NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball dropped its plan to start the World Series early if both League Championship Series are short, announcing Tuesday that this year's Fall Classic will start on Oct. 24.
MLB last year said Game 1 would move up from Oct. 25 to Oct. 22 if the LCS ended by Oct. 19, when both leagues were scheduled to be through Game 5. But the New York Mets won Game 5 of the NL Championship Series before losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 6.
Since the LCS expanded to best-of-seven in 1985, both leagues ended in four or five games in 1989, 2001, 2002, 2014 and 2022. Last year was the first in which MLB announced a flexible schedule.
Game 7 of this year's World Series would be on Nov. 1. The World Series ended in November in 2001, ‘09, ’10, ‘15, ’16, ‘17, ’21 and ‘22 and ’23, going as late as Nov. 5 in 2022.
The World Series is scheduled to start on a Friday for the fifth straight year. Before 2022, the Series had not started on a Friday since 1915.
NL Division Series will have an extra scheduled off day between Games 1 and 2, a format that allows a team to have the same pitchers start Games 1 and 4, and Games 2 and 5 on normal four days’ rest. Last year, AL Division Series had the extra off day.
All four best-of-three Wild Card Series are scheduled for consecutive days from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 at the side of the higher seed.
Twelve teams make the playoffs under the format that began in 2022. The top two teams in each league get first-round byes, while the No. 3 seed faces No. 6 and No. 4 plays No. 5. The higher seed will be home in each best-of-three series.
In the best-of-five Division Series, the top seed plays the 3-vs.-6 winner and the No. 2 seed plays the 4-vs.-5 winner. The Division Series will have the familiar format of the higher seed home for Games 1 and 2, and, if necessary, Game 5.
AL Division Series also will start Oct. 4-5 followed by travel day and switch to the other sites for games on Oct. 7-8. Game 5s would be Oct. 10.
NL Division Series start on Oct. 4, have an off day followed by a game on Oct. 5, then switch to the other cities on Oct. 8-9. After another travel day, Game 5s would be played Oct. 11.
The AL Championship Series starts Oct. 12 and the NL Championship Series the following day, with off days after Game 2s and Game 5s.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani runs on his solo home run against the Toronto Blue Jays during the first inning of a baseball game Sunday, Aug. 10, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Wally Skalij)
LONDON (AP) — Britain's Conservative Party, which governed the country from 2010 until it suffered its worst-ever electoral defeat two years ago, was plunged into fresh turmoil Thursday after its leader sacked the man widely seen as her greatest rival for apparently plotting to defect from the party.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said in a video and statement on X that she sacked the party's justice spokesperson Robert Jenrick due to “irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect" in a way that was “designed to be as damaging as possible” to the party. Badenoch also ejected Jenrick from the party's ranks in Parliament and suspended his party membership.
“The British public are tired of political psychodrama and so am I,” she said. “They saw too much of it in the last government, they’re seeing too much of it in this government. I will not repeat those mistakes.”
Though Badenoch did not specify which party Jenrick was planning to switch to, Nigel Farage, leader of the hard-right Reform UK party, said he had “of course” had conversations with him.
In the past 12 months, the Conservatives have suffered a string of defections to Reform UK, including some former Cabinet ministers.
Farage said in a press briefing in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, that coincided with Badenoch's statement that, “hand on heart,” he wasn't about to present Jenrick as the latest Conservative to defect to Reform, an upstart, anti-immigration party.
“I’ll give him a ring this afternoon,” he said. “I might even buy him a pint, you never know.”
The Conservatives are fighting not just the Labour government to their left, but Reform UK to the right.
Reform, which only has a handful of lawmakers in the House of Commons, is tipped to make a major breakthrough in an array of elections this May, including those to the Scottish and Welsh Parliaments, at the expense of both the Conservatives and Labour.
Jenrick, who continued to attract speculation about leadership ambitions despite being beaten in 2024, has appeared more open than Badenoch to the prospect of some sort of deal between the Conservatives and Reform to unite the right in the run-up to next general election, which has to take place by 2029.
Jenrick has yet to respond to the news of his sacking.
Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose favorability ratings have fallen sharply since the general election following a series of missteps, questioned why it took Badenoch “so long” to sack Jenrick given all the speculation that he was looking to either challenge her or to defect to Reform.
Badenoch, a small-state, low-tax advocate, has shifted the Conservatives to the right, announcing policies similar to those of U.S. President Donald Trump, including a promise to deport 150,000 unauthorized immigrants a year.
Her poor poll ratings and lackluster performance in Parliament had stirred speculation that she could be ousted long before the next election.
However, she has been making a better impression in Parliament in recent weeks, particularly during her weekly questioning of Starmer, in a way that appears to have cemented her position as leader.
The party is no stranger to turmoil, having gone through six leaders in the space of 10 years, five of them serving as prime minister. Widespread anger at the way the Conservatives were governing Britain led to their defeat at the general election in July 2024, when they lost around two-thirds of their lawmakers, their worst performance since the modern party was created nearly 200 years ago.
Robert Jenrick speaking at a Reform UK press conference in Westminster, London, where it was announced the former Conservative MP has joined Reform UK, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (Jordan Pettitt/PA via AP)
Robert Jenrick with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage at a Reform UK press conference in Westminster, London, where it was announced the former Conservative MP has joined Reform UK, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (Jordan Pettitt/PA via AP)
Reform Party leader Nigel Farage addresses protesters outside the Iranian embassy, in London, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)
Kemi Badenoch with Robert Jenrick before being announced as the new Conservative Party leader following the vote by party members at 8 Northumberland Avenue in central London, Nov. 3, 2024. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)
