Major League Baseball tie-breaking procedures

Because inclusion in the Major League Baseball postseason is based upon the teams' regular-season records, procedures exist to break ties between teams.

In common parlance, the Major League Baseball postseason is described as "the playoffs". However, the term "playoff" is only used by Major League Baseball to describe tie-breaking games that determine post-season berths. Games after the regular season are officially referred to as postseason games.

Ties between two teams

Two-way tie for the division or wildcard

Main article: One-game playoff

One game tie-breakers are played between teams tied for a division championship or the second wildcard berth in either league. These games are played the day after the season was scheduled to end. Home-field advantage for these games is determined using the rules listed below ("Breaking Ties Without Playoff Games").

Two teams that are tied for a division championship play a tie breaking game. If the losing team qualifies for a wild card berth, it is awarded that berth.

Starting in 2012, two wildcard teams are selected from each league. If these two teams are tied with each (and with no other teams) at the end of the regular season, to tie-breaking game is played. Home field advantage in the Wild Card Showdown is awarded according to tie-breakers outlined in the next section.

Breaking Ties Without Playoff Games

1. The team with the best record in head to head play.
2. The team with the best overall record ignoring interleague play.
3. The team with the best record in the final 81 games of the season, ignoring interleague play.
4. The team with the best record in the final 82 games of the season, extending backward until the tie is broken (since teams in the same division play each other as many as 19 times, this step is guaranteed to break the tie. Interleague games are skipped and ignored in this process.)

Ties between two division winners

If two champions from separate divisions have the same record, the tiebreaking procedure listed above is used to determine seeding. No additional games are played.

Ties between three teams

Three-way tie for the division or wildcard

If the three teams have identical records against each other in the regular season, the office of the commissioner conducts a draw with the teams designated as teams A, B, and C. First, team A plays team B with team A as the home team. The following day, the winner of the that game plays team C with team C as the away team. The winner of the game on the second day advances to the playoffs. The team designations are determined as follows:

• If the teams do not have identical records against one another, and one team has a best record against both other teams, and another team has a winning record against the final team, the first team shall get the first pick of their team designation, the second team gets the second pick, and the last team is assigned the remaining designation.

• If one team has a better record against both of the other teams, and the two other teams have the same record against each other, then the first team would get the first pick for team designation, and the other teams would draw lots. The winner of the draw would get the second pick, and the loser of the draw would be assigned the remaining designation.

• If two teams have the same record against each other, and both have a better record than the last team, then the first two teams draw lots, with the winner choosing their designation first, the loser of the draw picking their designation second and the final team being assigned the remaining designation.

• If each team has a winning record against one other team in the three team group, and a losing record against the other team in the three team group, the priority for choosing designations shall be chosen based on overall winning percentage within the three team group, any ties in winning percentage within the three team group will be broken by drawing lots.

"Mixed" three-way tie

The situation may arise that two teams from the same division are tied for the division championship, but they are also tied with another team from a different division, with that team not having the best record in their division, but having a better record than all of the other non-division winners.

In this case the two teams in the same division play a one game playoff, with the winner declared the division champion. The loser of the first game earns the #2 wildcard slot, and travels to the stadium of the team outside their division for the Wild Card Showdown.

Three-way ties between division winners

If there is a three-way tie among all division champions, the team with the best record against both of the other division champion is given the top seed with the remaining teams seeded as follows:

1. Best record in games against own division.
2. Best overall record in the regular season ignoring interleague play.
3. The team with the best record in the final 81 games of the season, ignoring interleague play.
4. The team with the best record in the final 82 games of the season, extending backward until the tie is broken (since teams in the same division play each other as much as 19 times, this step is guaranteed to break the tie, with interleague games skipped and ignored in this process.)

If neither team has a better record against the other teams, immediately go to above tiebreaker.

Ties between four teams

The four teams draw lots, as teams A, B, C, and D. On the first day team B plays at team A and team D plays at team C. The next day the winners of these games play each other at the ballpark of either team A or B (depending on who won the game).

References

• "MLB, union agree to expand playoffs". espn.com. 2012-03-12. Retrieved 2012-03-29. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
• "2003 postseason tiebreakers". mlb.com. 2003-09-08. Retrieved 2008-09-04. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)