With about 20 games left in the regular season schedule, the top of both playoff brackets is pretty much set. The first round, though, is still pretty wide open, with several teams still in it.
American League
Ottawa has an 11 game lead in the North, and Wichita has a 12 game lead. They should be safely in. With 87 wins each, home field advantage could come down to the final game.
Florida and Durham are in a tight race in the South (three games separate them) and Arizona and Seattle find themselves two games apart in the West. Florida is five games behind Ottawa and Wichita, but it’s possible that either they or Durham could play their way into a first-round bye.
Durham (79 wins) and Seattle (78 wins) lead the wild card race, but Burlington, Rochester, and Tampa Bay are all within five games of them.
National League
It’s a similar situation at the top in the NL, with Boston already notching 100 wins, and Salem not far behind at 98. In the East, Pittsburgh is seven back of Boston, and will almost certainly qualify as a wild card. San Diego, 16 games behind Salem in the West, had more wins than the leaders in the North and South.
The rest of the league is up in the air. Iowa City is within two of Louisville, and Detroit is within three of Cincinnati. The second wild card spot is San Diego’s to lose, but lots of teams have 70 wins, and are theoretically still alive. Included in those is St. Louis, who qualified as a wild card last year with 102 wins.