As you know, the Cubs hold the tiebreaker over the three teams closest to them in the Wild Card race, the Phillies, Diamondbacks and Padres. This is extremely important now because the Cubs trail the Phillies by 1.5 games entering Thursday’s action, and the Phillies/Astros game will be happening this afternoon. The Cubs are 2.5 games ahead of the Padres and three games ahead of the Diamondbacks.
Tankathon has the Phillies with the toughest strength of schedule of the four clubs (fourth). The Cubs are ninth, Diamondbacks 20th and Padres 21st, entering Thursday’s action.
Here are the remaining schedules for all four teams. Home games in boldface.
Cubs, 15 games (9 home, 6 road)
Pirates (3), Braves (3), at Reds (3), Marlins (3), at Red Sox (3)
The Cubs dropped from fifth to ninth in the Tankathon ranking after the Brewers series. They have six games remaining against postseason contenders and nine against other clubs.
Phillies, 16 games (7 home, 9 road)
Astros (1), at Braves (3), at Nationals (3), at Mets (3), Brewers (3), Rays (3)
That’s 10 of 16 games against teams currently in first place, including today vs. the Astros. The Phillies are currently under .500 (28-31) against teams with winning records. That could help out the Cubs.
The Brewers might wind up really helping out the Cubs when that series happens, even though Milwaukee likely has clinched the NL Central by then. They still might have to win games to clinch home field. The Rays currently lead the Yankees by four games, but who knows? The AL East race might come down to the wire.
Padres, 16 games (6 home, 10 road)
at Giants (3), at Rockies (4), Marlins (3), at Dodgers (3), Diamondbacks (3)
The Padres have an “easy” stretch coming up, then finish up with six against postseason contenders. Those last three Diamondbacks/Padres games could help decide one of the wild card spots. San Diego is just 32-39 away from Petco Park.
Diamondbacks, 15 games (9 home, 6 road)
Rangers (3), Marlins (3), Yankees (3), at Rockies (3), at Padres (3)
A combination of teams fighting for postseason spots and teams way out of it. The D-backs and Padres have split their first 10 games this year, and the teams also have split at each other’s parks, 2-2 in San Diego and 3-3 in Arizona.
Fasten your seat belts!
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