David Schoenfield

Whether your team is headed to October or packing its bags for the offseason, how did 2026 measure up to expectations?

We have three days left in the 2026 MLB regular season -- and still have several playoff races and seeds to decide, including two division races.

With 12 teams in the MLB playoffs, there are 36 possible World Series matchups. This year's matchups give us the possibility of small-market showdowns or deep-pocketed behemoths facing off -- and the 2026 playoff field also boasts three franchises that have won a World Series and a fourth with the longest title drought in the sport.

If the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series and then -- yes, we're getting ahead of things, but

The Brewers' 22-year-old star is having a record-setting October already. We put his young postseason career into context compared to baseball's greats.

The first two rounds of the MLB playoffs have been a mix of controversy (non-home runs from Ty France and Anthony Volpe ), clutch comebacks against elite closers ( Austin Riley 's three-run home run off Jhoan Duran, Jackson Chourio's walk-off hit against

The theme of the 2026 playoffs: unhittable fastballs, unhittable changeups, unhittable sliders and sweepers and cutters and knuckle-curveballs and split-fingered fastballs. Pitchers are dominating this October like we haven't seen in decades, with batters hitting just.227 and on pace for the lowest OPS since the 1983 postseason.

It's a battle of two franchises eyeing their first championship trophy. Here's your first look at a Tampa Bay-Milwaukee showdown.

This year's World Series will have a tough act to follow. Not only was the 2025 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays the first seven-game affair since 2019, but it featured an 18-inning game and then a Game 7 that might have been the greatest baseball game ever played.