Giving meaning to the chaos of the National League playoffs



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With the Astros 'win over the Blue Jays and Athletics' loss to the Mariners on Tuesday night, the AHL playoffs are over. Oakland will face the Yankees in the wild-card match, likely in the Bronx, while the winner will face the Red Sox in a Division series, while Houston will host Cleveland in the other. For these five teams, however, there has not been much drama with regard to playoff places. it was just a matter of shaking the pieces in the right order.

In the National League, however, fans have clung to their breasts in the past two months. In addition to the Braves, who won the Eastern League title last Saturday, the remaining five teams – the Cubs, Brewers, Cardinals, Dodgers and Rockies – have not won anything yet with only half a week in season regular. Things have tightened again over the last few days, with Chicago and Los Angeles having their respective divisions reduced to a half-game in Wednesday's game, while Colorado has the same advantage over St. Louis for the second and last place. .

This gives a good drama (and poor heart health), but the real possibility of a huge tie scenario that would create chaos in the playoffs would be much more exciting. It takes a little creativity and a lot of wishes, but there is still a chance – even if it's minimal – that we can get ties at the top of both divisions and for the second joker. The former SI scribe, Jay Jaffe, lovingly called this wacky "Team Entropy" result in previous years. I do not have a catchy name for me, but if you're into the weirdest and craziest stuff in baseball, follow me as I expose exactly what needs to happen to make it all the better. .

NL Central

Things seemed to be over at the beginning of the month, with Chicago playing five games on September 2nd. But the Cubs have stumbled since, going 10-11, while the Brewers went 14-6 in that half. This includes taking four of Chicago's six in the two playoff series played this month; the North Siders have no one to blame except themselves for the difficult situation they are in.

Still, their chances in the playoffs are excellent, the Cubs holding a magic number to clinch a playoff spot. the same for Milwaukee. Things are not so comfortable in St. Louis, which lost two points against the Brewers and control of the second wild card at the Rockies. Another defeat at the hands of Milwaukee or a victory for the Cubs tonight against the Pirates will extinguish all the chances of the Cardinals to win the Central. So, for the mother of all the divisional ties, we need St. Louis to win and both the Cubs and the Brewers to lose. But it's extremely unlikely, because Milwaukee must drop three people at home against the Tigers.

So, instead of getting lost in the bad habits of a three-way NL Central tie (and having read the rules of the tie-break and done some math, that's more.) as in a jungle), let's set a more realistic scenario: Link the Cubs and the Brewers for the first time. If this ends up being the situation (and there are many combinations of recordings from that time that would create it), then Chicago would welcome Milwaukee – thanks to a best-ever record-breaking record, 11-8 , on the season – Monday, October 1 in a tie break game, the loser being involved in the card game.

Sounds simple, right? Hold on; it will become more crazy. But with this sort, let's move on to the other division still in play.

NL West

Due to the Dodgers 'loss to the Diamondbacks and the Phillies' game against the Rockies – Colorado's fifth consecutive win – the NL West has tightened. Los Angeles had the intention to have that win after sweeping the Rockies in a three-game home streak last week, setting the stage for a two-and-a-half-game lead.

Like the Cubs and Brewers, finding the break in the tie is not too difficult. If both teams finished with the same record (and again, there are many ways to do it), the Dodgers – who won the 12-7 series – would host the Rockies on October 1 to determine the division champion . But unlike the central match, there is no guarantee that the loser will go directly to the game, as it depends on whether the cardinals are still alive in this theoretical scenario. And here, my friends, it's there that things start to go wrong.

The wild card NL

With a magic number of one, the Brewers will definitely be at least a wild-card team, so let's make our lives easier and assume that's what's going on. The rest, however, is a mess, as it is possible that Colorado, Los Angeles and St. Louis all have the same record.

It's here that the NL West tiebreaker comes into play. If the loser of this match finishes with the same record as the Cardinals, this team will travel to St. Louis for another decisive match on Tuesday 2 October. have a better record than the loser of NL West, the latter is over, and St. Louis is in the wild card game, if the Cardinals are already out in this scenario, the loser of NL West goes to the game of wild cards . The winner of this tiebreaker would have faced the loser of the NL Central tiebreaker game in the wild card game on Wednesday, October 3.

So here it is: if we get two tie ties and a tie, the result is three equal tiebreakers even before we reach the official final of a match. And remember, there are even more winter opportunities. In theory, it is possible for the five teams to finish with the same record, by setting up a three-way NL Central tie-break, a two-way NL West tie-break and wild-card breakbreakers. I have absolutely no idea how things are going if that's the case, but know that if you're a real wild, this universe exists and it's absolutely crazy.

Anyway, even if things do not reach a peak level of madness, we can still get extra baseball before everything is said and done. So get on well, because while the race will be a quiet affair from here until the game of cards, the race will be bumpy.

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