- This is a weird situation, which I can't remember having seen before. If the Red Sox win tomorrow, they could finish the season with the same record as the Yanks, but that is not considered a tie. If the Yankees and Boston had finished in a three-way tie with Cleveland, then NY and Boston would have been considered in a dead heat and would have had to play a tie-breaker. But since there is no three-way tie (Cleveland lost), a tie between the Yanks and Red Sox is not considered a dead heat, but is decided automatically by their season series, which the Yankees won.
- Despite the loss, the Red Sox have now clinched at least tie for the wild card. In the event that they lose Sunday AND Cleveland wins, the two teams will play a single head-to-head game to determine the wild card winner. If Boston wins Sunday and/or if Cleveland loses, the Sox win the wild card outright.
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Yankees beat Red Sox, clinch title.
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Was the "series season" tie-breaker added with the advent of the Wild Card, to avoid the possibility of two tie-breaker rounds? I'd never even heard of that before now.
ReplyDeleteYes, and no.
ReplyDeleteIt was added with the wild card rule, but not to avoid the double tie-breaker rounds. In the event of a three-way tie, they DO play two rounds of tie-breakers.
I thought I knew baseball rules fairly well, but like you I had no idea that there was any such thing as a tie-breaker. I thought all ties had to be decided by head-to-heads.
Live and learn, I guess.