The Division Series has had a 2-2-1 format since 1998, with a day off scheduled between Games 2 and 3, then another between Games 4 and 5 as the teams shift to each other’s ballpark. The League Championship Series has had a 2-3-2 format since 1985, with days off between Games 2 and 3, then another between Games 5 and 6.

Travel days were eliminated as Major League Baseball switched to a bubble environment in an attempt to avoid October interruptions caused by COVID-19.

AL Division Series start Monday, when the Yankees and Tampa Bay play at San Diego’s Petco Park, and Oakland and Houston meet at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. NL Division Series open the Tuesday, with Miami facing Atlanta at Houston’s Minute Maid Park and San Diego going against the Dodgers at new Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.

To start twice in the Division Series, Game 1 pitchers would have to come back on three days’ rest.

“The change was purely a product the timing we needed to institute the bubble and avoid extending the end date of the postseason,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred wrote in an email to The Associated Press. “We always are concerned about player health, but the number of days in a row is not all that different from stretches in the regular season and we have expanded rosters.”

Union head Tony Clark said the schedule was set at MLB’s discretion.