Royals can clinch playoff berth on Friday thanks in part to son of former player

The Royals selected Jeff Conine in the 58th round of the 1987 Major League Baseball Draft, and despite seemingly having long odds, made it to the big leagues three years later.

Conine played parts of two seasons with the Royals before the Marlins selected him in the expansion draft. Conine ended up playing 17 seasons, which included one more stint with the Royals.

In 1997, Conine’s son Griffin was born, and he helped the 2024 Royals’ playoff push on Thursday night.

Griffin Conine also plays for the Marlins and his two-out, two-run single in the 13th inning helped Miami beat the Twins 8-6 in a wild game in Minneapolis.

“We like playing the role of villain,” Conine told reporters afterward. “We want to be the spoilers. That’s what we said going in, and we got a couple of good wins this series, which is awesome.”

It’s safe to say the Twins let one get away Thursday as you can tell by this stat.

Conine and the Marlins took two of three from the Twins at Target Field as the Royals swept the Nationals in D.C. That reduced the Royals’ magic number to one.

Clinching scenarios

Champagne will be chilling at Truist Park in Atlanta on Friday, but it won’t be for the Braves.

The Royals’ playoff clinching scenarios are simple:

• KC can earn a postseason berth by beating the Braves tonight in Atlanta OR

• If the Royals lose, they’ll get in if the Orioles beat the Twins

Atlanta is one game out of a playoff spot and is fighting for its postseason lives, so Friday’s game likely will have a playoff feel to it.

Playoff seeding

And then there were three.

The Yankees (East), Guardians (Central) and Astros (West) have clinched division championships. The Baltimore Orioles have secured one of the three wild cards in the American League.

That means the Royals, Tigers and Twins are vying for the final two playoff berths. KC and Detroit have identical 85-74 records, while the Twins are at 82-77.

Minnesota has the tiebreaker on the Royals and Tigers, so the Twins need to sweep the Orioles and have either KC or Detroit get swept. The Tigers are playing host to the White Sox to end the regular season.

Baltimore can clinch the top wild-card spot and the right to be host of a three-game playoff series by beating the Twins just once this weekend.

The Royals have the tiebreaker over Detroit and are currently the fifth seed. The third wild card will be the sixth-seeded team and play the Astros in the first round of the MLB playoffs. The other two wild-card teams will play at the home of the team with the better record.

Cleveland and New York have secured first-round byes.

The playoffs begin Tuesday.