NBA

CLE 92 DET 108
BK 95 PHI 117
ATL 111 MIA 120
MIN 123 CHI 125

MLB

LAD 8 NYM 0

NHL

BUF 5 PIT 6
LA 2  TOR 6
BOS 5 COL 3
UTA 4 ANA 5

Soccer

Volga 0 VS Sochi 2
Baltika 4 VS Torpedo Moscow 0
Formartine 0 VS Fraserburgh 2
Magdalena 1 VS Tigres 2
Progreso 0 VS Boston River 1
Mayo 0 VS Nacional 0

Playoff berths and seedings, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge pursuits, more

October is only a few days away, meaning that Major League Baseball's postseason is nearing its arrival. With the exception of the New York Mets and the Atlanta Braves, who will play a doubleheader on Monday after having their plans disrupted by Hurricane Helene, every club will wrap up their regular season schedule on Sunday.

There may be only three days left on the calendar for most of MLB, but that doesn't mean everything has been decided. Far from it, in fact.

With that in mind, we here at CBS Sports wanted to provide a handy guide to what's at stake entering Friday's slate of games. Below, you'll find nine of the most important and unresolved dynamics, ranging from playoff berths and seeding to individual pursuits of noteworthy accomplishments -- all compiled with the intent to help you prioritize which games merit your attention over the next three days.

Coming into Friday, eight of the 12 playoff berths have been clinched. The New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Guardians, Houston Astros have punched their tickets in the American League; the Philadelphia Phillies, Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Diego Padres have done the same in the National League.

Two more teams could secure their places on Friday: the Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers would gain entrance with either a victory or a Minnesota Twins loss against the Baltimore Orioles. Those clinches would complete the AL side of the bracket.

The NL side will take longer to resolve itself. The Mets and Arizona Diamondbacks entered Friday tied for the second and third slots, with the Braves sitting a game back. As noted in the introduction, the Mets and Braves will play a doubleheader on Monday.

Of course, there's more to the playoff bracket than merely which teams are involved. There's also the matter of seeding, which is particularly important at the tiptop of the leagues since it determines who would have home-field advantage should the top seeds advance to the League Championship Series.

The AL's top seed could be locked up as early as Friday night. The Yankees need to win against the Pittsburgh Pirates and have the Guardians lose to the Astros to secure the No. 1 spot. Should only one of those criteria be met on Friday night, the Yankees would be in position to clinch the top spot on Saturday.

The NL's top seed cannot be decided on Friday, though the Dodgers will enter with a one-game lead over the Phillies. The Phillies possess the tiebreaker by virtue of winning the season series, suggesting the race could go down to the wire.

Last Sunday, the Chicago White Sox tied MLB's modern single-season record for losses, dropping their 120th game of the year. It seemed certain then that the White Sox would lose another game, their 121st, over the coming days and overtake the expansion 1962 New York Mets for the worst season in modern MLB history.

The White Sox, to their credit, have thus far staved off loss No. 121, sweeping a three-game set from the Los Angeles Angels to improve their mark to 39-120. The White Sox will close out the year with three games against the Tigers.

The conditions would not seem favorable for another White Sox sweep: not only are the Tigers 9-1 against the White Sox this season, but, as noted above, they have something left to play for in the form of a playoff berth.

Sure, Shohei Ohtani has already recorded a 50-50 season. And yes, he's cleared 400 total bases. But, believe it or not, he just might have another historic feat in him before the playoffs begin: securing the first NL triple crown since Joe Medwick in 1937.

Rather, Ohtani will head into the Dodgers' season-concluding series against the Colorado Rockies with a chance to win the NL's triple crown.

Here's a look at where Ohtani stands in the three relevant categories as of Friday morning:

Batting average: .305, third in the NL, trails by .007 points
Home runs: 53, leads the NL by 14
Runs batted in: 126, leads the NL by 15
It's fair to think that Ohtani will end the season leading the NL in both home runs and runs batted in. Can he overtake both Luis Arraez and Marcell Ozuna in batting average? We'll find out.