Why don't the Yankees-Dodgers start until Friday?

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Los Angeles Dodgers (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

When the Dodgers defeated the Mets in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series on Sunday, it left the baseball world waiting five days until the start of the World Series.

The 2024 World Series between the Dodgers and Yankees begins on Friday, October 25th and runs through Saturday, November 2nd, when all seven games will be played.

This leads to the obvious question: Why is there such a large gap between the end of the two League Championship Series and the start of the World Series?

MLB actually planned this. When the postseason schedule was released in early August, a postponement of the World Series dates was possible if both LCSs ended earlier.

But with a five-game ALCS and a six-game NLCS, those series didn't end quickly enough to trigger this schedule adjustment. If both championship series had concluded by Saturday, October 19, Game 1 of the World Series would have been moved to Tuesday, October 22. In this scenario, the World Series would have taken place from October 22nd to October 22nd. 30.

So when the Mets forced a Game 6 in the NLCS, they also ensured that the World Series would begin on Friday. If the NLCS had played seven games, it would have ended on Monday, October 21st. If the ALCS had played seven games, it would have ended on Tuesday, October 22nd.

So if the ALCS had played seven games, starting the World Series on Friday would make perfect sense (especially since the league had to factor in the possibility of a rainout that could have pushed the game back a day to Wednesday). And if the NLCS had ended a game earlier, we would be preparing for the World Series to begin in a day. Instead, everyone has a full work week to prepare for the World Series.

World Series schedule

The start times of the games will be announced later. All games are expected to be broadcast on Fox.