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Tournament details | |
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Dates | September 30 – October 28, 2011[1] |
Teams | 8 |
Final positions | |
Champions | St. Louis Cardinals (11th title) |
Runner-up | Texas Rangers (2nd World Series appearance) |
Tournament statistics | |
MVP | David Freese (STL) |
The 2011 Major League Baseball postseason was the playoff tournament of Major League Baseball for the 2011 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. This was the last postseason to feature the 8-team format, as next season a new League Wild Card Game was introduced as the new opening round of the postseason, as well as the last time that two teams from the same division could not face each other in the opening round.
In the American League, the New York Yankees returned for the sixteenth time in the past seventeen years, the Texas Rangers returned for the second straight year, the Detroit Tigers returned for the first time since 2006, and was the first of four consecutive appearances by the Tigers. The Tampa Bay Rays returned for the third time in four years.
In the National League, the St. Louis Cardinals returned for the eighth time in the past twelve years, the Milwaukee Brewers made their second appearance in the past four years, the Philadelphia Phillies returned for the fifth straight time, and the Arizona Diamondbacks returned for the first time since 2007.
The postseason began on September 30, 2011, and ended on October 28, 2011, with the Cardinals defeating the Rangers in seven games in the 2011 World Series. It was the Cardinals' 11th title in franchise history, tying the NHL's Detroit Red Wings for the sixth most championship wins in North American sports.