TIEBREAKERS: NL Central, West play on.
Rockies-Dodgers and Cubs-Brewers will decide NL West and Central
DENVER— The Colorado Rockies were swept two weeks ago in Los Angeles, and their NL West title hopes looked all but finished. Well, look who’s back. The Rockies have a chance to end the Dodgers’ five-year reign as division champions in a tiebreaker game Monday in Los Angeles. Colorado has never celebrated an NL West crown in franchise history.
The winner hosts Atlanta in a best-of-five division series starting Thursday; the loser is on the road for the NL wildcard game Tuesday against the loser of Monday’s BrewersCubs NL Central tiebreaker.
Yes, two tiebreakers. Four teams went into Sunday’s games hoping a win would give them a division title. All four teams won. And handily. The Dodgers blanked San Francisco15-0, the Rockies shut out Washington 12-0, Milwaukee beat Detroit 11-0, and the Cubs outslugged St. Louis 10-5.
“We put (ourselves) in a position to come down to one game to win the division and get a couple days off,” Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. “If we win it, we’ll be ecstatic. If we lose, we’ve played more games in a row before, so we’ll be ready to play.”
“At this point, I think everybody understands the magnitude of the (tiebreaker),” said Rockies slugger Matt Holliday, whose team trails its season series with Los Angeles 12-7. “Take a deep breath and go out there and try to execute and just do what you can do.”
Not many saw this sort of scenario shaping up in the West when the Dodgers won three straight over Colorado in midSeptember. But the Rockies won nine times in 10 games to force a game163, part of the first season in major-league history with a pair of tiebreakers.
“We put ourselves in a good position,” Rockies third base- man Nolan Arenado said.
“After we got swept by the Dodgers, it seemed everybody was thinking the Dodgers are going to lock it up. It’s crazy how the tides turn and how baseball works.”
Walker Buehler (7-5, 2.76 ERA) gets the start for the Dodgers after getting scratched from Sunday’s outing. The Rockies will counter with German Marquez (14-10, 3.76 ERA), who struck out eight straight to begin his last start.
“It’s two of the best young starting pitchers in the big leagues pitching in this type of game,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “It’s great.”
The playoff-tested Cubs are going for their third straight NL Central title. They went 11-8 against the Brewers this season but dropped two of three in each of their two September series.
Chicago will start Jose Quintana (6-2 with a 1.60 ERA in 10 career starts against Milwaukee). The Brewers will send Jhoulys Chacin (15-8, 3.56) to the mound.
“We need to be ready to go,” the Brewers’ Christian Yelich said. “They are a great team. We’ve played each other tough all year. It’s only fitting that we have to do one more.”