The 2018 National League Central tie-breaker game was a one-game extension to

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...

's (MLB) 2018 regular season, played between the

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...

and

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is locate ...

to determine the champion of the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

's (NL) Central Division. It was played at

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago ...

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

on October 1, 2018. The Brewers won, 3–1, and became the top seed in the NL playoffs. The Cubs hosted the NL West runner-up

Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The team plays its home baseball games at Coors Fi ...

in the NL Wild Card Game on October 2, with the Rockies winning 2–1 in 13 innings to advance to face the Brewers in the National League Division Series. The Cubs and Brewers ended the 2018 season tied for the division lead and the NL's best

win–loss record In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of match ...

at , thereby guaranteeing that whoever came in second will host the Wild Card Game two days later. The tie-breaker was counted as a regular season game for both teams, with all events in the game added to regular season statistics. October 1 also marked the first time two division tie-breakers had been played in a single season.

Background

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

had won two consecutive National League Central division championships, and were expected to win a third-consecutive Division title. The

finished 2017 six games back of the Cubs, despite leading the 2017 division race by 5.5 games at the All-Star break. Milwaukee's last playoff appearance was its 2011 division title. To challenge for the 2018 division, the Brewers made several key offseason acquisitions, among them starter Jhoulys Chacin, former Kansas City Royal Lorenzo Cain and then- Marlins

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

Christian Yelich. The Cubs' high-profile offseason acquisitions, Yu Darvish and Brandon Morrow, were lost to injury during the season, and both missed the tie-breaker game. Milwaukee emerged from a crowded early division race on May 18. Chicago took the division lead from the Brewers on July 14 and maintained sole possession of first place until falling to a third-place St. Louis club at home in the penultimate game of the season. Chicago had surged out of the All-Star break to a five-game lead over the Brewers lead on September 2, but Milwaukee put together a 19–7 September record that included four wins over the Cubs in nine days. The Brewers ended the season on an 8-game win streak, while the Cubs won their final game 10–5 over the Cards to force the tiebreaker. The Cubs won the right to host the tie-breaker with an 11–8 head-to-head record against the Brewers.

Game summary

José Quintana started for Chicago, and Jhoulys Chacín started for Milwaukee.

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

broadcast the game, with Karl Ravech,

Eduardo Pérez Eduardo Atanasio Pérez Pérez (born September 11, 1969) is an American former professional baseball player, coach, and current television sports color commentator. He played in Major League Baseball and the Nippon Professional Baseball league a ...

, Tim Kurkjian, and Buster Olney. The game was also broadcast on

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, with Jason Benetti and Chris Singleton. Christian Yelich had a

run batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...

(RBI) single for the Brewers in the third inning. Anthony Rizzo of the Cubs tied the game with a

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

in the fifth inning, the first

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

the Cubs had off of Chacín. Lorenzo Cain and

Ryan Braun Ryan Joseph Braun (born November 17, 1983) is an American former professional baseball left fielder who played his entire career for the Milwaukee Brewers of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2007 to 2020. Braun also played right field and fi ...

of the Brewers added RBI singles in the eighth inning. Orlando Arcia had his first career four hit game and scored two of Milwaukee's runs.

Aftermath

With the win, the Brewers extended their regular-season win streak to 9 and qualified for home-field advantage throughout the NL playoffs. Finishing one loss behind the Brewers, the Cubs hosted the 2018 NL Wild Card Game and the NL West runner-up Rockies the following day. Colorado defeated the Cubs in 13 innings. It was Chicago's first opening-round exit since the

Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Broo ...

swept the Cubs in the 2008 NLDS. Milwaukee swept the Rockies in the

NLDS In Major League Baseball, the National League Division Series (NLDS) determines which two teams from the National League will advance to the National League Championship Series. The Division Series consists of two best-of-five series, featuring e ...

, but their win streak ended at 14 in the

2018 NLCS The 2018 National League Championship Series was a best-of-seven playoff pitting the Milwaukee Brewers against the Los Angeles Dodgers, for the National League (NL) pennant and the right to play in the 2018 World Series against the AL Champions, ...

when the

beat Milwaukee 4–3 on October 13, the Brewers' first loss in 27 days. L.A. would win the NL pennant at Miller Park in seven games. Yellich won the NL MVP over Baez, who finished in second. Both men won

Silver Slugger awards The Silver Slugger Award has been awarded annually since 1980 to the best offensive player at each position in both the American League and the National League, as determined by the coaches and managers of Major League Baseball. These voters co ...

and finished as Gold Glove runners up at their respective positions. Rizzo, Cain, Brewers third baseman Travis Shaw and Cubs right fielder Jason Heyward were also

Gold Glove The Rawlings Gold Glove Award, usually referred to as simply the Gold Glove, is the award given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) players judged to have exhibited superior individual fielding performances at each fielding position in b ...

runners up. Brewers

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activitie ...

Craig Counsell would finish second in NL

Manager of the Year Manager of the Year may refer to: * Major League Baseball Manager of the Year Award * League Managers Association Manager of the Year * Premier League Manager of the Season The Premier League Manager of the Season is an annual association footba ...

voting, losing to

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in ...

manager

Brian Snitker Brian Gerald Snitker (born October 17, 1955) is an American professional baseball coach and former player who is the manager of the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball (MLB). Snitker has been in the Braves organization in different roles s ...

. This game, along with the NL West tie-breaker game, would be the last such tie-breaker games in Major League Baseball, as the league eliminated this scenario starting with the 2022 season. All ties in the standings would be broken through various formulas.

Footnotes

References

General

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Specific

{{MLBtiebreaker 2010s in Chicago National League Central tie-breaker game National League Central tie-breaker game Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball tie-breaker games Milwaukee Brewers National League Central tie-breaker game Wrigley Field