Seattle Mariners First-Place Clinch Scenario Seattle's traditional magic number (relative to second-place Houston) is 83 + 10 - 83 + 1 = 11. Seattle's first-place clinch number is 10. Seattle must win 10 more games (93 total) to clinch first place. If Seattle wins 10 more games, their final win total will be at least 93. The table below shows the best case scenario for each of the other teams if Seattle wins 10 of their remaining 11 games and loses the other 1. 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 Seattle' column gives the minimum number of games that each team will lose to Seattle if Seattle wins 10 more games. Assuming that a team wins all of its remaining games except for the games it loses to Seattle, the resulting maximum number of wins is shown in the 'Maximum W' column. Team W L GL Losses to Seattle Maximum W Houston 83 69 10 3 - 1 = 2 91 Texas 79 73 10 0 89 Oakland 71 80 11 0 82 Los Angeles 69 82 11 0 80 The table above shows that if Seattle wins 10 more games (93 total), then they will finish the season in first place in the division. To see that Seattle's first-place clinch number cannot be less than 10, consider the following scenario in which Seattle wins 9 more games (92 total) but does not finish in first place: Team W L PCT GB Houston 92 70 0.568 0.00 Seattle 92 70 0.568 0.00 Texas 81 81 0.500 11.00 Oakland 74 88 0.457 18.00 Los Angeles 70 92 0.432 22.00 Tie breakers Houston wins the season series with Seattle 7 games to 6. To construct the scenario, we start with the current standings in the division: Team W L GL PCT GB Seattle 83 68 11 0.550 0.0 Houston 83 69 10 0.546 0.5 Texas 79 73 10 0.520 4.5 Oakland 71 80 11 0.470 12.0 Los Angeles 69 82 11 0.457 14.0 Next, we show how the remaining series of games in the division play out in the scenario: Los Angeles has won the season series with Oakland 9 games to 4. Seattle has won the season series with Los Angeles 9 games to 4. Seattle has won the season series with Oakland 7 games to 6. Seattle has won the season series with Texas 10 games to 3. Texas has won the season series with Los Angeles 8 games to 5. Texas has won the season series with Oakland 8 games to 5. Houston currently has 6 wins against Los Angeles and 4 losses. Houston wins 3 additional games against Los Angeles and loses 0. Houston wins the series 9 games to 4 Houston currently has 4 wins against Oakland and 6 losses. Houston wins 3 additional games against Oakland and loses 0. Houston wins the series 7 games to 6 Houston currently has 5 wins against Seattle and 5 losses. Houston wins 2 additional games against Seattle and loses 1. Houston wins the series 7 games to 6 Houston currently has 6 wins against Texas and 6 losses. Houston wins 1 additional games against Texas and loses 0. Houston wins the series 7 games to 6 Houston wins 0 games agains teams outside the division and loses 0. Los Angeles wins 1 games agains teams outside the division and loses 7. Oakland wins 3 games agains teams outside the division and loses 5. Seattle wins 8 games agains teams outside the division and loses 0. Texas wins 2 games agains teams outside the division and loses 7. Combining the current standings with the wins and losses from the scenario results in the final standings listed above. # Seattle Mariners' magic number # Seattle's magic number # Mariners' magic number # MLB Playoff Race