The final Sunday of the MLB regular season provided quite a bit of action, but there is still plenty of drama to come in the National League wild-card race.
The New York Mets, Atlanta Braves and Arizona Diamondbacks are all still competing for the final two wild-card spots, and it will all come down to Monday’s doubleheader between the Mets and the Braves in Atlanta.
The Braves are the odds-on favourites to secure one of the spots, with playoff odds above 96 per cent. Winning their matchup against the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday, the playoff odds for the Mets skyrocketed to 83.9 per cent, while the Diamondbacks’ odds plunged to 19.8 per cent, according to FanGraphs.
The Diamondbacks stayed alive on Sunday, however, with a win and forced the Mets and Braves to play out both games of the doubleheader to finalize the two wild-card spots.
Here are the different clinching scenarios available:
1. The Braves can clinch one of the wild-card spots by either sweeping or splitting Monday’s doubleheader against the Mets.
2. The Diamondbacks have no control over their playoff fate. Arizona needs one of the Mets or Braves to sweep the double-header in order to clinch a wild-card spot.
3. Like the Braves, the Mets can clinch their spot if they sweep or split Monday’s doubleheader.
In the American League, there are no playoff spots up for grabs, but the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals finalized their seeding in the wild-card bracket.
With the Tigers’ loss to the Chicago White Sox, they officially take the No. 6 seed and will play the Houston Astros. Subsequently, with their win over the Braves, the Royals secured the No. 5 seed and will play the Orioles.
The remaining teams have secured their seeds and have nothing else to play for and will wait to see who their opponent will be heading into the playoffs.
Here is what the playoff matchups would look like if the season ended today:
American League
First-round byes: No. 1 Yankees, No. 2 Guardians
Wild Card Series: No. 3 Astros vs. No. 6 Tigers and No. 4 Orioles vs. No. 5 Royals
National League
First-round byes: No. 1 Dodgers, No. 2 Phillies
Wild Card Series: No. 3 Brewers vs. No. 6 Mets and No. 4 Padres vs. No. 5 Braves
