MLB playoffs: What Sunday means for the Red Sox, Yankees, Mariners, Blue Jays, Giants, Dodgers

The 2021 MLB regular season comes to a close on Sunday and we’ll know everything we need to know at roughly the same time. First pitch for all 15 games is scheduled between 3:05 p.m. and 3:20 p.m. ET. Eight of the ten playoff berths are secured, and six of the ten specific seeding spots is settled.

In the National League, the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers have come down to the wire for the NL West title and the No. 1 seed. If the Giants win or the Dodgers lose on Sunday, San Francisco claims the division and the No. 1 seed while LA will be the No. 1 wild card team. If the Giants lose and the Dodgers win, the two teams will play a one-game playoff in San Francisco to split the division and wild card.

In the American League, it could be simple or complicated. If the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees win on Sunday, they clinch the No. 1 and No. 2 wild card berths, respectively. If one or both loses but both the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays lose, Boston and New York clinch the two wild card berths in some order. However, if one or both loses and one or both of Seattle and Toronto win, we get a chance at one or more play-in games to get to the Wild Card round.

We could have anything from a basic one-game playoff to a three- or four-way playoff. Jeff Passan broke down the 16 permutations of Sunday’s results that could result in as much as a four-team playoff to determine who will play in the AL Wild Card round.