By Noah Furtado, David O’Brien and Will Sammon
Maximum chaos it is. The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the San Diego Padres 11-2, the New York Mets won 5-0 over the Milwaukee Brewers and the Atlanta Braves lost 4-2 to the Kansas City Royals, meaning the Mets-Braves doubleheader in Atlanta must be played on Monday to determine the final two National League wild cards.
All three teams are currently tied, with the Diamondbacks losing the three-way tiebreaker. Ultimately, the Mets and Braves will directly determine what comes next, with the Diamondbacks as bystanders to the madness.
The scenario is simplest for the Mets and Braves — one win in the doubleheader clinches a spot. But for Diamondbacks to make it, one of the teams needs to get swept in the doubleheader.
Here’s where it gets tricky. The Game 1 winner, whether it be the Mets or the Braves, would have already punched their ticket with less to play for than the Game 1 loser, who would need to win the second game to take the last berth. This circumstance could influence whether the Game 1 winner decides to rest certain position players and pitchers, especially, in the second game.
The Diamondbacks entered game No. 162 as losers in five of their previous six, needing a win and some help to preserve their postseason hopes for at least one more day. And they got it.
A six-run frame in the fourth catapulted them into a commanding lead that was never seriously threatened. Brandon Pfaadt allowed only one earned run on three hits with nine strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings. And Ketel Marte blasted his team-leading 36th home run as one of five multi-hit performers for the Diamondbacks, who finished with 16 hits.
Meanwhile in Milwaukee, owner Steven Cohen watched Edwin Diaz close a victory before boarding a flight to Atlanta. The Mets’ likely starters for Monday are Luis Severino and Tylor Megill.
It was impossible for New York to be eliminated over the weekend in Milwaukee, but they could’ve clinched. Now they must win at least one game Monday. There were good signs Sunday for the Mets; their offense snapped out of a funk, Francisco Lindor looked sharp as he continues to manage his back issue and David Peterson delivered seven strong innings, saving the bullpen.
The Braves, meanwhile, said they would hold back presumptive Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale until facing a potential elimination game, after his velocity was down a couple of ticks in his most recent start. The plan worked to perfection in the first two games of the series but backfired Sunday, when 40-year-old Charlie Morton, in what could be his final start for Atlanta and before retirement, gave up three runs before recording an out in the first inning — allowing a Tommy Pham double, Bobby Witt Jr. single and three-run homer to Michael Massey.
If they stick to their plan, the Braves will probably start rookie standout Spencer Schwellenbach in the first game of Monday’s doubleheader, and use Sale in Game 2 if the Mets win the opener. If they don’t have to use Sale, the Braves would have him and fellow All-Stars Max Fried and Reynaldo López available for the Wild-Card Series.
The Braves had several scoring opportunities Sunday but squandered them; hitting with runners in scoring position has been an issue for them all season. With a chance to clinch, they went 1-for-9 with RISP, including consecutive strikeouts by Ramón Laureano and Sean Murphy in the eighth inning with two runners on base in a two-run game.
They were 1-for-19 with runners in scoring position in the series, but won the first two games on the strength of superb starting pitching from Fried and López, homers from catchers Murphy and Travis d’Arnaud (walk-off Friday) and a couple of costly Royals errors. They didn’t get any help from Kansas City Sunday, and got just one extra-base hit, a Gio Urshela leadoff homer in the third inning.
(Top photo: David J. Griffin / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
