Detroit ― Even as the Tigers’ lead in the American League Central appears to get more comfortable with each passing day, there could be a lot at stake in this week’s series against the Houston Astros.
The series at Comerica Park from Monday through Wednesday between the Astros and Tigers is a meeting of two of the American League’s three division leaders, with the stretch run looming. And playoff seeding could be in play.
As records stand today, the Toronto Blue Jays (AL East) would be the No. 1 playoff seed, while the Tigers (AL Central) would be the No. 2 seed. As such, both teams would get a first-round bye in the postseason and, thus, advance straight to the best-of-five AL Division Series.
The division champion with the worst record in each league, currently the Astros in the AL (West), would play in a best-of-three series against the wild-card team with the worst record.
But it’s currently pretty close between the Tigers and Astros, who met in last year’s wild-card series, when the wild-card Tigers beat the AL West-champion Astros in two games.
The Tigers are 73-53 while the Astros are 69-55, entering Monday night’s series opener.
The Blue Jays are just ahead of the Tigers, at 73-52.
If there are ties between division champions, they will broken via tiebreakers for playoff-seeding purpose. The Astros hold the tiebreaker over the Tigers based on head-to-head record (2-1), but if the Tigers sweep the upcoming series, they would own the tiebreaker. If the Tigers take two of three, they would still hold the tiebreaker, because if there’s still a tie in head-to-head, it goes to intra-division records, where the Tigers hold a significant edge over the Astros.
The Blue Jays hold the tiebreaker over the Tigers based on head-to-head record (4-3), as do the Seattle Mariners (4-2), should the Mariners eventually pass the Astros in the AL West.
The Tigers’ lead in the AL Central is at 8.5 over the Cleveland Guardians entering Monday, with 36 regular-season games left for Detroit. Six of those games are against the Guardians, Sept. 16-18 in Detroit and Sept. 23-25 in Cleveland
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984
