The 2020 MLB season has come and gone, with 60 games completed in the blink of an eye, and now the expanded postseason is on the horizon in the most unique year the league has ever seen.
As was expected to be the case going into the year, the Los Angeles Dodgers had the best record in baseball at 43-17 and enter the playoffs as the top seed in the National League.
Unfortunately, given the nature of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the league’s decision to expand the postseason, having the best record doesn’t really give the Dodgers many advantages.
They do get to host the Wild Card Series, but it comes with no fans in attendance and they still have their season coming down to just three games before potentially moving on to the NL Division Series, where home-field advantage would go out the window with the team entering a bubble in Texas.
The Dodgers’ Wild Card opponent is the Milwaukee Brewers, who snuck into the postseason as the eighth seed despite only going 29-31.
Milwaukee is at least somewhat of a familiar opponent for the Dodgers, as their first-round meeting is a rematch of the 2018 NL Championship Series. The Dodgers won that in seven games to advance to the World Series.
The Brewers actually would have won that series if it was only three games after winning two of the first three, however. Manager Craig Counsell commented on facing the Dodgers and while he realizes it is a big challenge for his team, he thinks L.A. is beatable, via Adam McCalvy of MLB.com:
Counsell on facing the Dodgers: "We only have to beat them twice. We have to play them good, but it's very doable."
— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) September 27, 2020
Counsell is right that in a three-game series, anything can happen. His Brewers will have to bring their “A” game though as the Dodgers have only lost one series all season with the Colorado Rockies taking two out of three from them at the beginning of September.
In addition to having the best record in baseball, the Dodgers also had the best run differential by a wide margin at plus-126. The next best was the San Diego Padres at plus-84, while the Brewers finished fourth in their own division at minus-17.
Wild Card series begins Wednesday
Shortly after the regular season finished and postseason matchups were determined, MLB released the full Wild Card schedule.
The Dodgers and Brewers will begin their series Wednesday at 7 p.m. PT, with Game 2 to follow Thursday, if necessary a Game 3 would be played Friday.
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