The Philadelphia Phillies were dealt their second straight devastating loss at the hands of the Diamondbacks thanks to another meltdown from Craig Kimbrel in the NLCS. All of a sudden, a series that looked like it could be another easy Phillies win has turned into a dogfight with Arizona having all of the momentum at the moment.
It is fair to not want to look too far ahead right now especially since the NLCS has essentially turned into a best of three series with the 2023 season on the line, the World Series is coming up fast whether or not the Phillies are in it. Here is a look at some of the basics regarding the upcoming Fall Classic.
When does the World Series start?
How the two league championship series end up will not change when the World Series starts as MLB's postseason schedule is already locked in at least in terms of the days games will be played. There are no LCS games scheduled at all past Tuesday, October 24th and Game One of the World Series is set to be played on October 27th, 2023. The off days during the World Series will fall in-between Games 2 and 3 as well as Games 5 and 6 (if necessary) as most have come to expect.
The league hasn't set the exact start times for any of the World Series games just yet, although that information should come out soon. However, fans can fully expect the World Series to be put in prime time as it is a cornerstone sports championship that the powers that be will want to get as many people to watch as possible. What is known, however, is who will be broadcasting the games nationwide as Fox holds the rights to the World Series in 2023.
How many games are in the World Series?
The World Series, like the two league championship series that precede it, is a best of seven series where the first team to four wins winning the series. More likely than not, the series will end up going more than four games since there have only been two World Series sweeps since 2006, but it is possible that things could be wrapped up in four games. If that were to happen, it would be the first sweep since the Giants swept the Tigers in 2012.
This series format for the World Series has been in place for many decades at this point, although baseball did mess around with a best of nine format early on in the history of the playoffs. That format hasn't been used since 1921, though, when the New York Giants won the series 5-3.