JaKyL25 posted...
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7005248/three-way-tie-american-league-wild-card-race-cause-logistical-nightmare
So if the Angels were to win the wild card, they could find themselves playing Wednesday in California; Sept. 29 in Boston; Sept. 30 back in California; the opening of the ALDS Oct. 1-2 in New York; then Oct. 3-4 in California -- with no travel days.
-The Rays will have first choice of potential tiebreaker scenarios, because their combined 16-10 record against the Red Sox and Angels was the best head-to-head winning percentage of the three teams. So they would have two options:
• Let the Red Sox and Angels play an elimination game Sept. 29 -- then face the winner of that game Sept. 30 on the road, or
• choose to play two elimination games, the first at home Sept. 29, and the second (if they win) at home again Sept. 30.
The Rays likely would decide to play just once, naturally. So the Red Sox would get the next choice because their 12-14 head-to-head record was better than the Angels' 6-10 record.
Boston would have the choice of playing both elimination games at home or playing the first at home and the second on the road, and clearly would opt for the two home games.
I am so rooting for this nonsense to actually happen, I don't care who comes out of it or how it affects the Tigers.
Ah, but the article fails to address one thing. See, being that they're the furthest back, the Angels would need to be picking up more wins down the stretch than the others. Add to that the fact that the Red Sox, as much as they've been struggling, have owned the Yankees all year (and that the Yankees have pretty much clinched everything there is to clinch--they could have home field advantage for the first two rounds wrapped up by tomorrow if they win the opener and Texas and Detroit both lose), and you've got an interesting scenario.
Let's say that this does happen somehow, and that the Yankees put up only a marginal effort and lose the last two. (Don't ask me how, as both Texas and Detroit are facing the bottom ends of the rotations of bad teams tomorrow--it just does) Texas then loses the second game of their series against King Felix before taking the finale. Meanwhile, the Rays take 2 of 3 from Toronto and the Angels sweep Oakland.
Records:
Texas 91-68
Boston 90-69
Tampa Bay 88-71
Los Angeles 88-71
The Rays and Angels both sweep their final series, while Boston loses 2 of 3. The Angels' final series is against Texas.
Texas 91-71
Los Angeles 91-71
Boston 91-71
Tampa Bay 91-71
Texas and Los Angeles must first play a 1-game playoff to decide the division. Tampa still has the best winning percentage even if Los Angeles is replaced by Texas as the third team (which would happen if LA wins the division), but Texas would be next. Furthermore, it would delay the playoffs even further...
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Ulti (in one of his Post-Contest Analyses): God of War turned a 5 hour deadlock into a total laugher
Anagram: Oh God, Tidus and Yuna were involved?