The NL playoff race is currently total chaos. The *only* seeds anywhere near determined for certain are the Dodgers at 1 and the Padres at 4.
Not only are the Cubs and Braves deadlocked for the 2/3 (with identical intradivisional records, for now), but Atlanta has to play Miami four times now, and they only lead Miami by 3!
Meanwhile, Miami is also part of a cluster of six teams separated by 1.5 total games! Either they or the Phillies (or maybe the Braves!) will get a guaranteed spot as the NL East runner-up, and one of the Cardinals, Brewers, and Reds will get an automatic bid too.
Still, that leaves four teams (the loser of the NL East three-teamer, two losers of the NL Central four-teamer, the Giants) in the mix for the final two spots. The tiebreakers are impossible to predict, because most of them will change over the coming week.
Hell, if the Mets happen to take two of three from the Rays, they finish with four against the already-mentally-golfing Nationals! A bad week for Miami (who play the Braves and Yankees) and a great one for New York could flip them!
Also, back to excluding the Mets as serious contenders: the six teams really in this thicket play a total of 44 games over the course of the week—and if things aren’t settled by end of Sunday (which, how could they be?), that number goes to 46 as Cards play a DH against Detroit.
Total. Chaos.
Prediction for NL playoff field, just for fun:
1. #Dodgers v. 8. #Reds
2. #Cubs v. 7. #Marlins
3. #Braves v. 6. #STLCards
4. #Padres v. 5. #Phillies
CHC, ATL finish 35-25, but Cubs get tiebreaker via div record. PHI, STL finish 32-28. MIA, CIN, SF all finish 31-29.
1. #Dodgers v. 8. #Reds
2. #Cubs v. 7. #Marlins
3. #Braves v. 6. #STLCards
4. #Padres v. 5. #Phillies
CHC, ATL finish 35-25, but Cubs get tiebreaker via div record. PHI, STL finish 32-28. MIA, CIN, SF all finish 31-29.
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