2015 American League Division Series
The 2015 American League Division Series were two best-of-five-game series to determine the participating teams in the 2015 American League Championship Series. The three divisional winners (seeded 1-3) and a fourth team—the winner of a one-game Wild Card playoff— played in two series. Fox Sports 1 carried the majority of games in the United States, while Sportsnet primarily simulcast Fox Sports 1's coverage in Canada. MLB Network had exclusive coverage of Game 3 of the Kansas City Royals–Houston Astros series in both the United States and Canada, and Game 2 of the Toronto Blue Jays–Texas Rangers series in the U.S. only (Sportsnet, co-owned with the Blue Jays by Rogers Communications, simulcast MLB Network's coverage for the latter). The ALDS began on October 8 and ran until October 14. The Toronto Blue Jays and Kansas City Royals had home field advantage in this round of the playoffs. With the New York Yankees being eliminated by the Astros in the AL Wild Card Game, this is the first time in ALDS history that all four ALDS teams were expansion teams.
| 2015 American League Division Series | |||||||||||||
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| Teams | |||||||||||||
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| Dates | October 8–14 | ||||||||||||
| Television | United States:
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| TV announcers | Matt Vasgersian, John Smoltz, A. J. Pierzynski (Games 1–2, 4–5), and J. P. Morosi | ||||||||||||
| Radio | ESPN | ||||||||||||
| Radio announcers | Dave O' Brien and John Kruk | ||||||||||||
| Umpires | Gerry Davis (crew chief), Lance Barksdale, Mike Everitt, Ángel Hernández, Ron Kulpa, Todd Tichenor | ||||||||||||
| Teams | |||||||||||||
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| Dates | October 8–14 | ||||||||||||
| Television | United States:
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| TV announcers | Kenny Albert, Harold Reynolds, Tom Verducci, and Ken Rosenthal (FS1) Bob Costas, Jim Kaat, and Ken Rosenthal (MLBN) | ||||||||||||
| Radio | ESPN | ||||||||||||
| Radio announcers | Chris Berman (Games 1–2) Dave Flemming (Games 3–4) Dan Shulman (Game 5) Rick Sutcliffe | ||||||||||||
| Umpires | Dale Scott (crew chief), Dan Bellino, Vic Carapazza, James Hoye, Marvin Hudson, Alfonso Márquez | ||||||||||||
| ALWC | Houston Astros defeated New York Yankees, 3–0 | ||||||||||||
These matchups were:
- (1) Kansas City Royals (Central Division champion) vs (5) Houston Astros (Wild Card winner): Royals win series 3–2.
- (2) Toronto Blue Jays (East Division champion) vs (3) Texas Rangers (West Division champion): Blue Jays win series 3–2.
This was the first ALDS appearance for both the Astros and Blue Jays. Toronto's last postseason berth came in 1993, the final season of the two-round playoff format. Houston, on the other hand, made its first playoff appearance as an American League team; the franchise's preceding postseason berth came in 2005 while a member of the National League. The Blue Jays and the Rangers, and the Astros and the Royals, met for the first time in postseason play.
This was the second time (and first since 2001) that both ALDS winners overcame a 2–1 series deficit to advance to the ALCS.
The Royals would go on to defeat the Blue Jays in the ALCS, then win the 2015 World Series over the National League champion New York Mets, the Royals first World Series title since 1985.