{"id":152120,"date":"2025-09-18T13:08:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T13:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/152120\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T13:08:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T13:08:14","slug":"mlb-playoff-watch-cubs-get-in-blue-jays-getting-closer-bracket-clinching-scenarios","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/152120\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB playoff watch: Cubs get in, Blue Jays getting closer; bracket, clinching scenarios"},"content":{"rendered":"

Entering play on Thursday, here\u2019s where every contending team stands with 11 days remaining in the regular season.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s in?<\/p>\n

Tickets already punched:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Milwaukee Brewers, <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Phillies, <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Chicago Cubs<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the Cubs joined the Brewers and Phillies among the teams that have clinched a postseason berth. It is the Cubs\u2019 first trip to the postseason since 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s next?<\/p>\n

On the brink of clinching a playoff spot:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Toronto Blue Jays, <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Detroit Tigers, <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

New York Yankees, <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Dodgers, <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

San Diego Padres<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays\u2019 magic number for a playoff berth is two, and Toronto\u2019s magic number to win the AL East is six. Meanwhile, the Dodgers lowered their magic number to two after a 5-0 win over the Phillies.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s clinging to life?<\/p>\n

It’s gonna be interesting:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

New York Mets, <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

San Francisco Giants, <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Arizona Diamondbacks, <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Cincinnati Reds, <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Cleveland Guardians<\/p>\n

Even with a loss to the Padres, the Mets continue to cling to the NL\u2019s third wild-card spot. New York wraps up its series against San Diego on Thursday before playing host to the Nationals. The Mets will hope to force some separation between them and the Diamondbacks.<\/p>\n

Speaking of the Diamondbacks, the club is 1 1\/2 games behind the Mets in the NL wild-card race, with both the Reds (two games) and Giants (two games) on their tails. The Cardinals (4 1\/2 games back) would need a miracle to make it to October.<\/p>\n

On the AL side, the Guardians will have a chance to sweep their three-game set against the Tigers on Thursday. Cleveland still has a chance to win the AL Central, sitting 4 1\/2 games behind Detroit, and it is similarly just 2 1\/2 games back for the AL\u2019s final wild-card spot.<\/p>\n

Playoff bracketIf the playoffs started todayAmerican League<\/p>\n

Toronto and Detroit would receive first-round byes after finishing as the AL\u2019s No. 1 and No. 2 seeds. Toronto would also have home-field advantage through the ALCS for finishing with the league\u2019s best record.<\/p>\n

AL Wild Card Series: No. 6 Red Sox at No. 3 Astros; No. 5 Mariners at No. 4 Yankees.<\/p>\n

ALDS: Red Sox\/Astros vs. Tigers; Yankees\/Mariners vs. Blue Jays<\/p>\n

National League<\/p>\n

The Brewers and Phillies would enter as the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, respectively, both receiving first-round byes. Should the Brewers make it to the World Series, they\u2019d maintain home-field advantage due to finishing the season with the sport\u2019s best record.<\/p>\n

NL Wild Card Series: No. 6 Mets at No. 3 Dodgers; No. 5 Padres at No. 4 Cubs.<\/p>\n

NLDS: Dodgers\/Mets vs. Phillies, Cubs\/Padres vs. Brewers<\/p>\n

What to watch Thursday<\/p>\n

Guardians at Tigers:\u00a0The Tigers will look to prevent a sweep by sending Tarik Skubal to the mound. Skubal, coming off a shortened start against the Marlins, will face off against Tanner Bibee.<\/p>\n

Mariners at Royals:\u00a0One day after falling back into second place (one-half game behind the Astros), the Mariners will look for a win ahead of a key weekend series against Houston that will likely determine the winner of the AL West.<\/p>\n

Cubs at Reds: Cincinnati looks to keep its slim playoff hopes alive against the already-in Cubs. To do so, it\u2019ll rely on Hunter Greene.<\/p>\n

(Photo of Cubs\u2019 Pete Crow-Armstrong celebrating: Nick Cammett \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Entering play on Thursday, here\u2019s where every contending team stands with 11 days remaining in the regular season.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[592,64,63,5156,5158,5257,5258,5260,5163,1187,5159,591,1830,2704,2365,1189,5157,5162,85,5161],"class_list":["post-152120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-houston-astros","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-seattle-mariners","tag-sports","tag-toronto-blue-jays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}