Inbox: Who would start in Wild Card Game?

ST. LOUIS — Ten games. Three teams. Two spots. All even. That’s the National League Wild Card race in a nutshell, a race that the Cardinals climbed back into with a pair of crucial victories in San Francisco and a series win in Colorado. Thursday is the club’s last off-day of the regular season before beginning its final push toward what the organization hope ends with a sixth straight postseason berth.

Let’s dig into another set of mailbag questions to pass the time.

@LangoschMLB In a playoff game, who is the ace of the franchise right now for starting pitching? Vandalia, IL

— Marion Mayfield (@BigBird_06) September 22, 2016

@LangoschMLB In a playoff game, who is the ace of the franchise right now for starting pitching? Vandalia, IL

The Cardinals — who insist that the “ace” designation has as much to do with off-field influence as on-field performance — will still assign that label to Adam Wainwright. But that doesn’t mean they’ll pitch him in the NL Wild Card Game. Carlos Martinez has been this team’s best starter and would almost certainly draw the assignment. The Cards have their rotation lined up for this, too. Martinez is on turn to make his final regular-season start on Sept. 30, which would give him the usual four days of rest before the Oct. 5 win-or-go-home tilt.

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In case there is a three-way tie for the Wild Card, what would your preferred rotation be? — Sam L., Champaign, Ill.

This is where things get tricky, though we can do some decoding to simplify the options. Assuming that the Cardinals roll their rotation order over following the off-day, the final five starts of the regular season will be assigned as such: Mike Leake (Sept. 28), Alex Reyes (Sept. 29), Martinez (Sept. 30), Wainwright (Oct. 1) and Luke Weaver or Jaime Garcia …

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