(Note: The assumption is that the Yankees/Blue Jays AL East division loser is the first wild card, and that these teams are competing for the second wild card.)
First, the three teams from the AL West would be assigned team designations of A, B, and C. The teams would get to choose which designation they wanted in the order based on their record against the other two teams. What the designations mean will be explained below when the actual tiebreaker games are described.
Current records against each other:
Rangers 17-14
Astros 14-21
Angels 19-15
The Rangers still have 3 games against the Astros this weekend and 4 games against the Angels next weekend to close out the season.
If two of these teams finish tied based on these records against the other two teams, then their season series will decide who picks their ABC designation first. The season series cannot be tied because teams in the same division play 19 games against each other.
The team with the best record against the other two teams isn't necessarily guaranteed designation A. The team is allowed to choose designation B or C instead. Then, the team with the second-best record picks between the two remaining designations, and the last team is assigned whichever of A, B, and C is left over.
On Monday, October 5, there would be two games: B@A and Twins@C. The scheduling is just speculation, but I think if the Angels hosted a game, the two games would be 6:38/10:08, and otherwise with both games in the Central Time Zone they would be 5:38/9:08.
If the Twins won, they would be declared the Wild Card team, and the winner of B@A would be the AL West division winner. The AL Wild Card Game would then still be played as scheduled on Tuesday, October 6, at 8:08. (The NL Wild Card Game also as scheduled: Wed 8:08)
If team C wins on Monday, then they will play at the winner of B@A on Tuesday, October 6, at 8:08, with the winner's winning the division, and the loser's receiving the wild card spot. The loser of this Tuesday game then plays its third consecutive one-game playoff on Wednesday in the AL Wild Card Game. The two wild card games would both be played on Wednesday, three-and-a-half hours apart, ranging anywhere from 5:08/8:38 to 6:38/10:08 based on time zones.
In any of the above scenarios, all tiebreaker games will be broadcast exclusively on ESPN, and Monday Night Football (DET@SEA) would be moved to ESPN2.
My source material for this article is http://m.mlb.com/news/article/59527184/playoff-tiebreaker-rules
This is a great source if you'd like to know about the other tiebreaking scenarios. What would happen if just the AL West teams were tied? What if just the Astros, Angels, and Twins? I only chose to explain the most complex one.
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