The 2026 postseason gets underway on Tuesday with all four Wild Card Series. AL East division rivals, the New York Yankees (No. 4 seed) and Boston Red Sox (No. 5 seed) will face each other for a showdown at Yankee Stadium, while the Houston Astros (No. 3 seed) vs. Chicago White Sox (No. 6 seed) will finish out the American League side.
Meanwhile, in a rematch from last season, the San Diego Padres (No. 4 seed) face the Chicago Cubs (No. 5 seed) and the Atlanta Braves (No. 3 seed) round out the Wild Card Series matchups against their own division rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies (No. 6 seed). As such, your CBS Sports MLB experts are here to predict how each of the best-of-three series will go. Below are picks from our MLB writers for every Wild Card Series, plus odds for each series from DraftKings. (Series odds: Braves -125, Phillies +105) Axisa: Chris Sale vs. however the Phillies plan to cobble together nine innings in Game 1 is such a mismatch on paper that it feels like a trap.
The Phillies finally saw signs of life from their offense Sunday and I bet that gets them moving on a nice roll. I don't feel great about any of my postseason picks this year. Everything is so wide open.
This is the Wild Card Series prediction I am least confident in. Pick: Phillies in 2 McWilliams: There's just so much uncertainty surrounding Philadelphia right now. The Phillies barely made it into the postseason after stumbling.
They had to use Zack Wheeler to reach the playoffs at all. Jesus Luzardo was just activated from the injured list. Their margin for error feels extremely thin against an Atlanta team that enters the series in a much more stable position.
Pick: Braves in 2 Perry: The Braves are the better team, and the Phillies harmed their chances by dragging out their clinching of the third and final wild-card spot. Having to start Zack Wheeler in Game 162 means Don Mattingly can't set up his rotation in optimal fashion for this series, and I think that will make the difference. Pick: Braves in 3 Snyder: The Phillies only have two good hitters (Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper) and the Braves can just pitch around them.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
