On Saturday, we took a look at what figures to be an amazing AL playoff race. The National League isn't quite as set up for all that drama, but there still figures to be a great race and it's all about the wild card with some NL West sprinkled in.
Sure, we could still see some fireworks from the NL East and NL Central, but as things stand, those look drama-free with the Nationals leading the East by seven games and the Cubs leading the Central by a huge 10 1/2. SportsLine has the Nats with a 99.7 percent chance of taking the division and the Cubs at 98.5. Those two could fight over the top record (the Cubs lead by 3 1/2), but that isn't very dramatic down the stretch in baseball.
Still, we have drama coming in two races.
NL West
Giants, 63-47
Dodgers,61-49, two games back
It's a war of attrition here between the two blood rivals, as the Giants are 6-14 in the second half (though they've modestly rebounded, having won four of their last seven) and the Dodgers are dealing with an injury-ravaged pitching staff.
Despite the deficit and the injuries, SportsLine actually has the Dodgers with a 70.5 percent chance of taking the division. That isn't the only thing in play here, of course ...
NL Wild Card
Dodgers, 61-49, +3
Cardinals, 58-52
Marlins, 58-52 (tied!)
Mets, 56-54, -2
Pirates, 55-53, -2
Rockies, 55-55, -3
That's two teams tied and five teams within three games of the final NL playoff spot with eight weeks to go. Dare we dream of a scenario where there have to be multiple one-game playoffs in order to get into the Wild Card game?
The Dodgers and Giants both carry playoff chances of greater than 80 percent, per SportsLine. As for the final spot, here's how the projection system likes the teams:
Cardinals: 57 percent
Pirates: 25.7
Mets: 23.4
Marlins: 9.3
Rockies: 8
As with the AL, when so many teams are contending and having three spots up for grabs here, there will be a lot of head-to-head goodness. Check it out.
Key Remaining Matchups
| Team/Games vs. | SF | LAD | MIA | STL | NYM | PIT | COL |
| Giants | 9 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 6 | |
| Dodgers | 9 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | |
| Marlins | 3 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 1 | |
| Cardinals | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 3 | |
| Mets | 4 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| Pirates | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | |
| Rockies | 6 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
Nine Dodgers-Giants games left! Holy hell that's gonna be awesome. And if they beat up on each other enough -- in addition to losing lots of other games, of course -- it could open the door for another wild card team.
On the Giants, in addition to those 29 games listed above, they have three against the Orioles and four road games against the Cubs, as well as Sunday's bout against the Nats.
The seven between the Mets and Marlins look pretty juicy as well and the Pirates-Cardinals series are always great.
Major League Baseball's new tradition of beginning all games on the final day of the season at virtually the same time (the variance is only 3:05 p.m. ET vs. 3:15 p.m. ET) brings us some possible fun as well. The Pirates are in St. Louis, the Marlins get the Nationals and ... the Dodgers and Giants square off in AT&T Park.
Beautiful. Bring on the drama, 2016 stretch run.
