I’m hoping the Brewers can sweep their remaining six games, win the best record in the NL, and take a few days to await the Cubs or Cards or Rockies.

SB Nation has an informative piece on what will happen with a four-way tie for the two Wild Card spots, and it’s pretty straightforward. But the scenario of six teams finishing at 92 wins (or more than four involved) would require a commissioner’s office ruling on how to set up the playoffs and play-ins. Let’s take a look at that improbability:

Bear with me here - let’s suppose the Cards take 2 of 3 from the Brewers, then sweep the Cubs; the Cubs take only one of four from the Pirates, and the Brewers take 2 of 3 from the Tigers, all three teams end up with 92 wins and the following interdivisional playoff scenario comes into play:

The Cards, by virtue of their winning records against the Cubs and Brewers, get to choose the bye, and the Brewers travel to Wrigley for a one-game set. The winner of that goes to Busch, and the winner of that game wins the Central. Easy enough.

If the Rockies win out and the Dodgers finish at 92 wins, and the Braves get to 92 wins, it all just gets very confusing. One-game playoffs do count in the standings just like any regular season games (and all of the statistics count for the players, too). So after the three playoffs happen, teams will have different records. The Braves will have been passed for best record by at least one team, maybe two. There could be three teams that go 0-1 and that would leave them all tied for the Wild Card spot. There could be two teams tied at 0-1 with one at 1-1, leaving two teams tied for the final spot. That would then require another play-in game.

I think.

I can’t find definitive answers in playoff scenarios, and I’m not smart enough to just figure it out beyond the above discussion.

Of course, all of this will most likely be moot after one or two more days. That’s why I had to hurry and get this out there.

Go Crew!