MLB Division Series 2026 matchups and schedule: No. 6 White Sox sweep the Astros, Yankees, Braves and Padres advance

The Wild Card Series are done, and only one of the four went to the lower seed: the White Sox, sixth in the American League. They won both games at Houston, 6-3 and 7-3, on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 29 and 30 (US time), September 30 and October 1 in Korea, to take the series 2-0. Every Wild Card Series game is played at the higher seed, and Houston lost both of its home games. Houston won the AL West at 81-81, which earned it the third seed reserved for division winners, but the third seed gets no bye, and Houston's season ended in the first round. The White Sox were the lower seed but had the better record, 84-78, three more wins than Houston. The other three series went to the higher seed. The Yankees swept Boston and San Diego swept the Cubs, and Atlanta beat Philadelphia 2-1 in the only series that needed a third game.

Every result and date here comes from the ESPN postseason data behind this site's postseason page and team pages. Seeds are the ones that page assigns from the final regular-season standings, and all 12 match the seeds ESPN lists. The cut-off is Saturday night, October 3, Korea time: all nine Wild Card Series games are final and no Division Series game has been played. Dates are Korea dates, with the US date added where it helps. This piece covers results, matchups and the schedule only, with no forecasts and no probabilities.

Both American League series were over in two games. The White Sox outscored Houston 13-6 across their two road wins. The Yankees beat Boston 9-0 and 9-2 at home in a meeting of the second- and third-placed clubs in the AL East, and Boston scored two runs in the series. Two of the round's nine games were shutouts, Game 1 for the Yankees and Game 1 for San Diego.

In the National League, Atlanta and Philadelphia were the only pair to need three games. Atlanta won Game 1 5-3, and Philadelphia levelled the series by winning Game 2 4-3 in 10 innings, the only extra-inning game of the round. Atlanta won Game 3 6-2 on Thursday, October 1 (US time), Friday, October 2 in Korea, and outscored Philadelphia 14-9 over the three games. San Diego beat the Cubs 8-0 and 4-1 at home, and the Cubs scored one run in the series. Across the nine games the home side, always the higher seed, won six and the visitors three: the White Sox twice and Philadelphia once, in extra innings.

The Division Series matchups were fixed by seed in advance. As the postseason page lays out, the first seed meets the winner of the 4-5 series and the second seed the winner of the 3-6 series. Nothing is reseeded after the Wild Card round. That is why the White Sox, the lowest seed left in the American League, face second-seeded Cleveland rather than top-seeded Tampa Bay, while Tampa Bay gets the fourth-seeded Yankees, who had the league's second-best record. It also makes both AL Division Series meetings of division rivals. Tampa Bay (98-64) and the Yankees (93-68) finished first and second in the East, 4.5 games apart, and Cleveland (85-77) and the White Sox (84-78) first and second in the Central, a game apart. With Houston out, no AL West club is left. In the National League, top seed Milwaukee (103-59) plays fourth seed San Diego (91-71), and second seed the Dodgers (100-62) play third seed Atlanta (94-68). Of the two third seeds, the division winners who had no bye, Houston went out and Atlanta went through. The eight clubs left are seeds 1, 2, 4 and 6 in the American League and 1 through 4 in the National League.

The Division Series is a best of five. In the schedule data all four series share the same home pattern: Games 1, 2 and 5 at the higher seed and Games 3 and 4 at the lower seed (2-2-1), with Games 4 and 5 played only if needed. All four Game 1s are on Saturday, October 3 (US time), Sunday, October 4 in Korea. Game 2 is on Monday, October 5 in Korea for the two National League series and Tuesday, October 6 for the two American League series, and a series that goes the distance ends on Saturday, October 10 in the National League and Sunday, October 11 in the American League. Korea start times for every game are on the schedule page. In each league the two Division Series winners then meet in the best-of-seven League Championship Series: in the American League the Tampa Bay-Yankees winner against the Cleveland-White Sox winner, in the National League the Milwaukee-San Diego winner against the Dodgers-Atlanta winner.

One piece of arithmetic follows from that pattern. A series ends when one side reaches three wins, so it cannot end before Game 3, and Games 3 and 4 are at the lower seed. Any series decided in three or four games therefore ends at the lower seed's park, whoever wins it, and the only way to finish at the higher seed's park is a Game 5 after a 2-2 split. A higher seed that wins both home games still has to win Game 3 or Game 4 on the road or, losing both, Game 5 at home. A lower seed down 0-2 can only come back by winning Games 3 and 4 at home and Game 5 on the road.

Each club's page shows where it stands in the postseason. The clubs that went out are Houston, Boston, Philadelphia and the Cubs. The Wild Card winners are the White Sox, the Yankees, Atlanta and San Diego, and the clubs that skipped the Wild Card round are Tampa Bay, Cleveland, Milwaukee and the Dodgers. How the final standings and seeds were settled is in our previous piece, and the seeding and tiebreaker rules are in our explainer. This site's clinch and tragic numbers are a regular-season calculation and stay frozen at the final standings of September 28.