The Milwaukee Brewers headed into their Sept. 13 game against the St. Louis Cardinals presumably looking for one win or a loss by the San Francisco Giants or New York Mets to lock up a playoff berth in the 2025 postseason. They got what they were looking for when the Mets lost to the Texas Rangers, leading to the official announcement that a playoff spot was wrapped up.
The thing is: Milwaukee actually already seem to have a spot locked up. Though Major League Baseball hasn’t announced it, there’s no scenario in which the Brewers miss out on at least the No. 6 seed in the National League.
Here’s why the Brewers already clinched a playoff spot before Sept. 13
The magic number for the Brewers (90-58) to finish ahead of the Giants or the Mets is 1, heading into Sept. 13. Both foes have 72 losses, and the best they can do is win the rest of their games (while the Brewers lose all of theirs), locking all three into records of 90-72 at year’s end.
Milwaukee only needs to finish ahead of one of those teams. The only other teams that can post better records than the Brewers are the Phillies, Dodgers, Padres and Cubs, and six teams make the playoffs. So again, Milwaukee only needs to pass either the Giants or Mets.
And since the best those teams can do is tie the Brewers, we’d have a three-way tiebreaker. Using MLB’s tiebreaking procedures, the Giants would be awarded the No. 5 seed (second wild card) by virtue of their record against the Brewers and Mets. That leaves the Mets and Brewers battling for the last spot, and the process now reverts to a two-team tiebreaker. Since the Brewers won the season series against the Mets, that’s Milwaukee’s playoff spot.
What about tiebreakers if other teams get involved?
There are other scenarios in which additional teams get involved in a tiebreaker, but the Brewers make the playoffs in every one. Remember, the only way this is even a conversation is if the Giants and Mets win out and the Brewers lose out. So all scenarios have to involve those three teams (and cannot, by extension, involve any teams that already have 73 losses).
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Even before MLB announced it, it sure looked as if the Brewers already had a playoff spot clinched
Reporting by JR Radcliffe and Curt Hogg, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
