Kansas City Royals First-Place Clinch Scenario

Kansas City's traditional magic number (relative to first-place Chicago) is 1 + 161 - 0 + 1 = 163.
Kansas City's first-place clinch number is 156.
Kansas City must win 156 more games (156 total) to clinch first place.

If Kansas City wins 156 more games, their final win total will be at least 156.
The table below shows the best case scenario for each of the other teams if Kansas City wins 156 of their remaining 161 games and loses the other 5.
For each team, the table shows the current record (number of wins (W) and losses (L)) and the number of games that team has
left to play (GL) in the regular season. Taking the schedule of games left to play into account, the 'Losses to Kansas City' column gives the
minimum number of games that each team will lose to Kansas City if Kansas City wins 156 more games. Assuming that a team wins all of its remaining games except for
the games it loses to KansasCity, the resulting maximum number of wins is shown in the 'Maximum W' column.

Team             W	L	GL	Losses to Kansas City	Maximum W
Minnesota        1	0	161	      12 - 5 = 7	155
Chicago          1	0	161	      13 - 5 = 8	154
Cleveland        0	1	161	      13 - 5 = 8	153
Detroit          0	1	161	      13 - 5 = 8	153

The table above shows that if Kansas City wins 156 more games (156 total), then they will finish the season in first place in the division.

To see that Kansas City's first-place clinch number cannot be less than 156, consider the following scenario in which Kansas City wins 155 more games (155 total) but does not finish in first place:

Team             W	L	PCT	GB
Minnesota        156	6	0.963	0.00
Kansas City      155	7	0.957	0.00
Chicago          75	87	0.463	80.00
Detroit          50	112	0.309	105.00
Cleveland        46	116	0.284	109.00

To construct the scenario, we start with the current standings in the division:
Team             W	L	GL	PCT	GB
Chicago          1	0	161	1.000	0.0
Minnesota        1	0	161	1.000	0.0
Cleveland        0	1	161	0.000	1.0
Detroit          0	1	161	0.000	1.0
Kansas City      0	1	161	0.000	1.0

Next, we show how the remaining series of games in the division play out in the scenario:


Cleveland currently has 0 wins against Chicago and 0 losses.
  Cleveland wins 13 additional games against Chicago and loses 0.
  Cleveland wins the series 13 games to 0

Detroit currently has 0 wins against Chicago and 0 losses.
  Detroit wins 13 additional games against Chicago and loses 0.
  Detroit wins the series 13 games to 0

Detroit currently has 0 wins against Cleveland and 0 losses.
  Detroit wins 13 additional games against Cleveland and loses 0.
  Detroit wins the series 13 games to 0

Kansas City currently has 0 wins against Chicago and 0 losses.
  Kansas City wins 13 additional games against Chicago and loses 0.
  Kansas City wins the series 13 games to 0

Kansas City currently has 0 wins against Cleveland and 0 losses.
  Kansas City wins 13 additional games against Cleveland and loses 0.
  Kansas City wins the series 13 games to 0

Kansas City currently has 0 wins against Detroit and 0 losses.
  Kansas City wins 13 additional games against Detroit and loses 0.
  Kansas City wins the series 13 games to 0

Minnesota currently has 0 wins against Chicago and 0 losses.
  Minnesota wins 13 additional games against Chicago and loses 0.
  Minnesota wins the series 13 games to 0

Minnesota currently has 0 wins against Cleveland and 0 losses.
  Minnesota wins 13 additional games against Cleveland and loses 0.
  Minnesota wins the series 13 games to 0

Minnesota currently has 0 wins against Detroit and 0 losses.
  Minnesota wins 13 additional games against Detroit and loses 0.
  Minnesota wins the series 13 games to 0

Minnesota currently has 1 wins against Kansas City and 0 losses.
  Minnesota wins 6 additional games against Kansas City and loses 6.
  Minnesota wins the series 7 games to 6

Chicago wins 74 games agains teams outside the division and loses 35.
Cleveland wins 33 games agains teams outside the division and loses 76.
Detroit wins 24 games agains teams outside the division and loses 85.
Kansas City wins 110 games agains teams outside the division and loses 0.
Minnesota wins 110 games agains teams outside the division and loses 0.

Combining the current standings with the wins and losses from the scenario results in the final standings listed above.
# Kansas City Royals' magic number
# Kansas City's magic number
# Royals' magic number
# MLB Playoff Race