NL Wild Card: How the Phillies or Diamondbacks could clinch the No. 6 seed on Sunday

For those who wanted a potentially thrilling end to the 2026 MLB regular season: Ask and ye shall receive. 

Both the Arizona Diamondbacks and Philadelphia Phillies lost on Saturday night, meaning the latter maintained its one-game lead for the NL’s final Wild Card seed. Corbin Carroll and the Diamondbacks play at the NL No. 4 Padres on Sunday afternoon, while Kyle Schwarber and the reeling Phillies host the AL-best Rays. 

¨Two weeks ago, I wouldn't guess that we'd be in this situation,” Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto said after Saturday’s 12-1 loss. “But that's this game. It knows how to humble you.”

Philadelphia is chasing its fifth consecutive postseason appearance, and the Diamondbacks are on the verge of only their second playoff berth since the start of 2018. The exception? Their 2023 miracle run, which ended in a World Series loss to the Rangers. 

How can the Arizona Diamondbacks make the MLB playoffs over the Philadelphia Phillies?

The Diamondbacks have one path to the postseason: Beat the Padres and hope the Rays take down the Phillies. 

That’s it, folks. There is no other way the Diamondbacks can overtake the Phillies for the final Wild Card spot. Both teams would finish at 87-75, with Arizona earning the tiebreaker because of intra-division record. 

As we noted ahead of Saturday’s games, it’s odd that Major League Baseball picked intra-division record rather than intra-league record as the No. 2 tiebreaker when factoring in the Wild Card, which doesn’t always involve two teams from the same division. 

But the counter to that is simple: Win your games and you won’t need to worry about it. 

Who would the Arizona Diamondbacks or Philadelphia Phillies face in the MLB playoffs?

Nothing that happens Sunday would impact who the Diamondbacks or Phillies play in the first round. Obviously, that’s not the case for the Braves, who are locked into the NL’s No. 3 seed and awaiting how Sunday turns out. 

Atlanta took nine of 13 from the Phillies this year, as they did with the Marlins and Nationals. Amusingly, the Mets were the only NL East team to win the season series, finishing 7-6 against the Braves.  

If the Diamondbacks or Phillies upset the Braves, then they’d face the Dodgers in the NLDS. Whoever wins the Cubs-Padres series hits the road for two games in Milwaukee. 

Has an MLB Wild Card team ever won the World Series?

Yes! As of September 2026, there have been eight Wild Card teams to win the World Series, but only one since the playoffs expanded to 12 teams in 2022. That honor goes to the 2023 Rangers, who made the playoffs as the No. 5 seed. 

Obviously, that means Diamondbacks or Phillies would make MLB history as the first No. 6 seed to win the World Series. However, we have seen the lowest-ranked team in the bracket earn the Commissioner's Trophy during both the four- and five-team playoff format. 

For the younger readers out there, MLB held its first eight-team playoffs in 1995; as you likely guessed, that meant each league’s three division champions and the team who had the most wins of any non-division winner. The league intended for that system to begin one year earlier, though the players’ strike forced the World Series’ cancellation. Tough luck for the Expos and Yankees. 

Here are the teams that won the Wild Card as the lowest-ranked seed during both the eight-team (1995-2011) and 10-team (2012-21) playoff systems:

Max Scherzer, Juan Soto, and the 2019 Nationals were the only No. 4 seed during the 10-team playoff format to win the World Series. 

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