CUBS VS BREWERS: 2018 NL CENTRAL DIVISION TIEBREAKER
The beginning of this game seemed pretty straightforward with both of the starting pitchers trading clean innings for the first two out of nine.
Then, in the top of the third, things started clicking for the Brew Crew. Orlando Arcia started it off with a single to right-center field on a 3-2 pitch. This was followed by a sac bunt from Jhoulys Chacín, the Brewers’ starting pitcher for this game. Then, Christian Yelich, perennial NL MVP candidate and phenom, decided to put his name on the score-sheet by driving Arcia home with a single through the middle of the infield to put the Brewers up 1-0.
Things then simmered down for the next two innings until the Cubs evened the issue with an Anthony Rizzo home run on a 4-seam fastball that aimed towards near the middle of the zone, which is not a good place for any pitcher to throw the ball at with him on the batter’s box. Despite allowing the one run, Chacin cruised through the next three batters unscathed.
Once the game reached its final third, the bullpen started coming into play, with both starters being pulled in the sixth inning.
Jesse Chavez (CHC) and Xavier Cedeno (MIL) did their jobs in holding the score for their teams in the seventh. In the eighth inning, they handed the ball to the next man up, and it seemed that the ballgame was going to boil down to a contest of “whoever blinks first would lose”. Someone had to mess up to decide a winner here and neither wanted to be it. A division championship and a spot in the NLDS was at stake. Neither team could afford a misstep from their crop of relievers.
Unfortunately, it was the Cubs who blinked first, as Justin Wilson gave up a single and a double to start his outing. After the two hits, manager John Maddon decided to take no chances and substituted Wilson for Steve Cishek, who then proceeded to give up an RBI single to Lorenzo Cain which returned the lead to Milwaukee by 2-1, an utter blow for Chicago. One batter later, with Brandon Kintzler now on the mound and Brewers team captain Ryan Braun on the box, it was the former NL MVP who won the battle by hitting another RBI single to continue the momentum of the visiting team, thus making the score 3-1.
A two-run lead seems manageable for a team to come back on in any ordinary baseball game, but with the implications of what would happen should they not pull it off surrounding them, it looks insurmountable. Nonetheless, the Cubs were going to try to do just that.
After taking care of the upper half of the ninth inning, it was the Cubs’ turn to go bat. Yet things were not looking good for them since the first two to go bat went down in a strikeout and fly out.
Next came Javier Baez, another MVP candidate along with Yelich, who hits a single to keep his team alive in the game. Stepping up to the plate after Baez was Rizzo, who hit a home run earlier in the game and pulled his team back in contention for the NL Central division title.
With a man hitting a .293 average with runners in scoring position this year at bat and with a runner on second base, can he pull off the impossible?
Can he even things up and possibly extend this game into extra innings?
After three pitches from new Brewers reliever Josh Hader, the count was 1-2.
Next came the fourth pitch in this at bat. Rizzo swings and makes contact with the ball.
The ball goes up in the air and back down to be caught by right fielder Keon Broxton to end the tiebreaker game and crown the Milwaukee Brewers as NL Central division champions for the first time since 2011. Furthermore, they advance to play in the NLDS as the number one seed with home-field advantage through the NLCS should they get there. Meanwhile, for the Cubs, they are demoted to the NL Wild Card Game, where their season will boil down to one game which forces them to play for their lives.
