The Chicago White Sox have pushed all season to do the improbable.
They’ve already achieved part of that, clinching a playoff berth on Thursday after two consecutive seasons of more than 100 losses.
The next hope is for an AL Central Division crown, which would add to the improbability of it all.
The White Sox are in a close race with the Cleveland Guardians, and with two games left in the MLB regular season, there’s still so much to play for.
The division title in the AL Central is particularly important this season because it comes with a first-round bye.
The top-two division champs in each league get byes into the Divisional Round. The Tampa Bay Rays already have secured one of the byes, but the other will go to the AL Central, because the champion here is guaranteed to have a better record than the AL West.
Whichever of the White Sox or Guardians wins the division gets to skip the Wild Card Round altogether. Whichever team doesn’t win the division will be the AL’s 6-seed and go to the AL West champion for a best-of-three Wild Card Series — that’ll be at either the Houston Astros or Texas Rangers, with that division still up for grabs.
Entering the weekend, the Guardians have held onto their one-game lead over the White Sox. The teams have matched results all week long.
Cleveland has two more games to play in Kansas City against the Royals. The White Sox get two more games against the Colorado Rockies.
And yeah, there’s a decent chance they end the regular season of 162 games with the exact same record.
White Sox-Guardians Tiebreaker
The Chicago White Sox hold the tiebreaker with the Cleveland Guardians.
The first tiebreaker used in the rules is head-to-head record in a given season between the two teams that are tied.
Division foes play 13 times, and the White Sox beat the Guardians 7 of those times, for a 7-6 mark that narrowly claims the tiebreaker.
That means that Chicago needs only to shoot for a tied record with Cleveland, because a tie is essentially a victory for the White Sox.
White Sox Playoff Scenarios
A playoff berth is secured, but it’ll still take some work to win the division and the first-round bye that comes with it.
The White Sox have to outperform the Guardians by at least one game across the final two weeks of the season.
That means if the White Sox win both against the Rockies, the Guardians can go no better than 1-1.
And if Chicago only wins one against Colorado, they would need Cleveland to go 0-2 to close out against the Royals.
Both teams will be favored against the two non-playoff foes, but it’s still baseball, and all sorts of things can happen in a small sample size. So take a deep breath knowing that both of these teams are in the playoffs, and then lock in to see if one of them can take the division by the horns.
White Sox-Guardians Tiebreaker: How Chicago Can Make Playoffs With Same Record