How many wins will it take?

Wild Things manager Gregg Langbehn, when analyzing his team's position in the playoff race, said earlier this week that, "We've put ourselves in a position, with 24 games remaining, where we have to find a way to win about 17 games because there are so many teams fighting for a playoff spot."

That statement was made two games ago. Since then, Washington has gone 1-1, leaving it with a 35-38 record. They are six games behind first-place Joliet in the East Division standings and 3 1/2 back of Normal, which currently holds the final wild-card playoff spot. Because of one rainout (when it didn't rain that night) that will not be rescheduled, Washington will play only 95 games. There are 22 games remaining, including a doubleheader Sunday at Windy City.

So, how many of those 22 games will the Wild Things have to win to gain a playoff spot?

The Frontier League has been playing 96 games since 2004 and the average number of wins for the fourth-best team in those seasons is 53.41. In the six seasons in which the league has had 12 teams and played a 96-game schedule, the fourth-best record has an average of 53.11 wins.

That means, based on history, the Wild Things would need to go 19-3 to get to 54 wins.

But this is not a typical year in the Frontier League because so many teams -- actually, all of them -- are still within striking distance of a playoff berth. That means more wins for the league's bottom feeders, which in turn means the fourth-place team should have fewer than 54 wins at season's end.

The best way to guess how many wins it will take to finish as the final wild card is this: If Normal plays just one game over .500 for the rest of the season -- it has 21 remaining -- then the CornBelters will finish at 50-45. Based on this, it will take 51 wins for Washington to get the final wild card, meaning the Wild Things need to go 16-6.

For a team that hasn't won more than four consecutive games, that's asking a lot, though it's not mathematically impossible.