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Cubs now aiming for NL home-field advantage
- Updated: September 16, 2016
CHICAGO — Now that the Cubs have won the National League Central, what’s next? Home-field advantage throughout the NL half of the postseason, of course. The magic number to do so is 10. Any combination of wins by the Cubs or losses by the second-best Nationals would give the Cubs the top seed in the NL and the right to face the winner of the NL Wild Card Game, which will be played on Oct. 5.
Once the Wild Card winner is decided, the Cubs will open the best-of-five NL Division Series at Wrigley Field on Oct. 7, and the game will be broadcast on FS1 and MLB Network. Game 2 will be Oct. 8 at Wrigley Field, and the series will then shift to the road for Game 3 on Oct. 10 (FS1/MLB Network). If a Game 4 is necessary, it will be played Oct. 11 at the Wild Card winner’s home field, and a deciding Game 5 would be played Oct. 13 at Wrigley Field. Both of those games would be broadcast on FS1.
As of Thursday, the Giants and Mets were the Wild Card leaders. This season, the Cubs went 4-3 against the Giants, and 2-5 against the Mets, but manager Joe Maddon will be quick to remind everyone that those records don’t matter. In 2015, the Cubs were 7-0 in the regular season against the Mets, who then swept Chicago in four games in the NL …