Tiebreaker Playoff Games

There have been 12 times that two teams ended the regular season in a tie and needed an additional game (or games) to determine postseason participation. The American League has always played a single game for this purpose, while the National League staged a best of three series through 1962, after which it switched to the single game format as well. These games are truly “playoff” games to be distinguished from the consistent MLB designation of “postseason” for the current multiple series procedure (Division Series, League Championship Series, World Series).

The games for nine of these twelve seasons are already on the Retrosheet site, since these playoff games are considered part of the regular season and all individual records from them count in the regular season totals. (Eddie Mathews passed Ernie Banks for the NL home run title in a 1959 playoff game and in 2007 Matt Holliday used his playoff game to pass Ryan Howard for the NL RBI leadership). These games comprise an interesting set and therefore this page was prepared to provide the details for all of them in one place. The links below are of two types: 1) For the games played in 1959 and more recently, the connection is to games already on the site; 2) For 1946, 1948, and 1951, the box score and play by play accounts are presented for the first time in a slightly different format since they are not part of a fully released season.

1946 (Playoff for NL Pennant)

10-01 Dodgers at Cardinals

10-03 Cardinals at Dodgers

1948 (Playoff for AL Pennant)

10-04 Indians at Red Sox

1951 (Playoff for NL Pennant)

10-01 Giants at Dodgers

10-02 Dodgers at Giants

10-03 Dodgers at Giants

1959 (Playoff for NL Pennant)

9-28 Dodgers at Braves

9-29 Braves at Dodgers