The defending World Series champions, Texas Rangers, were eliminated from postseason contention on September 20.

The Los Angeles Dodgers returned to the postseason for the twelfth time in a row on September 19, which remains the longest active playoff streak in major North American professional sports.

With the Mets and Braves clinching, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the defending National League champions, were eliminated from postseason contention.

The top two division winners receive byes to the ALDS or NLDS while the other teams have to play in the wild-card round.

†Both the Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets had better head-to-head records with the 89–73 Arizona Diamondbacks (5–2 and 4–3, respectively), negating the need for a three-way tie-breaking scenario.

Their previous postseason meeting was in the 2014 ALCS, which the Royals won in a four-game sweep before falling in the World Series.

In Game 2, the Royals took the lead in the top of the sixth inning when Bobby Witt Jr. hit an RBI single.

However, things fell apart for Milwaukee in the ninth inning as Brewers' closer Devin Williams surrendered a three-run home run to Pete Alonso, which put the Mets ahead for good as they would close out the series.

In Game 2, the Padres jumped out to a 5–1 lead in the bottom of the second, and Robert Suárez shut down a late rally by the Braves in the top of the ninth to complete the sweep.

Game 2 saw the Royals score four unanswered runs off Carlos Rodón and the bullpen held the Yankees to even the series at 1 a piece.

In Game 4, the Yankees' ace starting pitcher Gerrit Cole pitched seven innings while allowing six hits and one run while striking out four batters in his best performance in the postseason so far as the Yankees scored three runs in the game and with another save from Luke Weaver, the Yanks won with a score of 3–1 and allowing them to advance to the ALCS.

Lane Thomas led the way for the Cleveland offense with a three-run home run in the bottom of the first inning as the Guardians blew out the Tigers 7–0 in Game 1.

Game 2 was marred by controversy as Dodgers fans were throwing trash and baseballs at the Padres’ players during the bottom of the seventh inning, causing a ten-minute delay.

[55] This ignited the San Diego offense as Jackson Merrill, Xander Bogaerts, Kyle Higashioka, and Fernando Tatís Jr. all hit home runs in the top of the eighth and ninth innings respectively as the Padres blew out the Dodgers by a 10–2 score to even the series headed to San Diego.

In the first postseason game between the two Japanese-born starting pitchers, Yoshinobu Yamamoto outdueled Yu Darvish as the Dodgers again shutout the Padres by a 2–0 score to win the series and advance.

In the top of the ninth Mark Vientos would belt a two-run home run to tie the game, only for the Phillies to walk the Mets off 7–6 with a Nick Castellanos liner to left field to plate Trea Turner.

In Game 4, the Phillies again jumped out to a 1–0 lead in the fourth inning, but it was quickly erased by a grand slam from Francisco Lindor in the bottom of the sixth, putting the Mets ahead for good and allowing them to advance to the NLCS.

Aaron Judge secured a Yankees victory in Game 2 with a two-run home run as they went up 2–0 in the series headed to Cleveland.

Game 3 turned out to be an offensive showdown between both teams - Judge and Giancarlo Stanton hit back-to-back home runs off Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase to put the Yankees ahead, then Gleyber Torres hit a sacrifice fly to put the Yankees up by two.

However, Jhonkensy Noel then hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth while down to the last out to tie the game and send it into extra innings.

David Fry then won the game for the Guardians with a two-run home in the bottom of the tenth to cut the series lead in half.

Game 4 was yet another offensive slugfest, which the Yankees would win 8–6 thanks to home runs from Stanton, Juan Soto, and Austin Wells.

Jack Flaherty pitched seven innings of shutout baseball as the Dodgers blew out the Mets in Game 1.

A solo home run from Francisco Lindor, an RBI double from Tyrone Taylor, and a grand slam from Mark Vientos would secure Game 2 for the Mets as they evened the series headed to Queens.

This is also the ninth meeting between teams from New York City and Los Angeles for a major professional sports championship.

Freeman’s walk-off grand slam was the first in World Series history, and was widely compared to Kirk Gibson’s walk-off home run from Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, as both Gibson's and Freeman's home runs were to right field at Dodger Stadium in almost the same spot and both came at 8:37 PM Pacific Time.

[78][79][80] Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched six solid innings and the Dodgers’ bullpen stopped a potential rally by the Yankees as they won Game 2 to take a 2-0 series lead headed to the Bronx.

However, the Yankees committed multiple errors in the top of the fifth, as Betts hit an RBI single due to missed coverage at first base, then Freeman hit a two-run RBI single, followed by a two-run double from Teoscar Hernández which tied the game.

In the top of the eighth, Gavin Lux hit a sacrifice fly to the game for the Dodgers, then Shohei Ohtani loaded the bases due to a catcher’s interference penalty against the Yankees, which led to yet another sacrifice fly by Betts that put the Dodgers in the lead for good.

The Dodgers became the first visiting team to win the World Series at Yankee Stadium since the Florida Marlins in 2003.