The Cubs are, officially, going to be playing playoff baseball.
They clinched a spot in baseball’s postseason Thursday with a 2-1 win over the Marlins.
Right fielder Seiya Suzuki’s solo home run tied the game at 1 in the fifth inning, and an inning later, second baseman Nico Hoerner followed left fielder Ian Happ’s leadoff triple with a go-ahead RBI single.
But lefty starter Matthew Boyd was the hero of the day, throwing seven innings of one-run ball to not only keep the Marlins at bay but also preserve Craig Counsell’s bullpen ahead of Friday’s doubleheader in Boston.
The Cubs started the day likely to make it into the tournament, with a magic number of one, requiring just one win — or one Diamondbacks loss — in their final four games to make it happen.
At least on that front, there will be no more scoreboard-watching, with Thursday’s victory advancing them into the playoffs.
As for what seed they’ll be on the NL side of the bracket and where they’ll be playing their opening-round, best-of-three series, that all remains to be figured out.
They started Thursday tied with the Phillies for second place in the wild-card standings, both teams a single game behind the first-place Padres. The Cubs hold the tiebreakers with both teams, but they’re bunched-up enough that the final few regular-season games will determine who finishes where.
Earning the top wild-card spot and the No. 4 seed means the Cubs would host an opening-round series at Wrigley Field. Taking the second wild-card spot and the No. 5 seed would send the Cubs on the road against the top-finishing wild-card team. And landing in the No. 6 spot, as the third wild-card team, would mean a visit to the NL East-winning Braves in Atlanta.
The Cubs travel to finish their regular-season schedule with three games against the Red Sox this weekend in Boston. That series has already been jumbled by forecasted rainstorms, with Sunday’s originally scheduled season finale moved to Friday as part of the aforementioned doubleheader.
The wild-card round of the playoffs begins Tuesday.
