The A's have it

The Yankees are chasing their fifth title in six years

By BBC Sport Online's Kevin Asseo

October means only one thing to American sports fans - it is time for the Major League Baseball play-offs.

After a six-month, 162-game regular season, baseball's post-season begins on Tuesday with eight teams vying for the World Series championship.

The start of the play-offs comes later than usual this year, due to the postponement of a week's worth of games following the events of 11 September, and for the first time ever the World Series may carry over into the month of November.

That is not the only thing different about the play-offs this year. In a shift of baseball's balance of power, the New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves do not enter the post-season as heavy favourites to reach the World Series.

Ichiro and the Mariners have had a great season

The Yankees, winners of three consecutive championships, won the American League East division title this year despite several injuries to key players.

They will have their hands full with their first round opponent, the Oakland A's, a young, talented side that recovered from a poor start in April to post the second-best record in baseball.

In addition to a potent offensive line-up, the A's have the best pitching staff in the American League, and nothing is more valuable in the play-offs than good pitching.

In what could be the most entertaining series of the play-offs, look for Oakland to hand the Yankees their first post-season series loss since 1997.

The Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Indians meet in the other first round series in the American League.

Seattle enjoyed one of the greatest seasons ever, finishing with a mind-boggling 116 wins, just one short of the all-time record.

Giambi could fire the A's to the World Series

The Mariners are a terrific all-round team, with good hitting, defence and pitching, and should prove too powerful for the Indians, who are the weakest of the AL play-off teams.

Oakland, behind their outstanding pitching staff, has the ability to upset the Mariners in the AL Championship Series and move on to play in their first World Series since 1990.

In the National League, the Atlanta Braves struggled for much of the year but still managed to win their 10th consecutive NL East division crown.

Despite their regular season troubles, the Braves are a team full of seasoned play-off veterans and should get past the Houston Astros in the first round.

The Astros have never won a post-season series in franchise history and their miserable finish in the regular season is a bad omen of things to come against the Braves.

The Arizona Diamondbacks, boasting the best pitching duo in baseball in Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, meet the St. Louis Cardinals in the other NL first round series.

Johnson is a dominant pitcher for Arizona

St. Louis were one of the hottest teams in baseball at the end of the regular season, but facing Arizona's Johnson and Schilling in a five-game series is too daunting a task for the Cardinals.

In a series that will showcase several future Hall of Fame pitchers, Atlanta and Arizona will face each other in the NL Championship Series.

Arizona is a relative newcomer to big-time play-off pressure, but should have enough talent to beat the ageing Braves and move on to a meeting with the Oakland A's in the World Series.

Expect the A's, riding the bats of sluggers Jason Giambi and Miguel Tejada, and the arms of pitchers Mark Mulder and Tim Hudson, to defeat the Diamondbacks and win their fifth World Series championship for the city of Oakland.