Tournament details | |
---|---|
Dates | September 30 – October 29, 2014[1] |
Teams | 10 |
Final positions | |
Champions | San Francisco Giants (8th title) |
Runner-up | Kansas City Royals (3rd World Series appearance) |
Tournament statistics | |
MVP | Madison Bumgarner (SF) |
The 2014 Major League Baseball postseason was the playoff tournament of Major League Baseball for the 2014 season. The winners of the Division Series would move on to the League Championship Series to determine the pennant winners that face each other in the World Series.
In the American League, the Detroit Tigers made their fourth straight postseason appearance, the Oakland Athletics made their third straight appearance, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim made their first postseason appearance since 2009, the Baltimore Orioles returned for the second time in three years, and the Kansas City Royals ended almost three decades of futility by returning to the postseason for the first time since 1985.
In the National League, the St. Louis Cardinals made their fourth straight postseason appearance, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates made their second straight appearance, the Washington Nationals returned for the second time in three years, and the San Francisco Giants made their third postseason appearance in the past five years.
2014 marks the most recent postseason appearance for the Angels, who have the longest active postseason drought in the majors.[2] It is also the only postseason since interleague play began in 1997 to see all teams in one league and their respective interleague rivals in the other enter the playoffs. This was also the last edition of the postseason to feature both teams from the San Francisco Bay Area, as the Oakland Athletics are moving to Las Vegas.
The postseason began on September 30, and ended on October 29, with the Giants narrowly defeating the Royals in seven games in the 2014 World Series. It was the Giants' eighth title in franchise history. The 2014 Giants became the first fifth-seeded team to win a World Series title.