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(AP) -- One and done.
 
A pair of wild-card matchups - St. Louis at Atlanta, then Baltimore at Texas - will decide which teams advance to the next round.

Part of the new, expanded postseason format, where 162 games, six months of grinding and upward of 50,000 pitches get boiled down to nine all-or-nothing innings.
 
In the first contest, the St. Louis Cardinals are facing the Braves in Atlanta with 16-game winner Kyle Lohse (lohsh) facing Kris Medlen, who is 10-1 this season.

The Braves have won the last 23 times in which Medlen, a converted reliever, has been the starting pitcher.
 
Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez has announced that catcher Brian McCann has been benched for the game.

David Ross will start and bat seventh, the only change in the Braves' regular lineup.

Plagued by injuries, McCann has endured the worst year of his career. He batted just .230 with 20 homers and 67 RBIs.
 
The second game features the two American League Wild Card clubs as Baltimore plays at Texas.

The Orioles are going with Joe Saunders, a late season acquisition from Arizona.

 The Rangers, who have lost in the World Series the past two seasons, are using first-year sensation Yu Darvish.
 

(Copyright ©2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)