White Sox Clinch

It seems I was incorrect last night when I argued that a White Sox tie with Cleveland at the end of the season would necessitate a one-off playoff game. It turns out that, with the win this afternoon, if the White Sox do end the season in a tie, both they and the Indians will still have a better record than the top two Eastern Division teams, the Red Sox and the Yankees, could both possibly have--because they're playing each other, one of the teams could have a better record than the tied White Sox and Indians, but both could not. I talked about the possibility of a Eastern Division tie at the end of the season, too, but if that happened, both those teams would be a game behind the tied Central Division team, so only one--whoever triumphed in the one-game playoff--would go to the league playoffs.

The tied White Sox and Indians would both go to the playoffs--one with the division title and the other with the wild card. Since a playoff berth would not be at stake, the league would just fall back on how the White Sox and Indians fared in head-to-head match-ups through the year. To get the tie, remember, the Indians would have to sweep the Sox over the weekend, but the White Sox would still end up with a final 11-8 record against them. So therefore, the Sox would go into the books with the division title, the Indians would get the wild card, so they'd be happy too, and either the Red Sox or the Yanks would go home crying (and there's no secret who my choice for crying is). This is all explained in an article at the Major League Baseball Website.

So congrats to the White Sox! Cleveland also won, so they're still in a position to sweep over the weekend and end the season in a tie. New York and Boston also both won, so they go into their final head-to-head with the Yanks one game up. Still, a Boston sweep gives them the Eastern Division, and a 2-1 split leaves a tie (remember, a tie in he Eastern Division results in a one-game playoff for the title). GO RED SOX!