Clusterf@#k to the NL playoffs — an update

The much talked about potential 5-way tie in the NL West, East and the wild card can’t happen anymore. It’s not because the teams moved farther apart from each other — of the 5 involved, only the Mets lost on Thursday.

But because Arizona is still two games ahead of Colorado, and those two teams play each other in a three-game series to end the season, there’s no way those two teams can finish tied with each other.

* Two teams can potentially clinch a playoff spot today. What needs to happen:

The Chicago Cubs clinch the NL Central with a win AND a Milwaukee Brewers loss.

The Arizona Diamondbacks clinch a playoff spot with a win AND a loss by the New York Mets OR the Philadelphia Phillies.

* I’m starting to feel sorry for the Mets. They have lost four games in a row to fall into a tie with the Phillies for first place in the NL East. This would be a collapse of epic proportions if the don’t make the playoffs.

* It would be really fun to see a tiebreaker of any kind this year. Not just because tiebreakers are exciting, but because there is an extra off day this year between the last day of the season and the start of the playoffs. Without a tiebreaker, that break is going to seem like a long time.