Thanksgiving Long Weekend MLB Postseason Schedule

The MLB 2012 postseason will run from Friday, October 5 and will end between Sunday, October 28 and Thursday, November 1. The first two games will be the new Wild Card playoff round. The winners of those games will get Saturday off before going home to begin their League Division Series on Sunday. The non-league leading division winners will face off starting this Saturday.

Friday, October 5

5:00 pm Cardinals @ Braves - NL Wild Card Game

8:30 pm Orioles @ Rangers - AL Wild Card Game

Saturday, October 6

6:00 pm Athletics @ Tigers - ALDS Game 1

9:30 pm Reds @ Giants - NLDS Game 1

Game times after October 6 are yet to be determined.

Sunday, October 7

Athletics @ Tigers - ALDS Game 2

Yankees @ AL Wild Card - ALDS Game 1

Reds @ Giants - NLDS Game 2

Nationals @ NL Wild Card - NLDS Game 1

Monday, October 8

Yankees @ AL Wild Card - ALDS Game 2

Nationals @ NL Wild Card - NLDS Game 2

Quick schedule analysis:

The League Division Series is in a best-of-five format with the first two games in one city and the last three in the other. There is one day reserved for travel.

In the National League, if the Giants-Reds NLDS goes to a full 5 games they will still have 2 days rest before the NLCS begins, while the winner of the Nationals-NL Wild Card NLDS will have one off day even if it goes to game 5. The winner of the Tigers-Athletics series will have at least 1 rest day between the ALDS and ALCS, but if the Yankees-AL Wild Card ALDS goes to the full 5 games, the winner will not get a rest day going into the ALCS.