Breaking down the tiebreakers for the postseason and how the A's can impact the AL Wild Card and AL West races over the final week.
The Athletics have eight games remaining, including Saturday's matchup with the Cleveland Guardians in the second game of their series. Two of those games are in Cleveland, and the final four games of the season are back at home in Sacramento against the Houston Astros. In between is a quick two-game series against the Los Angeles Angels.
The one team that will be rooting for the A's down the stretch is the Toronto Blue Jays, who currently find themselves two games behind the Chicago White Sox for the final American League Wild Card berth. In between them are the Texas Rangers, who sit only one game back.
Both the Rangers and Astros have 77-77 records, effectively leaving them tied. The Rangers and Blue Jays have two more games against one another this weekend which will also play a big role in how things ultimately shake out, but it's the Rangers that hold the tiebreaker in that scenario, already holding a 5-0 record over the Jays.
The White Sox also hold the tiebreaker over Toronto while sitting one game back of Cleveland in the AL Central. If the A's end up taking the series over the Guardians this weekend, that could put Chicago back in first and help out Toronto, who holds the tiebreaker over Cleveland.
After this weekend, Cleveland will have three games in Boston followed by three games in Kansas City. Chicago will start the week in Kansas City, then head back home to take on the Colorado Rockies. In terms of strength of schedule, the Sox have the inside track, though there's no guarantee the Red Sox will be playing competitively with their own position locked up for October.
Where things get interesting is with the Astros, who have two games at home against Atlanta this weekend, followed by three in Seattle and four in Sacramento. Texas will face the Mets and Twins.
Houston is 4-5 against the A's this season, and the green and gold have made a habit of beating playoff contending teams this month, taking three of four from Seattle, two of three from Toronto, and then two of three from Seattle again to put an end to their October dreams.
Another solid weekend to end the season against Houston would put them into the wild-card hunt and presumably vault Texas to the divisional crown. That helps Toronto, due to the intradivisional record tiebreaker. Toronto and Houston split six games this season, but the Jays are currently 25-24 against the East while the Astros are 22-24 against the West.
If the A's are taking that season-ending series, that would be enough for Toronto to hold that tiebreaker, if it came to it.
The more immediate need is to keep Cleveland in the wild-card race, where Toronto holds the head-to-head tiebreaker. The A's can have an impact on that outcome this weekend, with Jacob Lopez and Jack Perkins scheduled to start.
While the A's can play a huge role in determining the postseason field over the final week, for Toronto to take advantage, they'll have to win games themselves. They won't quite need to run the table, but with two games to make up with eight to play, they'll probably have to go at least 6-2 to secure that October bid.
