The Division Series are set. In the American League, it’s Tampa Bay facing New York and Cleveland facing Chicago. In the National League, it’s Los Angeles facing Atlanta and San Diego facing Milwaukee.

All series are best-of-five, all starting tomorrow. These are the best eight teams in baseball, so the baseball will be really good. 

The Yankees and Rays, by virtue of being in the same division, played thirteen times in 2026. New York won seven. 

The White Sox and Guardians are also both in the same division. Chicago won seven of their thirteen games.

The Braves and Dodgers played six games in 2026; Atlanta won five. Of the six games the Padres and Brewers played this year, San Diego won four.

The much anticipated, never-been-wrong Rangers Rounding 3rd outlook for the American League Divisional Playoffs is:

The Rays won the division by five games over the Yankees, who have played most of the season without Aaron Judge, and will be without him for this round of playoffs. But the Yankees still have lots of offensive firepower in Ben Rice, Cody Bellinger, and Luis Garcia. The Rays had two of the American League’s top three hitters for average in Chandler Simpson and Yandy Diaz, and they have Junior Caminero, who might just give Yordan Alverez a run of his money in the MVP race. But the Yankees have better starting pitching. The edge in this one goes to the Yankees.

In the other matchup, the Guardians and White Sox went neck-to-neck at the end, with Cleveland barely edging out Chicago for the division win. Cleveland has better pitching, Chicago has scrappy offense. The Guardians offensive stud is Jose Ramirez, perennially All-Star who had a down season this year mostly because of injury. But guys like Ramirez always shine when it matters. Rookie Chase DeLauter is dangerous as well. It’s a well-rounded offensive with not a lot of stars but a lot of grit. The White Sox offense jumped all over Houston and can do the same with Cleveland. Lead by Miguel Vargas and Munetaka Murakami, Chicago is pretty solid one-through-nine. They play baseball—they hit and run, move runners over, bunt, hit with two strikes—the opposite of Texas Rangers baseball. The edge in this one goes to Chicago.

So, the iron-clad, take it to the bank American League prediction is New York and Chicago, although Tampa Bay Chicago would be preferred.

National League tomorrow.