Baltimore Orioles will all host their entire best-of-three wild card series.

The wildcard round takes place on three consecutive days from Tuesday to Thursday. A year ago, all four wild card series ended in two games. Only one of the eight series in the current three-game wildcard format made it the distance.

The wild card winners advance to the division series and face the top two teams in each league.

The New York Yankees, Cleveland Guardians, Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies don't have history on their side.

Houston is the only top-2 seed to advance to the World Series in the current format in 2022.

In the last two seasons, only three of the top two seeds made it to the championship series. All of these events occurred in the American League.

In the National League, since the current format was introduced, the number 6 has played against the number 5 and the number 4 in the two NLCS.

The Division Series is a best-of-five format, with Games 1, 2 and 5 being played based on the higher seeded team. The losing player gets to host games 3 and 4.

The ALCS, NLCS and World Series are all best-of-seven series. The championship series is scheduled to begin on October 13th and 14th, while the World Series begins on October 25th.