It's go time for Major League Baseball and fans as the playoffs leading to the World Series begin Tuesday.

The regular season ended Sunday. Now, it's the time to get to the finish line with wild card match-ups Tuesday and Wednesday. Best-of-five divisional series begin Thursday with American League games and Friday with National League contests. These series run through Oct. 9 at the latest.

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With no clear favorites, a case may be made for any of the 10 teams in the post-season to win it all. However, the road to the World Series looks considerably more difficult for wild card teams that have to navigate a one-game playoff, before being the road team in the next series.

The Kansas City Royals made the post-season for the first time in 20 years. They host the Oakland A's in a one game playoff to see who will face the Los Angeles Angels. As for the A's, they barely made it to the game, winning only three of their last 30 games while staving off the hard-charging Seattle Mariners by winning Game 162 of the the regular season.

The National League wild card game sends the San Francisco Giants to Pittsburgh to face the Pirates, who are in the post-season for the second year in a row after not making the playoffs since 1992. The winner of the sudden death contest takes on the top-ranked Washington Nationals who were on fire all year, capped off by Jordan Zimmermann's no-hitter on Sunday.

Division winners Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals, square off in one of the NL Divisional Series while American League Division winner Detroit Tigers and Baltimore Orioles face off in the American League Division Series.

Winners got to the best-of-seven league championship series. Winners of those series got the World Series, which may extend to November if previous series go their game limits.

Tagsmlb, Baseball, playoffs, washington nationals, los ángeles dodgers, kansas city royals, oakland A's, St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Baltimore Orioles, Detroit Tigers, San Francisco Giants, Jordan Zimmermann