Ranking 2026 MLB playoff races that will rule the final month - ESPN

Welcome to September! How did we get here already? Remember Opening Day? Paul Skenes got knocked out in the first inning thanks to some woeful Oneil Cruz defense behind him. (It was all downhill after that for the New York Mets, though.) Garrett Crochet pitched six scoreless innings for the Boston Red Sox. Jacob Misiorowski fanned 11 in five innings, a sign of his dominant season to ensue. Tarik Skubal pitched six dominant innings for the Detroit Tigers.

Indeed, the list of Opening Day starters shows the unpredictability of a baseball season. Skubal, Freddy Peralta, Jose Soriano and Kevin Gausman have been traded. Hunter Brown, Nathan Eovaldi and Zac Gallen have been injured, although Brown has returned, while Crochet, Nick Pivetta and Cole Ragans have missed most of the season because of injuries. The Chicago White Sox lost 14-2 to Misiorowski on Opening Day with Shane Smith starting; Smith made three starts before getting sent down to the minors, but the White Sox have turned out to be the season's biggest surprise.

A lot has changed since the start of the season, and more remains to be determined before the postseason. Let's rank the six playoff races that will rule the final month — and, no, the American League wild-card race, with its battle of .500 teams for the final spot, did not crack the top six. Neither did the National League Central and West races, with both first-place teams having odds over 96% of winning their respective division, according to FanGraphs.

We'll start with a race that isn't a conventional division battle because it features teams from three different divisions, but it might be the most important playoff race to watch in September.

The Milwaukee Brewers, Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles