With the Cleveland Guardians' 10-7 victory over the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field late Tuesday night, the Guardians secured a win of their season series against their divisional foe, which would prove to be key in the case of an unlikely tie-breaker.
As a result of Major League Baseball expanding its playoff format, there will no longer be tie-breaker, play-in games that decide playoff spots.
Instead, MLB will use head-to-head record as the top-determining tie-breaker.
Tuesday night, the Guardians secured their tie-breaker over the next-closest team to them in the American League Central, the Chicago White Sox.
The White Sox now trail the Guardians by five games in the American League Central division race, which now essentially becomes six games with the Sox losing their season series to the Guardians.
The Guardians, 81-67, and White Sox, 76-72, will play two more games in Chicago this week. The Sox entered the series in need of a sweep to have a realistic shot at a division crown. Now, it would take a miracle for the Sox to make the playoffs with two weeks remaining in the regular season.
The White Sox would need to go 10-4 over their final 14 games while the Guardians go 4-10. In this scenario, an 85-win team would win the AL Central. The White Sox would need to go 11-3 if the Guardians went 5-9 over their final 14 games. A White Sox comeback at this point in the season is highly unlikely.
The Guardians have a chance to bury their division rival even further this week, closing in on securing their fifth playoff appearance in seven years.
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