The National League playoff field is now set after the Los Angeles Dodgers clinched the NL West with a victory over the San Francisco Giants Tuesday night. The only factor left to determine over the remaining handful of days is seeding.
Along with the Dodgers, the New York Mets, St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs will have a chance to chase down World Series glory. The biggest surprise is that the hyped Washington Nationals didn’t qualify for the postseason.
Let’s check out how the standings shape up with five days of play left in the regular season. That’s followed by some analysis on the remaining races.
National League Standings
Breaking Down NL Playoff Races
Most of the focus over the final days will be on the NL Central. The Pirates would love to chase down the Cardinals to win the division and avoid the Wild Card Round. At the same time, the Cubs are still within striking distance of Pittsburgh for home-field advantage in a possible wild-card matchup.
St. Louis is in good shape after winning the opening game of its current series with Pittsburgh. It holds a four-game edge with five to play, including a doubleheader between the teams Wednesday. Even if the Cards lose both, they’ll be up two games heading into a three-game set against the lowly Atlanta Braves.
Cardinals infielder Matt Carpenter talked about how important winning that series opener was to set the tone in both clubhouses, as noted by Jenifer Langosch and Tom Singer of MLB.com:
Mathematically, they’re not out of it, but it doesn’t look great. I’m putting myself in their shoes. You’re coming in with the expectation, or at least the hope, that if we sweep this series, we’re right back in it. Then to lose the first one, it kind of takes the wind out of your sails. I’m sure they’re going to be able to rally and come back and fight us tough the next two days, but if they had won tonight, all of a sudden it puts pressure on us. I think it’s definitely a momentum shift.
If the Cardinals do hang on, then the focus shifts to the Pirates and Cubs.
Pittsburgh is in the driver’s seat with a three-game lead, but the picture will become more clear by Friday. While the Pirates have the doubleheader with a motivated Cardinals squad, the Cubs have two games with a Cincinnati Reds group that’s out of the race.
Both teams face the division’s cellar dwellers to finish the season. The Pirates welcome the Reds to PNC Park while the Cubs travel to face the Milwaukee Brewers. So Chicago will want to trim the lead by at least one game, and preferably two, to have a realistic shot of taking over the top wild-card spot.
The Cubs’ silver lining is the fact they hold an 11-8 edge over the Pirates this season. They are 5-4 at home and 6-4 on the road, meaning even if they fall short in their bid to host the likely Wild Card Game, it doesn’t doom their chances to advance.
Home field is also up for grabs between the Mets and Dodgers for the NLDS. The matchup itself is already locked in, as whichever two teams survive the NL Central whirlwind will battle in the other divisional series. New York holds a slight one-game advantage with five games left for both teams.
The Mets have two games with the league-worst Phillies before ending the season with a series against the Washington Nationals. The Dodgers finish with two more games against the Giants and three with the San Diego Padres. No real edge either way based on those schedules.
As for the season series, the Mets won four of the seven contests. Interestingly, that was powered by doing something few other teams did against the Dodgers: solve their fifth-ranking pitching staff, as noted by Maggie Wiggin of MetsBlog:
All told, pitching will be the name of the game in the National League playoffs. The five teams that have punched their tickets to the postseason also own MLB’s five best team ERAs.
Whichever teams can come up with more clutch hits in the late innings will head to the Fall Classic. It’s a recipe for some outstanding drama in the weeks ahead.
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