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2021 MLB playoffs: Jeff Passan answers 20 burning questions

OVER THE NEXT four weeks of the MLB playoffs, there will be 30-plus games of significant consequence, at least nine win-or-go-home contests and one trophy lifted by the team that survives the grind of October. There will be thousands of pitches, more than 1,000 balls in play, hundreds of strikeouts and hits and upward of 100 home runs -- all of which will help crown a champion.

Major League Baseball's postseason will hold its 117th World Series starting Oct. 26. And in anticipation of that, let's answer 20 questions that put a bow on the 2021 regular season and prepare you for what's to unfold over the next month and those thereafter.

What is this October going to look like?

Should be pretty great. Kicking off the festivities, the sport's greatest rivalry in a winner-take-all game, with the team that beat them both during the regular season ready to vanquish them once more. On night two, there is a superteam that could be gone after one game and a superteam awaiting it if it advances. There's the Henry Aaron memorial series in the National League, and one more between the American League's two most-talented-on-paper teams.