who does the winner of the wild card game play
Major League Baseball Wild Card Game In the division series, the winner of the wild-card game will always face whichever division champion has the best record. All division winners receive a bye as they await the result of the game. Previously, a wild-card team could not face the champion of its own division. This change makes it possible for the two teams with the best record in the league to face each other before the League Championship Series for the first time since 1997, if the wild card winner has the second-best record only to its own division's champion. From 1995 to 1997 the matchups for the division series were determined by annual rotation between the west, central and east divisions.
Major League Baseball wild card In Major League Baseball (MLB), the wild card teams are the two teams in each of the two leagues (American and National) that have qualified for the postseason despite failing to win their division. Both teams in each league possess the two best winning percentages in their respective league after the three division winners. The wild card was first instituted in MLB in 1994, with one wild-card team per league advancing to the Division Series in the postseason to face a division winner. In 2012, the system was modified to add a second wild-card team per league and put each league's wild-card teams against each other in a play-in game—the MLB Wild Card Game—the winner of which would then advance to the Division Series and play the team with the best record. This system ensures that the team with the second-best record in each league, after the three division winners and the team with the first-best record in the league that is a non-division winner, will also get a postseason berth, even if it isn't a division champion.