Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
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The Pirates, thanks to a pair of home runs by Chris Duffy, beat the Cubs 7-5 at Wrigley Field. The win by the Pirates pushed them back ahead of the Cubs in the battle for fifth place in the NL Central, aka the battle to not have the worst record in the National League.
The Pirates are 57-84 and the Cubs are 56-84. Both the Pirates and Cubs are also battling it out to see who will be the first team mathematically eliminated from playoff contention in the National League.
Coming into today, according to the fine people at the RIOT number site, both the Cubs and Pirates needed to win at least 19 of their remaining games to have a shot. Both teams can win a maximum of 78 games (they don't play each other anymore). The only way these teams can make the playoffs is to win the NL Central (I'm pretty sure of that, but I'm willing to see a scenario where either the Pirates or Cubs could finish behind St. Louis, but ahead of the Dodgers, Padres, Phillies, or Marlins.) If the Cardinals win at Arizona tonight, the day of reckoning will draw nearer.
Meanwhile in the AL, the Orioles could get their plug pulled over the weekend. And since they are playing the Yankees, it's extremely likely.
MLB and all the major sports have catastrophe plans.
They don't like to publicize them.
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