Nut crunching time for Wild Card Spots....
American League: 3 out of 4 of these make it.
Current Standings
Texas 0 gms back........ 4 games @SEA
Toronto 2 gms back....... 1 gm vs NYY, 3 gms vs TBR (all at home)
Houston 2.5 gms back........ 3 gms @ARI
Seattle 4 gms back..... 4 gms vs TEX
- If Texas wins 1 game of their 4 games in the series at Seattle they are in either as AL West winner or WC. The AL West isn't locked up with just 1 wins since Houston could win out and tie Texas for AL West lead (Houston hold tie-breaker over Texas).
- Houston plays @ ARI and needs a total combination of 3 wins and/or Seattle losses over the next 4 days. They need the total to be 3 because HOU will lose in a tie-breaker between just HOU and SEA which could occur and if the total wins + SEA losses is only 2.
- Seattle needs a lot of help.
- 2 wins vs Texas + Houston lose all three @ARI
- 3 wins vs Texas + Houston only win 1 game @ARI
- 4 wins vs Texas + Houston winning only 2 games @ARI
- Toronto needs a combination of wins and or losses from the other teams listed. Lots of combinations possible. They hold tie-breaker over Houston but lose tie-breakers to the other two teams (TEX/SEA) so their best shot is to pace Houston in number of total wins on the season and/or finish 1 game ahead of SEA.
TOR and HOU are both at 87 wins and TOR has 4 games left while HOU only has 3.
I think TOR makes the playoffs because they finish with 1 gm vs NYY and 3 vs TBR. Tampa will likely be resting players since the only way the Rays improve their position is to win out and have Baltimore lose out (not likely).