Plenty of drama this year with current playoff format

By NOAH TRISTER
AP Baseball Writer

For all the talk about postseason expansion, the current format held up pretty well this year, if the idea is to create compelling, close races at the end of the season. The final day of the regular season began with four teams still in the mix for the American League’s two wild cards, all of them within a game of each other. And the top two teams in baseball were fighting it out for the NL West title.