Yesterday, the Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals in Chicago, and the Washington Nationals lost to the Pirates in Pittsburgh …
… which means the Cubs have clinched the best record in the National League! That means they’ll get home field advantage throughout the NL half of the playoffs, they’ll get to face the Wild Card winner in the NLDS (rather than the Dodgers or Nationals), and they’ll get a nice smoked ham.
It has been inevitable for a while, but it’s still rather cool. The Cubs are officially the best team in the NL for 2016 (and, soon they’ll clinch the best record in MLB, too).
Meanwhile, that Cubs win over the Cardinals means that they stay the odd team out in the Wild Card race, though they are still just 0.5 games out, as the Giants also lost yesterday. The Mets won, though, so they now have a 1.0-game cushion in the top Wild Card spot.[adinserter block=”1″]