An hour or two after their dramatic win over the Pirates in the final home game of the season, the Cincinnati Reds found out who they would play in the first round of the playoffs when the Los Angeles Dodgers beat Arizona to clinch the National League West title.
Now all they have to do is erase a one-game deficit in the next three days to beat out the New York Mets for the league’s final berth to earn their flight to Los Angeles.
This is where nearly six months of ebbs, flows, ups, downs, debuts, departures, trades, aches, pains, thrills and hard knocks have led this team in its first year under manager Terry Francona.
In Milwaukee. With a chance. On the final weekend of the season.
They trail the Mets by one game, but they own the tiebreaker in every remaining possible two- and three-way tie scenario as they take the field Sept. 26.
That means they have three days to swing one game and they’re in – with the Diamondbacks trailing the Reds by a game and needing a near miracle to make up two games on both teams in front of them (again, a tie for the final berth with Arizona puts the Reds in the playoffs).
The only added hurdle for the Reds is the opponent is a Brewers team they haven’t beaten in a series in more than three years.
They’ve lost 13 consecutive series against their white whale of Wisconsin and 32 of their past 42 games against the Brewers.
“It’s exactly what we want,” Reds first baseman Spencer Steer said. “They’ve had our number for the last couple years. If we go in there and beat them, that would be pretty big for us. I’m excited for the opportunity.”
How the three-team race stacks up for the third NL wild-card berth with each team’s remaining three-game series:
- New York Mets (82-77) – at Miami (77-82)
- Cincinnati Reds (81-78) – at Milwaukee (96-63)
- Arizona Diamondbacks (80-79) – at San Diego (87-72)
As the Reds headed out from their final homestand of the season, they had no way of knowing whether they would be returning home for good after three days or moving on to the west coast for a first-round of the playoffs — and possibly even Philadelphia after that for the first two games of a Division Series round.
They would not have a home playoff game until Game 3 of the Division Series if they make it that far.
Pack for 10 days? Three?
“I would say that this would be a very good test to see who believes,” Francona said. “Because if we see people with like 10 underwear, they believe. If you see people with two, might wanna filter them out.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How Cincinnati Reds make MLB playoffs in final series
