 California sank to three games behind with five games left in the season, but won all five,— a shutout of Seattle in the Kingdome followed by a four-game sweep of the Oakland Athletics—while Seattle lost their last two at Texas, forcing the tiebreaker.Seattle received home field advantage for the tiebreaker by winning a coin toss late in the season.As per normal MLB practice at the time, the home team for this game was determined by a series of coin tosses held on September 18 to determine home teams for all potential one-game tiebreakers.