The regular season is over and the 2026 MLB postseason begins on Tuesday with the best-of-three Wild Card Series. A few division and wild-card races came down to the wire in Game 162, and we won't have to wait long for more high-stakes baseball. This is Year 5 of the 12-team postseason format.
Here is this year's playoff bracket: Bye: Rays (No. 1) and Guardians (No. 2) Wild card: White Sox (No. 6) at Astros (No. 3) (winner plays Guardians) Wild card: Red Sox (No. 5) at Yankees (No. 4) (winner plays Rays) Bye: Brewers (No. 1) and Dodgers (No. 2) Wild card: Phillies (No. 6) at Braves (No. 3) (winner plays Dodgers) Wild card: Cubs (No. 5) at Padres (No. 4) (winner plays Brewers) The Phillies avoided an embarrassing collapse and clinched a postseason berth on the regular season's final day. The 81-81 Astros also clinched on the final day. They're the first ever full-season division winner without a winning record.
The White Sox are the first team to reach the postseason after two consecutive 100-loss seasons, and they lost 100 games in three straight seasons. My preseason bold predictions were terrible, but my motto is that if you get a lot of bold predictions correct, you weren't bold enough. Or at least that's what I tell myself to feel better.
Anyway, let's do some postseason bold predictions, shall we? Honestly, he might hit 107 mph. Jacob Misiorowski is the hardest-throwing starting pitcher on record and most likely of all time.
He's thrown the 105 fastest and 200 of the 202 fastest pitches thrown by a starter since pitch-tracking launched in 2008, all of them this season. Here are the fastest pitches since 2008: That 105.5 mph pitch is the only time Misiorowski cleared 105 mph. This first bold prediction says that, with the help of postseason adrenaline, the Brewers ace will become the first pitcher to ever hit 106 mph.
I mean a legitimate 106 mph, too. Not 105.something rounded up. I'm not saying Misiorowski will hit 106 mph consistently.
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