The Chicago Cubs are headed back to the postseason. Although they lost on Tuesday to the Pittsburgh Pirates by a score of 3-2, they still clinched a postseason berth due to the Phillies losing two games to the Nationals.
This marks the fourth time in five years that the Chicago Cubs will be in the postseason and playing baseball in October. With the Cincinnati Reds loss to the Brewers on Tuesday, the Cubs are guaranteed a top-2 spot in the NL Central.
The Cubs are now looking to win the NL Central for the first time since 2017.
As a result of the Reds loss to the Brewers, Cincinnati cannot catch the Cubs for the division title. The best the Reds can finish is 32-28 which is also the worst that the Cubs can finish. However, the Cubs own the tiebreaker as they won the season series 6-4.
With the Cardinals and Brewers opening a five-game series this weekend, the Cubs can’t fall past both of those teams. Therefore, they can finish at worst as the second team in the NL Central or sixth seed in the NL.
Image Courtesy of Cubs Twitter
“It feels great,” said Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo. “We’ve been to the playoffs- a lot of these guys, our group have been to the playoffs- and we’ve gone deep. And, obviously, we’ve won it. We’ve gone to the NLCS three times. It takes everyone to win in the playoffs.”
The last time the Cubs had a shot at the NL Central crown was in 2018. Chicago had a 2.5 game division lead ahead of the Brewers with six games remaining. The Brewers would eventually tie the Cubs in the standings, forcing a game 163. In the tiebreaker game, the Cubs would lose, making them a wild card team. In the postseason, the Cubs lost to the Rockies in the wild card game.
Hopefully for Chicago, history doesn’t repeat itself and the Cubs can close out the season with a division title.
The Chicago Cubs will look to close out the NL Central with their five games remaining. The magic number to clinch the NL Central is four games.
Featured Image Courtesy of MLB Twitter
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