Phillies Wild Card Magic Number

[bkox]

Brian Snitker alluded to this the other day, but said it this evening: The Braves are changing the way they prepare for the NLDS during the lengthy layoff. They learned from last year, and it seems they'll ramp up the intensity, including allowing fans to watch simulated games.

— Justin Toscano ( @JustinCToscano ) September 28, 2023

[zambonir]

I mean, that's interesting, but were they really flat last year? They just didn't get good enough pitching from Fried (and then again from Strider). They won Game 2 3-0. And by Game 4 they shouldn't have been rusty. I guess you can argue they shook off some offensive rust in Game 1 (by getting to Eflin, but it was too late by then).

[HopeSpringsEternal]

Marlins scored 2 runs in the top of the 9th to take the lead over the Mets, 2-1. Then the rain came to cause the game to be delayed. Based on the radar, it’s hard to see this game being resumed tonight. If the game stays suspended, I think the Marlins will have to come back to New York on Monday to finish the game, assuming it has significance for the final playoff standings. A Marlins win tonight would have been a good thing, causing the D-Backs to continue to play meaningful games for playoff seeding (and use their best pitchers).

[el-pietro]

The game not being finished has a similar effect on Arizona right? They still haven't clinched and have to keep playing to win for the time being. I think they'll have to use their number 2 starter tonight and will use their 1 and 2 in games 2/3 of the WC, or have them go on short rest.
Hopefully they burn through their pen too

[bkox]

Marlins and Diamondbacks clinch spots... now its just down to seeding.

[zambonir]

Weird game to prepare for if you're the Marlins. A win does clinch you the 4th spot but so does losing if Arizona also loses, and then you still don't have to play tomorrow. Marlins losing and Arizona winning would leave it up in the air and you'd certainly want to win that make-up game so you can just proceed to Philadelphia

I hope they release the times for the games tonight even if it's still not settled. I'm guessing Game 1 will at least not be the 1pm game given the opponent can't travel until Monday (if it's not settled).

[andyb]

No times yet on the ESPN page (though look at that Ticket Prices link for each game - Phillies tickets by far the most expensive. Wonder if other teams will sell out).

MLB Schedule - Oct 3, 2023 - ESPN

Philly and Houston are the 2 biggest media markets involved so imagine those will be the later games and based on last year probably the teams that will draw the most interest.

[BostonRoss]

Does anyone else think it’s silly to force the Marlins and Mets to play what will likely be half an inning just to settle the seeding? Do the Marlins really want to go to New York briefly for the opportunity to play the Phillies instead of the Brewers? And the Mets certainly don’t want to play. What if the game had been out west? What if the weather was going to bad in New York for a day or two?

I could understand if it meant a team could be in or out of the postseason. Why not just use the old rule that the game reverts back to the last full inning? The Marlins would be glad to take the loss.

If this becomes necessary, would they even bother to open the park to fans?

[zambonir]

It says they are expected to announce the times tonight so I assume it will just be Phillies and Brewers vs. TBD.

Either way all of the games are going to be in the Eastern or Central time zone and Arizona is the only team involved that is not in that time zone. So probably Houston or Texas vs. Minnesota is the very latest game (but it won't be too late). The other Texas team doesn't play in this round

Presumably Tampa-Toronto draws the short straw/early game.

But the 5/6 seeds are still not set in either league.

[zambonir]

Yeah you would think all three teams (Arizona included) could just sign off on it reverting to the old rule. Or the Mets could forfeit (they really did blow it beating the Phillies yesterday, even if they go 0-2 they can't move up from 7th to 6th in the draft which means that if they don't get a lottery pick they drop to 17th).

[el-pietro]

I think I saw that the league determined that the mets/marlins game is considered a Mets win at this point (as they were leading after 8) and seeding will only come down to tomorrow's games.

[zambonir]

you mean today's games?

[zambonir]

So, this was 10 hours ago but nobody else has reported it yet.

MLB has now decided that the #Marlins will NOT have to resume their suspended game against the #Mets .
If the Marlins win Sunday, they are the 5th seed and will play the #Phillies .
If the Marlins lose and the #Dbacks win, Miami will be the 6th seed and play the #Brewers .

— Bob Nightengale ( @BNightengale ) October 1, 2023

[el-pietro]

Yes. Apologies.

[el-pietro]

If its just Boob then it's probably not reliable

[zambonir]

Sometimes he gets it right. And I think he probably is because there is no longer any reference to Monday's game in this MLB.com story.

Postseason Watch: Here's the field; final seeding TBD

There is in this one but it has not been updated since yesterday

What's at stake on the final day of the season

[el-pietro]

https://twitter.com/Dom_Cotroneo/status/1708456894812033385?t=iZDkbMHXLCgMfvSw2_evdA&s=19

This guy is saying the league announced it. Brewers pre game host. No quotes or source though so may well be repeating Nightengale

Edit: he is taking this from Nightengale so no additional source for now

https://twitter.com/Dom_Cotroneo/status/1708502863503077845?t=1gK6vAjrPT6poOcj3k-S0g&s=19

[BostonRoss]

FWIW, MLB app still shows the resumption of the suspended game on tomorrow’s schedule