The baseball postseason starts Sept. 29, and after a bizarre season defined by the coronavirus, there will be nothing normal about October baseball.

First of all, there will be 16 teams instead of 10, more than half of Major League Baseball's 30 teams.

The wild-card round, usually a dramatic one-game playoff, has moved to a three-game format with all three games played in the ballparks of the top-seeded three division winners in each league.

After that, all games will be at a neutral site.

Like the regular season, there will be no fans in attendance, although Commissioner Rob Manfred has said there could be a limited number of fans for the League Championship Series and the World Series.

The 16-team format is designed to make up for lost revenue from a shortened 60-game season. MLB and the players' union agreed to the expanded idea on opening night, with the news breaking during the Yankees-Nationals game in Washington on July 23.

But, at least for one year, the format sucks all the high drama from September races because the top two teams in each of the leagues' six divisions make the playoffs in addition to two wild-card teams.

Could baseball's postseason become too much like those of the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League, which never seem to end?

Except for this year, NHL playoffs go for two months. The NBA, in a normal playoff, can have 105 games.

This year in baseball, a team needs 13 victories for a World Series title.

Even though the new format hasn't started, Manfred thinks the extra teams are a positive. He might not want 16, but he might push for 14 in future negotiations.

"There's a lot to commend it, and it is one of those changes I hope will become a permanent part of our landscape,'' Manfred said in mid-September. And, he said, owners are overwhelmingly in favor of adding teams to October's postseason.

Already, MLB playoff teams and their families have been quarantined the final week of the season to create a safety bubble.

Only spouses, domestic partners, children and child-care providers can stay with players during the transition period, according to the Associated Press. Family members will not be allowed into the bubble hotels at the four sites without a seven-day quarantine.

The last thing MLB needs for the postseason is a COVID-19 outbreak with a team, similar to when the Miami Marlins had 20 positive tests during the season's first days and needed to spend a week quarantined in a Philadelphia hotel, disrupting their own schedule and those of other teams.

Another new postseason wrinkle is that the wild-card round, the best-of-five Division Series and the best-of-seven League Championship Series will be played without any days off in between games. In the past, there's been an off-day after Game 2 and Game 5 in each LCS.

The new format will present new strategic challenges for managers who will have to decide if they want to use a five-man rotation or pitch an ace on short rest.

After the wild-card round, the following three series will be played at neutral sites.

In the American League, the Division Series will be played in San Diego's Petco Park and Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The National League's Division Series will be in Houston's Minute Maid Park and Globe Life Park, the new home of the Texas Rangers.

The ALCS will be played in San Diego and the NLCS, as well as the World Series, will be played in the Rangers' ballpark.

It won't be the first time an entire World Series has been played in the same park.

The last time it happened was in 1944 was for the "St. Louis Showdown,'' when the 105-win NL Cardinals, with Stan Musial and Marty Marion, beat the AL champion Browns in six games.

The Cardinals were by far the fans' favorite team in St. Louis.

It was the Browns' only AL pennant. They became the Orioles in 1954.

In 1921 and 1922, two New York teams - the Yankees and Giants - played the World Series in the Giants' home ballpark, the Polo Grounds. The Giants won both series. Yankee Stadium opened in 1923.

If the World Series goes until the final game next month, Game 7 is scheduled for Oct. 28, a typical end date for a World Series - and that's about the only thing normal during this pandemic postseason.

Not only will the Division Series, League Championship Series and World Series all be played at neutral-site locations, but the schedule for these series has been altered in terms of off-days, meaning teams will have plenty of decisions to make when it comes to pitching.

The best-of-three Wild Card Series, best-of-five Division Series and best-of-seven League Championship Series will each take place without any off-days in between games. Teams will have to decide whether to use the traditional five-man rotation or utilize four starting pitchers, with the potential for as many as three of them pitching on short rest.

Each series will be preceded by at least one off-day, though more are possible depending on when other series are completed.

The 116th World Series is slated to start with Game 1 on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at Globe Life Field in Arlington. A potential Game 7 is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 28.