The Chicago Cubs are playoff bound, as they beat the Pittsburgh Pirates to clinch their first postseason berth in five seasons.
The Cubs now have 88 wins on the season, and though their playoff destination has yet to be determined, they will fit into the new format the league unveiled in recent seasons.
Here’s how things work for the North Siders, and what could be in the future as they enter postseason play.
How MLB’s playoff format works
For the 2022 season, Major League Baseball introduced a new playoff format that added an extra wild card team to each league, and additional wild card series to the postseason schedule.
Under that format, a total of six teams from each league reach the postseason. Of the three division winners, the top two teams receive byes into the Division Series. The division winner with the worst record plays in a best-of-three wild card series against the wild card winner with the worst record.
The top wild card team then plays the second wild card club in a best-of-three series. All three games take place at the ballpark of the team with the better record.
After that, the winner of the series between the two wild card clubs takes on the team with the best record in their league, and that series is the best-of-five Division Series. The other division winner battles the winner of the other wild card round series.
When the postseason will get underway
The teams that play in the wild card round won’t have a lot of time to recuperate after the end of the regular season. The final day of the regular season falls on Sunday, September 28, and the first of the three wild card round games take place on Tuesday, September 30. Games 2 and 3 then take place the following two days.
The division series gets underway on Saturday, October 4.
Here are the Cubs’ potential opponents in October
As things stand, the Cubs have one opponent that they are most likely to face in the first round of the postseason, as they’re veering toward a wild card matchup with the San Diego Padres.
If the two teams clash, it would mark only the second time they’ve met in postseason play, with the Padres capturing the 1984 National League Championship Series between the clubs.
If the Cubs can somehow win the Central Division title, an unlikely prospect given they’re 4.5 games behind the Brewers with 10 games to play, they would potentially get a first-round bye and face either the Brewers or the Padres in the National League Division Series.
The New York Mets, Arizona Diamondbacks, Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants are still battling for a wild card spot, but it’s unlikely any of those teams would be the Cubs’ opponent in the wild card round, as the Padres hold a four-game lead on the Mets with 11 games remaining in the season.