NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball views expanded playoffs as the more the merrier. Not for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves, New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals.
The National League’s four winningest teams failed to reach the League Championship Series, six months of accomplishment undone in just a few days.
Philadelphia is vying to become the first third-place team to reach the World Series after clinching the 12th and final playoff spot on Oct. 3, three weeks after the Dodgers locked up the first.
Years of expansion have turned the Fall Classic into a month-plus tournament and the 162-game season into a postseason prologue.