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As of this writing, the Philadelphia Phillies are the only National League team that has clinched a wild card spot prior to the start of the MLB postseason, and while the Marlins are still in the hunt, they could be forced to travel hundreds of miles to play a single inning of baseball thanks to a storm that rolled in at a very inopportune time.
On Thursday night, Miami staged a miniature rally in the top of the ninth inning to take a 2-1 lead over the Mets at Citi Field when the rain that thrust New York City into chaos on Friday started coming down in Queens, which forced the umpires to suspend the game with two outs in the top of the ninth.
That presented a bit of a logistical issue, as the Marlins were slated to head down to Pittsburgh to face off against the Pirates on Friday night to kick off the three-game series that was supposed to cap off their regular season campaign. However, as things currently stand, the MLB has announced they’ll tentatively need to make the trek back to NYC on Monday afternoon to wrap up the game due to the potential playoff implications.
It would be a bit foolish to dive too deep into the scenarios that could play out by the time Monday rolls around based on how many different potential outcomes there are.
The Diamondbacks currently have a 1.5-game lead over the Marlins in the wild card race, while Miami is just half a game ahead of the Cubs in the quest for the third and final spot.
All of those teams have three full games remaining on the schedule, and Arizona would need to suffer a fairly monumental collapse to find themselves out of the running when everything is said and done.
With that said, if the Marlins drop a couple of games while the Cubs win the same number in the series with the Brewers, the final inning between Miami and the Mets could be the determining factor in which of those two teams (presumably) end up going head-to-head with Milwaukee in the wild-card round (the Marlins will win a tiebreaker over the Cubs if they end up with the exact same record).
There’s also a chance the MLB won’t actually make the Marlins travel back to New York if the game with the Mets ends up being a nonfactor when it comes to firming up the playoff picture, but we’ll just have to wait and see.