2016 American League Division Series
The 2016 American League Division Series (ALDS) were two best-of-five game series to determine the participating teams in the 2016 American League Championship Series of Major League Baseball. The three divisional winners (seeded 1–3) and the winner of a one-game Wild Card playoff played in two series. The divisional winners were the Texas Rangers in the American League West with the first seed by virtue of having the best record in the American League, the Cleveland Indians in the American League Central with the second seed, and the Boston Red Sox in the American League East with the third seed. The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Baltimore Orioles in the Wild Card Game, earning the fourth seed.
2016 American League Division Series | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Teams | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Dates | October 6–9 | ||||||||||||
Television | United States: TBS Canada: Sportsnet (English) TVA Sports (French) | ||||||||||||
TV announcers | Brian Anderson, Dennis Eckersley, Joe Simpson, and Matt Winer (English) Jacques Doucet and Rodger Brulotte (French) | ||||||||||||
Radio | ESPN | ||||||||||||
Radio announcers | Chris Berman (Games 1–2) Michael Kay (Game 3), and Rick Sutcliffe | ||||||||||||
Umpires | Lance Barksdale, Cory Blaser, Chad Fairchild, Sam Holbrook, Hunter Wendelstedt, and Joe West (crew chief) Replay: Chris Conroy, Kerwin Danley, Gerry Davis, Adrian Johnson | ||||||||||||
Teams | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Dates | October 6–10 | ||||||||||||
Television | United States: TBS Canada: Sportsnet | ||||||||||||
TV announcers | Ernie Johnson Jr., Ron Darling, Cal Ripken Jr., and Sam Ryan | ||||||||||||
Radio | ESPN | ||||||||||||
Radio announcers | Jon Sciambi and Chris Singleton | ||||||||||||
Umpires | Vic Carapazza, Phil Cuzzi, Paul Emmel, Brian Knight, Bill Miller (crew chief) and Tony Randazzo Replay: Chris Conroy, Kerwin Danley, Gerry Davis, Adrian Johnson | ||||||||||||
ALWC | Toronto Blue Jays defeated Baltimore Orioles, 5–2 (10) | ||||||||||||
The top two seeds had home-field advantage, and the top seed was matched against the lowest seed. The matchups were:
- (1) Texas Rangers (West Division champions) versus (4) Toronto Blue Jays (Wild Card Winner): Blue Jays win series 3–0.
- (2) Cleveland Indians (Central Division champions) versus (3) Boston Red Sox (East Division champions): Indians win series 3–0.
TBS televised all the games in the United States, with Sportsnet, a property of Toronto Blue Jays owner Rogers Communications, airing the games in Canada using the TBS feeds. The Blue Jays and Indians both swept their respective opponents in three games to advance to the ALCS.
The Indians defeated the Blue Jays in the ALCS, then lost the 2016 World Series to the National League champion Chicago Cubs.