DETROIT – Another night, another win for the Detroit Tigers as baseball’s best team moves ever closer to a playoff spot.

All relevant wild-card contenders won on Wednesday night, except for the Red Sox and Rays, who were both eliminated.

This makes the American League playoff race much clearer. In yesterday’s analysis, we included the low-success scenarios in which these two teams made a late run, but now that is mathematically off the table.

Here’s an updated look at the playoff situation with four games remaining in the regular season.

Minnesota Twins

For several innings, it looked as if the Tigers were virtually assured of a place in the playoffs when the Twins fell behind 3-0 to the Marlins in the first inning.

However, they fought back, deciding the game in the seventh inning and thus avoiding the complete disaster of falling three games behind with four games left to play.

Still, the Twins have their backs against the wall. They are two games back and need to find a way to get even with the Tigers or Royals to advance. Minnesota holds both tiebreakers.

The Twins have one more game against the Marlins before welcoming the Orioles to Target Field. The circumstances of this series could be very interesting – more on that in the Orioles section below.

Kansas City Royals

Once again, the Royals have righted the ship just as it was about to capsize. They rebounded from a seven-game losing streak in early September to win seven of nine games. Now, after another seven-game losing streak, they have reeled off two straight wins against Washington.

No, the Nationals aren’t great, but they have some exciting young talent. Luckily for the Royals, they have a chance to test Patrick Corbin in the series finale before heading to Atlanta for three games.

The Royals and Tigers are still tied at 84-74, which is a perfectly acceptable result for the Tigers.

If Detroit can get through Thursday with the same record as Kansas City, they have a good chance of getting the second wild card spot – after all, the Tigers are playing against the White Sox and the Royals are playing against the Braves this weekend.

Seattle Mariners

The Mariners are like a character in a movie who is hanging by his fingertips from a cliff. They haven’t fallen yet, but only their index finger will do.

Wednesday’s win delayed the seemingly inevitable, as Seattle remains 2.5 games behind the Royals and Tigers. The Mariners have just three games left (against the pesky Oakland A’s), so the best they can finish is 85-77.

Unfortunately for Seattle, it lost to all three opponents in the playoff game – the Tigers and Twins based on head-to-head results and the Royals based on division records.

Even if the Mariners beat the A’s this weekend, they can’t catch the Royals in the divisional record — the Royals are 33-19 in the AL Central and the Mariners are 29-20 in the West. This is the second tiebreaker since they split their six head-to-head meetings.

Baltimore Orioles

The Orioles beat the Yankees again on Wednesday night, meaning the Tigers’ faint hopes of hosting the wild-card round hang by a thread.

Baltimore is four games ahead of the Tigers in the wild card standings with four games remaining. That means the Tigers need to go 4-0, the Orioles need to go 0-4, and the Royals need to lose at least one more time to bring the first round of the playoffs to Comerica Park.

It’s extremely unlikely, but not impossible. The Orioles will face Gerrit Cole at Yankee Stadium on Thursday night and then head to Minnesota for a three-game stretch against the desperate Twins.

Here’s an interesting thought: The worst-case scenario for the Tigers on Thursday is that both the Orioles and the Tigers lose. That would eliminate the Orioles from the AL East race, but also guarantee that neither the Tigers nor the Royals can catch Baltimore.

This would secure the first wildcard spot for the Orioles and give them little incentive to give their all in Minnesota. Assuming the Twins beat the Marlins on Thursday, the Tigers would only have a one-game lead going into the final series and the Twins’ duel might not be as tough as feared.

So if the Tigers win on Thursday afternoon, they should wish the Orioles a loss to keep the dream of a playoff series alive. If the Tigers lose, they should wish the Orioles a win and keep their own AL East hopes alive so they can win something in Minneapolis.

The Yankees play the Pirates for the final three games of the season, so the Twins will likely have the first wild-card spot locked in by the time the schedule closes on Friday. But this one important game against the Twins could make all the difference.

New York Yankees

We still have to consider the possibility of the Tigers playing the Yankees in the first round.

If the Orioles finish 4-0, the Yankees 0-4 and the Tigers finish ahead of the Royals, Detroit would get the second wild card spot and could play at Yankee Stadium.

It’s a very unlikely scenario, but we’ll keep it on the list until it’s mathematically impossible.

What has already been decided

The following has already been established around baseball:

• The Guardians and Yankees both have AL byes unless the Orioles come back and win the AL East, in which case the Guardians would be the No. 1 seed and the Orioles would be the No. 2 seed.

• The Astros are the number 3 seed in the AL and will host the last wild card team in the first round.

• The Orioles have secured a spot in the playoffs.

• The two NL byes belong to the Phillies and Dodgers unless the Padres come back and win the NL West, in which case the Phillies and Padres would secure the byes.

• The Brewers are number 3 in the NL and will host the last wild card team in the first round.

• The Padres have secured a spot in the playoffs.

The two leagues look incredibly similar heading into the final four days of the regular season. The third division winner is decided, while the two teams in the bye positions battle for the top spot. And in both leagues, one of the top two division winners has yet to prevail.

Cleveland tied with the Yankees on Wednesday, but New York still has the best chance at No. 1. Not only are the Yankees half a game ahead of the Guardians (with one fewer loss), they also have the tiebreaker and have three games this weekend against the Pirates while the Guardians play the Astros.

The Dodgers, like the Yankees, are half a game ahead of the Phillies in the race for first place, and both play their second-place rivals tonight for a chance to win the division title.

If we’re being honest, San Diego is pretty much done for in the race for the NL West. The Padres need to beat the Dodgers on Thursday and then hope the Rockies win at least two of three games against the Dodgers this weekend, which is extremely unlikely.

The race for the final two NL wild-card spots took a turn when the Mets-Braves games on Wednesday and Thursday were postponed because of weather. The two teams will now play a doubleheader in Atlanta on Monday, which was supposed to be the off day between the regular season and the start of the playoffs.

Currently, the Diamondbacks and Mets are “tied” for second and third in the wild card spot, with the Braves one game behind. However, the Diamondbacks have played two more games, so they are actually tied with the Braves in the loss column and behind the Mets in percentage.

With the Braves having the tiebreaker, the Diamondbacks have to be a little nervous, especially since their final series is against San Diego. At least they know that either the Mets or the Braves have to lose those head-to-head games on Monday.

Conclusion

Wednesday was the toughest game on the Tigers’ schedule because of the two pitchers, but despite a rocky performance from Keider Montero, they pulled it off once again.

Now all attention turns to Thursday afternoon. If the Tigers can complete the sweep of the Rays, they will enter the White Sox series with at least a one-game lead over the Twins.

A loss on Thursday will make this weekend even more exciting, even against the worst team in MLB history. Needing a sweep is never easy.

This is how I would rank the possible remaining outcomes in order of probability.

1. The Tigers get the second wildcard spot and play in Baltimore.

2. The Tigers get the third wildcard spot and play in Houston.

3. Tigers miss the playoffs.

4. The Tigers receive the first wildcard spot and host the Orioles.

5. The Tigers get the second wildcard spot and play against the Yankees in New York.

Note that the only option on this list that was removed from yesterday’s version is the Tigers securing the second wild-card spot and playing in Kansas City. With the Royals no longer able to overtake the Orioles, it’s impossible for Kansas City to snag the first wild-card spot.

The only reason the Tigers are still in the running in this conversation is because they won the season series against the Orioles.