Padres, Brewers emerge as biggest winners from massive Braves-Mets doubleheader

The New York Mets and Atlanta Braves are set to face off in a doubleheader which determines the fate of not only these NL East rivals, but the Arizona Diamondbacks as well. These three teams have been battling for the final two NL Wild Card spots for weeks now, so it's only fitting to see this come down to Game 162.

The fallout that can come from this game is pretty simple. If the teams split, they both get in. If there's a sweep in either direction, the team that wins both games is in alongside the Diamondbacks while the team that gets swept heads home.

On one hand, it's a win for the Mets and Braves that they're even in this position. New York was as many as 11 games under .500 this season, yet thanks to the powers of OMG, Grimace, and much more, they control their own destiny on the season's final day. Atlanta has dealt with more injury adversity than any other team, yet somehow, they too control their own destiny.

Somehow, though, the Braves and Mets aren't even the biggest winners for having the opportunity to play in this doubleheader. That title belongs to both the San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers.

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Braves-Mets doubleheader is a huge win for Padres, Brewers

The Padres and Brewers might not feel like the biggest winners since they've had their postseason spots and seeds secured for days now. The Brewers will be the No. 3 seed in the NL after winning the NL Central, and the Padres will be the No. 4 seed, holding the best record of all of the NL Wild Card teams regardless of what occurs on Monday.

The reason why this doubleheader impacts them is because there's a good chance that one or both of these teams will be playing against them in the Wild Card Series. If they split the doubleheader, the Braves will be the No. 5 seed and face the Padres, while the Mets will be the No. 6 seed and face the Brewers. If either team sweeps, that club will face the Padres while the Diamondbacks will face the Brewers.

The Wild Card Series starts on Tuesday, a mere 24 hours after these teams face off in a doubleheader. They'll be exhausted and running on pure adrenaline for potentially the entire Wild Card Series. They have to travel from Atlanta either to Milwaukee or across the country to San Diego immediately after the doubleheader.

The Braves are using Spencer Schwellenbach in the opener of the doubleheader, making it almost certain that he won't be available for the entire Wild Card Series. If they have to play a meaningful Game 2, they'd use NL Cy Young frontrunner Chris Sale, potentially knocking him out of the Wild Card Series as well. The Mets have Luis Severino, one of their best pitchers, lined up for a potential Game 2.

In addition to the starting pitching getting out of whack, there's a good chance that both bullpens will be exhausted. The last thing that any team wants in a three-game series is to enter it with relievers being unavailable for the opener or limited.

Even if the Diamondbacks luck out and earn the No. 6 seed and a date with the Brewers, Milwaukee would be facing a team that has gone just 13-13 in September and failed to win a series against a Padres team that didn't have anything to play for in the last weekend of the regular season.

Any way you slice this, the Padres and Brewers would either be facing the team playing the worst of the contenders right now in Arizona, or two exhausted teams in Atlanta and New York. They already had an advantage with home-field, and their advantage only gets greater in the Wild Card Series because of this doubleheader.

It'll be a great achievement if one or both of the Mets and Braves make the postseason, but thanks to these unfortunate circumstances, there's a pretty solid chance that this doubleheader will determine who gets to play for only an extra couple of days.