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Pittsburgh Pirates Mathematically Eliminated From Playoff Contention After Cubs Win

Before they even got to take the field Saturday night, the Pittsburgh Pirates saw their chances of making the MLB postseason cut to zero.
Sam Connon|
Pittsburgh Pirates Mathematically Eliminated From Playoff Contention After Cubs Win
Pittsburgh Pirates Mathematically Eliminated From Playoff Contention After Cubs Win

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Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates woke up Saturday morning and they technically still had a chance to make the MLB postseason.

Before they even took the field for their game against the Cincinnati Reds, those hopes were dashed.

The Pirates were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention Saturday, according to Talkin' Baseball and SB Nation's Bucs Dugout. The Chicago Cubs' win over the Colorado Rockies earlier in the afternoon made it impossible for Pittsburgh to storm back and take any of the three NL Wild Card spots.

At 73-81, the Pirates are 7.5 games behind the Cubs with eight games left on the slate. But since Chicago won the season series 10-3, Pittsburgh would lose the tiebreaker in the event of a miraculous late-season run regardless.

The Pirates were likely only a few hours from getting eliminated anyways, considering they currently trail the Reds 9-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning.

There have now been five teams eliminated in the last three days, as the Boston Red Sox were officially knocked out on Thursday. The New York Mets, Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Guardians, on the other hand, were eliminated Friday.

The New York Yankees are likely to be the next team to see their playoff chances cut to zero. From there, the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres would be the only remaining teams with between a 0.1% and 2.0% chance of making the playoffs, per FanGraphs.

Six playoff spots have already been clinched, leaving six more up for grabs for the nine teams that hold realistic odds of snagging them.

The Pirates are not one of those teams, and they have a week left on the schedule before they can officially set their sights on 2024.

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Sam Connon
SAM CONNON

Sam Connon is a staff writer covering baseball for “Fastball on SI.’’ He previously covered UCLA Athletics for On SI’s All Bruins site, and is a UCLA graduate, with his work there as a sports columnist receiving awards from the College Media Association and Society of Professional Journalists. Connon also wrote for On SI’s New England Patriots site, Patriots Country, and he was on the Patriots and Boston Red Sox beats at Prime Time Sports Talk. Sam lives in Boston.

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