The Final Score

I propose a change to baseball's postseason format. It fixes one problem and adds something baseball only gets every now and then.

The problem I would fix is the fact that there is no bonus to winning a division and no penalty for being a wild card.

The thing I would add is a one-game playoff in each league every year. As we've seen with the White Sox-Twins, one-game play-IN games really get people pumped up.

How to do this? Easy. Instead of one wild card per league, have two. But the two wild cards have to play a one-game playoff series at the team with the best record. Winner moves on to the series that starts Thursday, so you have three days to deal with ties, rain, etc.

This way, baseball is guaranteed two playoff games on the Monday after the season. More teams will be in it to the end.

And this is most important: Teams will play harder down the stretch to win the division and avoid the wild-card playoff game.

So this year, the loser of the AL Central would be wild card No. 2 and would have to go to Boston to play wild card No. 1, the Red Sox, in a one-game wild-card playoff series. But maybe the Red Sox woud have gone all-out to win the AL East instead of coasting the last month.

In the NL, the Mets would be visiting the Brewers in the wild-card playoff game. So the Cubs and Phillies winning their divisions would have real value, instead of just one extra home game in the first round.

The best part? It doesn't extend the season one day.