HARWICH — And the wildcard winner is…to be announced.

More than 40 games into the 44-game regular season schedule, the Chatham A’s, Harwich Mariners and Brewster Whitecaps are still locked in a three-way race for the lone playoff spot in the East Division.

As of The Chronicle’s deadline Tuesday night, Harwich (22-20, 44 points) holds a slight lead on Brewster (18-19-4, 40 points) and Chatham (19-22, 38 points). The Orleans Cardinals (24-15-2, 50 points) wrapped up the East title with a 5-0 victory over Falmouth Monday, and will host the wildcard winner in the best-of-three East Division championship series beginning Friday at 7 p.m.

One thing for sure is that two-time CCBL champ Yarmouth-Dennis won’t three-peat. The Mariners eliminated the Red Sox (18-23-1, 37 points) from playoff contention with a 3-2 extra-inning victory at Red Wilson Field Tuesday, and in doing so, put themselves in prime position to clinch their first post-season berth since 1997.

“It’s was a huge, huge win,” said Shaver Hansen, who singled to leadoff the 10th and scored the go-ahead run. “It’s good to get a win like this going into the last couple of games of the season. It gives us a lot of confidence.”

Y-D opened with the scoring with Ryan Ortiz’ RBI single in the first, and the Red Sox took a 2-0 lead in the second on Andy Wilkins’ solo homer to right. Harwich caught a break in the sixth when right fielder DeAngelo Mack dropped a two-out fly ball, allowing Hansen to come home for the Mariners’ first run. 

Newcomer Alex Hilliard led off the ninth with a walk, moved over two bases on an error and scored on Andrew Giobbi’s game-extending sacrifice fly. In the 10th, Hansen singled through the infield, took second on Brian Kemp’s sacrifice bunt, and traveled another 90 feet on a passed ball before scoring on Brandon Belt’s sacrifice fly.

Harwich closer Willie Kempf gave up a pair of two-out singles in the home half of the inning, but third baseman D.J. LeMahieu gobbled up a ground ball and stepped on the bag to cap the crucial, come-from-behind win. 

Just as vital was Monday’s 4-1 matinee victory over Chatham at Whitehouse Field. Belt pitched five effective innings and the two-way talent helped his own cause with a pair of RBIs.

“Whenever I focus on pitching, I hit a little bit better, and whenever I focus on hitting, I pitch a little bit better,” said Belt, who struck out two and allowed only one hit. “I’m not sure why that is, but that’s the way it usually works out.”

There was also no way to explain how Belt was able to pitch as long and as well as he did, given the fact he’s taken the mound only once for the Mariners this season and never threw more than an inning while pitching out of the bullpen for the University of Texas this spring. 

“The game plan today was to throw everybody one inning,” Harwich Field Manager Steve Englert said. “But Brandon mowed guys down in the first, then in the second and third, so we kept him in. His pitch count was down and it worked out perfectly for us.”

Making the most of opportunities was a theme for the Mariners not just in the field but at the plate, as Tommy Medica singled to start a two-out rally in the third, and two batters later, scored on Belt’s single to center for the 1-0 Harwich lead. 

The Mariners rekindled their two-out magic in the fifth when Giobbi singled and scored on Belt’s triple. Belt then came home on Joe Sanders’ ensuing single to center to stake Harwich with a 4-0 lead. 

Kyle Seager got Chatham on the board with an RBI single in the sixth, but the A’s couldn’t come any closer against the Mariners’ mighty bullpen. Patrick Johnson fanned three over the sixth and seventh, and Kempf finished off the game fantastically with two hitless frames. 

“Anytime you can get ahead going into the last couple of days is going to help you out and this win helped us out a lot,” said Belt.

It also help to stop the bleeding after Harwich – once leading the wildcard race by eight points – dropped seven of eight games during a tough-luck stretch last week.

“We had a pretty good stranglehold on second place, but that’s the way this league goes,” said Englert. “It’s very competitive, so it’s just as easy to go on a losing streak as it is a winning streak.” 

The Mariners downward spiral began just before the All-Star break, when they lost 6-1 to Hyannis and dropped back-to-back games to Falmouth, 5-4 and 4-2. Following that, Harwich came out on the short end against Cotuit 6-1 and Brewster 7-5 before suffering their sixth straight loss, 4-2 to Y-D. 

Harwich got back in the win column with a 4-2 victory over Orleans Saturday, but couldn’t climb out of a 7-1 hole in a 7-5 loss to Brewster the next night.

“I don’t know that we were in a slump so much as we lost some tough games,” Englert said. “Granted, Cotuit beat us, but we’ve been in every other game. We just didn’t get the big hits when we needed them, and the bullpen, which has been very consistent all year, has given up a run here and there.”

Given their consistently inconsistent ways, Englert made no promises or predictions that his team would make the playoffs. 

“I’d love to see it, but Chatham is a tough team and Brewster can swing the bats,” the skipper said. “It could come down to the last day, so we have no choice but to take things one game at a time.”

Meanwhile, it’s been nothing but marathon baseball for Chatham, which is currently in the midst of playing six games over the final four days of the regular season. That’s not including the A’s 2-0 loss to Y-D Sunday night in a game that spanned 13 innings.

Chatham seemed to be headed in the right direction after the All-Star break, beating Bourne 9-4 and edging Orleans 9-8. But the A’s suffered a set-back beginning with the extra-inning loss to the Red Sox, followed by a 4-1 loss to Harwich and 4-2 loss to Cotuit in Monday’s double-header.

Chatham manufactured only four hits in the loss to the Mariners and didn’t do much more damage in the nightcap against the Kettleers.

Trailing Cotuit 2-0, the A’s came back in the sixth thanks to Seager, who doubled in the first run and scored the second off Joe Mercurio’s single to center. Cotuit answered in the eighth when Evan Crawford walked, stole second and scored on a single by Dallas Poulk. The Kettleers added an insurance run when Poulk came home on a wild pitch.

The A’s brought the tying run to the plate after Gabe Cohen smacked a two-out single to center, but Cotuit closer Daniel Wolford stymied any chance of a Chatham comeback when he struck out Kyle Bellows with a high heater. 

Chatham Field Manager John Schiffner refused to comment after the loss, saying only, “I have nothing to say.”

It doesn’t take a sabermetics specialist to understand the reason the A’s are currently on the outside looking in. Their offense simply isn’t producing, managing a mere three runs in 31 innings during their three-game losing streak. 

“That’s not getting it done,” said Seager. “But we’re a tired team. We’ve got some guys banged up, some guys playing out of position, and two games in one day is pretty tough, especially at this level.”

Chatham rebounded with a 7-4 win over Hyannis on Tuesday, but trails wildcard leader Harwich by six points with three games to go. The A’s are still alive, but are hanging on life support. 

“We need some luck, to be honest,” said Seager. “We need some teams to lose some big games. We’re basically relying on other teams to lose at this point to make the playoffs. We can do our part and win our games, but right now we need some help.”