Expert: Brian Flaspohler - 9/17/2010

Question
Looking at the standings, I was curious as to what the rule is if there are two second-place teams with the same record that qualify for the wild card position.  The logical thing to do would be for those teams to play each other and the winner would be the wildcard winner.  However, if one of those teams was only one game behind the division winner, should they win the wildcard playoff game, it would put them a half game in first place and make the end-of-season division winner the wildcard winner.  What do the rules say should this situation arise?

Answer
Ron,

The rules are set so that the two teams play a game just as you describe.  Even if by playing the game one team moves into first place, they still just qualify as the wildcard team.

The statistics count like a regular season game, but the division champion is determined by the first 162 games.

Hope this helps!

Brian