The playoff change MLB needs to make

The one-game wild card playoff was an inspired move by Major League Baseball when it was initially launched.

The system we have now, less so. But there is a way to fix it and make the first round of the postseason wildly entertaining and tactically fascinating.

The round should start the Tuesday after the final day of the regular season as it does now, and the higher seeded club in each matchup hosts the entire three-game series. No changes there.

But here’s the wrinkle: If the lower-seeded team splits the first two games, Game 3 has to be played 30 minutes after the completion of Game 2 on Wednesday — and the lower seed team is the home team for the deciding game.

Yes, you could have eight postseason games played in one day. The first game would start at 12 p.m. Eastern and each subsequent game would start at 90 minute intervals — 1:30 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Eastern, 4:30 p.m. Eastern. You could end up having 12 hours of wall-to-wall playoff baseball. Call it October Madness. And then the divisional series begins immediately on Thursday. That way you are truly rewarding the top-2 seeds and you don’t have the start of the tournament proper buried under college football.

Think about how incredible a do-or-die Game 3 between the Yankees and Red Sox would be with the winner then racing to the airport to get to Tampa. The drama, the stakes and strategy, the unpredictability, all of it.