CENTRAL CASTING
Cubs, Brewers force one-game playoff today at Wrigley to decide division champ
Not since Merkle’s Boner in 1908 has a Cubs season finished with as much angst and next-day drama.
“It’s interesting that baseball is such a perfect game in some ways that it takes 162 to not decide anything,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said after the Cubs beat the Cardinals 10-5 on Sunday to assure their share of a first-place NL Central tie with Milwaukee on the final scheduled day of the season.
“It’s pretty crazy stuff.” Historic even. For the first time in major-league history Monday, two regular-season tiebreaker games will be played.
“This is why we play baseball,” center fielder Albert Almora Jr. said.
The Brewers play at Wrigley Field at 12:05 p.m. to determine the division champ — and home-field advantage through the NL bracket — with the loser hosting the NL wild-card game Tuesday.
The Dodgers and Rockies also finished in a tie for the NL West lead, and they play their tiebreaker at Dodger Stadium at 3:09 p.m. on Monday. The loser then travels to Wrigley or Miller Park for the wildcard game.
Brewers killer Jose Quintana starts for the Cubs; the Brewers have not announced a starter.
The Cubs and Giants in 1908 were forced into a next-day, winner-take-all game for a trip to the World Series because a would-be Giants win over the Cubs had been waved off weeks earlier by the most controversial appeal play in baseball history after rookie Fred Merkle’s base-running blunder.
When they finished in a 153game tie for first, that game was replayed, with the Cubs winning.
The Cubs also beat the Giants in a Game 163 tiebreaker in 1998 for the league’s wild-card berth, before getting clobbered in the Division Series by the Braves.
Monday marks the 20th meeting this year with the Brewers, a team the Cubs have beaten 11 times — but only three times since winning eight of the first nine meetings.
Because it’s not a must-win game, Maddon said his bullpen management will be dictated almost entirely on which team gets an early lead and by how much. A big deficit early means punting and saving his top bullpen arms for Tuesday.
“You are absolutely managing two games [Monday],” Maddon said.
The Brewers won 22 of their final 29 games to climb back from third place and close a six-game deficit to the Cubs — finishing with seven consecutive victories.
“They’ve got good talent. I think we’ve got better,” shortstop Javy Baez said. “We’ve just got to keep our plan. We don’t worry about anybody. We know what we’ve got. We’re just going to go out there and play hard.”
The Cubs, who held sole possession of first place from Aug. 1 until Saturday, went 17-14 in the final five weeks of the season — and blew a 2½-game lead in the final week with a 4-3 finish.
“It’s been a long but great season,” left fielder Kyle Schwarber said. “You look at the last couple months especially when we had that run of 30 games in 30 days. We definitely like where we’re at. We’re still a first-place team.’’
The Cubs earned the victory Sunday only after falling behind 2-0 quickly in the first inning and only
after a parade of backup starters, struggling setup men and waiverclaim pitchers that included Mike Montgomery, Allen Webster, Alec Mills, Carl Edwards Jr., Randy Rosario, Brandon Kintzler, Steve Cishek, Jaime Garcia and Jorge De La Rosa.
A cool, gray day didn’t heat up for the Cubs until they rallied for four runs with two outs in the third.
Ben Zobrist scored the tying run on a wild pitch and leaped from his slide across the plate to pump his fist and charge back to the dugout.
After Baez followed with a walk, Rizzo drove him home from first with a double to the right-field gap — Rizzo jumping up and down, gesturing to the Cubs’ dugout, as he coasted into second.
“We know what’s at stake,” Rizzo said. “The atmosphere here should be nothing short of electric.”