With tonight’s thrilling 1-0 victory over the Cleveland Indians, coupled with the White Sox falling to the Kansas City Royals, the Minnesota Twins have extended their AL Central lead to 6 games and have reduced their Magic Number to 15.
↵A team’s magic number is defined as “the total of additional wins by the front-running team or additional losses (or any combination thereof) by the rival team after which it is mathematically impossible for the rival team to capture the title in the remaining games.”
↵In layman’s terms, this means that any combination of Twins victories and White Sox losses that adds up to 15 means that the Twins will win the American League Central.
↵The Texas Rangers and Cincinnati Reds both also have magic numbers of 15 at this point, meaning that those three teams are equally close to winning their respective divisions and punching their tickets to the post-season.