Tiebreaker games needed to decide NL Central, West titles
MILWAUKEE — Triple Crown contender Christian Yelich and the Milwaukee Brewers advanced to an NL Central tiebreaker against the Chicago Cubs, putting themselves in that position Sunday with an 11-0 romp over the Detroit Tigers.
The Brewers will play the Cubs at Wrigley Field on Monday in a one-game matchup for the division title. The loser will host the NL wild-card game Tuesday vs. the loser of the Colorado-Los Angeles Dodgers tiebreaker in the NL West.
The Brewers won their seventh in a row, and Chicago beat St. Louis 10-5 on the final scheduled day of the regular season.
Yelich went 0 for 2 with two walks and scored twice, ending his 10-game hitting streak. He is hitting .323 in his first season with Milwaukee, locking up the first batting title in Brewers’ history.
Yelich has 109 RBIs, tied with Colorado’s Nolan Arenado and two behind leader Javier Baez of the Cubs. Yelich’s 36 home runs are tied with Colorado’s Trevor Story and St. Louis’ Matt Carpenter, one behind Arenado.
The tiebreakers are considered game No. 163 of the regular season, meaning Yelich’s stats — and those of Arenado and Baez — from Monday’s game will count in the totals. The last NL player to win the Triple Crown was Joe Medwick in 1937 for the Cardinals.
The Brewers (95-67) already had secured their first playoff appearance since 2011, the last time they won the NL Central.
Rockies at Dodgers on Monday
DENVER — The playoff-bound Colorado Rockies are headed to Los Angeles for a tiebreaking game to decide the NL West title after routing the Washington Nationals 12-0 on Sunday behind Charlie Blackmon’s cycle.
Tied atop the division with the Dodgers entering the last day, the Rockies won for the ninth time in 10 games, while Los Angeles routed San Francisco 15-0 to send the season to game 163.
The one-game tiebreaker will be Monday at Dodger Stadium.
Nolan Arenado hit two of the Rockies’ five homers and took over the National League lead with 37, one more than teammate Trevor Story — who also went deep. David Dahl homered for the sixth time in seven games.
Colorado (91-71), is trying for its first division title. Blackmon finished off his first career cycle and the ninth in Rockies history with a double in the eighth. He tripled in the first, homered in the third, singled in the fifth and struck out in the sixth.