Texas Rangers First-Place Clinch Scenario Texas's traditional magic number (relative to second-place Houston) is 0 + 162 - 0 + 1 = 163. Texas's first-place clinch number is 156. Texas must win 156 more games (156 total) to clinch first place. If Texas 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 Texas wins 156 of their remaining 162 games and loses the other 6. 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 Texas' column gives the minimum number of games that each team will lose to Texas if Texas wins 156 more games. Assuming that a team wins all of its remaining games except for the games it loses to Texas, the resulting maximum number of wins is shown in the 'Maximum W' column. Team W L GL Losses to Texas Maximum W Houston 0 0 162 13 - 6 = 7 155 Los Angeles 0 0 162 13 - 6 = 7 155 Oakland 0 0 162 13 - 6 = 7 155 Seattle 0 0 162 13 - 6 = 7 155 The table above shows that if Texas wins 156 more games (156 total), then they will finish the season in first place in the division. To see that Texas's first-place clinch number cannot be less than 156, consider the following scenario in which Texas wins 155 more games (155 total) but does not finish in first place: Team W L PCT GB Los Angeles 156 6 0.963 0.00 Texas 155 7 0.957 0.00 Seattle 70 92 0.432 85.00 Houston 49 113 0.302 106.00 Oakland 39 123 0.241 116.00 To construct the scenario, we start with the current standings in the division: Team W L GL PCT GB Houston 0 0 162 0.000 0.0 Los Angeles 0 0 162 0.000 0.0 Oakland 0 0 162 0.000 0.0 Seattle 0 0 162 0.000 0.0 Texas 0 0 162 0.000 0.0 Next, we show how the remaining series of games in the division play out in the scenario: Houston currently has 0 wins against Oakland and 0 losses. Houston wins 13 additional games against Oakland and loses 0. Houston wins the series 13 games to 0 Los Angeles currently has 0 wins against Houston and 0 losses. Los Angeles wins 13 additional games against Houston and loses 0. Los Angeles wins the series 13 games to 0 Los Angeles currently has 0 wins against Oakland and 0 losses. Los Angeles wins 13 additional games against Oakland and loses 0. Los Angeles wins the series 13 games to 0 Los Angeles currently has 0 wins against Seattle and 0 losses. Los Angeles wins 13 additional games against Seattle and loses 0. Los Angeles wins the series 13 games to 0 Los Angeles currently has 0 wins against Texas and 0 losses. Los Angeles wins 7 additional games against Texas and loses 6. Los Angeles wins the series 7 games to 6 Seattle currently has 0 wins against Houston and 0 losses. Seattle wins 13 additional games against Houston and loses 0. Seattle wins the series 13 games to 0 Seattle currently has 0 wins against Oakland and 0 losses. Seattle wins 13 additional games against Oakland and loses 0. Seattle wins the series 13 games to 0 Texas currently has 0 wins against Houston and 0 losses. Texas wins 13 additional games against Houston and loses 0. Texas wins the series 13 games to 0 Texas currently has 0 wins against Oakland and 0 losses. Texas wins 13 additional games against Oakland and loses 0. Texas wins the series 13 games to 0 Texas currently has 0 wins against Seattle and 0 losses. Texas wins 13 additional games against Seattle and loses 0. Texas wins the series 13 games to 0 Houston wins 36 games agains teams outside the division and loses 74. Los Angeles wins 110 games agains teams outside the division and loses 0. Oakland wins 39 games agains teams outside the division and loses 71. Seattle wins 44 games agains teams outside the division and loses 66. Texas 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. # Texas Rangers' magic number # Texas's magic number # Rangers' magic number # MLB Playoff Race