Were playoff games eliminated in MLB?

There have been 12 one-game playoffs in MLB history. Each brought the jitters and anticipation of a playoff showdown, even though they were played as regular-season games, but Game No. 163 is now a thing of the past.

With the launch of an expanded playoff format in October, MLB decided there was no longer enough room on the schedule to break ties with a single game. Instead, a set of tiebreaker rules will now decide not only seeding but also who gets into the postseason if 162 games are not enough to determine the 12-team field. This means that the series your favorite team played in the first half could have a big impact on their playoff hopes.

“It’s going to become a big deal when everybody (fans) wakes up and realizes what’s going on,” Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell said last month.

Counsell’s team could be directly affected, as Milwaukee currently sits outside the final wild-card spot in the National League, chasing the San Diego Padres for that final postseason berth. But the Brewers will have to make up a little more ground this year as they lost their season series to the Padres 4-3, meaning if the teams finish with the same record, San Diego is in and Milwaukee is out.

“We finished the games against them in? early June,” Counsell said. “We were aware of it at the time, but there were 110 games left at that point. There wasn’t much left to do.

“We knew the rule,” Counsell said. “Everybody knew it … They felt it wasn’t feasible to have a playoff game on the schedule.”

The league understands some of the angst that could exist if a team is eliminated for a season series played around Memorial Day, but says the tradeoff of more teams in the mix for a playoff spot is worth it.

“We are excited that more of our fans will be able to experience postseason baseball this year as part of the expanded playoff format,” said Morgan Sword, executive vice president of baseball operations. “Because of the increased number of postseason games, we needed to make sure the regular season ended on time.”

While the postseason format is spelled out in the recently signed collective bargaining agreement, there is discretion regarding the details of the tiebreaker rules that will allow the league to examine the impact and make changes if necessary. As players and teams realize what’s at stake, the new rules could also result in a greater emphasis on head-to-head matchups.

“If they beat us, more than we beat them, it should be on them, so I’m all for the rule,” St. Louis Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “Our job is not to lose, so if somebody did better than us, then you go home.”

That will be more prominent starting next year, when each team plays just 13 games, as opposed to 19, within its own division. And results in the first year of the new format already show the added importance of beating other teams with playoff hopes in head-to-head matchups within the league.

“When we played the Padres, we put no more emphasis on winning those games than any other game,” Philadelphia Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said in an email. “However, after we won the series, we discussed how big this series could get.”

The Phillies are just ahead of the Padres in the National League wild-card race, and while both teams could get in, home-field advantage will be determined by the tiebreaker system if the two teams have the same record after 162 games. With the new format, it means the loser of the tiebreaker will not play at home in the best-of-three first round.

Philadelphia won its season series against San Diego (4-3) and Milwaukee (4-2), so it would win any tiebreaker between either of those teams. The Brewers now understand the task at hand: beat the opponents above them by at least one game to eliminate the tiebreaker. Otherwise, it will be a heartbreaking end to their season.

“You’re treating every game like an important game, but there’s a game the next day and the next day and the next day,” Counsell said. “You have to manage with both concepts in mind every day.”

What the new tiebreaker rules look like
With new procedures already affecting the home stretch of this season, here are the five rules governing tiebreakers:

Record against each other: Self-explanatory. And if more than two teams tie, then the team with the better combined winning percentage against the other teams wins the tiebreaker.

Intra-divisional record: If the records between them are tied (this would occur only between wildcard teams that played an equal number of games), then the best record within their own division determines the winner.

Inter-divisional record: If the first two tiebreakers do not resolve it, the next tiebreaker qualifies the records of teams within their own leagues, but not including their own divisions.

Second half intraliga games: If the teams are still tied at this point, a winner will be determined by each team’s winning percentage within its own league over the last 81 games of the season.

Second half intra-league games plus one (or more): If the teams are still tied after the first four tiebreakers, a winner will be determined by working backwards from the last intraliga game of the first half until the tie is broken.

It should be noted that there are extreme scenarios, such as five-team ties, for which the league does not have an exact answer. In these cases, there is a clause that kicks in that would require “commissioner discretion.” In other words, Rob Manfred could be picking which team makes the postseason and which team doesn’t, although the scenario is far-fetched.

What does all this mean for this season’s races?
There are a lot of close races this season, so there is the possibility of tiebreakers coming into play. That said, there is little to no chance of needing to use more than the first tiebreaker in any scenario this year. Either way, let’s take a look at how the new procedures affect some of the most exciting divisional and playoff races.

National League East: The New York Mets lead the season series over the Atlanta Braves 9-7. If the Braves sweep the final three games against New York, they will win the tiebreaker; otherwise, the Mets will come out on top. The winner will be the likely No. 2 seed and earn a bye. The loser will host a first-round playoff series.

National League Wild Card: As noted above, the Brewers lose a tiebreaker to the Padres and Phillies, while Philadelphia wins one over San Diego.

American League Central: It’s a three-team battle between the Cleveland Guardians, Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins, with the two losers likely out of the postseason.

The White Sox currently lose tiebreakers to both teams, but they still have a chance to flip that script. They will need to sweep the Guardians this week in Chicago to win that season series, while they have a 6-7 record against the Twins this year with six games to play.

Cleveland already won their season series with the Twins, so Minnesota would have to win one more game than the Guardians to beat them for the division title.

Wild Card LA: This is where a tie has the best chance of happening. The Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays are neck and neck for the three wild card spots.

The Mariners win a tiebreaker with the Blue Jays but lose one to the Rays. Meanwhile, Tampa Bay leads the season series with Toronto 8-7 with four games remaining between the teams.

The new system, and the elimination of game No. 163, will generate some headlines if head-to-head records knock someone out of the playoffs or give a bye to a division winner. This year still has every chance.