What to know for the Major League Baseball playoffs

This is an excerpt from The Buzzer, which is CBC Sports' daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what's happening in sports by subscribing here.

Monday was a bittersweet day for baseball fans.

The bitter part was the death of Pete Rose at the age of 83. For all his flaws and transgressions (and God knows there were many), the Cincinnati legend remains the sport's all-time Hit King and a hero to millions who watched Charlie Hustle will himself into one of the greatest players in history during his 24 big-league seasons — including a brief stint with the Montreal Expos in 1984.

The sweet part was a dramatic end to the regular season. With one National League wild-card spot up for grabs, Atlanta and the New York Mets split their makeup doubleheader to both qualify for the playoffs and knock out reigning NL champion Arizona. Mets star Francisco Lindor hit a two-run homer in the top of the ninth to give New York an 8-7 win in Game 1 before Atlanta overcame the loss of ace pitcher Chris Sale (back spasms) from his scheduled Game 2 start to take the nightcap 3-0 and grab the last available post-season berth. However, fifth-seeded Atlanta could be without the NL leader in wins, ERA and strikeouts for its first-round matchup against No. 4 seed San Diego.

That series begins today, along with the other three first-round matchups. In the NL, the sixth-seeded Mets take on No. 3 Milwaukee, while in the American League it's No. 3 Houston vs. No. 6 Detroit and No. 4 Baltimore vs. No. 5 Kansas City.

The top two teams in each league get a first-round bye. In the AL, that's the No. 1-seeded New York Yankees and No. 2 Cleveland. In the NL it's the Los Angeles Dodgers, who went an MLB-best 98-64 in the regular season, and