Three-game playoff
A three-game playoff is a series of up to three games played after the end of the regular season to determine which of two teams tied with the same record gets to advance to the postseason. While the American League has used a one-game playoff to decide end of the season ties in the standings, the National League used a three-game playoff format before the beginning of divisional play in 1969. Statistics from such playoff games are counted with regular season statistics.
One team plays at home for game 1, and the other for games 2 and 3. The playoff ends as soon as a team has won two games.
Three-game playoffs:
- 1946 St. Louis Cardinals v. Brooklyn Dodgers
- 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers v. New York Giants
- 1959 Milwaukee Braves v. Los Angeles Dodgers
- 1962 San Francisco Giants v. Los Angeles Dodgers
Further Reading[edit]
- Matt Kelly, Daniel Kramer and Chad Thornburg: "A complete breakdown of MLB tiebreaker games", mlb.com, September 30, 2018. [1]
- Evan Thompson: A Complete History of the Major League Baseball Playoffs - Volume I: Pre-divisional tiebreakers through 1976, BookBaby, Pennsauken Township, NJ, 2021, ISBN 9781098372804
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