Miss baseball is tired, Allergies have me a little sick but mostly I am tired because I have been staying up way past my bedtime to watch some baseball. I watched the Royals and the Tigers go at it till wee hours of Monday morning, and when 5am hit to start getting the kids ready for school well lets just say that hurt. Enough about me. Last night as I watched the Red Sox beat the A’s and it got me thinking Which game is more important to win?

Last night the Royals lost to the Texas Rangers, (Go Rangers!) and while the Rangers are making a much needed comeback I am sorry the Royals were exhausted from the long game the night before. I knew the Royals were going to lose the game but the Tiger game was more important. Why? Well real baseball people know why, but Miss Baseball always wants to bring everyone into the fold. Lets talk about standings.

Major League Baseball has 30 teams and they are divided into two leagues the American League and the National League.  Each of those leagues are divided up into divisions. Here is a pretty picture to help you out.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/standings/

 

Standing are important because if you are in the first on the standings you go to the playoffs. To answer the original question which game to win. You always will pick the team in your division.  While no on likes losing it was more important for the Royals to beat the Tigers because they are in the same division. This means they would be one whole game down in the standings and because they are on top and the Tigers are number two then the Tigers would lead the division. The Rangers are not in the same division so they would only lose .5 of a game, which is why on the chart you see the .5.

So a little sample math,( now I should put that if no other teams were playing because all the other teams  playing do change standings)

The Royals play three games with the Tigers and the Rangers

The Royals have a great series and win

They would stay at  first and the tigers would be 4 GB

Tigers:  GB:1+3 losses = GB: 4

If they did the same for the Rangers they would only add 1.5

.5+.5+.5=1.5

If you are going to go all out do it for someone in your division.