What happens if Yankees and Athletics tie for AL Wild Card

Here’s how the tie-breaker process works and who won that battle.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It became official last Saturday that the Yankees will be playing in the American League Wild Card Game for the second year in row and it’s almost a done deal that they’ll be facing the Oakland Athletics a week from Wednesday.

Where?

Probably Yankee Stadium.

The regular season is down to six days and the Yankees lead the Oakland Athletics by 1 1/2 games for the first Wild Card, which brings home field in the one-game playoff.

Both clubs won on Monday as the Yankees prevailed 4-1 at Tampa Bay and the Athletics pulled out a 7-3 win in Seattle.

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What if the Yankees and Oakland Athletics tie for the Wild Card?

The Yankees will be home by virtue of winning the second tie-breaker, best intra-division record.

The first tie-breaker is head-to-head play, and nothing would be settled there because the Yankees and Athletics split their six games.

In division play, the Yankees were 40-30 in the AL East through Monday while the Athletics were 36-35 in the AL West.

Both clubs playing division games the rest of the way. If they end up tied in the standings, the Yankees are guaranteed to have a better division record than Oakland.

Thus if Oakland wins its five remaining games, the Yankees just need to go 4-2 to finish in a tie and play the Wild Card Game at Yankee Stadium.

There is a very slight chance that the Yankees could tie for the Wild Card and play the game on the road … if they play the Houston Astros.

That’s very unlikely because the Astros have a 4 1/2 game lead over the Athletics in the AL West. Houston can win its division on Tuesday with a win in Toronto coupled with an Oakland loss in Seattle.