With a little less than a month left in the MLB regular season, chaos reigns in the National League Wild Card chase. Entering play on Monday, there were seven teams within six games of a postseason season — four of whom are all tied with each other for the third and final playoff spot. Here’s a look at how things stand entering the first full week of September.
NL Wild Card standings, September 4
1st Wild Card: Philadelphia Phillies — 75-61, +5.5
2nd Wild Card: Chicago Cubs — 74-64, +3.0
3rd Wild Card: Arizona Diamondbacks (70-67), Miami Marlins (70-67), San Francisco Giants (70-67)
Cincinnati Reds — 71-68, —
San Diego Padres — San Diego Padres — 65-73, 5.5 GB
While the Reds have the same base winning percentage as the three teams ahead of them, their actual winning percentage (.5107914) is lower than that of the other three teams (.5109489). The expansion of the postseason last year brought about the end of Game 163, meaning that if multiple teams tie for a Wild Card spot, it will come down to a tiebreaker. If the season ended today, the Giants would be in based off the tiebreaker rules.
The Giants and Marlins have identical records against each other (3-3) and have a better record in those matchups than Arizona, which would move things down to the next tiebreaker: intradivision record, which the Giants have the advantage in.
That said, there’s still a lot of baseball to be played between now and the end of the season, so expect these standings to go through a fair bit of change between now and then.