| 1998 American League Division Series | |||||||||||||
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| Dates | September 29–October 2 | ||||||||||||
| Television | Fox (Game 1) NBC (Games 2–3) | ||||||||||||
| TV announcers | Joe Buck, Tim McCarver, and Bob Brenly (Game 1) Bob Costas and Joe Morgan (Games 2–3) | ||||||||||||
| Radio | ESPN | ||||||||||||
| Radio announcers | Dan Shulman and Buck Martinez | ||||||||||||
| Teams | |||||||||||||
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| Dates | September 29 – October 3 | ||||||||||||
| Television | ESPN (Games 1–3) Fox (Game 4) | ||||||||||||
| TV announcers | Chris Berman and Ray Knight (Games 1–3) Joe Buck and Tim McCarver (Game 4) | ||||||||||||
| Radio | ESPN | ||||||||||||
| Radio announcers | Ernie Harwell and Dave Campbell | ||||||||||||
| Umpires | Jim Joyce, Rich Garcia, Tim Tschida, Drew Coble, Terry Craft (Yankees–Rangers, Games 1–2; Indians–Red Sox, Games 3–4) Durwood Merrill (Yankees–Rangers, Games 1–2; Indians–Red Sox, Game 3) Dale Scott, Joe Brinkman, John Hirschbeck, Larry McCoy, Dave Phillips (Indians–Red Sox, Games 1–2; Yankees–Rangers, Game 3) Chuck Meriwether (Indians–Red Sox, Games 1–2,4) | ||||||||||||
The 1998 American League Division Series (ALDS), the opening round of the 1998 American League playoffs, began on Tuesday, September 29, and ended on Saturday, October 3, with the champions of the three AL divisions—along with a "wild card" team—participating in two best-of-five series. The teams were:
- (1) New York Yankees (Eastern Division champion, 114–48) vs. (3) Texas Rangers (Western Division champion, 88–74): Yankees win series, 3–0.
- (2) Cleveland Indians (Central Division champion, 89–73) vs. (4) Boston Red Sox (Wild Card, 92–70): Indians win series, 3–1.[1]
The New York Yankees and Cleveland Indians went on to meet in the AL Championship Series (ALCS). The Yankees became the American League champion and defeated the National League champion San Diego Padres in the 1998 World Series.
- ^ The higher seed (in parentheses) had the home-field advantage, which for the first time was determined by playing record. Also for the first time, the team with home-field advantage played the first two games at home, with potentially Game 5 at home as well; previously, the team with the home-field advantage had played the first two games on the road and potentially the rest of the series at home. The Red Sox were ineligible for home-field advantage due to not winning their division. Also, the Yankees played the Rangers, rather than the wild card Red Sox, because the Yankees and Red Sox are in the same division.