MLB playoff race: Cubs, Phillies and Padres all 87-70, and the Cubs just wasted a clinch
The Cubs needed one win or one Arizona loss Tuesday night to be in. They got neither. Sixteen games later, the National League has three teams with identical records for three wild card spots, the AL Central is a one-game race with a tiebreaker already decided, and Milwaukee locked up the week off. Here is where every race stands with five to play.
Wrigley, 12 innings, and a clinch that did not happen
Miami came into Chicago on a three-game losing streak, 77-80, already eliminated. The Cubs had two ways to clinch a playoff spot before the night was over: win, or have the Diamondbacks lose in Colorado. Arizona won 7-2. The Cubs loaded the bases with two out in the 10th and Javier Sanoja took a game-ending hit away from Pedro Ramírez with a sliding stop. Then Miami scored six in the 12th, Griffin Conine's blooper to left putting them ahead for good, and it ended 8-2. A team that could have been popping bottles instead spent 12 innings losing to a club playing out the string. That is the kind of night that shows up again in October if you let it.
Philadelphia won the night, and Wheeler owned the first inning
Zack Wheeler struck out the first seven Brewers he faced, a franchise record, finished with 11, and picked up his 2,000th career strikeout along the way. Milwaukee tied it at 3 in the sixth, and Bryson Stott's two-out single in the eighth put the Phillies back in front. Brandon Marsh homered, doubled and drove in three. Final 6-4. The Phillies started the night holding the last NL wild card with a four-game cushion on Arizona, and they are the only one of the three tied teams that took care of business. They also hold the tiebreaker over San Diego but not Chicago, which matters if this thing ends level.
San Diego ran into the Dodgers
The Padres came in 14-4 in September on a five-game winning streak, best record in the majors this month alongside the team they were visiting. Los Angeles scored six of its seven runs with two outs, Tommy Edman and Will Smith homered, Michael King was gone after four innings in his career-high 32nd start, and it was 7-0. Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado went a combined 1 for 7 with five strikeouts. The Dodgers are 15-5 in September, one game behind Milwaukee for the best record in baseball, and need one win or an Atlanta loss to lock up their own bye.
The AL Central is going to come down to Kansas City
Cleveland won its sixth straight, 3-2 at Fenway, on Nathaniel Lowe's sacrifice fly in the ninth, with Cade Smith closing for his 40th save. The Guardians stranded 15 runners and still won, which tells you how the Red Sox are going: eight losses in 12, and this was Chad Tracy's first game as their manager. Boston clinched a wild card Sunday, so the damage is to seeding, not survival.
An hour later the White Sox beat the Royals 14-11 in a game that had Chase Meidroth's three-run homer and five RBI, Randal Grichuk's four hits, and Vinnie Pasquantino's first career grand slam for Kansas City in the ninth. Chicago sits one back of Cleveland and owns the tiebreaker by winning the season series. The schedule is the story: the White Sox have two more with the Royals and then three with last-place Colorado. The Guardians finish with three games in Kansas City. If Cleveland slips once in that series and Chicago keeps beating bad teams, the division flips on the tiebreaker.
Elsewhere
Houston blanked Seattle 7-0 and Texas lost 6-3 to the Mets, so the Astros and Rangers are tied at 78-79 for the AL West with the winner going to the playoffs at or below .500. The Yankees split a doubleheader with Tampa Bay, 2-0 and then 1-6; the Rays have already clinched the East. Toronto and Baltimore were rained out and play a makeup Wednesday, with the Blue Jays four back of the last AL wild card and the Orioles five. Cincinnati's 4-0 win over Atlanta is what handed Milwaukee the bye.
Where we land
Five games left and the only thing settled in the National League is who gets the byes. Three teams at 87-70 for three spots sounds comfortable until you remember Arizona is four back with a tiebreaker of its own to play for, and the Cubs just showed how a clinch night goes wrong. In the American League the interesting race is not for a spot, it is for the Central, where one game separates a division title from a road wild card series, and the team that is behind holds the tiebreaker. Cleveland in Kansas City this weekend is the series to watch.
Records, clinch markers and game details per ESPN's standings and ESPN's game recaps for Tuesday, Sept. 22. Standings move every night this week. Opinion is the taproom's.