Texas has closed to one game behind the Astros and the two teams are tied in the loss column. It looks to me like the Rangers have a real good chance to overtake Houston and claim the AL West crown. It means that the Twins would have to catch the Astros for the final playoff position (second Wild Card). Houston and Texas play each seven times the rest of the way and the good news is that someone will lose each one of those games.

 

I have a playoff related question as well: if Houston, Texas and Minnesota all finish the regular season with the same record, do the Twins automatically get the second Wild Card? My thought is that is the case because Texas and Houston would play a Game 163 to determine the winner of their division and the loser would be a half game worse than the team they were tied with after 162 games. Still not sure on that, though.

I'd actually like to see one team (Houston) beat the other (Texas) all 7 games. That would probably have the biggest impact to us catching and surpassing Texas for the 2nd WC ... as long as we were also able to win well more than we lose.

 

I think in case of a tie for division title ... don't they break that by comparing their season record against one another?

 

Edit: Meh, yeah ... that rule changed ...

With the teams tied in the loss column, it would be the worst case for one team to only win four, while the other wins three. Absolutely the best case is for one team to dominate the other. I like the Rangers to catch the 'Stros because Houston has been dreadful away from home, worse than the Twins. Houston still has a majority of their games on the road-14 of 23.  The Rangers lead the season series 8-4 and play four of those remaining seven games in Arlington.

 

I have a playoff related question as well: if Houston, Texas and Minnesota all finish the regular season with the same record, do the Twins automatically get the second Wild Card? My thought is that is the case because Texas and Houston would play a Game 163 to determine the winner of their division and the loser would be a half game worse than the team they were tied with after 162 games. Still not sure on that, though.

 

No, there would be 2 tiebreaker games.  First Houston & Texas would play a game to determine the Division winner, then the loser would play the Twins to determine the 2nd Wild Card Spot

Playoff games are used except for two cases: When two and only two teams are tied for the first wild card berth or when two division winners have the same record. In those cases tiebreakers are used to determine which team has home field.