Chicago, Philadelphia and San Diego are all 85-69 with eight games left. Will the Cubs finish as the NL's top wild card?
50% of users predicted YES — the community missed this one. 16 predictions cast.
The Chicago Cubs did not finish as the National League's top wild card. The San Diego Padres claimed that spot instead, clinching it by beating the Arizona Diamondbacks late in the final weekend of the regular season, which combined with a Philadelphia Phillies loss to Tampa Bay to lock the Cubs into the second wild-card position.
Entering the stretch run, Chicago, Philadelphia and San Diego were tied at 85-69 with eight games remaining, setting up a tight three-way race for the top wild-card seed and the extra rest and home-field advantage that comes with it. The Padres pulled ahead over the season's final days, finishing as the No. 4 seed and earning the right to host the Cubs, the No. 5 seed, in a best-of-three wild-card series that began September 29 in San Diego. The Phillies took the No. 6 seed and drew the Atlanta Braves.
The community split roughly evenly on this outcome, with 50% expecting the Cubs to finish first among the wild-card contenders. Instead, the race came down to the regular season's final games, with San Diego's late surge deciding which of the three co-leaders would host and which would travel for the opening round of the playoffs.