Opinion

NEW YORK — If the Chicago Cubs are the team that wants to spend this month rewriting their history, the San Francisco Giants are the team that can spend October embracing theirs.

OK now, here's the challenge for the Washington Nationals and everyone else as they scheme against the Los Angeles Dodgers: finding a way to rattle Corey Seager.

But unless you were one of three Dodgers living with the probable NL Rookie of the Year this summer, good luck zeroing in on it.

From the rival manager’s seat, it’s a head-scratcher.

The beauty of the Wild Card Game is that every moment is magnified.

On Tuesday in Toronto, that beauty shone in all its glory.

Playing before a raucous Rogers Centre crowd in the do-or-die American League showdown, the Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles tussled for 11 taut innings before Toronto won, 5-2, on a three-run walk-off homer by Edwin Encarnacion.

The wild-card chase represented the only real drama during the stretch run of the MLB regular season with all six divisions getting wrapped up early. Now the four teams that survived the crowded battles are set for an immediate must-win game to keep their World Series hopes alive.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Rick Porcello loves to fly fish whenever work doesn’t get in the way. This year, he may reel in the American League Cy Young Award or baseball's ultimate catch—a World Series ring.

Cubs win?

Seriously?

Yeah, seriously. The Chicago Cubs will win...at least one game...which would be better than what they did the last time they entered the postseason with the best record in the National League. That would be in 2008, when they made history by having all four infielders commit errors in the same game.

This year's 103-win Cubs will do better than that, I promise. But will they win it all?

Major League Baseball's postseason predictions are a lot like blind dates: We've all tried them at some point, but man, they rarely goes right.

But that doesn't stop us from trying, right? So below, I've attempted to predict the entire 2016 postseason, knowing fully well that I'll probably get everything all wrong. The MLB postseason is funny like that, but hey, maybe this is the year it all goes according to plan.

So it begins.

After six months and thousands of baseball games, the warm, languid promise of Opening Day gives way to the chilly pressure of the MLB playoffs.

The lights get brighter. Every pitch, at-bat and defensive chance is magnified. If you're not excited, get excited.

We'll help with a complete preview of the 2016 postseason, including rankings of every club's offense and pitching staff, a look at the managers who will be pulling the strings and predictions for every round up to and including the World Series. 

The division races are over, the wild-card berths have been won and playoff baseball is about to begin.

Tuesday night will see division rivals Baltimore and Toronto do battle one more time in the American League Wild Card Game, while the National League tilt between the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants will take place Wednesday at Citi Field.

No one knows how the 2016 MLB playoffs will end, but we know how they'll begin: with a clash of titans.

Technically, the first postseason game will be Tuesday's American League wild-card tussle between the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays. That should be a solid matchup between powerful AL East foes.