If the Yankees are going to win the World Series, they’re going to have to go through a gauntlet of a 2020 MLB Playoffs schedule.
Are you ready for some baseball, Yankees fans?!
No, seriously. Are you ready for tons upon tons of baseball, cascading down over you like sludge to the point where you’re left disoriented and desperate for the comfort of, I don’t know, Mariners-Rockies in mid-May?
Because the 2020 MLB playoffs schedule just dropped, and it features rule changes intended to speed up the postseason slate, “road warrior” status for the AL’s lower bubble seeds, and genuine daily chaos for the Wild Card round.
MLB and the MLBPA officially approved their bubble system on Tuesday and released the postseason bracket to the world, which culminates in a World Series at the brand new Globe Life Field in Arlington.
Yes, if the Yankees can vault the Blue Jays and match up with the Twins in the first round yet again, then it really might take place at Dodger Stadium. 2020!
How do the Yanks factor into this baseball menagerie? Well, it might send them on the road for quite a while, if they’re able to squeak into October. Since the bubble has been approved, it’ll require teams like the Yanks to quarantine for an additional week, sending their final “home” series against the Miami Marlins into flux, forcing the team to live out of a hotel in New York. That means that, in addition to playing a month of October baseball on the road, they’ll also play the final 1.5 weeks of the regular season out of a suitcase — the final, “normal” Yankees home game will likely be Thursday.
And, oh yeah! As rumored earlier on Tuesday morning, say goodbye to off days!
It’s official, after MLB’s latest update. There will be no days off in best-of-five Division Series play this year, and that persists through Championship Series ball.
That means bullpens will become strained, full five-man rotations will (likely) be used, and Aaron Boone will have to question his own ‘pen caretaking further. Are we willing to go three straight days for any given reliever, under this new form of duress?
Can Gerrit Cole argue his way into a three days’ rest start, even if it’s Game 5 instead of Game 4?
While you’re busy pondering that, just … look at the first two days of MLB postseason action. Look upon it and rejoice.
If you have a television, buy another. If you’re a cord-cutter, cut more cords.
There’s an overwhelming amount of baseball to be watched in best-of-three fashion before this month ends, and it’ll be nerve-wracking, glorious, devastating, pulse-quickening, and perfectly unexpected, based on this year’s first half.
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