Last updated: Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 6:00 p.m. ET<\/p>\n
The Phillies are closing in on another trip to October. Where that trip begins is far from settled.<\/p>\n
With five games remaining, the Phillies enter Wednesday tied with the Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres at 87-70. The Arizona Diamondbacks sit four games behind the trio at 83-74 and remain alive for the final National League Wild Card spot.<\/p>\n
Atlanta has already clinched the NL East, leaving the Phillies to fight for positioning in the Wild Card field. And there is a big difference between finishing first, second or third in that race.<\/p>\n
MLB’s current postseason outlook has Chicago as the No. 4 seed, Philadelphia at No. 5 and San Diego at No. 6. If the season ended today, the Phillies would travel to Wrigley Field for a best-of-three Wild Card Series against the Cubs, while the Padres would visit the Braves.<\/p>\n
The race for the No. 4 seed comes with home-field advantage. The top Wild Card hosts every game of the best-of-three series against the No. 5 seed. The No. 6 seed travels to face the third-best division winner.<\/p>\n
Here’s where everything stands entering Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
NL Wild Card standings<\/p>\n
SeedTeamRecordGB4Chicago Cubs87-70\u20145Philadelphia Phillies87-70\u20146San Diego Padres87-70\u2014\u2014Arizona Diamondbacks83-744.0<\/p>\n
All three Wild Card teams have identical records, but MLB uses tiebreakers instead of playing an extra Game 163 to settle ties.<\/p>\n
What do the Phillies need to clinch?<\/p>\n
The Phillies enter Wednesday with a\u00a0magic number of two\u00a0to secure their fifth consecutive postseason berth. Chicago’s magic number is one, while San Diego also sits at two.<\/p>\n
For the Phillies, Wednesday’s possibilities are straightforward:<\/p>\n
Phillies win + Diamondbacks loss = clinch<\/p>\n
Phillies win + Padres loss = clinch<\/p>\n
If the Phillies win but both Arizona and San Diego also win, Philadelphia will have to wait at least one more day.<\/p>\n
If the Phillies lose to Milwaukee, they cannot clinch Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The inclusion of San Diego is important. A Padres loss can clinch a spot for Philadelphia even if Arizona wins. That comes from MLB’s official postseason and tiebreaker calculations, which account for the possible multi-team finishes over the final week. MLB specifically lists a Phillies win combined with a loss by\u00a0either Arizona or San Diego\u00a0as a clinching scenario.<\/p>\n
San Diego can also clinch Wednesday with a Padres win and Diamondbacks loss. Chicago can clinch with either a Cubs win or an Arizona loss.<\/p>\n
Why are the Cubs ahead of the Phillies?<\/p>\n
Head-to-head record is the first tiebreaker when two clubs finish with identical records.<\/p>\n
The Cubs went\u00a06-1 against the Phillies\u00a0this season, giving Chicago the tiebreaker over Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
The Phillies went\u00a06-0 against the Padres, giving Philadelphia the tiebreaker over San Diego.<\/p>\n
Chicago also went\u00a05-1 against San Diego. Those season-series results are listed in MLB’s tiebreaker chart on page 4 of the postseason outlook.<\/p>\n
So, in the current three-way tie, the order is:<\/p>\n
4. Chicago
5. Philadelphia
6. San Diego<\/p>\n
If all three clubs were to finish the season tied, Chicago’s winning record against both Philadelphia and San Diego gives the Cubs the first advantage under MLB’s multi-team tiebreaker procedure. Philadelphia’s 6-0 record against San Diego would then give the Phillies the edge between the remaining two clubs. MLB’s three-team procedure first looks for a club with a superior record against both of the other tied clubs before moving through the remaining tiebreakers.<\/p>\n
Philadelphia and Arizona split their six games, 3-3. If those two clubs finish tied and a two-team tiebreaker is needed, MLB would move to the next criterion: intradivision winning percentage.<\/p>\n
What does each Phillies seed mean?<\/p>\n
No. 4 seed:\u00a0The Phillies win the Wild Card race and host the No. 5 seed at Citizens Bank Park. Every game of the best-of-three series would be in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
No. 5 seed:\u00a0The Phillies travel to face the No. 4 seed. As things stand Wednesday, that would mean a series at Wrigley Field against the Cubs.<\/p>\n
No. 6 seed:\u00a0The Phillies travel to face the No. 3 seed. Atlanta currently owns that spot as NL East champion.<\/p>\n
The winner of the\u00a04\/5 series advances to face the No. 1 seed, currently Milwaukee. The winner of the\u00a03\/6 series faces the No. 2 seed, currently the Dodgers.<\/p>\n
The Wild Card Series begins Tuesday, Sept. 29, with Games 2 and 3 scheduled for Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. All games are played at the home park of the No. 3 or No. 4 seed.<\/p>\n
Remaining schedules<\/p>\n
DatePhilliesCubsPadresDiamondbacksWed. Sept. 23vs. MILvs. MIAat LADat COLThu. Sept. 24vs. MILvs. MIAat LADat COLFri. Sept. 25vs. TBat BOS, DHvs. AZat SDSat. Sept. 26vs. TBat BOSvs. AZat SDSun. Sept. 27vs. TB\u2014*vs. AZat SD<\/p>\n
The Cubs’ originally scheduled Sunday game in Boston was moved to Friday afternoon because of the threat of severe weather. Chicago and Boston are now scheduled for a split doubleheader Friday, followed by Saturday’s game.<\/p>\n
That final Padres-Diamondbacks series is especially notable because the two teams directly behind or alongside the Phillies will take wins away from one another over the final three days.<\/p>\n
Wednesday, September 23<\/p>\n
Milwaukee Brewers at Philadelphia Phillies
6:40 p.m. ET | Citizens Bank Park<\/p>\n
Pitching matchup:\u00a0Logan Henderson vs. Aaron Nola<\/p>\n
Result:\u00a0TBD<\/p>\n
Games to watch<\/p>\n
Miami Marlins at Chicago Cubs, 7:40 p.m. ET
Chicago is tied with Philadelphia but owns the tiebreaker.<\/p>\n
Arizona Diamondbacks at Colorado Rockies, 8:40 p.m. ET
An Arizona loss combined with a Phillies win clinches a postseason berth for Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
San Diego Padres at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 p.m. ET
A San Diego loss combined with a Phillies win also clinches a postseason berth for Philadelphia. The Padres are tied with the Phillies, but Philadelphia owns their head-to-head tiebreaker.<\/p>\n
What Wednesday’s results would mean<\/p>\n
Phillies win + Diamondbacks loss:\u00a0Phillies clinch.<\/p>\n
Phillies win + Padres loss:\u00a0Phillies clinch.<\/p>\n
Phillies win + Diamondbacks and Padres both win:\u00a0No clinch Wednesday, but Philadelphia improves its position in the race for home-field advantage.<\/p>\n
Phillies loss:\u00a0No clinch Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Thursday, September 24<\/p>\n
Friday, September 25<\/p>\n
Saturday, September 26<\/p>\n
Sunday, September 27<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last updated: Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 6:00 p.m. ET The Phillies are closing in on another trip to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":903006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,227211,357595,85],"class_list":["post-903005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-phillies-analysis","tag-phillies-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903005","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=903005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/903006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}