MLB's playoffs start Tuesday. Here's what to know about the Wild Card Series

It won't take long for Major League Baseball to deliver on some spicy postseason storylines.The Wild Card Series begins Tuesday, featuring four best-of-three matchups that include the Boston Red Sox traveling to face their longtime nemesis, the New York Yankees. Also in the American League, the Chicago White Sox are at the Houston Astros, who qualified for the postseason despite an 81-81 record.Over in the National League, the Philadelphia Phillies are at the Atlanta Braves while the Chicago Cubs travel to face the San Diego Padres.Four teams earned a bye straight to the Division Series, including the Cleveland Guardians and Tampa Bay Rays in the AL, along with the two-time defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers in the NL. They'll get nearly a week to rest and regroup following the sport's long 162-game regular season.Here's more of what to know about the wild-card matchups this week:The Red Sox go to the Bronx.

Will Aaron Judge play for the Yankees?It's the second year in a row the AL East rivals will meet in the Wild Card Series. The Yankees prevailed in last season's matchup, winning 2 games to 1 after a dominant Game 3 performance by young ace Cam Schlittler.Schlittler has emerged as one of the game's best pitchers this season he's likely to win the AL Cy Young award and he'll start Game 1 after a 1.95 ERA in the regular season.It remains to be seen whether three-time MVP Aaron Judge will be in the lineup against Boston he's dealing with a right calf strain that knocked him out of the last week of the regular season. That came shortly after he missed more than three months with a broken rib.The Red Sox had a massive in-season turnaround after they were 32-46 and 15 1/2 games back in the AL East race on June 24.

Boston fired manager Alex Cora in April, and his replacement, Chad Tracy, recently had his interim tag removed.Game 1: Tuesday, 8 p.m. ET on NBC/PeacockGame 2: Wednesday, 8 p.m. ET on NBC/PeacockGame 3 (if necessary): Thursday on NBC/Peacock/NBCSNThe White Sox try to continue remarkable turnaroundThe White Sox became the first team to follow consecutive 100-loss seasons by reaching the playoffs.

Chicago's powerful lineup includes Miguel Vargas, Munetaka Murakami and Colson Montgomery, though the latter two have struggled at the plate of late.The Astros were at one point 11 games under .500, fired their general m…