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Replies to post #212445 on Baseball Chat (BASEBALL)
09/28/24 4:20 PM
But what if the doubleheader is necessary only for seeding, and commissioner Rob Manfred exercises his discretion to cancel it entirely? The Mets and Braves would end up playing 160 games rather than the 162 required of every other club. Which hardly seems fair to the Brewers and Padres, both of whom are on the verge of earning home field advantage for the best-of-three wild-card round.
Seeding is not as inconsequential as some might think. If either or both NL East teams land wild cards, it could have major implications, both for travel and home-field advantage in subsequent rounds.
For starters, the flight from Atlanta to Milwaukee is shorter than the flight from Atlanta to San Diego. And remember two years ago, when the fifth-seeded Padres met the sixth-seeded Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Championship Series? Seeding determined home-field advantage, though the Phillies won the series, anyway.
Manfred would need to consider the entire picture and strive for the fairest outcome. If the Mets and Braves play two fewer games, that’s 18 fewer innings their pitchers must throw, 18 fewer innings their hitters must play. A small thing? Perhaps. But one Brewers person, granted anonymity for his candor, put it like this: “It would not be fair. We should forfeit the last game and not use pitchers in game 162.”
The Mets, Braves and Diamondbacks warrant only so much sympathy — all three teams could have avoided this predicament by winning more games. The same, to a degree, can be said for the Brewers and Padres, who got stuck in the wild-card round by failing to earn a first-round bye.
The Brewers and Padres, however, played well enough to gain home-field advantage in the wild-card series. And that advantage will be mitigated if the Mets and Braves do not play two games on Monday.
AI
