The Minnesota Twins are quickly gaining ground on the AL Central-leading Detroit Tigers. Their victory over the White Sox in Chicago on Monday night moved the Twins to within 2 1/2 games of first place. The way things look at the moment, it's the only real race we're going to have during the season's final weeks, and thankfully it provides more suspense than just who is going to win the division.There's a possibility that much like last year, the Twins may be tied for first after 162 games and a one-game playoff will be needed to settle the division. The problem is that such a tiebreaker would normally be played on Monday Oct. 5 -- the same night that the Minnesota Vikings will be hosting the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football.
So what happens if both games need to be played in the Metrodome? Well, there was some talk that the NFL may move the game from Minneapolis to Green Bay but that's not going to happen. In their lease with the Metrodome, the Vikings take precedence over all Twins games unless it's the World Series.
So the NFL isn't going to budge on the matter, which means that the Twins and Tigers would have to play their tiebreaker game on Tuesday Oct. 6.
It doesn't seem like that big of a deal on the surface, but it could impact both the Tigers' and Twins' chances in the playoffs. You see, the team with the best record in each league gets to choose whether they want to start the Divisional Series on Wednesday Oct. 7 or Thursday Oct. 8. That team will, in all probability, be the New York Yankees, who will likely be playing the winner of the AL Central.Word is that the Yankees plan on starting their series on Wednesday. So that means whoever wins the tiebreaker will then immediately have to get to the airport and fly to New York where they'll take on the Yankees the next night.
