Today marks the beginning of the last series of the regular season across Major League Baseball. After this weekend, 18 teams will head home for the winter while the other 12 teams will officially begin the hunt for a championship with the MLB postseason beginning on Tuesday.
The Phillies of course are right in the thick of the postseason field, even if they have not as of yet clinched their spot officially. They are engaged in an extremely tight race for the three Wild Card slots in the National League, with the Phillies, Cubs, and Padres all separated by no more than two games. That’s who currently occupies the three slots with the Arizona Diamondbacks still alive and fighting for their lives on the outside looking in. This weekend will determine who is officially in as well as seeding. The latter of course will determine who plays where and when. The impending nor’easter hitting the east coast of the country will be a factor in all of this as well, as the Cubs are playing in Boston and have already had one of their games retooled into a doubleheader in anticipation of heavy rain all weekend.
There are numerous possibilities on where the Phillies will be by the end of the weekend. They could be playing one of the Cubs, Padres, Braves, or possibly the Diamondbacks. They could be playing in Atlanta, in Chicago, in San Diego, in Arizona, or even at home. There’s still a slight chance they could be one of those teams heading home for the winter, although that is unlikely considering the Padres and Diamondbacks play each other this weekend, making the math difficult for both teams to make the postseason while keeping the Phillies out.
So, where will the Phillies stand at the end of this final series of the regular season?
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