NL Playoff Picture Heat Up: Wild Card Spots Remain in Question

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00:00Six of the divisions have now been clinched as of Thursday night.

00:07The playoff races, though, for the wildcard spots still up in the air.

00:12Even more so now, Joe, in the National League than the American League because the Twins

00:17falter and the Tigers and the Royals keep winning games, at least KC after snapping

00:22that seven-game skin.

00:23We start, though, in the National League.

00:25Let's look at those NL standings entering this final weekend.

00:29The Dodgers clinched the National League West for the 11th time in the last 12 years.

00:35The Philadelphia Phillies, their first divisional crown in the NL East since 2011.

00:40The Brewers were the first divisional champ to clinch in the National League.

00:44The thing that is still outstanding, who's going to earn that number one overall seed?

00:48The Dodgers a full-game advantage over the Phils, and Philadelphia has the tiebreaker.

00:52San Diego pretty comfortable as of this moment with that top spot in the National League

00:58wildcard standings, three games clear of New York.

01:01The Diamondbacks trail the Mets by a full game.

01:05The D-backs a full game in front of Atlanta for the third and final spot in the National

01:10League playoff picture.

01:11So, who's everybody playing this weekend and out the regular season?

01:16The Padres, again, pretty comfortable, not going to come back miraculously to claim the

01:20NL West.

01:21They go to Arizona.

01:23That should benefit the Diamondbacks.

01:24The Mets are playing a Brewers team in Milwaukee that on paper should be a difficult matchup,

01:30but Milwaukee not going to catch either the Phils or the Dodgers for the opening round

01:34by.

01:35What do the Brew crew still have at stake this weekend?

01:38And the Braves get the Royals.

01:40Now, KC still needs to win one game or see Minnesota lose another to clinch its playoff

01:47spot, but at least to start, Joe, KC will be fully invested in trying to steal a couple

01:52on the road in Atlanta.

01:54Yeah, and I, this is, this is the interesting part of when they decided to move those two

01:59games, right, Ben?

02:01Because it wasn't like you had the White Sox coming to town or the Rays if you were the

02:06Braves with absolutely nothing to play for and the Braves would have the upper hand.

02:12The Braves are playing against a team fighting for their postseason lives.

02:16And this is all going to be either great for the Braves or terrible for the Braves.

02:21There's something to be said for this final week with teams that have really been in postseason

02:26mode, Ben, for about the last two weeks or three weeks here, including the Royals and

02:32the Braves.

02:33I think there's a lot of unders to be had in these games with teams that are still battling

02:39here.

02:40I think it's going to be fascinating to see how it plays out, but this is not a walk in

02:43the park for the Braves at all, even with Fried on the mound tonight.