What happens if AL West, NL wild card are tied? MLB tiebreaker rules - USA Today

With one day remaining in MLB's regular season, we still don't know the identities of the final two teams in the 2026 playoffs.

There's a pretty good chance a tiebreaker will be needed to decide the AL West division champion and the third NL wild card participant.

The Houston Astros and Texas Rangers are deadlocked atop the West with identical 80-81 records. Meanwhile, the floundering Philadelphia Phillies (87-74) are a game ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks (86-75). If they don't claim the postseason spots outright, the Astros and Diamondbacks would win their respective tiebreakers.

The Astros won the season series against the Rangers 9-4, so if the two teams finish the regular season tied, Houston would advance to the AL playoffs as the No. 3 seed.

The only way for the Rangers to advance would be to win their game on Sunday at Minnesota and have the Astros lose to the A's in Sacramento.

The Phillies and Diamondbacks split their six games during the regular season, so they would need to go to MLB's second tiebreaker: Intradivision record.

The Phillies went 28-24 vs. their NL East rivals, while the Diamondbacks were 32-19 against their NL West foes.

The Phillies need a win at home against Tampa Bay or an Arizona loss in San DIego to claim the NL's No. 6 seed.