Major League Baseball reaches its 162nd and final regular season game today with two postseason spots still up for grabs. The Astros and Rangers enter the day deadlocked at 80-81 atop the AL West, and the Diamondbacks trail the Phillies by a single game for the National League’s last Wild Card berth. Everything else in the bracket is already locked, which means the two remaining races will decide the final four teams in an already-loaded October field.
The AL West Comes Down to a Coin Flip
Houston sits at 80-81 on the road against a 64-97 Athletics team, while Texas is 80-81 as well and hosting a 76-85 Twins club. Both games project as favorable matchups on paper, which is exactly why the head-to-head tiebreaker matters so much: the Astros own it over the Rangers this season. That means a Houston win clinches the division outright, and even a Houston loss still hands the Astros the division if Texas also loses. Only a Rangers win paired with an Astros loss flips the division to Texas. Because the AL’s three Wild Card spots (Yankees, Red Sox and White Sox) are already clinched, there is no fallback for the loser of this race. Whichever of Houston or Texas fails to win the division goes home for the winter, regardless of record.
Arizona Needs a Miracle, and It Starts Against a Division Champion
The Diamondbacks put together a six-game winning streak to claw back into the race before a 10-7 loss to the Padres on Saturday snapped it. Arizona sits at 86-75, one game behind Philadelphia’s 87-74, and closes the year on the road against a Padres team that has already clinched a Wild Card spot. Philadelphia, meanwhile, hosts the American League’s best record, the 98-63 Rays, with Zack Wheeler on the mound and Jesus Luzardo activated off the injured list to be available out of the bullpen if the Phillies need length in relief. A Philadelphia win clinches the spot outright. But if the Phillies lose and the Diamondbacks win, the two teams finish tied at 87-75, and the tiebreaker favors Arizona: the season series is even at 3-3, and Arizona holds the edge in the secondary tiebreaker of divisional record. A Diamondbacks team that trailed for most of September would steal the final playoff spot from a team that led the race virtually all year.
The Rest of the Bracket Is Already Set
- AL: The Rays (AL East, best record in the league) are the No. 1 seed with a bye. The Guardians (AL Central) are the No. 2 seed with a bye. The Yankees and Red Sox both clinched Wild Card spots and will face each other in the Wild Card round.
- NL: The Brewers (102-59, the best record in baseball) are the No. 1 seed with a bye. The Dodgers (99-62) are the No. 2 seed with a bye. The Braves (94-67) locked up the NL East and the No. 3 seed. The Padres and Cubs both clinched Wild Card spots and will face each other in a rematch of last October’s Wild Card Series.
- The AL West winner will play the White Sox, and the winner of the Phillies-Diamondbacks race will play the Braves at Truist Park, once those final two spots are decided today.
Wild Card Round Opens Tuesday
Every Wild Card Series is a best-of-three with the higher seed hosting all three games if necessary. Game 1 is Tuesday, Game 2 is Wednesday, and a decisive Game 3 would be played Thursday. The Cubs travel to Petco Park to face the Padres in a rematch of last year’s NL Wild Card Series, which Chicago won in three games. The Red Sox head back to the Bronx to face the Yankees for the second straight October. The two matchups still being sorted today, the AL West winner against the White Sox and the Braves against either the Phillies or Diamondbacks, will be finalized as soon as tonight’s results are official. Division Series play begins Saturday, October 3.
What It Means for Fantasy Rosters
Today is the last day regular-season counting stats accrue, which still matters for any season-long or dynasty league that came down to the wire on home runs, strikeouts or saves. Once the final outs are recorded, postseason production stops feeding those league totals, but it starts feeding something else: name value and trade equity heading into next year’s drafts. A deep October run raises the profile of everyday contributors on the Astros, Phillies or Diamondbacks roster in a way a quiet October at home never will, and bullpen roles decided today, like Luzardo working in relief in Philadelphia, are worth tracking for anyone projecting next spring’s role battles. For fantasy players who follow the postseason itself, the format shift matters too: with lineups now built around who actually takes the mound and who sits in a workload-managed October, roster construction depth, not raw regular season numbers, becomes the swing factor for the next three weeks.
See today's MLB lines on DFS Lines, each one set against the player's last ten games.