Baseball’s regular season will end Sunday — for 28 teams. But at least for the moment, the New York Mets and Miami Marlins have other plans. According to league sources, MLB intends to bring the Marlins back to New York on Monday to resume Thursday’s game, which was suspended by rain in the top of the ninth inning.
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That scenario is subject to change, clearly, if the game has no impact on which National League teams make the playoffs. For that to happen, the Marlins — currently holding a half-game lead on the Chicago Cubs (and a tiebreaker) for the third wild-card spot — would have to eliminate the Cubs this weekend.
But what is far from clear is whether the game would resume if the playoff field is set but the Marlins and Arizona Diamondbacks need the results of that unfinished game to determine seeding.
Arizona currently holds a one-game lead in the loss column over Miami in the race for the second wild card. However, if the teams are still separated by a game in the loss column after Sunday, the suspended game would determine which team would play the Philadelphia Phillies in the wild-card round and which would play the NL Central winners, the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Marlins hold the tiebreaker over the Diamondbacks, by virtue of having won their head-to-head season series. Therefore, even if they were one game back in the loss column following games this weekend, they could still win the No. 2 wild card (and a series with Philadelphia) by going back to New York and winning a game in which they held a 2-1 lead when the game was suspended.
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Marlins-Mets game suspended in top of ninth
MLB is still discussing how it would handle that scenario, league sources said. And those conversations are expected to go on all weekend. The Marlins finish their season with three games in Pittsburgh. The Diamondbacks have three games at home against Houston.
Required reading
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