Posted September 16, 200420 yr MLB conducts tiebreaker coin flips Fourteen teams involved in possible scenarios By Mark Newman / MLB.com Felipe Alou and the Giants will host a one-game playoff at SBC Park, if necessary, thanks to winning all five coin tosses they were involved in. (Morry Gash/AP) In what is fast becoming an annual rite in Major League Baseball, a series of coin tosses were conducted Wednesday in New York to determine the sites for 16 potential two-team tiebreakers to clinch division and Wild Card playoff berths. San Francisco Giants fans should be especially pleased by the results. The Giants are involved in five such scenarios right now, and they won all five coin tosses should an extra game be needed at SBC Park on Monday, Oct. 4. WHAT'S THE SCENARIO? NL West ? Los Angeles at San Francisco NL Wild Card ? Chicago at San Francisco ? Houston at San Francisco ? Florida at San Francisco ? San Diego at San Francisco ? Chicago at Houston ? Florida at Chicago ? Chicago at San Diego ? Houston at Florida ? Houston at San Diego ? Florida at San Diego AL East ? Boston at New York AL West ? Oakland at Anaheim ? Oakland at Texas ? Anaheim at Texas ? Anaheim at Boston Should the Yankees and Red Sox need a one-game playoff, it would happen at Yankee Stadium. Fans of this series who remember Bucky Dent's homer in that 1978 one-game playoff will recall that it happened that day at Fenway Park. The regular season ends on Oct. 3, and the playoffs begin two days later with all of the Division Series openers except for the one involving a National League Wild Card representative; that series will open Oct. 6. Somehow everyone managed to avoid a tiebreaker game on the Monday immediately after the wild 2003 regular season, but the stage now has been set for the locales if any are needed this time. Fourteen of the 30 teams were within at least five games of either a division or Wild Card lead entering Wednesday's games, so those were the clubs that were included in the coin flips. The Phillies, a late-comer to the NL Wild Card race, subsequently won at Cincinnati to pull within 5 1/2 games, and Major League Baseball noted that it will schedule additional coin tosses in the future if necessary. Those same Phillies dominated last year's coin toss ceremony, but faded in the final week. The first tiebreaker criteria in each instance will be head-to-head regular season records, and additional tiebreaker rules will be presented here in coming days for possible three-way tiebreaker scenarios. In all cases, Major League Baseball uses tiebreaker criteria to prevent the need for a one-game playoff wherever necessary, but the coin tosses are needed just in case it comes down to that necessity. For those having trouble making heads or tails out of what is going on in these races, here is how the potential two-team tiebreaker scenarios will work: NL West Los Angeles at San Francisco. The Dodgers entered Wednesday's action with a 4 1/2-game lead over the Giants. NL Wild Card Chicago at San Francisco Houston at San Francisco Florida at San Francisco San Diego at San Francisco Chicago at Houston Florida at Chicago Chicago at San Diego Houston at Florida Houston at San Diego Florida at San Diego Bottom line in the NL: If a California team needs a tiebreaker game, it is going to happen in California. In the case of the Cubs, Astros and Marlins, there is a one-in-four chance for each of them that there could be a single home game. Florida Marlins fans, meanwhile, could see an already turbulent late schedule -- thanks to hurricanes -- become even more turbulent should the defending world champions need a one-game playoff and then win it. The Marlins finish the regular season Oct. 3 at Philadelphia; their tiebreaker-scenario game could be at either San Francisco, Houston or San Diego on Oct. 4, and if they win the NL Wild Card again, they likely would open Oct. 6 at St. Louis, because the Wild Card plays the team with the league's best record and never can open against a club in its own division. AL East Boston at New York AL West Oakland at Anaheim Oakland at Texas Anaheim at Texas Anaheim at Boston For the A's, that is further incentive to win the AL West without the need for a one-game playoff. Should the Angels or Rangers overtake the A's in that division, then that obviously could necessitate another coin flip such as Oakland vs. Boston for the AL Wild Card. For Rangers fans, it is one more glint of hope in this pleasantly surprising season. Texas will enter Thursday's games with more remaining home games than any of the AL contenders, and now it is 2-for-2 in possible AL West two-team tiebreaker scenarios. Mark Newman is enterprise editor for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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