NL Central race snapshot: How are the St. Louis Cardinals positioned after their series-opening win on September 28 against the Pirates?

All three National League Central postseason contenders played on Monday, September 28, 2015.

• The first-place St. Louis Cardinals defeated the second-place Pirates in Pittsburgh.
• The third-place Chicago Cubs beat the Royals.

Monday night's win was the biggest of the season so far for the Cardinals. It halved their magic number from four to two in Pittsburgh's home park. The Cards' victory also increased their odds of winning the Central, per Fangraphs, from 88.9% entering Monday's game to 98.0%. A win tonight or on Wednesday seals the division title. So would two victories against the Braves if the Pirates take the next two games.

Rest-of-Season Records

How can the Pirates or Cubs catch the Cardinals and tie St. Louis for first place after Game 162? I resurrected the chart showing the scenarios in which this is possible. Red is the Cardinals. Yellow is the Pirates. Blue is the Cubs. It's becoming increasingly difficult for the Pirates to catch the Cardinals.

Playoff Odds

I included the Fangraphs playoff odds, which are rendered like this:

The FanGraphs Playoff Odds are an adaption of the coolstandings.com playoff odds originally created by Greg Agami and Sean Walsh. To generate the playoff odds we simulate each season 10,000 times.

I used the Fangraphs projection mode for the playoff odds, though there are other options. This mode "uses a combination of Steamer and ZiPS projections and the FanGraphs Depth Charts to calculate the winning percentage of each remaning game in the major league season."

Magic Numbers

I added the Cardinals, Pirates, and Cubs' so-called magic numbers to the graphic as well. This represents the sum of team wins and opponent losses necessary for that team to finish ahead of the opponent in the standings. I used the following formula:

Magic Number = 162 + 1 - (Team Win Total) - (Opponent Loss Total)