Call to the pen
Fansided

Buckle Up: five ridiculous NL Wild Card scenarios

By Adam MacKinnon

NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 25: Noah Syndergaard #34 of the New York Mets of the New York Mets looks on during the seventh inning against the Atlanta Braves at Citi Field on August 25, 2019 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. Teams are wearing special color-schemed uniforms with players choosing nicknames to display for Players' Weekend. The Braves won 2-1. (Photo by Adam Hunger/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 25: Noah Syndergaard #34 of the New York Mets of the New York Mets looks on during the seventh inning against the Atlanta Braves at Citi Field on August 25, 2019 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. Teams are wearing special color-schemed uniforms with players choosing nicknames to display for Players' Weekend. The Braves won 2-1. (Photo by Adam Hunger/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) /

This season a number of teams are in on the NL Wild Card race. In honor of this, let’s look at five ridiculous, yet possible scenarios.

Can ya smell it?  Breathe it in…. ahh yes, it’s September baseball.  This is a particularly stressful time of the season, especially this year if you’re in Milwaukee, New York, Washington, Chicago, Philadelphia, Arizona…. ya know, pretty much in the NL Wild Card race in general.

Sure, the divisional race in the Central is airtight, and the East could be up for grabs if the Nationals can stay hot.  The West… eh, we’ll skip that for now.

The real drama, in the senior circuit though, is in the NL Wild Card race.  As of the time of this writing, there is about a month to play, and 6 teams within 10 games of the second Wild Card spot, and a ticket to the postseason dance.  Do 10 games sound like a lot to make up in a month?  It is.  Is it impossible though?  Stranger things have happened.  In fact, just ask the…

  1. 2011 Atlanta Braves
  2. 1978 Boston Red Sox
  3. 2007 New York Mets

And so on, and so on…. the point is, that there’s a precedent for teams to give a lot of ground as the season winds down, and when those middle-contending teams smell blood, they pounce.  So why not?  Let’s look at a couple of just obnoxious possibilities that could take place in the next month and put some interesting matchups in the one-game playoff.  Just don’t google this article after October…

For the sake of this little exercise, let’s assume that the NL East and NL West races settle as they stand now, with Atlanta and Los Angeles not factoring into this race.  The NL Central is tight enough that we’ll keep that one up for grabs.

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