MLB drops plan to start World Series early if both League Championship Series end by Game 5

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NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball dropped its plan to start the World Series early if both League Championship Series are short, announcing Tuesday that this year's Fall Classic will start on Oct. 24.

MLB last year said Game 1 would move up from Oct. 25 to Oct. 22 if the LCS ended by Oct. 19, when both leagues were scheduled to be through Game 5. But the New York Mets won Game 5 of the NL Championship Series before losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 6.

Since the LCS expanded to best-of-seven in 1985, both leagues ended in four or five games in 1989, 2001, 2002, 2014 and 2022. Last year was the first in which MLB announced a flexible schedule.

Game 7 of this year's World Series would be on Nov. 1. The World Series ended in November in 2001, ‘09, ’10, ‘15, ’16, ‘17, ’21 and ‘22 and ’23, going as late as Nov. 5 in 2022.

The World Series is scheduled to start on a Friday for the fifth straight year. Before 2022, the Series had not started on a Friday since 1915.

NL Division Series will have an extra scheduled off day between Games 1 and 2, a format that allows a team to have the same pitchers start Games 1 and 4, and Games 2 and 5 on normal four days’ rest. Last year, AL Division Series had the extra off day.

All four best-of-three Wild Card Series are scheduled for consecutive days from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 at the side of the higher seed.

Twelve teams make the playoffs under the format that began in 2022. The top two teams in each league get first-round byes, while the No. 3 seed faces No. 6 and No. 4 plays No. 5. The higher seed will be home in each best-of-three series.

In the best-of-five Division Series, the top seed plays the 3-vs.-6 winner and the No. 2 seed plays the 4-vs.-5 winner. The Division Series will have the familiar format of the higher seed home for Games 1 and 2, and, if necessary, Game 5.

AL Division Series also will start Oct. 4-5 followed by travel day and switch to the other sites for games on Oct. 7-8. Game 5s would be Oct. 10.

NL Division Series start on Oct. 4, have an off day followed by a game on Oct. 5, then switch to the other cities on Oct. 8-9. After another travel day, Game 5s would be played Oct. 11.

The AL Championship Series starts Oct. 12 and the NL Championship Series the following day, with off days after Game 2s and Game 5s.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb