The San Francisco Giants and Atlanta Braves are both beginning to open up leads in the NL West and Wild Card races respectively. While the Giants were busy beating the Diamondbacks, the Padres dropped a 5-2 decision to the suddenly hot Chicago Cubs. The win dropped them to two full games back of the Giants with only five games remaining. Of course, three of those five are between the two teams at AT&T Park, which means the Padres just need to hang around until then.
The Padres may need every one of those games as the Atlanta Braves opened up a 1.5 game lead over the Padres in the NL Wild Card race with their win today over the Florida Marlins. A three spot in the seventh inning was enough for the Braves. While nothing is set in stone, that final three game set between the Giants and Padres could mean the Braves are sitting pretty. While they haven’t locked anything up, it’s entirely possible the Giants and Padres will be knocking one or the other out of the playoff race this weekend.