Teams 
Kansas City and Oakland met in the first ever Division Playoff Series as a result of the 1981 split season. The Athletics were in command of the entire Division Playoff Series, sweeping the Royals 3 games to 0.
| Game 1 • at Kansas City • Tuesday, Oct. 6 | |||||||||||||
| A's | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | - | 4 | 8 | 2 |
| Royals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| NORRIS and Heath; LEONARD, Martin (9) and Wathan. HR: Gross, Murphy. T-2:35; A-40,592. | |||||||||||||
| Game 2 • at Kansas City • Wednesday, Oct. 7 | ||||||||||||||
| A's | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | - | 2 | 10 | 1 | |
| Royals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 1 | 6 | 0 | |
| MCCATTY and Newman; JONES, Quisenberry (9) and Wathan. HR: none. T-2:50 A-40,274. | ||||||||||||||
| Game 3 • at Oakland • Friday, Oct. 9 | |||||||||||||
| Royals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 1 | 10 | 3 |
| A's | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | x | - | 4 | 7 | 0 |
| GURA, Martin (4) and Wathan; LANGFORD, Underwood (8), Beard (8), and Heath. HR: McKay. T-2:59 A-40,002 (120,868). | |||||||||||||
