Scenarios for STL-DET to play on Sept. 28

The wide-open National League playoff race could bring the Cardinals and Tigers back to Comerica Park next Monday to make up their postponed games from last month. But those games would only be played to determine if a team gets into the playoffs, or if the Cardinals could become the

The wide-open National League playoff race could bring the Cardinals and Tigers back to Comerica Park next Monday to make up their postponed games from last month. But those games would only be played to determine if a team gets into the playoffs, or if the Cardinals could become the home team in a Wild Card Series as a top-four seed.

If the playoff fields are set and playing the games would only impact seeding, but not home-field advantage, then the makeup games would not be played. The three division winners, plus the second-place team with the best record, will host the best-of-three Wild Card Series.

While the Tigers and Cardinals made up the St. Louis half of their originally scheduled home-and-home series with a doubleheader Sept. 10, the two Detroit games of the series have not been rescheduled. Sept. 28, the Monday immediately following the regular season, is an open date, providing some flexibility. But the scenarios under which those games would be played are limited.

If one or both games would decide whether Detroit or St. Louis qualify for the playoffs, or whether the Cardinals could host a Wild Card Series, then one or both games would be played.

But if, for example, the Cardinals have clinched a spot and the Tigers are eliminated, and the games would only determine whether St. Louis became the sixth or seventh or eighth seed, the games wouldn’t be made up, and the Cardinals’ seeding would be based on winning percentage over a 58-game schedule.

This clarifies earlier reports that the games would be played if any seeding could be changed.

Also to be determined would be whether the Tigers and Cardinals play both games or go game by game as necessary to decide a spot.