NL wildcard racing chaos: Diamondbacks win, Mets-Braves doubleheader plays in full

By Noah Furtado, David O’Brien and Will Sammon

The Athletic has live coverage of Mets vs. Braves Monday doubleheader in MLB action.

It is maximum chaos. The Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the San Diego Padres 11-2, the New York Mets won 5-0 against the Milwaukee Brewers and the Atlanta Braves lost 4-2 to the Kansas City Royals, forcing the Mets-Braves doubleheader in Atlanta are played. The final two National League wild cards will be determined on Monday.

All three teams are currently tied, with the Diamondbacks losing the three-way tiebreaker. Ultimately, the Mets and Braves will directly determine what comes next, with the Diamondbacks as bystanders to the madness.

The scenario is simplest for the Mets and Braves: one win in the doubleheader earns a spot. But for the Diamondbacks to make it, one of the teams will have to sweep the doubleheader.

This is where it gets tricky. The winner of Game 1, be it the Mets or the Braves, would have already punched their ticket with less to play for than the loser of Game 1, who would have to win the second game to clinch the final spot. This circumstance could impact whether the winner of Game 1 decides to rest players and pitchers at certain positions, especially in the second game.

The Diamondbacks entered game No. 162 as losers in five of their previous six and needed a win and some help to maintain their postseason hopes for at least one more day. And they got it.

A six-run frame in the fourth catapulted them to a commanding lead that was never seriously threatened. Brandon Pfaadt allowed just one earned run on three hits with nine strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings. And Ketel Marte hit his team-leading 36th home run as one of five multi-hit performers for the Diamondbacks, who finished with 16 hits.

Meanwhile, in Milwaukee, owner Steven Cohen watched Edwin Diaz pick up a win before boarding a flight to Atlanta. The Mets will join Tylor Megill in Game 1 on Monday, according to a team source.

It was impossible for New York to be eliminated this weekend in Milwaukee, but they could have qualified. Now they have to win at least one game on Monday. There were good signs for the Mets on Sunday; their offense emerged from a funk, Francisco Lindor looked sharp as he continued to manage his back issue and David Peterson delivered seven strong innings, saving the bullpen.

The Braves, meanwhile, said they would hold presumptive Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale until he faced a possible elimination game after his velocity dropped a few ticks in his most recent start. The plan worked to perfection in the first two games of the series, but backfired on Sunday when 40-year-old Charlie Morton, in what could be his last start for Atlanta and before his retirement, gave up three runs before making a recorded zero in the first game. inning – allowing a Tommy Pham double, Bobby Witt Jr. single and three-run homer were possible for Michael Massey.

The Braves will start rookie standout Spencer Schwellenbach in the first game of Monday’s doubleheader, and use Sale in Game 2 if the Mets win the opener. If they don’t have to use Sale, the Braves would have him and fellow All-Stars Max Fried and Reynaldo López available for the Wild-Card Series.

The Braves had several scoring opportunities on Sunday, but squandered them; hitting with runners in scoring position has been a problem for them all season. With a chance to qualify, they went 1-for-9 with RISP, including consecutive strikeouts of Ramón Laureano and Sean Murphy in the eighth inning with two runners on base in a two-run game.

They went 1-for-19 with runners in scoring position in the series, but won the first two games thanks to excellent starting pitching from Fried and López, home runs from catchers Murphy and Travis d’Arnaud (walk-off Friday) and a pair of precious Royals -errors. They didn’t get any help from Kansas City Sunday and managed just one extra base hit, a Gio Urshela leadoff homer in the third inning.

(Top photo: David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)