As late as Saturday afternoon, the Cubs still had a chance to host Wild Card Series games. Or go to Atlanta to play the Braves.
With the Padres’ win over the Diamondbacks Saturday evening in San Diego, they clinched the top wild card spot over the Cubs. That was San Diego’s 90th win of the year, and the Cubs can now max out at 89 if they win Sunday against the Red Sox at Tropicana Field.
Thus this year’s first postseason series for the Cubs will be a rematch of last year’s series against the Padres,
except the venue moves to Petco Park instead of being hosted by the Cubs at Wrigley Field. The Cubs won two of three from the Padres in San Diego in April, for whatever that’s worth. Those two wins were the first two of the Cubs’ first 10-game winning streak earlier this year.
So in the end, Sunday’s Cubs/Red Sox game is now meaningless. I would expect the Cubs to rest some regular players and use some relievers who aren’t the high-leverage guys. At the time of this post (8 a.m. CT), neither the Cubs nor the Red Sox had announced a starting pitcher, and it’s possible both teams go with a bullpen game. As always, we await developments.
We got a bit more clarity on some other postseason positioning after Saturday’s games.
In American League games Saturday, the Guardians defeated the Royals and the White Sox lost to the Rockies. Those results clinched the AL Central title for the Guardians and dropped the White Sox into the No. 6 American League seed. Thus Cleveland gets a first-round bye and the White Sox will play the AL West winner on the road.
That winner has yet to be determined. The Astros and Rangers both won Saturday and are tied atop the AL West at 80-81. If they remain tied after Sunday’s games, Houston owns the tiebreaker and will be the AL West champion. Otherwise the team with the better record between Houston and Texas will win that division and host the White Sox in a Wild Card Series. Whoever wins will have the worst record for any division champion in MLB history. This has raised questions about seeding for the postseason, but that’s a topic for another day.
The last undecided Wild Card spot is the No. 6 seed in the National League. The Phillies got blown out by the Rays 12-1 Saturday and are 87-74. As noted above, the Diamondbacks lost to the Padres and are 86-75. If Philadelphia and Arizona are tied at 87-75 after Sunday’s games, the D-backs get the postseason spot because of the second tiebreaker, intradivisional record (they and the Phillies split their season series 3-3). If the Phillies win Sunday, they get the postseason berth. Whoever takes this spot will travel to Atlanta to face the Braves in a best-of-three Wild Card Series beginning Tuesday.
None of the Wild Card Series games have starting times yet; I’ll post the full schedule when it’s available, likely this evening.
