NL Wild Card Standings: Mets play a team with no incentive, Braves play one with reasons to win

The New York Mets vs. Atlanta Braves was washed out Wednesday and will be again on Thursday. The two clubs will next play on Friday with the Mets traveling to face the Milwaukee Brewers. The Braves remain in Atlanta to host the Kansas City Royals.

Two teams who, if linked on Immaculate Grid, you should never use Zack Greinke on unless you want a mediocre score (everyone remembers he played for them, pick Anthony Swarzak instead) could help decide the fate of the NL Wild Card standings.

The San Diego Padres lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday. The Arizona Diamondbacks finally stumbled into a win against the San Francisco Giants. It does nothing to change where each team ranks in the NL Wild Card standings. That could change this weekend when the Mets play a team with no incentive to win and the Braves play one with their playoff lives possibly on the line.

The Mets draw the tougher opponent this weekend but it’s the Braves who’ll get the team playing for something

Don’t expect the Brewers to bend the knee to the Mets and let them waltz into the postseason. As much as they are thankful for what David Stearns gave them over the years, they aren’t about to show weakness ahead of the postseason. Instead, they’ll carefully plan around their upcoming first-round matchup which is now a lock to include hosting the Wild Card round.

They had a pathway. Unfortunately, they needed a lot to happen.

After this Brewers loss, the Padres took one themselves thus ending the possibility of moving upd. The third seed is all they’ll get. Luckily for them, the NL Central has been theirs for months. They were the first NL team to clinch their division.

Over in Kansas City, they haven’t been nearly as smooth in their return to the postseason. Now tied with the Detroit Tigers at 84-74, they have two things on their mind. First is to take any playoff spot they can get. Secondly would be to battle it out for the second Wild Card spot. The winner gets to play the Baltimore Orioles who haven’t been nearly as sharp as the alternative, the Houston Astros, for the last few months.

The Royals get to play the Washington Nationals on Thursday with the Twins playing the Miami Marlins. Minnesota finishes their season against the Orioles at home where they could very well run into the same scenario as the Mets—playing a team already locked in playoff positioning.

MLB should be happy there is this much chaos remaining in the season. Even if the Mets and Braves played their last two games this week, plenty would hang in the balance.

The Mets don’t play on Thursday but there is something to root for, a Royals loss and a Twins win. Make the Royals sweat. Then let them pulverize the Braves a little bit. Not too much, though. We should all hope for the Diamondbacks to be the ones to fall out of the NL Wild Card picture completely so those two games in Atlanta never happen at all. A well-rested Mets team heading into the playoffs matters much more than being able to eliminate the Braves in their ballpark in a whacky, rescheduled doubleheader.