MLB Playoffs: St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates tiebreaker info for NL Central
By Bryan Rose
Although each team in Major League Baseball plays 162 games during the regular season, sometimes that’s not enough. That very well could end up being the case for the St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates who sit separated by just one-game in the National League Central division.
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As we speak, the Cardinals are clinging to that one-game lead as the streaking Pirates refuse to lose. If things hold out as they are and the St. Louis Cardinals finish one game ahead of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the NL Central, the Cards will head West to open Divisional play against the Los Angeles Dodgers with Pittsburgh hosting a Wild Card play-in game against the San Francisco Giants.
If the St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates end the season tied atop the division though, that’s where things get messy.
Assuming that to be the case, the Pirates and Cardinals would play a divisional tiebreaker game with the winner moving on and the loser becoming one of the two Wild Card teams. If Pittsburgh was to win that game, the St. Louis Cardinals will host the San Francisco Giants in a winner-take-all-scenario. If St. Louis was to win that game, the Pittsburgh Pirates would host the San Francisco Giants.
Of course, it’s a situation that both would likely prefer to avoid as their division tiebreaker game would be played on Tuesday afternoon with the Wild Card game played on Wednesday.
St. Louis finishes their regular season against the Arizona Diamondbacks while Pittsburgh rounds out their scheduled against the Cincinnati Reds.
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