2025 League Championship Series Preview

It's mid-October, folks, and you know what that means: it's LCS time! The League Championship Series has arrived; the last stop before the Fall Classic. Introduced in 1969 as a result of the American and National Leagues splitting into East and West Divisions (marking the start of Divisional Play), the League Championship Series originally served as the lone playoff round prior to the World Series, and was originally played under a best-of-five format for the first 16 seasons. It was in 1985 that the LCS increased to a best-of-seven format, but even so, the LCS still originally pitted the champions of the East and West Divisions against each other until 1995, when the LCS pitted the winners of the Division Series against each other.

This year, we have an interesting Final Four, with some intriguing storylines. Let's take a look at both series:

ALCS: Blue Jays vs Mariners

The year was 1977. That year, the American League's population increased from 12 teams to 14, when the Seattle Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays debuted. The Jays were placed in the American League East, while the Mariners were placed in the American League West. It took the Blue Jays only nine seasons to enjoy their first postseason, playing in baseball's first best-of-seven ALCS, but coming up short. They kept it going in the latter half of the 80s and the early 90s, and 1992 was their big year. Their first World Championship that year, and they repeated a year later. They wouldn't be playoff bound again until about a decade ago, but they've kept it up to this point.

At least the Jays have had some success. The Mariners? Not so much. They had a long wait for their first postseason. It took a 144-game season, the AL West shrinking to four teams, and an extra game for the Mariners to finally reach the postseason. They had very few postseasons after that, with their biggest year being 2001--the year they won 116 games, but they still lost the ALCS. It would be 21 before their next postseason, and during that stretch, the Washington Nationals reached and won the World Series in 2019, making the Mariners the only team left who has yet to appear in the Fall Classic.

Two teams who were born in the same year, but had different paths, and they are clashing for the American League Pennant. This is their first-ever postseason meeting, and the Jays won the season series, 4-2.

NLCS: Brewers vs Dodgers

The Milwaukee Brewers' 2025 season has had a bit of emotion tied to it, mainly due to the passing of the team's longtime play-by-play voice, Bob Uecker. One of the great voices in sports history, Bob Uecker was the voice of the Brewers from 1971 (the team's third season overall and second in Milwaukee) until last season, most notably, the final game of last year's Wild Card Series, which the Brewers lost in the 9th inning. This year, the Brewers are in the LCS for only the fourth time in franchise history. Both they and the LCS debuted in the same year, but the Brewers are only making their fourth appearance. They won the ALCS in 1982, but they have never won the NLCS.

As for the Dodgers, they're the kings of the castle, the defending champions. In Year 10 with Dave Roberts as their skipper, the Dodgers are in their seventh NLCS. Out of their previous six NLCS appearances, four of them became pennants, and two of them became championships. The Dodgers are looking to do something that hasn't been done by any team since the Yankees dynasty: win back-to-back championships. Their next step is the NLCS.

The Brewers have home field advantage in this series, but they had that same advantage when these teams met in 2018, only for the Dodgers to win that series--winning Game Seven in Milwaukee. Regarding the season series, the Brewers swept it.

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On TV, the American League Championship Series will air on Fox and FS1 this year, while the National League Championship Series will air on TBS. The last stop before the World Series has arrived, and I sense some epic moments in both series.