Sitting five games back of the San Francisco Giants in the NL West and 7.5 games out in the NL Wild Card race, the Arizona Diamondbacks have lots of time to make up some ground and make the playoffs for the second straight year.
And thanks to Major League Baseball, we now know what the playoffs will look like this year as the 2012 postseason schedule was released on Thursday, with the season going no longer this year than November 1.
Wednesday, October 3 will be the last day of the regular season, and for the first time, teams from the same division can play one another in a wild card game division series. If two teams tie for a division they will hold a one-game playoff even if both are assured a postseason spot as winning the wild card only allows for a play-in game, while winning a division means a best-of-five series.
The two wild card games will be played on Friday, October 5, and both games will be televised by TBS. Winners will play the top seed in each league in the division series. The division series is a 2-3 format rather than 2-2-1 this year.
Below is the full breakdown of the postseason, round-by-round:
Division Series (between division winners)
Game 1: Sat, Oct 6 at lower seed
Game 2: Sun, Oct 7 at lower seed
Game 3: Tue, Oct 9 at higher seed
Game 4: Wed, Oct 10 at higher seed
Game 5: Thu, Oct 11 at higher seed
Division Series (between division winner and wild card)
Game 1: Sun, Oct 7 at lower seed
Game 2: Mon, Oct 8 at lower seed
Game 3: Wed, Oct 10 at higher seed
Game 4: Thu, Oct 11 at higher seed
Game 5: Fri, Oct 12 at higher seed
18 of the 20 possible division series games will be televised by TBS, with MLB Network getting the other two.
American League Championship Series (TBS)
Game 1: Sat, Oct 13 at higher seed
Game 2: Sun, Oct 14 at higher seed
Game 3: Tue, Oct 16 at lower seed
Game 4: Wed, Oct 17 at lower seed
Game 5: Thu, Oct 18 at lower seed
Game 6: Sat, Oct 20 at higher seed
Game 7: Sun, Oct 21 at higher seed
National League Championship Series (Fox)
Game 1: Sun, Oct 14 at higher seed
Game 2: Mon, Oct 16 at higher seed
Game 3: Wed, Oct 17 at lower seed
Game 4: Thu, Oct 18 at lower seed
Game 5: Fri, Oct 19 at lower seed
Game 6: Sun, Oct 21 at higher seed
Game 7: Mon, Oct 22 at higher seed
The World Series will be televised by Fox, with a potential Game 7. The NL has home field advantage.
World Series
Game 1: Wed, Oct 24 at NL
Game 2: Thu, Oct 25 at NL
Game 3: Sat, Oct 27 at AL
Game 4: Sun, Oct 28 at AL
Game 5: Mon, Oct 29 at AL
Game 6: Wed, Oct 31 at NL
Game 7: Thu, Nov 1 at NL
For more on the D-backs, head to AZ Snake Pit.
