None of that changes the standings picture. The Padres have held one of the NL's wild card spots for weeks, tucked behind the Cubs and Phillies, while the Dodgers run away with the NL West. The Reds, meanwhile, have been sliding further from the postseason conversation, with manager Terry Francona still publicly insisting his club isn't done — telling reporters it's "baseball, not calculus" — even as an offense that's ranked among the league's worst in average and strikeouts keeps digging the hole deeper, per Yahoo Sports.
San Diego is 3-2 over its last 5 games and has won its most recent one, taking the first two of its set with the Twins before dropping a pair to the Pirates and rallying to win the finale. Cincinnati is 2-3 in that same window, also winners of its last game, after alternating losses to Arizona and San Francisco with the occasional bounce-back. Both clubs still have three more games apiece — the Padres against the Rays, the Reds against the Cubs — before any of that matters here, so treat the current form as a snapshot, not a forecast for Monday, August 31.
The injury sheets tell you plenty about why neither team is playing its best baseball right now. San Diego's is mostly pitching — the rotation and bullpen both thinned out — while Cincinnati's hits the lineup too, with Michael Toglia done for the season and Spencer Steer's wrist injury possibly costing him the rest of the year as well. First pitch is 6:40 PM ET, and there's still time for both injury reports to look different by then.