The Chicago White Sox‘s 9-6 loss to the Colorado Rockies and the 11-5 Cleveland Guardians win over the Kansas City Royals ended the American League Central race. Cleveland clinched its third consecutive AL Central title, fourth in the last five seasons and seventh since 2016.
The White Sox could have forced Cleveland to win on Sunday to earn the AL Central title. After winning the season series over Cleveland with seven wins to six losses, the White Sox would have won the AL Central tiebreaker with the Guardians.
The White Sox will play in the best-of-three wild-card series at the AL Western Division Champion. The Texas Rangers beat the Minnesota Twins 6-2 on Saturday to improve to 80 wins and 81 losses. The Houston Astros are at the A’s this weekend. Houston owns the tiebreaker against Texas by winning the season series 9-4.
Houston beat the White Sox three games to one in the 2021 Division Series. That was their second postseason meeting after the White Sox swept Houston in the 2005 World Series before the Astros moved to the American League.