New York Yankees First-Place Clinch Scenario New York's traditional magic number (relative to second-place Boston) is 26 + 110 - 30 + 1 = 107. New York's first-place clinch number is also 107. New York must win 107 more games (137 total) to clinch first place. If New York wins 107 more games, their final win total will be at least 137. The table below shows the best case scenario for each of the other teams if New York wins 107 of their remaining 112 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 New York' column gives the minimum number of games that each team will lose to New York if New York wins 107 more games. Assuming that a team wins all of its remaining games except for the games it loses to NYYankees, the resulting maximum number of wins is shown in the 'Maximum W' column. Team W L GL Losses to New York Maximum W Tampa Bay 24 26 112 6 - 5 = 1 135 Toronto 25 25 112 10 - 5 = 5 132 Boston 26 26 110 13 - 5 = 8 128 Baltimore 16 33 113 10 - 5 = 5 124 The table above shows that if New York wins 107 more games (137 total), then they will finish the season in first place in the division. To see that New York's first-place clinch number cannot be less than 107, consider the following scenario in which New York wins 106 more games (136 total) but does not finish in first place: Team W L PCT GB Tampa Bay 136 26 0.840 0.00 New York 136 26 0.840 0.00 Boston 91 71 0.562 45.00 Baltimore 77 85 0.475 59.00 Toronto 72 90 0.444 64.00 Tie breakers Tampa Bay wins the season series with New York 9 games to 4. To construct the scenario, we start with the current standings in the division: Team W L GL PCT GB New York 30 20 112 0.600 0.0 Boston 26 26 110 0.500 5.0 Toronto 25 25 112 0.500 5.0 Tampa Bay 24 26 112 0.480 6.0 Baltimore 16 33 113 0.327 13.5 Next, we show how the remaining series of games in the division play out in the scenario: Baltimore currently has 3 wins against Toronto and 3 losses. Baltimore wins 4 additional games against Toronto and loses 3. Baltimore wins the series 7 games to 6 Boston currently has 3 wins against Baltimore and 1 losses. Boston wins 6 additional games against Baltimore and loses 3. Boston wins the series 9 games to 4 Boston currently has 2 wins against Toronto and 5 losses. Boston wins 6 additional games against Toronto and loses 0. Boston wins the series 8 games to 5 New York currently has 1 wins against Baltimore and 2 losses. New York wins 10 additional games against Baltimore and loses 0. New York wins the series 11 games to 2 New York currently has 0 wins against Boston and 0 losses. New York wins 13 additional games against Boston and loses 0. New York wins the series 13 games to 0 New York currently has 2 wins against Toronto and 1 losses. New York wins 10 additional games against Toronto and loses 0. New York wins the series 12 games to 1 Tampa Bay currently has 0 wins against Baltimore and 0 losses. Tampa Bay wins 13 additional games against Baltimore and loses 0. Tampa Bay wins the series 13 games to 0 Tampa Bay currently has 1 wins against Boston and 2 losses. Tampa Bay wins 10 additional games against Boston and loses 0. Tampa Bay wins the series 11 games to 2 Tampa Bay currently has 3 wins against New York and 4 losses. Tampa Bay wins 6 additional games against New York and loses 0. Tampa Bay wins the series 9 games to 4 Tampa Bay currently has 3 wins against Toronto and 1 losses. Tampa Bay wins 9 additional games against Toronto and loses 0. Tampa Bay wins the series 12 games to 1 Baltimore wins 54 games agains teams outside the division and loses 20. Boston wins 53 games agains teams outside the division and loses 19. New York wins 73 games agains teams outside the division and loses 0. Tampa Bay wins 74 games agains teams outside the division and loses 0. Toronto wins 44 games agains teams outside the division and loses 36. Combining the current standings with the wins and losses from the scenario results in the final standings listed above. # New York Yankees' magic number # New York's magic number # Yankees' magic number # MLB Playoff Race