Brewers wrest NL Central crown away from Cubs
The Cubs didn't “win” a wild-card spot Monday as much as they lost a division title.
The good news for the Cubs is that they'll live to play another day following Monday's 3-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field in Game 163 of the season.
The Brewers clinched the National League Central for the second time in team history by breaking a 1-1 tie with a pair of runs in the top of the eighth inning.
The game was made necessary by the teams being tied for first place in the NL Central after 162 games. The Brewers won the division and clinched home-field advantage throughout the playoffs with a record of 96-67.
The Cubs (95-68) get the top wild-card spot and will host the one-game playoff against the Colorado Rockies Tuesday night at 7. The winner will travel to Miller Park in Milwaukee Thursday to begin the division series.
Normally, teams that win any playoff spot celebrate the occasion. This year's two wild-card teams in the NL are losers of a Game 163.
That made for a strange postgame dynamic in the Cubs clubhouse. They led the NL Central for much of the year and were up by 5 games Sept. 2. The Cubs went 14-13 after that while the Brewers went 19-6.
“Tomorrow you're going to have two teams that are rebounding from a loss in a one-game take-all,” said Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo, who tied Monday's game at 1-1 in the fifth inning with a 429-foot home run high into the right-field bleachers against Brewers starter Jhoulys Chacin. “Luckily for us, we get to stay here. We don't have to travel. It's surprising we don't have to travel.
“Luckily for us, we get to stay in our own bed and enjoy a nice night and be ready to go tomorrow.”
Once again, a disappearing offense cost the Cubs. They were outhit 12-3 by the Brewers, with Chacin giving up 1 hit over 5⅔ innings, and that was Rizzo's homer.
“We weren't really striking the ball with any kind of consistency,” said manager Joe Maddon. “I thought we were pretty fortunate. I thought (the Brewers) were hitting the ball hard and making outs versus (Cubs starter Jose) Quintana.
“The consistent hard contact has not been there, more than anything. I can't give you a solid reason. We've got to find it — quickly. The capabilities are within the group, there's no doubt. We have one more shot tomorrow to right the ship. I don't have any really solid answers. I really believe that the (Daniel) Murphy acquisition really permitted us to be in this position in the first place.”
The Brewers scored a run in the top of the third, with MVP candidate Christian Yelich hitting a two-out RBI single. Yelich was 3-for-4.
Rizzo's blast brought the crowd of 38,450 to life, but only temporarily.
Maddon began with his bullpen machinations in the sixth, pulling Quintana after a leadoff single to Yelich. In came Jesse Chavez, one of the best in-season acquisitions by any club this year. Chavez got a strikeout and a double play and then worked a 1-2-3 seventh.
Justin Wilson came in and gave up a leadoff single to Orlando Arcia in the eighth. The normal light-hitting Arica (.236) went 4-for-4. Pinch hitter Domingo Santana doubled off Wilson, prompting Maddon to turn to workhorse Steve Cishek for his 80th appearance of the season.
Lorenzo Cain singled home Arcia. Dependable lefty Randy Rosario came in and struck out Yelich before yet another reliever, Brandon Kintzler, gave up a line single to Ryan Braun to make it 3-1.
The Cubs had a chance in the ninth against Josh Hader, with Javier Baez hitting a two-out single before Rizzo flied out to right to end the game and touch off celebration of Brewers and a sizable contingent of their fans who made the trek down I-94.
Many of those fans could be heard celebrating outside Wrigley Field two hours after the game ended.
Maddon began his postgame news conference by congratulating the Brewers and then noting the oddity of advancing while losing.
“All year, I know we know how good Milwaukee is, and they were relentless,” he said. “Give them credit, man. Don't bang on our guys. We got to lick our wounds, come back tomorrow and we'll get another shot at them.”
When the Cubs finished third in the NL Central in 2015 and took the second wild-card spot, it was cause for celebration.
Now, not so much.
“We won 95 games; it wasn't good enough,” Rizzo said. “We won (97) games one year, and we were happy we were in the wild card. It's just the way it's shifted around here. The expectations have gone up, and we hold ourselves to an extremely high level. I think tomorrow it's all about focusing on good at-bats.”
The Cubs have known they're in the playoff for a while, but there's been no popping of the corks, as one reporter pointed out to Rizzo.
“Tomorrow,” he said.