ATLANTA – A day after the scheduled end of the regular season, the Atlanta Braves hosted the New York Mets in a doubleheader on Monday to decide the final two wild-card spots in the National League.

The unusual twin design was required after two games between the NL East rivals were wiped out last week when Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc across the southeastern United States

The Braves could have won their seventh straight postseason appearance on Sunday, but a 4-2 loss to the Kansas City Royals left Atlanta 88-72. The Mets were also 88-72 after a 5-0 win in Milwaukee, while Arizona finished the regular season with an 11-2 win over the Padres, 89-73.

The Braves and Mets both hold a tiebreaker lead over the Diamondbacks, so they only had to split the doubleheader to advance to the Wild Card Series together. The Diamondbacks are watching from Phoenix, hoping for a win that would give them the final wild card.

Rookie Spencer Schwertenbach (8-7, 3.47 ERA) started for the Braves in Game 1 against the Mets’ Tylor Megill (4-5, 3.98).

Atlanta’s Chris Sale (18-3, 2.38) and New York’s Luis Severino (11-7, 3.91) were expected to face each other in Game 2, but whoever won the opening game was expected to push their scheduled starter back to Game 1 the Wild Card Series on Tuesday.

NL Central champion Milwaukee and top wild card San Diego have already secured the host role for the best-of-three opening round. Now it just depends on who they will play against.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb