It’s a chaotic chase for the last two American League wild cards. Here are the potential outcomes . . . and some are pretty wild

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This article was published 30/09/2021 (1825 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With four days to go until the end of the Major League Baseball season, the battle for the two American League wild card spots is just about as chaotic as it can get.

Four teams are squarely in the hunt for two wild card spots as of Thursday morning. Here’s a look a where they sit in the race, and what’s ahead of them the rest of the way:

• New York Yankees (90-68): Started the day in the first wild card spot, up one game over the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees finish a three-game series against the Blue Jays on Thursday, before wrapping up the season by welcoming AL East winners Tampa Bay Rays to Yankee Stadium over the weekend.

• Boston Red Sox (89-69): Started the day in the second wild card spot. The Red Sox play the rubber match of a three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday, before travelling to Washington, D.C. to end the regular season with a three-game series against the Nationals.

• Seattle Mariners (89-70): The Mariners are half a game back of Boston and a wild-card spot. Seattle has the day off Thursday, before finishing the season with a three-game set at home against the Los Angeles Angels.

• Blue Jays (88-70): Toronto sits a half game back of the Mariners, and a full game out of the second wild card spot. Cy Young candidate Robbie Ray will go to the mound against the Yankees in Wednesday’s series final, before the Orioles come to town over the weekend to end the year.

Home field advantage goes to the team that won the season series, or the team with the best inter-league record, if need be. The Red Sox have winning records against each of the Blue Jays (10-9), the Yankees (10-9) and the Mariners (4-3). The Jays have a winning record over the Yankees (11-7), the Yankees have a winning record over the Mariners (5-2) and the Mariners have a winning record over the Jays this season (4-2).

Boston’s inter-league mark (13-4) is better than Toronto at 14-6, New York at 12-8 and Seattle at 9-11, but they are the only team to play a National League competitor over the final weekend of the season.

Still with us? Great to have you. Here’s how tiebreakers would work.

We’re sorry to say the dream of a five-way tie is dead.

The prospect of ultimate chaos ended on Wednesday, when the Oakland Athletics were officially eliminated from playoff contention. While it is conceivable New York, Boston, Seattle, Toronto and the Houston Astros could all finish the season with 90-72 records — if the Astros were to lose out the rest of the way — a AL West division tiebreaker would still need to be played.

The Astros and the Mariners would play game No. 163 at Minute Maid Park, because Houston won the season series. The winner of that game would clinch the AL West title and move on to the Division Series, while the loser would be in the mix for a wild card game.

Houston needs one win out of their last four — one against the Rays tonight, three against Oakland — to clinch a playoff spot and the division title.

If two teams tie for the best record for the wild card … the answer is simple: no extra game, just the wild card. The team with the better head-to-head record in season gets home field advantage.

If two teams tie for the second wild card spot … Game 163 comes into play. Those two teams would play a one-off game, with the winner earning a place in the one-off wild card game.

If three teams tie for two wild card spots … Things start to get tricky. All three teams get A, B and C designations. Club A hosts Club B, with the winner of that game going to the wild card. The loser then visits Club C, with the winner of that game clinching a wild-card spot.

How are these designations, which you’ll see a lot of coming up, selected? The team with the best head-to-head records gets to chose first, the team with the next best head-to-head record selects second, and so on.

In this case, the team with the best in-season record has the first choice to make:

• be Club A, giving yourself two chances at a wild card game

• be Club B, also giving yourself two chances at a wild card game but none in front of home fans

• be Club C, and bank on winning at home in a one-off game.

If three teams tie for one wild card spot … the A, B and C designations return, but this time they play out slightly differently. Here, Club A plays Club B. The winner of the game goes on to play Club C. Whoever is victorious in the second game advances to the wild card.

If four teams tie for one wild card spot … Welcome to the party, Club D. There are three games in this scenario. First: Club A vs. Club B, and Club C vs. Club D. The winners of those two games will then play, at the home of the winner of the Club A vs. Club B game, to determine the wild card contender.

If four teams tie for two wild card spots … Yup, a lot is still in play as of writing on Thursday morning. This one may seem crazy, and be unlikely, but the resolution is fairly straightforward. Club A hosts Club B, Club C hosts Club D. The winner of the two games each clinch a wild card place.

Laura Armstrong is a Star sports reporter based in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @lauraarmy