The Royals have dropped six of nine, yet still find themselves four games back of a playoff spot with less than three weeks to go. They’ll have to go on a hot streak and pass the Guardians, Rangers, and Mariners to win that final spot.
But what if they and another team finish with identical records for that final spot? Who has the tie-breaker?
The first thing to know about tiebreaker rules is that MLB no longer has a “Game 163”, the one-game playoff that has been used in the past to break a tie between
two teams vying for a post-season spot. The post-season TV schedule has already been set in stone, and we can’t do anything to upset our TV partners.
Instead, tie-breakers will be determined by the following criteria:
- Head-to-head records
- Intradivison records – regardless of whether the two teams are in the same division
- Interdivison records – but only in your own league
- Last half of interleague games – the last 81 games, not games since the All-Star break
- Last half of interleague games plus one – add the last interleague game from the first half. Keep adding games until the tie is broken
Let’s look at the five teams vying for the final Wild Card spot – the Mariners, Rangers, Guardians, Royals, and Rays.
- The Mariners are currently in the final Wild Card spot with a 77-68 record. They have a tiebreaker over the Guardians and Rangers. They are tied with the Rays, so it would come down to intradivision records. Seattle is 27-18 against the AL West with seven pending intradivision games, while the Rays are 16-23 with 13 intradivision games to end the year. The Mariners are tied 2-2 with the Royals for the year, with a three-game series coming up that will determine their tie-breaker.
- The Rangers are 1.5 games back at 76-70. They lose a tiebreaker with the Mariners and Royals. They are tied with the Rays, so it would come down to intradivision record. The Rangers are 25-24 with three games pending. The Rangers are 3-0 against the Guardians, with a three-game series against them to finish the year.
- The Guardians are 2.5 games back at 74-70. They have a tiebreaker over the Royals and Rays, but lose the tiebreaker to the Mariners. If they sweep the Rangers and tie the head-to-head matchups against them, the tiebreaker with Texas could come down to intradivison record, where the Guardians are 24-13 in the Central with 15 intradivision games remaining.
- The Royals are 73-72 and four games back. They hold the tiebreaker over the Rangers, but not the Guardians. They are tied with the Rays, and have a 25-25 intradivision record, with their two games against the Guardians this week as their only remaining intradivision games. Their upcoming series with the Mariners will determine the tiebreaker between the two teams.
- The Rays are 72-72 and four and a half games back. They lose the tiebreaker to the Guardians, but tied their head-to-head matchups with the Mariners, Rangers, and Royals, leaving it to intradivision records.
And what if three teams finish with the same record? If one team has the head-to-head tiebreaker over the other two teams, they would win the tiebreaker, and the other two teams would revert to the head-to-head tiebreakers. If all three teams each have a tiebreaker over another team, then it goes to overall winning percentage against the other two teams.
This shows the critical nature of these games in Cleveland. The Royals needed to win the series to win the head-to-head season series against Cleveland and earn the tiebreaker. Last night’s loss ensures they will lose the season series to the Guardians and would be edged out should they end up with identical records. But these remaining two games still have importance – the Royals’ record against intradivision foes like the Guardians will matter if they end up tying the Rays in the standings.
Hopefully, this will be of some consequence going into the final week of the season. But the Royals will need to get the bats going and get back in the win column as time is running out.
