There are five current franchises that have never won a World Series. Two of them still have a chance to break through this year.
Major League Baseball’s playoffs have reached the two League Championship Series, which will include the Los Angeles Dodgers and their storied history — and three other teams that are products of the sport's post-expansion era. The Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners, both of whom began playing in 1977, meet in the ALCS. The Milwaukee Brewers, who spent a year as the Seattle Pilots before relocating to Wisconsin in 1970, face Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers in the NLCS.
The Mariners and Brewers have never won a World Series. Seattle is the only current team that has never even won a pennant.
The Mariners made it to the ALCS via a scintillating 15-inning victory over Detroit in Game 5 of their AL Division Series. They'll have little time to savor that victory. Game 1 in Toronto is less than 48 hours later on Sunday night.
Seattle had to use three of its top starting pitchers — George Kirby, Luis Castillo and Logan Gilbert — in that marathon Game 5 against the Tigers. So the Mariners are set to start Bryce Miller — who had a 5.68 ERA during the regular season — on three days' rest in the opener against the Blue Jays. A rested Kevin Gausman takes the mound for Toronto, which eliminated the New York Yankees in four games in their ALDS.
The defending World Series champion Dodgers beat Philadelphia in four to earn a return trip to the NLCS. That series starts Monday night. Milwaukee won a five-game NLDS over the Chicago Cubs to advance.
The top seeds in both leagues — the 97-win Brewers and 94-win Blue Jays — are still alive.
What to know about the League Championship Series
1. The stars shined bright for both Toronto and Seattle in the ALDS. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Blue Jays went 9 for 17 with three home runs and nine RBIs against the Yankees. Cal Raleigh, the catcher who slugged 60 homers in the regular season for the Mariners, was 6 for 21 with a homer and four walks against Detroit.
2. Ohtani, the Dodgers' two-way star, did not have a great series pitching or hitting against the Phillies, but another Japanese standout did. Roki Sasaki did not pitch much during the regular season because of injury, but he has thrown 5 1/3 scoreless innings in the playoffs, including three in Game 4 of the NLDS, when Los Angeles beat Philadelphia in 11 innings to end that series. Sasaki could be the answer to some of the Dodgers' bullpen woes, which is important because Milwaukee's starting pitchers produced a better ERA during the regular season than LA's star-studded crew.
3. Milwaukee has reached the NLCS nine months after the death of Bob Uecker, the team's longtime broadcaster. The Brewers posed with a banner with Uecker's signature after knocking out the Cubs.
4. Dodgers-Brewers is a rematch of the 2018 NLCS, which went the distance. Los Angeles won Game 7 in Milwaukee to deny the Brewers their first World Series appearance since 1982. When the Braves were in Milwaukee, the Dodgers beat them in a best-of-three tiebreaker series for the 1959 NL pennant. Part of the reason the Brewers finished with baseball’s best record this year was because they went 6-0 against the Dodgers during the regular season. All of those games took place during an 11-game win streak that straddled the All-Star break in July.
5. Although they entered the American League at the same time, there’s not much history between the Mariners and Blue Jays. However, the proximity to Canada might make for more fans of the visiting team at Seattle home games than the Mariners would like. Seattle is in the ALCS for the first time since 2001, when the Mariners won 116 games during the regular season but were beaten by the Yankees for the pennant. Toronto made the ALCS as recently as 2016 but hasn’t won a pennant since the second of its back-to-back World Series titles in 1993. The Blue Jays went 4-2 against the Mariners this year, but their season series was over by mid-May.
6. If the Mariners and Brewers reach the World Series, it’ll be the first Fall Classic to feature two teams that have never won it before since the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Kansas City Royals in 1980.
What is the MLB playoff format?
There were 12 teams that qualified for MLB’s postseason, six teams from both the AL and NL. That is down to four still alive.
Division Series winners moved on to the best-of-seven League Championship Series, with the AL and NL pennant winners then playing in the best-of-seven World Series.
What is the MLB postseason schedule?
Championship Series: Oct. 12-21 (NL on TBS, AL on FOX/FS1)
World Series: Oct. 24-Nov. 1 (FOX)
Who are the favorites to win the World Series?
The Dodgers (+120) are the favorite to win the World Series, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. After that, it’s the Blue Jays (+325), Mariners (+340) and Brewers (+400).
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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