{"id":326008,"date":"2025-09-19T09:12:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T09:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/326008\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T09:12:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T09:12:14","slug":"where-cubs-stand-in-2025-mlb-playoffs-picture-after-pirates-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/326008\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Cubs stand in 2025 MLB playoffs picture after Pirates series"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chicago Cubs are in the playoffs and they made sure to soak in the moment during the celebration \u2014 literally<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Believe it or not, the Cubs actually became just the third MLB team to clinch a postseason berth on Wednesday, joining the Milwaukee Brewers and Philadelphia Phillies. The American League is packed with close races, so no team on that side of the bracket has officially locked up a spot yet.<\/p>\n

[PCA sends sincere message to Cubs fans before MLB playoffs<\/a>]<\/p>\n

But 10 games still remain in the 2025 MLB regular season, and the Cubs do have some things to play for down the stretch.<\/p>\n

The Wild Card round kicks off on Sept. 30 and the NLDS begins on Saturday, Oct. 4.<\/p>\n

The Cubs have plenty of questions to sort through on their playoff roster, including:<\/p>\n

\u2013Will Kyle Tucker be healthy enough to participate in the playoffs?
\u2013Who starts Game 1: Cade Horton<\/a> or Shota Imanaga<\/a>?
\u2013What type of role will rookies like Mois\u00e9s Ballesteros<\/a>, Kevin Alc\u00e1ntara<\/a> and Owen Caissie<\/a> play in the postseason?<\/p>\n

But for now, let\u2019s just focus on how the playoff race and bracket is shaping up with a week-and-a-half to go in the season.<\/p>\n

NL Central<\/p>\n

Brewers (93-59), Cubs (88-64) 5 GB<\/p>\n

Another week has passed and the Cubs are essentially in the same boat in the division race.<\/p>\n

In this column a week ago<\/a>, the Cubs were 5.5 games behind the Brewers in the NL Central.<\/p>\n

They now sit five games back, so they\u2019ve gained a half-game in a week. With 10 games left, it is still mathematically possible for the Cubs to overtake the Brewers, but that prospect has drastically diminished in the stretch run.<\/p>\n

Milwaukee finishes up their three-game series with the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday night before heading on their final road trip of the season to St. Louis and San Diego.<\/p>\n

[WATCH:\u00a0Jed Hoyer reacts to Cubs\u2019 playoff berth<\/a>]<\/p>\n

That series with the Padres will be interesting and is a time the Cubs could possibly make up some ground in the division \u2014 but the Cubs will be playing their toughest remaining series (against the New York Mets) at the same time next week.<\/p>\n

The Brewers then close their regular season slate with a three-game set against the Cincinnati Reds in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

As a weekly reminder, the Cubs hold the tiebreaker over the Brewers as a result of posting a better head-to-head record throughout the season.<\/p>\n

NL Wild Card<\/p>\n

Cubs (88-64), San Diego Padres (83-69), New York Mets (78-74) \/ Arizona Diamondbacks (77-76), San Francisco Giants (76-76), Cincinnati Reds (76-76)<\/p>\n

The Cubs are streaking, winners of four straight (and seven of eight) heading into play Thursday.<\/p>\n

That gives them a five-game lead over the Padres for the top Wild Card seed and the right to host the first round at Wrigley Field.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Just as the Cubs\u2019 five-game deficit in the NL Central seems insurmountable with 10 games remaining, their five-game lead over the Padres feels pretty darn safe.<\/p>\n

Obviously anything can happen in the next week-plus of action, but the Cubs are now just a few days away from turning their full attention toward preparing for a best-of-three series at The Friendly Confines beginning Sept. 30.<\/p>\n

The Padres are still projected as the Cubs\u2019 opponent in that Wild Card series, as they hold a five-game lead over the Mets for the second spot.<\/p>\n

The Mets, meanwhile, have a 1.5-game lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks for the final NL playoff spot. The Reds and San Francisco Giants are two games behind the Mets and their respective postseason chances are on life support.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next?<\/p>\n

The Cubs head to Cincinnati for a four-game set against the aforementioned Reds, whose backs are against the wall.<\/p>\n

Though they have a playoff spot already clinched, the Cubs still have quite a bit to play for with an eye on securing the homefield advantage for the Wild Card series.<\/p>\n

[WATCH: Nico Hoerner celebrates Cubs\u2019 first playoff berth since 2020]<\/a><\/p>\n

The Padres have a .627 winning percentage at home, but win only 47% of the time on the road.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a pretty significant advantage for the Cubs if that first-round series is in Chicago compared to San Diego.<\/p>\n

Playoff Bracket<\/p>\n

First Round Byes: No. 1 seed Milwaukee Brewers, No. 2 Philadelphia Phillies
Wild Card matchup 1: No. 6 New York Mets at No. 3 Los Angeles Dodgers
Wild Card matchup 2: No. 5 San Diego Padres at No. 4 Cubs<\/p>\n

This hasn\u2019t changed since we started this series at the beginning of the month.<\/p>\n

But there may still be changes to this structure before the end of the season.<\/p>\n

The Padres are just two games behind the Dodgers in the NL West, and the Phillies\u2019 hot streak has them just 2.5 games behind the Brewers for the top seed.<\/p>\n

If the Cubs win the Wild Card series, they would then move on to play the No. 1 seed. That has been the Brewers for the last several months, but that could pivot to the Phillies down the stretch here.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned, Cubs fans. A lot still to be decided in the final 11 days of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Cubs are in the playoffs and they made sure to soak in the moment during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[22,5,24,50,9675,29,57,2328,2304,59,4,2305,2303,1896,61,9677,25,18,66,738],"class_list":{"0":"post-326008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-postseason","8":"tag-arizona-diamondbacks","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-cincinnati-reds","12":"tag-kevin-alcantara","13":"tag-kyle-tucker","14":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","15":"tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","16":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","17":"tag-milwaukee-brewers","18":"tag-mlb","19":"tag-mlb-playoffs","20":"tag-mlb-postseason","21":"tag-moises-ballesteros","22":"tag-new-york-mets","23":"tag-owen-caissie","24":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","25":"tag-san-diego-padres","26":"tag-san-francisco-giants","27":"tag-wrigley-field"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115230195371954422","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}