Getty The Brewers and Cubs are battling for the No. 1 seed in the National League.
The Chicago Cubs host the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday, October 1st at 1:05 p.m. Eastern in a tiebreaker game for the NL Central division title. The winner will advance with the division crown as well as the National League No. 1 seed. The losing team will play the NL West’s second-place team on Wednesday in the Wild Card matchup.
Jose Quintina will be the Cubs starting pitcher on Monday per NBC Chicago. The Brewers still have not announced what pitcher will take the mound against the Cubs. NBC Chicago detailed Quintina’s strong track record against the Brewers.
Quintana has a 4-1 record with a 2.17 ERA in six starts against Milwaukee this season. He has struck out 33 batters and given up 23 hits in 37.1 innings of work, and has held Milwaukee to a paltry .177 batting average.
The Losing Team Risks Missing Out on the NLDS
The Cubs released tickets to the tiebreaker game at Wrigley Field. Tickets went on sale at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on Sunday night. Click here to see what tickets remain. According to WGN Chicago, the tickets (if tickets remain) will also be available for purchase over the phone Monday morning beginning 9 a.m. Eastern. Tickets were available Sunday evening on seconday ticket sites like Stubhub for as low as $56.
The Brewers and Cubs both entered the final day of the regular season needing a win along with the other team to lose to secure the NL Central. With both teams winning, a tiebreaker was forced to determine the division winner. The same thing happened in the NL West where the Dodgers and Rockies will play in a tiebreaker game in Los Angeles. Both the Brewers and Cubs have already clinched a playoff spot, but the game has major playoff seeding implications for both teams.
The winner will wind up with home-field advantage through the entirety of the National League playoffs, while the loser will have to participate in what is essentially a play-in game on Wednesday, and risk missing out on the NLDS with a Wild Card loss. Cubs manager Joe Maddon spoke about the unique nature of the 2018 postseason.
“To win 95 and do it the way we did is still not enough, as of today,” Maddon explained to Yahoo Sports. “But give the Brewers credit, we’ve been talking about them for a couple of years, they’re a good ball club. So it’s interesting, baseball is such a perfect game in some ways that it takes 162 to not decide anything. It’s just like it’s the first day of the season. It’s pretty crazy stuff, it really is.”
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