MLB tiebreakers could doom Cubs as playoff chances dwindle – NBC Sports Chicago

The Chicago Cubs woke up Monday to a tie for the final wild card spot with the Miami Marlins, but it’s bad news in more ways than one.

Of course, there’s the free fall the team is currently in, with five straight losses in eight of their last 10 games.

This losing streak has dropped the Cubs’ chances of reaching the playoffs from 92% to 46%, according to Fangraphs, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to bad news for the North Siders .

Yes, they’re currently tied with the Marlins for that third wild card spot, with a 78-72 record on the season, and yes, they still have a half-game lead over the Reds and a lead of 1.5 games on the Giants. , so there is little cushion to work with in this pursuit.

They’re also just a half-game behind the Diamondbacks despite losing six of seven games to Arizona in recent weeks.

The bad news is that MLB’s new tiebreaker rules are going to present a formidable opponent for the Cubs to overcome.

When MLB instituted the wild card round for the playoffs, it removed one-game tiebreakers for playoff spots, meaning it would use mathematical tiebreakers to determine which clubs qualify for the playoffs.

For the Cubs, this is a bad patch, as they currently hold a tiebreaker against exactly one team in their quest for a playoff spot: the Giants.

The Cubs lost their season series to the Phillies, Marlins, Reds and Diamondbacks, meaning that if they were to finish in a two- or three-way tie with those specific clubs, then they would be eliminated from the playoffs.

Things get a little more complicated if the Giants are involved, and the Cubs still have a chance to catch the Brewers in their season series, but the challenges facing the Cubs as they embark on their final four series the season remains immense.

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