The 2015 Major League Baseball regular season has come to a conclusion and our field of 10 playoff teams is set. We've already published the full schedule with dates, times and TV viewing information.
In the coming days, we'll have much more comprehensive previews of everything, but for now let's take a quick and dirty look ahead at the matchups.
AL wild-card game
This one takes place on Tuesday with the Astros visiting the Yankees. Masahiro Tanaka (12-7, 3.51) takes the ball for the home Yankees while Dallas Keuchel (20-8, 2.48) gets the road start. The Astros won the season series, four games to three, outscoring the Yankees in those games 36-17.
The Yankees are 45-36 at home while the Astros are 33-48 on the road.
Yankee Stadium was the fourth-best home run park in baseball this year. The Astros were second in the majors in home runs hit at 230 while Keuchel is second in the majors in groundball rate at 61.7 percent, though he did allow 17 home runs. The Yankees had 212 home runs themselves, too.
Keuchel will be on short rest, as he started Friday. Tanaka is going to be on one extra day of rest than normal, though his last outing came 12 days after his previous one.
NL wild-card game
The Cubs visit the Pirates in what should be a dandy of a pitchers' duel on Wednesday. Possible Cy Young winner Jake Arrieta (22-6, 1.77) gets the ball for the Cubs while Gerrit Cole (19-8, 2.60) is his very strong counterpart.
Cole was 2-1 with a 2.13 ERA against the Cubs in four starts this season while Arrieta was 3-1 with a 0.75 ERA in five starts against the Pirates. The Cubs have won 17 of Arrieta's 18 starts and the one they lost was when Cole Hamels threw a no-hitter in Wrigley.
The Cubs won the season series 11 games to eight. The Pirates are 53-28 at home while the Cubs are 48-33 on the road.
Arrieta will be on normal rest while Cole will be on extra rest, as he last started on Wednesday.
From Aug. 1 to the end of the season, the Rangers went 38-22. The only AL team with a better record? Yes, the Blue Jays (40-18). The Blue Jays won the season series, four games to two, outscoring the Rangers 34-21.
Will Toronto's home-field advantage matter? They are 53-28 at home with a 40-41 mark on the road, but the Rangers are actually better away (45-36) than in Arlington (43-38).
David Price (18-5, 2.45), Marcus Stroman (4-0, 1.67), Marco Estrada (13-8, 3.13) and R.A. Dickey (11-11, 3.91) is the likely rotation for the Blue Jays.
For the Rangers, we'll probably see Cole Hamels (13-8, 3.65), Derek Holland (4-3, 4.91), Colby Lewis (17-9, 4.66) and Yovani Gallardo (13-11, 3.42) in some order, though Martin Perez (3-6, 4.46) is also an option.
ALDS: Astros/Yankees vs. Royals
The Royals went 2-4 against the Astros this year, but the teams haven't played since July 26. Keep in mind that the Astros are terrible on the road and can only use Keuchel once.
The Royals also went 2-4 against the Yankees, though the two clubs haven't squared off since May, so this information hardly seems relevant. The Yankees are 42-39 on the road, so they might play a bit tougher in K.C. than Houston.
One thing of note: The Royals were 11-17 in September. By winning their final four games (in October), did they solve all their late-season issues or are they doomed to be bounced early? We'll soon find out.
The Royals' playoff rotation will be Johnny Cueto (10-13, 3.48), Yordano Ventura (13-8, 4.08), Edinson Volquez (13-9, 3.58) and either Kris Medlen (6-2, 4.01) or Chris Young (11-6, 3.06).
The Astros would go with Keuchel in Game 3 and it's hard to see how they'd slot the other four games. Collin McHugh (19-7, 3.89), Lance McCullers (6-7, 3.22), Mike Fiers (2-1, 3.32 with Houston) and Scott Kazmir (7-11, 3.10) are all candidates.
The Yankees would probably go with Luis Severino (5-3, 2.89), CC Sabathia (6-10, 4.73), Tanaka and Michael Pineda (12-10, 4.37).
The Mets won the season series, four games to three, outscoring the Dodgers 33-19. The last time they played was July 26, though, so it might not matter a ton. The Dodgers have home-field advantage here and that would appear to matter to them:
Dodgers at home: 55-26
Dodgers on road: 37-44
The Mets, though, have a winning record (41-40) on the road, so this isn't a death blow to New York.
What might be? They'll get Zack Greinke (19-3, 1.66) or Clayton Kershaw (16-7, 2.33) three times in a best-of-5 series. Brett Anderson (10-9, 3.69) and Alex Wood (5-6, 4.35) will likely be the other two starters for L.A., unless manager Don Mattingly brings back the Game 1 starter on short rest in Game 4, as he has done each of the past two seasons.
The Mets can also run out a strong rotation, though workload concerns have complicated things here. Their playoff rotation appears to be Jacob deGrom (14-8, 2.60), Noah Syndergaard (9-7, 3.24), Matt Harvey (13-8, 2.71) and Steven Matz (4-0, 2.27). If Matz's back issue isn't resolved, Bartolo Colon (14-13, 4.18) would be the replacement.
NLDS: Cubs/Pirates vs. Cardinals
St. Louis was 15-16 from the start of September through the end of the season this year, but they won 100 games in all and have the playoff experience needed to flip the proverbial switch for another deep run.
The Cardinals won the season series over the Cubs, 11 games to eight, though the Cubs won four of the six games the two played in September. A plus for St. Louis? The Cubs would only be able to use Arrieta once.
The Cardinals won the season series against the Pirates 10-9. The Pirates actually outscored them 79-76. Again, it's a plus that the ace of the Pirates could go only once, as Cole would be slated to start Game 3. The two clubs squared off six times in September, splitting them three games each.
The Cardinals' playoff rotation will be some order of John Lackey (13-10, 2.76), Jaime Garcia (10-6, 2.43), Lance Lynn (12-11, 3.03) and Michael Wacha (17-7, 3.38).
The Pirates would probably go with Francisco Liriano (12-7, 3.38), J.A. Happ (6-2, 2.04 since coming to Pittsburgh), Cole and A.J. Burnett (9-7, 3.18) while the Cubs would definitely go Jon Lester (11-12, 3.34) in Games 1 and 5 with Arrieta and Game 3. Jason Hammel (10-7, 3.74) and Kyle Hendricks (8-7, 3.95) would be the Games 2 and 4 in some order, though don't put it past Joe Maddon to go with a bullpen game. He has had great success this month in doing so with Travis Wood, Trevor Cahill and Clayton Richard.
Again, we'll have much more as the games get closer. For now, let this serve as an early primer. Soak it in, MLB die-hards. It's playoff time.
