2026 Division Series: NYY-TB; CWS-CLE; ATL-LAD; SD-MIL

Now we go. Eight teams remain and we welcome back the bye teams: Rays, Brewers, Guardians, Dodgers. Best of five, so everyone gets a chance to have home games. If you don’t like the better seed in the wild card round getting the home game advantage, win more games. (Red Sox fans who’ve been complaining about this, I’m addressing you. 🫵🏻)

Every single year someone complains that the bye, which allows teams to let their pulled pork arms cool off and banged up players to rest, actually puts teams at a disadvantage. Let’s see how that actually plays out!

Who are your picks to go through? And, if you’re feeling inspired, who’s going to make a name for themselves this year?

nyy/tbr - i have managed to not see any tampa bay games this season so idk how they're succeeding but i'm certainly rooting for them over the yankees

cws/cle - seems pretty even but i am rooting for the white sox and think they will take it

atl/lad - the dodgers are not winning another world series this year but i do not think atl is the team that's going to take them down

sd/mil - this feels like the most exciting series, the team that got hot at the end of the season vs the regular-season stalwarts who tend to struggle in the postseason. i'm rooting milwaukee but i def think sd could take it

it's going to be round 100 degrees on the field in LA tomorrow

*around

The Phillies are gone--who I was rooting for out of vanity, not allegiance--so I guess I'm with the Brewers now; in the AL, the White Sox.

Rays/White Sox/Brewers/Dodgers

Worth noting that ATL went 5-1 against LAD this year.

Rooting Rays, Sox, Braves. No real rooting interest in the SD-MIL series but agree w/ NA that it should be a hot one.

Oops--thought it was Dodgers/Padres. So Brewers and Braves.

Although let me be the nine millionth person to say they really need to get rid of that chant...Have players ever spoken out against it?

Padres are fucking corny

would obv be rooting for the Rays and ChiSox, and I think they both have a good shot.

idk if the Braves can get past the Dodgers but they can hang w/them so it might work out if a couple things break in their direction. i just think the LA rotation is too tough, Sale is as good or better than any of them but he's only one guy.

Pads are hot but Mis is possibly the best pitcher in MLB and Henderson certainly pitched like a top ten SP down the stretch, so i'm leaning Milwaukee.

i'm not too broken up about the Cubs not making it to this round, they're a good team but not a great team yet, it's possible next season they'll make an ascendant move, similar to 2015 into 2016.

that series is going 5 games xp

LA vs ATL that is

Tampa Bay
White Sox
Atlanta
San Diego

I would not mind the Brewers winning but San Diego is so hot right now that I think they can carry that all the way to the end.

Undeviled Rays
Blessed Sox
Doyers
BrewCrew

My preferences in order

AL
Rays
White Sox

NL
Braves
Brewers
Padres

The White Sox are easily the most fun team remaining

Murakami talking about his translator being drunk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB6DtpGtAg8

Pope letter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgNalqyEy7k

Pope being asked about the team getting to the playoffs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CifdbtYszuo

The Pope interrupting the reporter to correct his baseball knowledge is unbelievable. I can’t believe this.

is edlose diaz on the dodgers roster? just checked and he quietly had a good couple of appearances to close out the season

Although let me be the nine millionth person to say they really need to get rid of that chant...Have players ever spoken out against it?

― clemenza, Friday, October 2, 2026 10:51 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

They literally do a HR celebration w two tomahawks

i'm rooting for sox in the AL and brewcrew in the NL. i do think it'd be funny tho if the yankees won it all without judge

is edlose diaz on the dodgers roster? just checked and he quietly had a good couple of appearances to close out the season

Yeah but I don't know if he'll be out there in high leverage situations yet

LA Going with Skubal over Yama for game one, I guess you could go either way there.

(xpost) Again, I'm surprised. Maybe Atlanta players don't want to alienate the fanbase by speaking out, maybe I'm making a big deal out of nothing. To me, the chant isn't all that much less offensive than the Cleveland logo (and just plain annoying to boot).

(xpost) Again, I'm surprised. Maybe Atlanta players don't want to alienate the fanbase by speaking out, maybe I'm making a big deal out of nothing. To me, the chant isn't all that much less offensive than the Cleveland logo (and just plain annoying to boot).

Ryan Helsley, who is Cherokee, has spoken out against it. There are only a handful of Native American players in the league. It might take one of them being a Brave to make that change. (And I do not wish it for them to be traded there, to be clear. Just commenting on how it seems this only comes to the forefront when a player talks about it.)

https://www.espn.co.uk/mlb/story/_/id/27769140/st-louis-cardinals-ryan-helsley-calls-atlanta-braves-use-tomahawk-chop-disrespectful

It seems that the org were making some gestures towards changing it, but now have dropped that entirely?

Game 1: Chi White Sox @ Cleveland
1:00 PM ET
TBS / truTV
Alex Faust, Ron Darling

Game 1: Atlanta @ LA Dodgers
4:00 PM ET
FOX
Joe Davis, John Smoltz

Game 1: NY Yankees @ Tampa Bay
6:30 PM ET
TBS / truTV
Brian Anderson, Jeff Francoeur

Game 1: San Diego @ Milwaukee
8:30 PM ET
FS1
Adam Amin, Adam Wainwright, AJ Pierzynski

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeAy4wrR3mI/

Bulletin board material

PUT THE FUCKING CAMERA BEHIND THE MOUND

Munetaka Murakami drives in his bff Miguel Vargas with a nuke

can't believe tommy pham is in the playoffs and the mets are not

Ron Darling commenting too

Kyle Teel is really good at ABS. White Sox take the first game 3-0.

Ump getting cooked

I can’t get over Kyle Tucker’s home/road splits do they not have a sports psychologist on staff?!

Some commentator on Skubal: mumble mumble mumble he’s got that CHANGEUP and mumble they want to keep guys healthier so mumble mumble that CHANGEUP is gonna help with that

1) doesn’t a changeup work best when paired with a fastball?
2) Skubal has had surgery on his left arm three times (TJS in college, flexor tendon in 2022, loose bodies removal this year)

god i'm so tired of watching this dodgers team

Lmao Ohtani down year is .889 OPS

its so irritating that the Dodgers got Skubal

skubal's hat is absolutely soaked

that home run was worth $60m aav

Every single run scored via the humble dinger, as God intended

Not an unexpected result today

Smith-Shwaver 1) should never have made the postseason roster 2) if he was going to be deployed it should’ve been for a blowout.

rasmussen with 23 swinging strikes through seven

that'a a lot

Here we go. This series should be so much fun!

105, 105, 103 (ball), o1 out

*91

Padres got 25 pitches out of Moz.

jesus rasmussen's line is amazing.

Miz off to a bumpy start

Padres are so fucking hot

were antonacci/vargas the two humping “tip to tip” in the dugout?

Patrick Bailey? Sure ok

xp I don’t know what this means but I assume yes, I’ve seen videos of Antonacci on all fours barking at Vargas coming back to the dugout after hrs

https:// x.com/JomboyMedia/status/2105401239118721089

^ touchin tips

I’ll accept Jram, nice to know he’s not washed

xp they might need to get a bit messy cos it’s not working against GUARDSBALL

i was just thinking that two solo HRs is definitely not what slap hitters do

oh wait jram's homer was two runs? dang

Is this the first time they’ve used Bibee this postseason?

Tim Herrin is a monster. Nobody got a hit off him his previous outings!

HBPing in a run gotta be the most embarrassing way to give one up

herrin looked absolutely gutted after that

I feel for him, not easy to be the dependable guy and not have it working

Guardians pitching up to 7 walks in 4.2 innings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsaTElBljOE

bazzball has arrived

u normally have to wait 2 months for 1 Patrick Bailey rbis and then 2 come along at once

Wasn’t Grant Taylor their closer 🫪🫪🫪

KYLE TEEL DID SOMETHING!

is there hope?

Will start watching with the league championships...surprised the White Sox let Cleveland back in. Maybe the Guardians are the surprise underachieving (yes) veteran (not sure) team I thought the Phillies would be this year.

(Definitely not veteran--in the bottom half of average age for both hitters and pitchers across MLB.)

NLCS game 2 is at 2:00 on a Monday. nobody I know get Columbus Day off wtf?

honouring Canadian thanksgiving obvs.

i saw rush at the montreal forum 35 years ago on canadian thanksgiving

'roll the bones' (the song) is somewhat embarrassing but it was a great show

The inaugural Banana Bowl—the championship game of the Banana Ball Championship League—takes place tonight, October 10, 2026, at 7:00 PM ET at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.

Game 5

These pitchers are dealing, already three innings down.

José Ramírez!

How did he hit that ball our, smh.

Was just going to say the same thing. I really don't want Cleveland again, but everyone loves J-Ram.

Should not have tried for three there

I like the move, let him pitch

Well they gave him one more batter

Gets out of it

now that they're out of that jam – great performance from Williams; especially after pitching in the previous game.

Good game

Never too late for a miracle

Might be too early though, it's 4:24am in Vatican City. Is Pope Leo up watching???

should gone for three there

Here comes that man again

Cowards

But thay had to walk him

Worked out

cmonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn soxxxxxxxxx

Congrats to any Guardian fans here

I don't mean to take anything away from the Cleveland pitchers, but 21 strikeouts (53 in three games) is ridiculous. This isn't Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling out there on the mound.

21 strikeouts!

Jram got hot at the right time huh? Sorry I just woke up. Clemenza you are right. I think the White Sox inexperience and youth really got to them. See you in the CS thread (which I will now go make).

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2026/10/red-sox-yankees-most-watched-wild-card-series-nbc/

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2026/10/dodgers-braves-game-1-viewership-high-division-series-roundup/