League Championship Series

The League Championship Series (LCS) is the semifinal round of postseason play in Major League Baseball, featuring the American League Championship Series (ALCS) and the National League Championship Series (NLCS). The LCS has been conducted since 1969, determining the winner of the pennant for each league and each league's representative in the World Series. In 1981 and since 1995, the LCS matches up the winners of the Division Series from each league.

Prior to 1969, the champion of both leagues was determined by regular season win-loss record. In instances of tiebreakers, there were tiebreaker contests held, which served as unofficial postseason games. The American League held a single-game tiebreaker in 1948 to determine the league champion for that season. The National League held a best-of-three tiebreaker series in 1946, 1951, 1959, and 1962.

In 1969, when both the American League and National League expanded from 10 teams to 12 (the American League added the Kansas City Royals and Seattle Pilots, and the National League added the Montreal Expos and San Diego Padres), both leagues split their teams into newly-formed East and West divisions. The League Championship Series was created as a new postseason round to determine the champion of each league and featuring the first-place teams from each of the new divisions.

For its first 16 seasons, the League Championship Series were best-of-five, using the 2–3 format in which the team without home field advantage hosted the first two games, and the team with it hosted the rest of the LCS, making it impossible for the disadvantaged team to win the series at home. It also allowed those teams the unusual luxury of starting a series at home, possibly having home-field advantage in a three-game series, and a guarantee that they play two games at home.

In 1985,^{[1] [2]} the LCS was lengthened to best-of-seven games in the 2–3–2 format with the team holding home-field advantage opening the series at home and playing the next three games on the road, before returning home for two more possible games. The disadvantaged team would have had more games played at home than on the road if the series ends in five games.

Since 1995, the LCS has matched up the winners of the Division Series, which were added when both leagues realigned into three divisions.

Until 1998, the home-field advantage in the LCS was allocated on a rotating basis between the two (three from 1995 through 1997) division champions; since 1998, that advantage is given to the team with the better regular season record, except that if a division champion faces a wild card team, the division champion always gets home-field advantage regardless of record.

As of 2026, all thirty MLB teams have reached the LCS at least once. The Houston Astros and Milwaukee Brewers are the only teams to have played in both the ALCS and NLCS.^[3] Four teams have never lost an LCS: the Colorado Rockies (won in 2007), the Miami Marlins (won as the Florida Marlins in 1997 and 2003), the Tampa Bay Rays (won in 2008 and 2020), and the Texas Rangers (won in 2010, 2011, and 2023).

Nine managers have led a team to the ALCS in three consecutive seasons; the record for most consecutive ALCS appearances by a manager is jointly held by Joe Torre, who led the New York Yankees to four in a row (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001), and Dusty Baker, who led the Houston Astros to four in a row (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023). Seven managers have led a team to the NLCS in three consecutive seasons; however, the most consecutive NLCS appearances by one manager is held by Bobby Cox, who led the Atlanta Braves to eight straight from 1991 to 1999. Tony La Russa and Jim Leyland are the only managers to lead their teams to three consecutive League Championship Series appearances in both leagues.

The Milwaukee Brewers, an American League team between 1969 and 1997, and the Houston Astros, a National League team between 1962 and 2012, are the only franchises to play in both the ALCS and NLCS. The Astros are the only team to have won both an NLCS (2005) and an ALCS (2017, 2019, 2021, and 2022). The Astros made four NLCS appearances before moving to the AL in 2013, where they appeared in seven straight ALCS from 2017 to 2023.

The William Harridge Trophy is awarded to the AL champion, named in honor of former AL president Will Harridge.^{[4] [5]} The Warren C. Giles Trophy is awarded to the NL champion, named in honor of former NL president Warren Giles.^{[6] [7]}

The League Championship Series Most Valuable Player Award is given to the most outstanding player in each LCS. The National League began its LCS MVP award in 1977, the American League began its LCS MVP award in 1980.^[8]

The MVP award has been given to a player on the losing team twice, in 1986 to Mike Scott of the Houston Astros and in 1987 to Jeffrey Leonard of the San Francisco Giants. The ALCS MVP Award is named in honor of former AL president Lee MacPhail.

In the sortable table below, teams are ordered first by number of wins, then by number of appearances, and finally by year of first appearance. In the "Season(s)" column, bold years indicate winning appearances.

In the sortable table below, teams are ordered first by number of wins, then by number of appearances, and finally by year of first appearance. In the "Season(s)" column, bold years indicate winning appearances.

• MLB postseason
• Wild Card Series
• Division Series

• "League Championship Series Overview". MLB.com.
• League Championship Series at Baseball Almanac

• Major League Baseball postseason
• American League Championship Series
• National League Championship Series
• Recurring sporting events established in 1969
• October in sports
• Annual events in Major League Baseball

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles needing additional references from May 2013
• All articles needing additional references
• Articles with hCards