Here's the Cubs' Path to Hosting Wild Card Series

The Chicago Cubs were set up nicely to clinch a home playoff series after they punched their ticket to the postseason last week, but they made it more difficult by getting swept against the Cincinnati Reds. Now, with six games remaining in the regular season there's some wiggle room left for the San Diego Padres, who can catch the Cubs for the top seed in the Wild Card race as the most likely matchup for Chicago. So here's the Cubs' patch to hosting the Wild Card series against the Padres at Wrigley Field.

Remaining Cubs and Padres Schedules

The Cubs have six games left before the start of the playoffs next week. After losing four straight on the road to the Reds the Cubs will end the regular season with a pair of three-game series' against the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals, respectively.

Sept. 23-25 vs. Mets
Sept. 26-28 vs. Cardinals

Meanwhile, the Padres also have six straight games at home to finish the regular season. San Diego began a three-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers with a 5-4 win on Monday night. The Padres will also host the Arizona Diamondbacks this weekend to close out regular-season play.

Sept. 22-24 vs. Brewers
Sept. 26-28 vs. Diamondbacks

The Mets enter their series against the Cubs needing to get back into the Wild Card mix after the Reds jumped New York in the standings following the weekend. As for the Cardinals they'll be playing for pride against the Cubs this weekend at Wrigley Field.

The Brewers' magic number to clinch the No. 1 seed is three, so they still have something to play for against the Padres. As for the Diamondbacks, they're still on the fringe of the Wild Card race, trailing the Reds by one game, so Arizona could be going all out against the Padres this weekend as well depending how the next few games go for Cincinnati.

Cubs Magic Number?

To clinch a home series and the No. 4 seed in the Wild Card round in the playoffs the Cubs' magic number remains at four. Essentially that means the Cubs need a combination of wins + Padres' losses that equal four.

Tiebreakers

If the Padres catch the Cubs and end up with the same record, then they'd have the tiebreaker over the Cubs because they would have a better record against teams within their division.