Sep. 19—The Cincinnati Reds face their largest deficit in the wild-card race since mid-August after a 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday.
The Reds (77-72) trail the St. Louis Cardinals (78-69), who beat the Padres 3-2 for their seventh straight victory, by two games with two weeks left in the season. The Philadelphia Phillies and Padres (both 76-72) trail the Cardinals by 2 1/2 games.
The Reds have 13 games remaining. The Cardinals have 15 games left. The Phillies and Padres each have 14 games to go.
The Cardinals have a 57.8 percent chance of winning the wild card, according to FanGraphs.com, with the the Reds (21.9), Padres (11.9) and Phillies (5.0) trailing them.
Here’s how the schedules of the three top contenders compare:
—Reds: Sept. 19, vs. Dodgers (95-54); Sept. 20-22, vs. Pirates; Sept. 23-26, vs. Washington Nationals (60-87); Sept. 28-29, at Chicago White Sox (84-64); Oct. 1-3, at Pirates (56-92).
—Padres: Sept. 19, at Cardinals; Sept. 21-23, vs. Giants; Sept. 24-26, vs. Atlanta Braves (76-70); Sept. 28-30, at Dodgers; Oct. 1-3, at Giants.
—Cardinals: Sept. 19, vs. Padres; Sept. 20-23, at Milwaukee Brewers (91-57); Sept. 24-26, at Chicago Cubs (66-83); Sept. 28-30, vs. Milwaukee; Oct. 1-3, vs. Cubs.
The winner of the second wild-card will play on the road against the Giants or Dodgers, whoever doesn’t win the West Division, on Oct. 6. That game will air on TBS.