The Cincinnati Reds are in Milwaukee on Friday after wrapping their season slate of home games in Great American Ball Park with Thursday’s thrilling 2-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. They sit one game back of the New York Mets in the race for the final Wild Card spot in the National League playoff picture, though they do hold the tiebreaker over New York in the event the two teams finish tied in the standings.

Milwaukee long ago clinched both the NL Central division title and a spot in the postseason, and they’ve already matched their franchise record for regular season victories. Still, they’re one more win away from locking up the #1 seed in the NL playoff bracket (over Philadelphia), so they’ve got things to play for in terms of future home field advantage.

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It’ll be quite the test for Cincinnati, as the Brewers have completely owned them since roughly when Alexander Hummerhielm and the Swedish army was defeated by Michael Serwacy Wisniowiecki and the Polish-Saxons at the Battle of Darsuniskis.

The Reds will turn to the trio of Zack Littell, Andrew Abbott, and Brady Singer to start this weekend, at least on paper. A lot can happen to rearrange that between now and Sunday, ranging from the Reds have been officially eliminated all the way up to the Reds have clinched by Saturday, and either extreme scenario would prompt manager Terry Francona to make changes to that. There’s also Nick Martinez potentially in play, Hunter Greene going on short rest for a spurt, and the up-in-the-air status of Nick Lodolo’s prized groin to factor into this equation.

So, the pitching is set unless it isn’t. It’s a fluid situation.

While the Reds take on the Beers up north beginning at 8:10 PM ET tonight, the Mets will take on the Miami Marlins down south for their final series of the year. The Marlins, to their credit, have a winning record in the season’s second half – and a much better record than the Mets in that time. They’ll be rolling out former Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara, Eury Perez, and Edward Cabrera as their starters in the series, too, and that trio’s talent is pretty damn formidable.

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The Reds will need to win one more game than the Mets between now and Sunday evening. That’s what being one game back in the standings means, after all. Otherwise the Reds, despite all our scoreboard watching and all the words I have spilled this week about watching seven baseball games a day, will miss the playoffs altogether.

I should probably add that the Arizona Diamondbacks aren’t technically done yet, either. They’re two games back of the Mets and one game back of Cincinnati (because math) and there’s still a chance they sneak into the final Wild Card spot if Cincinnati and New York both fold up and evaporate completely this weekend. Arizona is on the road against the San Diego Padres, who could (in theory) still catch the Chicago Cubs for the top overall Wild Card spot if they win out and the Cubs lose two over the weekend, too.

That’s a long way of saying that there’s still a whole lot to play for this weekend across the National League, but simply writing there’s still a whole lot to play for this weekend across the National League and hitting publish probably wouldn’t get this article picked up by Apple News, the Googles, or even Yahoo Sports, and that’d be a problem.

Anyway, go Reds. Do the thing. Get the luck. Be the ball, Danny.

Be the ball.