With two days left in the regular season, the San Francisco Giants hold a 1.0-game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals in the National League wild card race.

After suffering two of their worst defeats since a crushing Game 4 NLDS loss to the Chicago Cubs in 2016 over the last two days, the Giants are still in the driver’s seat and in control of their own destiny.

The Giants have an opportunity to clinch their first postseason berth in four seasons on Saturday, but they’ll need to take care of business at Oracle Park against the Padres and receive help from two other clubs, the St. Louis Cardinals and Tampa Bay Rays.

Manager Gabe Kapler’s club likely won’t know the results of the Cardinals’ matchup with the Brewers and the Rays’ game against the Phillies by the time they take the field on Saturday evening, but they’ll learn whether they have a chance to clinch a playoff berth in the early innings.

To clinch a NL wild card spot on Saturday, the Giants would need the Brewers and Phillies to lose and they would need to defeat the Padres. If either the Brewers or Phillies win on Saturday, the Giants would be unable to clinch a postseason berth until the final day of the regular season.

The Giants must maintain their 1.0-game lead over both of their top wild card challengers because they would lose a tiebreaker against Milwaukee and Philadelphia if either of the teams finish with the same record as San Francisco.

If the Giants win on Saturday, they can clinch a postseason berth without paying attention to the out-of-town scoreboard on Sunday by defeating the Padres to finish at 31-29. Kapler’s team hasn’t been two games above .500 at any point during the regular season, but it remains a possibility the team can finish with a winning record.

The Giants can also clinch a wild card berth on Sunday if they lose on Saturday, but they would need the Phillies and Brewers to each lose one of their final two games this season.

There’s also a slim possibility the Giants could make the postseason if they lose their final two games and finish with a 29-31 record. To sneak into October with a losing record, neither the Phillies nor the Brewers could win another game this weekend as each team would finish with a 28-32 record.

Securing either Thursday’s 5-4, 11-inning loss to the Rockies or Friday’s 6-5, walk-off loss to the Padres in Game 2 of a doubleheader would have made the Giants’ march toward the postseason much easier, but a team that entered the year expecting to talk more about 2021 draft picks than the 2020 playoffs still has a realistic path to playing in October.

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