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Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz (44) talks to Milwaukee Brewers designated hitter Christian Yelich (22) between pitches in the first inning at American Family Field. Benny Sieu-Imagn Images

MLB playoff matchups set after dramatic regular-season finish

By Steve Drumwright | Last updated Sep 28, 2025 7:56 PM ET

The final day of the 2025 MLB regular season provided enough drama that teams could use a few days to recover.

But the postseason begins Tuesday.

With the AL Central and AL East champions and the final NL wild-card team determined Sunday, the pairings for the wild-card series have been settled. All four best-of-three wild-card series will be played on consecutive days at the home of the higher-seeded team.

National League

The Cincinnati Reds snuck into the NL field despite losing 4-2 to the NL Central champion Milwaukee Brewers. That was because the New York Mets' collapse was punctuated by a 4-0 loss to the Miami Marlins. The Reds and Mets finished with 83-79 records, but Cincinnati earned the tiebreaker by virtue of a 4-2 advantage in the season series.

The Reds will be the No. 6 seed as the third and final wild card and face the third-seeded Los Angeles Dodgers, the defending World Series champions who won the NL West at 93-69, at Dodger Stadium.

The other NL series will pit the fifth-seeded San Diego Padres (90-72) vs. the fourth-seeded Chicago Cubs (92-70) at Wrigley Field.

The Reds-Dodgers winner will take on the second-seeded Philadelphia Phillies, who won the NL East at 96-66, while the Padres-Cubs winner faces the top-seeded Brewers, who won the Central at 97-65.

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American League

The Toronto Blue Jays and Cleveland Guardians won the AL East and AL Central titles, respectively, but in very different fashions.

The Jays and New York Yankees were tied for the East lead entering Game 162. But Toronto bashed the Tampa Bay Rays 13-4 as the Yankees edged the Baltimore Orioles 3-2. The Jays had the tiebreaker thanks to going 8-5 in the season series. Toronto also earned the No. 1 seed and a first-round bye, while the Yankees are the top wild card.

Meanwhile, the Guardians and Detroit Tigers were also tied for first place in the Central. Cleveland capped a remarkable comeback to win the Central by scoring four runs in the bottom of the 10th inning to beat the Texas Rangers 9-8 on Brayan Rocchio's walk-off homer. The Guardians trailed the Tigers by 15½ games on July 8, the largest deficit overcome by a division or league champion in the regular season. The Tigers will be a wild card after losing to the Boston Red Sox 4-3 to finish one game back.

That means the fourth-seeded Yankees (94-68) will host the rival Red Sox (89-73), the No. 5 seed as the second wild-card team, at Yankee Stadium in the wild-card series. The winner will face the Blue Jays.

The Guardians (88-74) are the No. 3 seed and will have a rematch with the sixth-seeded Tigers (87-75) after the teams met twice in the final two weeks of the regular season, with Cleveland winning five of six. Waiting for the Guardians or Tigers will be the second-seeded Seattle Mariners, who won the AL West at 90-72.

All four Division Series begin Saturday.

Steve Drumwright

Steve Drumwright is a lifelong sports fan who grew up in Wisconsin and now lives in Southern California. After quickly finding out that he didn't have the skills to make any of his high school teams, he took the path of chronicling others in their athletic journeys. Steve has covered everything from small-town youth sports to Olympians and the World Series, starting out as a part-time sportswriter to becoming a sports editor in a major city

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