The AL Wild Card race went down to the final day with two places between four teams. The Avalanche and the Astros had the postseason in their own hands, win and they would be in. The White Sox were playing the Astros, having taken the first two games of the series, and knew they had to win and hope the Guardians (who had a 7-6 H2H advantage) lost. The Guardians had to win and hope that the White Sox won as well.
The Avalanche took care of business, a 6-0 shutout of the Angels securing their place. The White Sox finished off the sweep of the Astros to eliminate them from the postseason so it came down to the Guardians needing to beat the 66-93 worst team in the AL Detroit Tigers to squeeze past the White Sox. The pressure was too much, as the Guardians fell to 4-1 defeat, gifting the White Sox a postseason berth that looked highly unlikely at the start of the month.
The Royals swept the Mets to end up with 118 wins, although they underperformed their Pythagorean performance by 4 games, producing a best predicted 122-40 season.
