MLB Wild Card: Phillies can pass the Padres but it's better to avoid the Mets

The Phillies begins their final series of the regular season on Monday night with a magical number one and a chance to even move up the rankings.

Padres is 87-72. Phillies are 86-73. The Brewers are 84-75 and the first team to come out of the playoffs.

The Phils has a two-game tie-break lead over the Brewers, which means Milwaukee’s only road to post-season is to sweep the Diamondbacks at home while the Phillies are swept up in Houston. Anything short will end the Phillies’ 10-year drought.

But the Phils also own the tiebreak on the Padres, so the second place can be reached. All they have to do to get past Padres is finish the match better over the last three to tie them up in the standings. Padres hosts the Giants team from Monday to Wednesday.

In terms of first-round opponents, Velez would probably fare better in sixth. If they finish in that spot, they’ll play the Cardinals in a best-of-three first-round match with all three games in St. Louis. If they finished the top five rankings, they would play the Mets on the road in the top three.

It is now almost certain that the Mets will end up with the best wild card place after being knocked out of the NL East leadership this weekend by the Braves. The Braves not only have a two-game lead over the Mets but a sweep of the Atlanta season series, winning 10-9. The only way for the Mets to win the division now is to sweep the national team while sweeping the Braves Marlins.

Thus, if Phyllis end up with 5 seeds, they will face the Mets. They went 5-14 against the Mets this season and 4-3 against the Cardinals, who are six games behind the Mets overall.

In a playoff against the Mets, Velez will see Jacob Degrom and Max Scherzer right off the chute, which could wrap things up quickly. DeGrom and Scherzer filed on Friday and Saturday so they will be on normal rest to start the first two games of the first-round series.

The Phillies beat the Mets the last time they faced Sheerzer, but there is a noticeable difference between the drawing of DeGrum, Sheerzer and Chris Bassett versus the drawing of Adam Wainwright, Jordan Montgomery and Miles Micholas.

And if you win this series against the Mets… your reward is the Dodgers. The playoffs are not rearranged, so the winner of the series between 4 and 5 seeds draws Los Angeles top seed

The Phils won’t mess around, but they’re just focused on getting things done. Once they do that, maybe they can then look forward to the matching status. If the Padres win a series of their own this weekend, it will likely be a moot point as the Phillies will need to sweep the 104-win Astros to change the standings.

The most dangerous aspect of the Cardinals is their mid-ranking with Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado. Despite this, Goldschmidt slowed down after hitting a hit in his first 120 matches. Over his last 29 games and 120 board appearances, the potential NL MVP is 0.231 with a 0.681 OPS, and 30 crosses out. The Arenado in September hit 0.220 with a 0.649 OPS.

That’s not to say that many of the other hitters in the St. The Cardinal has scored two runs or fewer in eight of his last 13 games.

But before worrying about the Cardinals or the Mets, the Phillies have to do their part in Houston. They don’t even need to win a game in order to win but that will make things easier than watching the scoreboard for days in a row.

Aaron Nola (10-13, 3.36) takes on Lance McCullers Jr. (4-1, 2.38) on Mondays at 8:10 p.m. The Brewers play at 7:40 p.m. and the Padres at 9:40.

In Game 2, the Phillies will see Justin Verlander, the 17-4-year-old with the best ERA and WHIP in the majors. At the end of the season, they will face Framber Valdes, who has broken the league record this season with 25 consecutive starts. Even if their appearances are brief, it will be tough on Phils.