Baseball Tiebreaker Rules
Games in Major League Baseball (MLB) may not end in a tie. For this reason, there are rules written out for conducting extra innings that will continue on until a winner is determined. Ties can also occur for the end of the season standings that determine which teams will continue on to the playoffs. The league is still figuring out how all their potential tiebreaker scenarios should work as the current wild-card system has only been in effect since 1994 so tiebreaker rules may change from year to year.
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Extra Innings
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If both teams have the same number of runs at the end of nine innings, a game will continue into extra innings. If the visiting team scores one or more runs, the home team has the bottom of the inning to attempt to score that amount of runs or more. If it does not, the visiting team wins the game. If the home team scores more than the visiting team during the bottom half of an inning, it will win the game.
Non-MLB Games
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Although the rule for extra innings is similar in college baseball and many other leagues, some leagues might not have the ability to go into extra innings. In a local youth baseball league that does not have the access to lighting equipment for night games, a tie game might have to be called a tie. This is especially the case if the league is so tightly scheduled that they cannot schedule a time to resume the game at its current point. In this case, both teams will earn a tie for their records.
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Division Championship
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If two teams in the same division in Major League Baseball are tied for a division playoff spot and they both have a better record than the best second-place team, the team with the better head-to-head record will be the division champion and the other team will be the wild card. If the two teams are tied for a division championship playoff spot and the teams have a worse record than a second place team from another division, they will play a one-game playoff. The home team of that one-game playoff will be determined by the best head-to-head record. If in either of these scenarios the head-to-head record is the same, the team with the best division record gets the division championship or the home game respectively. If the division record is the same, the division record for the second half of the season is counted to see who comes out on top.
Wild Card
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If two teams are tied for a wild card in Major League Baseball, the teams will play a one-game playoff game. The location of the game will be determined by the team with the better head-to-head record against the other wild-card team. If three teams are tied, the top team determined by head-to-head records and division play will play a one-game playoff against the winner of a head-to-head playoff by the other teams. Similar scenarios can occur with four teamsas well, which will lead to multiple one-game playoffs.
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References
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