Cubs lose NL Central to Brewers, settle for a wild-card spot
CHICAGO — After leading Major League Baseball’s National League Central by five games on Sept. 3, the Chicago Cubs’ season has been reduced to a win-or-go-home scenario.
The Milwaukee Brewers applied a blend of timely hitting and dominant pitching Monday to beat the Cubs, 3-1, in the division tiebreaker before 38,450 fans at Wrigley Field.
The Brewers earned the NL Central title and won’t play until Thursday, when they host the first two games of the best-of-five NL Division Series.
The Cubs, whose two-year reign as NL Central champions was snapped, will host the Colorado Rockies, loser of an NL West tiebreaker to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-2, on Tuesday in the NL wild-card game.
The winner will face the Brewers.
Orlando Arcia collected the first four-hit game of his career and scored the go-ahead run during a two-run eighth inning.
The Cubs were held to three hits, scoring their lone run on a game-tying home run by Anthony Rizzo in the fifth.
The Brewers took a 1-0 lead in the third inning through an RBI single from Christian Yelich. Arcia opened the third with a single to centre.
Brewers pitcher Jhoulys Chacin nearly got hit but managed to foul a bunt attempt before taking a called strike. But with runs at a premium, Brewers manager Craig Counsell kept the bunt sign on and was rewarded when Chacin executed a sacrifice bunt up the first-base line.
Shortstop Javier Baez robbed Lorenzo Cain of an RBI single on a grounder up the middle, but Yelich strengthened his NL MVP credentials by ripping a single to score Cain.
Arcia led off the eighth with a hit, smacking a curve on an
0-2 pitch off left-hander Justin Wilson for a single.
Domingo Santana followed with a double, forcing Cubs manager Joe Maddon to pull Wilson in favour of Steve Cishek, making his 80th appearance.
But Lorenzo Cain singled and yelled vigorously at his teammates while running to first base as Arcia scored to give the Brewers a 2-1 lead.
Left-hander Randy Rosario struck out Yelich, but Brandon Kintzler allowed an RBI single to Ryan Braun to the delight of several thousand Brewers fans.
Left-hander Josh Hader came in for the Brewers to close out the game, recording the last six outs. He struck out Jason Heyward, induced pinch-hitter Albert Almora Jr. to line out and whiffed Willson Contreras on a 98 m.p.h. fastball to end the eighth.
In the ninth, he struck out Daniel Murphy and got Ben Zobrist to fly out for the first two outs. Baez singled, but Rizzo flied out to give the Brewers their first NL Central title since 2011.