The AL West Winner Will Make MLB History for All the Wrong Reasons

According to ESPN's Jeff Passan, whoever survives the American League West tie between the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers on Sunday will officially hold the worst full-season record of any playoff team in MLB history.

Both Texas and Houston are sitting at a perfectly mediocre 80-81 entering game 162. The winner does not just get a participation trophy, they get the number three seed and the right to host the Chicago White Sox in a three-game wild card series starting Tuesday.

"Jeff Passan noted that whoever wins the AL West will have the worst full-season record of a playoff team in MLB history."

Rewarding a potentially 81-81 or 80-82 team with home-field advantage in October is the kind of idea that sounds like it was approved in a conference room where nobody has paid for parking in 20 years. But the Astros control their own destiny thanks to a 9-4 season series tiebreaker over the Rangers.

For anyone eyeing the Sunday slate, Houston is in Sacramento facing Oakland Athletics reliever Brady Basso, while the Astros are rolling with a mystery starter. Texas takes the mound in Minnesota, sending MacKenzie Gore to face Dean Kremer. Gore is sitting on a 4.59 ERA over 170 innings this year, which perfectly encapsulates the chaotic, survival-mode energy of this division.

Over in the National League, the final wild card spot is a straight-up stress test between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Arizona Diamondbacks. Philadelphia holds a one-game lead, but Arizona owns the tiebreaker. If the Phillies lose and the Diamondbacks win, Arizona steals the bid and a flight to face the Atlanta Braves.

Philadelphia is not leaving anything to chance, sending co-ace Zack Wheeler to the mound against All-Star Nick Martinez and the AL-best Tampa Bay Rays. Arizona is throwing Michael Soroka against the San Diego Padres, who already locked up the top wild card spot and are just playing for vibes.

By Sunday evening, the bracket will be locked. We will either get a historic collapse or a perfectly fitting end to a deeply unserious AL West race, and whoever survives gets to pretend their regular season record never happened.