With the season in its final month of regulation, Major League Baseball announced its 2013 postseason schedule on Tuesday. If all goes according to plan, the World Series will be wrapped up on or before Halloween, and not into November like last year.
The final regular season game will be played on September 29, and any necessary tiebreaker games would be played the next day. Those games, if necessary, would be exclusively aired on TBS. That would pave the way for the National League Wild Card game on Tuesday, October 1. The top two teams in the Wild Card standings, currently St. Louis and Cincinnati, would then have a one-game battle to punch their ticket for the playoffs.
Then on Wednesday, October 2, the American League would crown their Wild Card winner. As of Tuesday morning, both Oakland and Texas shared the lead in the AL West. So if the season ended today, they would have a tiebreaker game on September 30. The winner would win the division, while the loser would currently play Tampa Bay in the Wild Card game on October 2. Both Wild Card games will also be broadcast exclusively on TBS.
Each NL Division Series will begin on Thursday, October 3. The first full slate of AL Division games, as well as both NLDS Game 2 matches, will take place on October 4. The Division Series will run from Oct 3-10, with two potential Game 5 matches on both October 9 and 10. TBS will air 18 of the possible 20 Division Series games, while MLB Network will broadcast one game on October 4 and October 7. Make sure to check your local listings for those games.
The National League Championship Series is set to begin on Friday, October 11, with Game 1 of the ALCS set for October 12. From there, each LCS game will alternate days for fairness to each league. NLCS Game 1 will be on TBS, while ALCS Game 1 will be on FOX. A potential Game 7 of the NLCS is scheduled for October 19, and a potential ALCS Game 7 is set for October 20.
That will bring us to the MLB World Series, which will begin at the home of the American League champions. The AL won that right with their victory in July's All-Star game. They will get Games 1 and 2 on their turf, as Games 3 and 4 will relocate to the National League side. A game 7, if necessary, would be played on Thursday, October 31. That came would take place on AL soil. The scheduled off-days during the World Series are October 25 and 29.
FOX Sports will provide coverage throughout the World Series for their 16th season. ESPN Radio will provide live national coverage of all postseason games, including the Wild Card games.
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