MLB & NPB: Entering the postseason

So this is actually my first time watching a postseason unfold on television. because it's so hard to get any footage of the games over here the only time before this year I was able to watch a baseball match was in 1991 when the Minnesota Twins and the Atlanta Braves were playing in the World Series. They actually showed those matches on cable TV.
So as always when it comes to deciding games there's always a huge fuzz about what's going on and what's going to happen and so on. With the Phillies clinching their first division title since 1993 and the Rockies an a blazing run winning their tiebreaker against the Padres in the 13th inning you couldn't ask for more excitement, I guess. To someone who has always been watching football which only takes place on the weekend it's still a mystery why you have to play 162 games to get to this point. Well, at least there's a game everyday for almost 6 months.
So the Phillies lost to Colorado in Game 1 (2:4), the Red Sox crashed the Angels (4:0) at Fenway and the Cubs started their postseason campaign with a loss against the Diamondbacks at Arizona (3:1). Today, the Yankees and the Indians will take action for the first time.

It seems things are falling into place in Japan as well. I still don't get the mode by which they determine who plays against who in postseason. As far as I found out they used to have just the Japan Series after the regular season in which the respective league pennant winners played against each other in a seven game series. Not so nowadays. The league tables on Japan Times Online show three teams in each division who claimed a playoff spot. The Central League will have the Yomiuri Giants, the Chunichi Dragons and the Hanshin Tigers, the Pacific League will feature the Nippon Ham Fighters, the Softbank Hawks and the Chiba Lotte Marines. Who will play against who is still a mystery to me.