Bracket

Note: Two teams in the same division could not meet in the division series.

American League

National League

Career milestones

• Iván Rodríguez of the Detroit Tigers recorded his 2,500th hit April 9 against the Boston Red Sox.^[3]
• John Smoltz of the Atlanta Braves recorded his 3,000th strikeout against Felipe López of the Washington Nationals April 22.^[4]
• Kenny Rogers of the Detroit Tigers became the all-time career pickoff leader with 92. On May 9, Rogers picked off Wilson Betemit of the New York Yankees, passing Mark Langston.^[5]
• Greg Maddux of the San Diego Padres recorded his 350th career win against the Colorado Rockies on May 10.^[6]
• Brad Ausmus of the Houston Astros recorded his 1,500th hit on May 12 against the Giants. Along with his 101 stolen bases, he became 1 of 8 catchers in MLB history that have achieved at least 1,500 hits and 100 stolen bases.
• Omar Vizquel of the San Francisco Giants played his 2,584th game as a shortstop on May 25, breaking the record previously held by Luis Aparicio.^[7]
• Philadelphia Phillies left-handed pitcher Jamie Moyer became the sixth pitcher in Major League Baseball history to defeat all 30 teams on May 26 by defeating the Rockies 20–5.^[8]
• Manny Ramírez of the Boston Red Sox hit his 500th career home run off of Chad Bradford of the Baltimore Orioles on May 31. Ramírez became the 24th player to hit 500 career home runs.^[9] Ramírez was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a three-way trade that also involved the Pittsburgh Pirates in July. Ramirez then recorded his 500th double, and became the first player to record fifty RBIs in the same season in both leagues.
• Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks recorded his 4,673rd career strikeout when he struck-out Mike Cameron of the Milwaukee Brewers on June 3. With this strikeout, Johnson passed Roger Clemens for 2nd on the All-time Career Strikeout Leaders.^[10]
• Chipper Jones of the Atlanta Braves hits his 400th career home run on June 5 off of Ricky Nolasco of the Florida Marlins
• Ken Griffey Jr. of the Cincinnati Reds hit his 600th career home run on June 9, a two-run shot off Mark Hendrickson of the Florida Marlins, becoming only the sixth player to reach this plateau. On July 3, Griffey hit a home run off of Jason Bergmann that gave him 5,000 career total bases, becoming the 18th player to do so. Griffey, who was traded to the Chicago White Sox on July 31, hit his 610th career home run on September 23, passing former White Sox player Sammy Sosa for fifth on the all-time list. He's also hit his 500th double as a member of the South Siders.
• Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals hit his 300th career home run on July 4, a screaming line drive against the left field foul pole off the Chicago Cubs at Busch Stadium. Also in the season, he recorded his 1,500th hit. He also became the third player in Major League history to begin his career with eight straight 100-RBI seasons, joining Hall of Famers Al Simmons and Ted Williams.^[11]
• Carl Crawford of the Tampa Bay Rays stole his 300th career base on July 7 against the Kansas City Royals, making him only the ninth player in history to steal that many before age 27.^[12]
• Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees hit his 200th home run.^[13]
• Jonathan Papelbon of the Boston Red Sox recorded his 100th career save on July 13 against the Baltimore Orioles^[14]
• Grady Sizemore of the Cleveland Indians hits his 100th home run and stole his 100th base.
• Jeff Kent of the Los Angeles Dodgers passed 1500 RBI.^[15]
• Ichiro Suzuki broke the Seattle Mariners franchise record for stolen bases of 290 previously held by Julio Cruz. He also recorded his 3,000th hit when combining his records in MLB and Nippon Professional Baseball, Japan's major league.
• Mike Mussina of the New York Yankees recorded his first 20 win season at the age of 39, becoming the oldest player to do so for the first time.

Team milestones

• The Philadelphia Phillies notched two 20-run games in one season for their first time since 1900.
• The Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres played a game that took 22 innings to complete on April 17 at Petco Park, lasting 6 hours, 16 minutes, marking the longest game (in terms of innings played) in the history of both franchises. The Rockies won 2–1.^[16] The Padres would later play another long home game on May 25, this time an 18-inning affair against the Cincinnati Reds. The game, which ran five hours, 57 minutes was the longest game (time wise) in the Reds' history.
• The Chicago Cubs won their 10,000th National League game on April 23,^[17] defeating the Colorado Rockies 7–6 in 10 innings. The Cubs also won 77 games during their time in the National Association (1871–1875), a predecessor of the National League, but those wins are not counted by Major League Baseball. The San Francisco Giants are the only other professional sports team with more than 10,000 wins, having reached that milestone in 2005.
• The St. Louis Cardinals achieved a franchise record of 18 wins for the month of April.^[18]
• The Florida Marlins had their best start in franchise history, with a record of 22–14.
• The Tampa Bay Rays had their best start in franchise history, with a record of 55–32, 23 games over .500. Along with their best start, they are the first team since 1900 with the worst record in baseball the previous year to have the best record on July 4.^[19] On August 10, the Rays earned their 71st victory in an 11–4 win over the Seattle Mariners. This bests the franchise's previous best of 70 wins in 2004. They would ultimately win 97 games by the end of the regular season, 27 more than their previous record. The Rays reached the postseason for the first time in the Franchise's history.
• On August 12, the Boston Red Sox scored ten runs in the first inning, but had to come from behind to beat the Texas Rangers, who had overcome two ten-run deficits in this game, by a score of 19–17. On September 8, the Red Sox set a Major League Baseball record for the longest consecutive streak of home-park sellout games with their 456th consecutive sellout. The previous record had been held by the Cleveland Indians, who sold out 455 games between June 12, 1995 and April 2, 2001. The streak began on May 15, 2003, in a 14–3 blowout against the Texas Rangers. The Red Sox are only the fourth team to sell out every home game of an entire season, the others being the 1996 Colorado Rockies and the 2000 San Francisco Giants.
• On September 10, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim clinched the American League West division title, becoming the earliest team to clinch that division in its history. On September 28, the Angels won their 100th game of the season, beating their previous record of 99 back in 2002.
• The Seattle Mariners lost 100 games for the first time since the 1983 season, a span of 25 years. They are also the first team to lose 100 games with a US $100 million payroll. Meanwhile, they had company as the Washington Nationals also registered 100 losses, marking the first time since the 1976 season, when the franchise was known as the Montréal Expos, that they would reach this dubious mark.
• The Milwaukee Brewers secured their first playoff berth since 1982 by winning the NL Wild Card berth.
• The Chicago White Sox broke the club record for grand slams in a single season with 12. The White Sox also became the first team ever to win their last three games of the season against three different teams: 5–1 vs. Cleveland Indians in the scheduled season ending game on September 28, 8–2 vs Detroit Tigers in a make-up game on September 29 from a rainout 16 days earlier, and a one-game playoff on September 30, 1–0 vs Minnesota Twins respectively.
• The Florida Marlins are the first team in MLB history to have all four infielders hit 25 or more home runs (Jorge Cantú, 29, Mike Jacobs/Dan Uggla, 32, and Hanley Ramírez, 33)

Retirements

Management

Rubén Amaro Jr.

• Philadelphia Phillies general manager Pat Gillick announced his retirement following the end of the season. The team named Rubén Amaro Jr. as his replacement November 3; Gillick remains as a team consultant.

Pitching

Hitting

• José López, a second baseman for the Seattle Mariners, became the 12th player in Major League history to hit three sacrifice flies in a single game, doing so during an April 15 game against the Kansas City Royals. The Mariners also became only the third team in Major League history to hit five sacrifice flies in a single game.^[27]
• Chase Utley, a second baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies, tied a team record with home runs in 5 consecutive games (twice) that lasted from April 17 to 21. He hit home runs against the Astros, Mets, and Rockies during the streak.^[28]
• On May 7, Carlos Gómez of the Minnesota Twins hit for the cycle on the road against the Chicago White Sox. Gómez became the first Twin to hit for the cycle since Kirby Puckett did it in 1986.
• On June 23 at Shea Stadium, Seattle Mariners pitcher Félix Hernández became the first American League pitcher to hit a grand slam in modern Interleague play (the last grand slam hit by an AL pitcher occurred before implementation of the designated hitter rule), as well as the first pitcher in Mariners franchise history to hit a home run.
• Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz became the fifth player in Major League Baseball history to hit two home runs in the first inning with a pair of three-run four-ply swats on August 11 against the Texas Rangers.
• The Chicago White Sox tied the major league record for most consecutive home runs hit in an inning with four consecutive dingers against the Kansas City Royals in the sixth inning of their game on August 14. Jim Thome began the two-out swatfest with a three-run dinger, which were followed by solo home runs by Paul Konerko, Alexei Ramìrez and Juan Uribe.
• Mark Kotsay, Atlanta Braves center fielder, hit for the cycle on August 14 against the Chicago Cubs. However, the Cubs got the win, 11–7. Kostay became the first Brave since Albert Hall did it in September 1987.
• On September 1, Arizona Diamondbacks shortstop Stephen Drew and Seattle Mariners third baseman Adrián Beltré each hit for the cycle in their respective games, the first time two players accomplished the feat on the same day since the Detroit Tigers' Bobby Veach and the New York Giants' George Burns did so in 1920.
• Ichiro Suzuki recorded his 200th hit of the season on September 17. This marked the eighth consecutive season he reached the milestone, tying the record set by "Wee" Willie Keeler from 1894 to 1901.
• Mark Reynolds, the Arizona Diamondbacks' third baseman, broke the record for most strikeouts by a batter by whiffing for the 200th time on September 25 against the St. Louis Cardinals. The previous record was set one year earlier by Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard, who had 199. Reynolds finished with a new record of 204 strikeouts.
• On September 29 Chicago White Sox 2nd-basemen Alexei Ramírez hit his 4th grand slam of the season, breaking the record for most in a season by a rookie. This same hit also broke the franchise record for most grand slams in a single season.

Fielding

Gold Glove first baseman Kevin Youkilis

• Kevin Youkilis, a first baseman for the Boston Red Sox, set a new Major League record by playing 237 consecutive errorless games at first base. He broke Steve Garvey's 193-game streak record on April 2 against Oakland.^[29]
• Asdrúbal Cabrera, a second baseman for the Cleveland Indians recorded the 14th unassisted triple play in baseball history May 12 against the Toronto Blue Jays in the nightcap of a doubleheader at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio. Cabrera caught a Lyle Overbay line drive, then stepped on the bag to retire Kevin Mench, and then tagged the incoming Marco Scutaro to complete the triple play. It was the first unassisted triple play in Indians history since Bill Wambsganss' historic 1920 World Series Game 5 event against the Brooklyn Dodgers.^[30] However, the Tribe lost to the Blue Jays by a score of 3–0 in 10 innings.

Player of the Month

Pitcher of the Month

Rookie of the Month

Other awards

• Comeback Players of the Year: Cliff Lee (Pitcher, CLE, American); Brad Lidge (Pitcher, PHI, National).
• Edgar Martínez Award (Best designated hitter): Aubrey Huff (BAL)
• Hank Aaron Award: Kevin Youkilis (BOS, American); Aramis Ramírez (CHC, National).
• Roberto Clemente Award (Humanitarian): Albert Pujols (STL).
• Rolaids Relief Man Award: Francisco Rodríguez (LAA, American); Brad Lidge (PHI, National).
• Delivery Man of the Year (Best Reliever): Brad Lidge (PHI).
• Warren Spahn Award (Best left-handed pitcher): CC Sabathia (CLE/MIL)
• Clutch Performer of the Year: CC Sabathia (CLE/MIL).

Spring training

Regular season

Openings and closings

President George W. Bush throws the ceremonial first pitch before a sold-out crowd at the Washington Nationals season opener on March 30 at their new park, Nationals Park

The Washington Nationals began the domestic portion of the 2008 season in their new US$611 million home, Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., with a nationally telecast ESPN Sunday Night Baseball game (in a rare one-game series) against the Atlanta Braves on March 30 in the first official baseball game stateside. President Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch while being booed by some of the crowd that night, and joined Jon Miller and Joe Morgan in the broadcast booth for the third and part of the fourth inning of the game telecast. Fittingly, Ryan Zimmerman hit a walk-off home run to give the Nats a 3–2 win. Nationals Park replaced their temporary home, RFK Stadium. Unlike RFK, Nationals Park has been considered to be fair to both hitters and pitchers. Additionally, there was an exhibition game March 29 against their beltway rivals, the Baltimore Orioles, in which season ticket holders were admitted free. The first game, however, was on March 22, when local university George Washington played a home Atlantic 10 college contest against Saint Joseph's at Nationals Park. The Colonials sent their fans home happy by defeating the Hawks 9–5.

Ceremonial first pitch in Shea Stadium

This season also marked the last season in New York City for two historic stadiums where the Mets and Yankees reside. Shea Stadium closed in Flushing Meadows, Queens on a down note September 28 with the Mets being eliminated from postseason play for the second consecutive season by the Marlins, 4–2, while Yankee Stadium closed after 83 seasons (the Yankees played at Shea Stadium in 1974 and 1975 while Yankee Stadium was refurbished), with the final home game played on September 21 as the Bronx Bombers defeated the Orioles, 7–3. The teams will move into new ballparks near their current homes – Citi Field for the Mets and New Yankee Stadium for the Yankees – in time for their 2009 home openers on April 13 against the San Diego Padres (Citi Field) and 16th against Cleveland Indians (New Yankee Stadium) respectively. With the closing of these ballparks, Dodger Stadium becomes the largest seating capacity park (56,000) and third oldest baseball stadium (after Fenway Park and Wrigley Field) starting in 2009, and Angel Stadium of Anaheim (built in 1966) and Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum (first baseball game in 1968; stadium was built in 1966) become the fourth and fifth oldest baseball stadiums, respectively.

United States

For the 2008 season, TBS switched from doing Atlanta Braves games (who telecast 45 contests on WPCH-TV a/k/a "Peachtree TV" locally in Atlanta) to a national Sunday afternoon Game of the Week format (though some games have involved the Braves). In addition, the Time Warner-owned cable channel also carried the one-game AL Central playoff between the Minnesota Twins and the Chicago White Sox on September 30 as well as the entire League Division Series and the American League Championship Series this season, with TNT possibly carrying some games when there are time conflicts.

Disney-owned ESPN continued to televise games on Sunday nights, Wednesday nights, and (through the first week in August) Monday nights, switching to Friday nights for the remainder of the season, plus multiple afternoon and prime-time games on the traditional Opening Day (March 31) and the annual State Farm Home Run Derby on July 14. Certain games aired on ESPN2 due to scheduling conflicts with the parent network.

FOX Sports continued with a weekly regional Saturday Game of the Week, the All-Star Game, the National League Championship Series, and the World Series. The Game of the Week was expanded in 2007, as for the first time FOX was allowed to air Saturday games for all 26 weeks of the season, marking the first time since 1989, when NBC ended their iconic run of televising America's Pastime on a weekly basis, that a network covered games on a week to week basis for the entire season. Also, all games on FOX were televised in high definition; in previous years, only the primary (or "A") game was in HD.

The limits for telecasts per season (starting in 2008) that any team can make are as follows:

• TBS: 13 times per season.
• ESPN: Five Sunday night games per season.
• FOX: Eight games per season.

ESPN Radio continued as the national radio carrier for Major League Baseball, airing Sunday night games throughout the regular season as well as Saturday afternoon games after the All-Star break, the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby, along with selected Opening Day and holiday games, and the entire postseason.

The biggest change in local rights came as the San Francisco Giants switched their terrestrial telecast rights from longtime home KTVU (Cox Communications-owned Fox affiliate) to NBC Universal-owned KNTV after fifty years, one of the longest in televised sports history. KTVU will continue to air some Giants games as part of the Fox Sports' Saturday afternoon Game of the Week package if the team is competitive.

Canada

Baseball games – mostly involving the Toronto Blue Jays – were televised on Rogers Sportsnet, TSN, and CBC. RSN airs Fox and ESPN/ESPN 2 feeds if they do not conflict with the Toronto Blue Jays games, as well as the All-Star Game and the entire post-season.

Commemorative patches

• With the previously mentioned Nationals, Yankees and Mets stadiums, those teams wore commemorative patches on their home and away uniforms.
• The Cincinnati Reds paid tribute to Joe Nuxhall with a black patch with "NUXY" (his nickname) in white lettering.
• The Atlanta Braves honored their former bench coach Jim Beauchamp with a patch bearing his nickname ("Beach") following his death on Christmas Day 2007 from leukemia, and in August 2008 added a memorial patch for longtime announcer Skip Caray on their right sleeve following his death.
• The Yankees, who hosted the 2008 MLB All-Star Game, also wore the game patch on their uniform right sleeves. They added an armband on their left sleeve following the passing of former player and announcer Bobby Murcer from cancer just days before said All-Star Game.
• Both the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants wore special patches to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of their franchises moving to California from the New York area – the Dodgers from Brooklyn's Ebbets Field to Los Angeles and the Giants from the Polo Grounds to San Francisco.
• The Arizona Diamondbacks wore a 10th Anniversary patch, celebrating a Decade in the Desert
• The Oakland Athletics celebrated their 40th Anniversary on the East Side of San Francisco Bay.

Throwback/Alternate uniforms

• The Philadelphia Phillies added an alternate uniform that emulates their 1948 uniforms, which was all off-white with no red pinstripes, but have red and blue trim around the neck, sleeve ends and outseams of the pants, and a blue hat with a red "P" and bill. The interleague alternate hat (Red hat with blue bill with white P with blue star in the middle) was dropped;
• The Cleveland Indians added an alternate off-white home uniform, based on the one worn in the late 1950s and early 1960s without player names on the back, replacing their "Chief Wahoo" vest;
• The Kansas City Royals added an alternate light blue jersey based on their successful era from the 1970s and 1980s;
• The Toronto Blue Jays wore a replica of their 1979 road uniform – complete with pullover jersey and belt loops with a blue belt that were not featured in the original outfits (there was a blue/white/blue knit-in belt) to be worn on Friday night home games. The Jays also had a new road uniform with blue lettering and numbers, a change from the gray-on-gray numbering from a year ago. The Jays utilized 'Flashback Friday', where they would use a retro uniform every Friday at the Rogers Centre.
• Additionally, teams such as the Chicago White Sox, San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Seattle Mariners wore throwback uniforms in "Turn Back the Clock Day" events as a tribute to a particular year in that team's history. Two of the more notable throwback uniforms started on June 12, when the Chicago Cubs and the Atlanta Braves wore 1948-styled uniforms to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Cubs games being broadcast on WGN-TV. The Atlanta Braves wore Boston Braves uniforms because they didn't move to Atlanta until 1966, moving to Milwaukee in 1953. The game, which was played at Wrigley Field was broadcast in black and white, as they did in 1948, for the first two innings. Also notable was when the Pittsburgh Pirates celebrated baseball's Negro league heritage by wearing the uniform of the 1933–38 Pittsburgh Crawfords during several Saturday home games, and in Washington on May 3, the Pirates and the Washington Nationals wore the home and road uniforms of the Homestead Grays, a team which used both Pittsburgh and Washington as their "home" city. The Tampa Bay Rays (dressed as the Jacksonville Red Caps) participated on June 28, and the Milwaukee Brewers (dressed as the Milwaukee Bears) participated on July 5. The Detroit Tigers (1920 Detroit Stars) and Kansas City Royals (Kansas City Monarchs) also paid annual tributes to this era in the season.
• The Oakland Athletics brought back their black alternate jerseys and caps (with modifications of the jersey) from the 2000 season.
• The Atlanta Braves began wearing new blue jerseys for Sunday away games.
• After discarding them for one season, the Chicago Cubs revived the blue alternate jersey.
• The Chicago White Sox dropped the pinstriped alternate home vests.

Military tributes

Several teams wore special uniforms to honor military serving overseas:

• The San Diego Padres donned their camouflage jerseys for every Sunday home game, while the White Sox and the Reds each honored the military with camouflage jerseys in a "one-off" event during the July 4th holiday weekend;
• All teams during the July 4 weekend and on September 11 wore special caps with each team's cap logo woven into the "Stars and Stripes" (with the exception of the Toronto Blue Jays, whose logo is woven with the Canadian flag). The sales of these caps to the public will benefit Welcome Back Veterans, a group of veterans organizations.

Helmets for coaches

• Following the death of Colorado Rockies minor league coach Mike Coolbaugh as a result of a foul ball striking him on the neck, all coaches on the first and third base lines began to wear batting helmets as a mandatory rule starting this season.

Other

• The Oakland Athletics wore their classic white cleats for the first time since 1999.