MLB Wild Card round opens with four best-of-three series

Major League Baseball’s 2026 postseason begins Tuesday, September 29, with four best-of-three Wild Card series hosted by higher-seeded teams. The Philadelphia Phillies visit the Atlanta Braves in one of the National League matchups, with Game 1 scheduled for 2 p.m. Eastern time and a possible third game on October 1. The other opening-day games are the Chicago White Sox at the Houston Astros at 5 p.m., the Boston Red Sox at the New York Yankees at 8 p.m., and the Chicago Cubs at the San Diego Padres at 10 p.m. The series continue Wednesday, September 30, with Game 3s scheduled for Thursday if needed. A team must win two games to advance; the four Wild Card winners move on to best-of-five Division Series against the top seeds. The Phillies-Braves series is a rematch of a regular-season rivalry that favored Atlanta. Philadelphia went 4-9 against the Braves, according to the matchup preview, and Atlanta enters as the National League East champion. The Phillies, the sixth seed, need to win at least one game to extend their postseason run, and two wins would send them to a Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the preview said.