[1][2] For the third straight year, Major League Baseball sold presenting sponsorships to all of its postseason series.

Seeds 1–3 were determined by regular season winning percentages among division-winning teams, having locked in as of the completion of games of September 27.

The Houston Astros, the American League West champion, 1 seed in AL, and had the best record, giving them home-field advantage throughout the playoffs,[4][5] had home advantage against the fifth-seeded Tampa Bay Rays, who defeated the Oakland Athletics in the Wild Card Game.

The Astros would tack on two more runs in the bottom of the seventh on back-to-back doubles by Yordan Alvarez and Yuli Gurriel.

Ryan Pressly would relieve Verlander in the eighth but would surrender two runs on consecutive hits by Eric Sogard and Austin Meadows before Will Harris got Ji-man Choi to ground out to end the inning.

Roberto Osuna pitched a perfect ninth inning to seal the Game 1 win for Houston.

Cole kept the Rays bats silent for 72⁄3 innings and struck out 15 batters, the most in a postseason game since Roger Clemens in the 2000 ALCS.

He then walked Brandon Lowe to load the bases again and was subsequently relieved by Will Harris with one out in the ninth inning.

He retired Ji-man Choi to start the second, allowed a single to Avisaíl García, got Brandon Lowe to ground out, hit Travis d'Arnaud with a pitch and Kevin Kiermaier hit a three-run home run that gave the Rays their first lead in the series.

Eric Sogard would lead off the next inning with a solo home run and would be the final time the Rays had an extra base hit in the game.

2019 ALDS (3–2): Houston Astros beat Tampa Bay Rays This was the sixth postseason match-up between Minnesota and New York.

This match-up featured two of the best home run hitting teams in major league baseball history.

[18] Randy Dobnak, making his postseason debut, allowed an opening double to DJ LeMahieu and a walk to Aaron Judge.

He got Brett Gardner to fly out but gave up a single to Edwin Encarnación to give the Yankees a 1–0 lead.

Duffey proceeded to hit Gary Sánchez with a pitch to load the bases again and then gave up a grand slam to Didi Gregorius to blow the game open.

Jonathan Loáisiga gave up the second Twins run and struck out Miguel Sanó to end the game and send the Yankees to Minneapolis with a 2–0 series lead.

Gleyber Torres opened the scoring with a solo home run to left in the second, followed by a Brett Gardner single in the next frame which drove in Gio Urshela.