2025 MLB Wild Card Series Week: Schedule, format and betting odds

The playoff matchups are set for Major League Baseball Wild Cads series’ and there’s plenty of storylines, including another October meeting between the Red Sox and Yankees.

Here’s everything you need to know.

Make sure to check out Sports Interaction’s complete list of MLB game odds, MLB futures and MLB specials and props.

Wild Card week

The four wild-card series’ kick off on Tuesday night, highlighted by a matchup between fierce rivals, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. The Yankees are the higher seed, so they’ll host every game in the best-of-three series.

BOS-NYY series preview/prediction

Elsewhere in the American League, AL Central rivals Detroit and Cleveland will play at Progressive Field. The Tigers are looking for revenge after blowing a massive 15.5-game lead to the Guardians for the division.

DET-CLE series preview/prediction

Over in the National League, the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers will host the Cincinnati Reds, who barely slipped past the Mets for the final wild-card spot on the last day of the regular season.

CIN-LAD series preview/prediction

The final series heads to Wrigley Field, where the Chicago Cubs will host the San Diego Padres. Debuting in 1969, San Diego is the oldest team in the majors not to have a World Series championship.

SD-CHC series preview/prediction

The top two division winners earned a bye to the Division Series and round out the 12-team field. In the American League, it’s Toronto, who won the AL East and Seattle, who won the AL West. The National League sent through NL Central winner Milwaukee and NL East winner Philadelphia.

Playoff format

There are 12 teams that qualify for MLB’s postseason, six from the AL and six from the NL.

The three division winners from each league are seeded No. 1 through No. 3 based on their regular season record. The three wild-card teams get seeds No. 4 through No. 6, also by record.

Automatic byes to the Division Series are given to two teams each in the AL and NL with the best records. The other eight teams play in the Wild Card Series, which is a best-of-three format, played at the higher seed’s home field.

The winners advance to the best-of-five Division Series followed by the best-of-seven League Championship Series. The winners of the AL and NL face off in the best-of-seven World Series.

Playoff schedule and betting odds

Wild Card Round: Sept. 30-Oct. 2

Division Series: Oct. 4-11

Championship Series: Oct. 12-21

World Series: Oct. 24-Nov. 1

The Phillies enter as +450 World Series favourites, followed by the Dodgers (+500) and Mariners (+550).

Despite winning the AL East, the Blue Jays share the same World Series odds as the Yankees at +700 each.

The Red Sox have the longest World Series odds at +1800.