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:
Let’s look at the five teams vying for the final Wild Card spot – the Mariners, Rangers, Guardians, Royals, and Rays.
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.