Reds win terrain in the Wild Card Race – Redleg Nation

In a Playoff race where it seems that nobody wants to grab the third wildcard spot, the Cincinnati Reds won some ground on Wednesday. They did their work in the afternoon while defeating the St. Louis Cardinals behind a large performance of Spencer Steer when picking up a 6-2 victory. That victory brought the Reds back to the .500 Mark on 76-76 with 10 more games in the regular season.

Later on Wednesday evening, other things fell into place. Two teams in the wildcardrace with Cincinnati faced each other. Someone had to win between the San Francisco Giants and the Arizona Diamondbacks. The match was scoreless until the 11th inning when the Giants scored five points and held up for a 5-1 win. Arizona preceded both the Reds and the giants, and they are still so-but-but now they are only half a game for Cincinnati and San Francisco.

That leaves the New York Mets, which are currently the third wildcard team. They have been in a free fall for months, but they were so good in the first few months of the season that autumn has not been far enough. San Diego, who is in possession of the second Wild Card place, took the game over the Mets with a 7-4 victory. New York dropped that at 2-9 in their last 11 games. They are 16-29 in their last 45 games. The loss leaves them 1.5 games on Arizona and 2.0 games on both Cincinnati and San Francisco. Arizona only has nine games on their schedule, while the Mets, Reds and Giants all have 10 to go.

This is what the remaining schedule of each team looks like:

The New York Mets have six games against the Marlins and Nationals. The Nationals have the second worst record in the National League and the Marlins are 71-80. But they are also confronted with the Cubs, which are 88-64 and still play for the division while I type this.

Arizona has the most difficult schedule because they are confronted with a 91-win Phillies team, an 84-win Dodgers team and an 83-win Padres team. All three teams are currently in Playoff position, where Philadelphia has already refurbished their division.

The Reds must be confronted with two of the three best teams in the National League in the Brewers and Cubs, but also get a 65-win Pirates club in the middle of those two series.

San Francisco has the easiest schedule among the teams that try to chase the Mets while they get the 41-win Rockies in their last series of the year and a 74-79 Cardinals Club. However, they start their next series against the first place Dodgers.

None of these teams is playing well. The Mets are 2-8 in their last 10 games. San Francisco is 4-6. The Reds and Diamondbacks are both 5-5. If one of these teams can go on a run to end the season, it feels like it could do the work, considering how everyone has played lately. The next 11 days can be fun. Or they can be full of pain, fear and pain, because fans of some or all these teams see how their favorite club blows what a golden chance should have been to let their season go in October.