Baseball Pennant Race Question

[Gangster_Octopus]

There is a the ptoential for Boston, New York, and Cleveland to end up with identical records when the season ends on Sunday. I know that means there would be a play-off between New York ad Boston on Monday, but would there then be a play-off on Tuesday with loser and Cleveland on Tuesday?

[JeffB]

The loser of the Yankees-Red Sox playoff would play the Indians. From an article by Christian Ruzich on Baseball Prospectus that deals with this type of situation (substitute Indians for Mariners):

In a shocking display of common sense, Major League Baseball decided not to stop after one game, but will force all the teams with the same record to play at least one elimination game. Rather than scheduling tee times, the loser of the Yankees-Red Sox playoff game would now play the Mariners (at a coin-flip determined location) to see who is awarded the Wild Card playoff entry.

[RickJay]

While that may have been the official scenario in a part year I can’t actually find what MLB plans to do this year. The MLB “what if?” page doesn’t address the OP’s scenario.

[brianjedi]

From http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20050925&content_id=1223384&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

What if the Yankees, Red Sox and Indians all finish with the same records?
The Yankees and Red Sox play in New York for the AL East title and the loser plays the Indians for the Wild Card berth on Tuesday. New York is at the Jake if the Yanks lose and the Tribe is at Fenway if the Red Sox lose.

Why, you might ask, is there a Wild Card playoff game when the Indians would have a half-game better record than the Yankees-Red Sox loser? MLB has determined that it would not be fair for a team that’s tied for a division title at the end of the regular season to be displaced in the postseason by a second-place team. Thus, the mandatory Wild Card playoff game.

That page also covers what happens if the AL East and the AL Central end in ties. That’s a nightmare scenario which could potentially result in 3 playoff games just to determine the AL playoff teams.