Cubs vs. Brewers: Final score and highlights for the NL Central tiebreaker

The Cubs are headed to the NL Wild Card Game after losing 3-1 to the Brewers in the NL Central tiebreaker Monday afternoon. Anthony Rizzo, who flew out to end the game, hit a big 429-foot home run but the offense otherwise proved lifeless in a two-hit performance.

The Brewers, on the other hand, racked up 12 hits while threatening repeatedly throughout the game. They didn’t take the lead for good until the top of the eighth inning, but were able to do much more damage than their opponents at the plate.

The end result is that the Cubs’ season will come down to one more game against the loser of the NL West tiebreaker between the Dodgers and Rockies, which starts at 3:09 p.m. Monday.

The NL Wild Card Game is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday night. You can relive the NL Central tiebreaker below.

Final score: Brewers 3, Cubs 1

Brewers 3, Cubs 1: NL Wild Card Game, here come the Cubs. Anthony Rizzo flies out with Javy Baez on second base to end the game.

Brewers 3, Cubs 1: There’s life! Javy Baez fights off a 3-2 pitch for a two-out single.

Brewers 3, Cubs 1: Josh Hader brought the heat to strike out Daniel Murphy to open the bottom of the ninth. Two outs to go.

Brewers 3, Cubs 1: Travis Shaw grounds out to the pitcher to end the inning. The Cubs now have three outs to score at least two runs or the division goes to Milwaukee.

Brewers 3, Cubs 1: Orlando Arcia hit his fourth single of the game with two outs to give the Brewers a chance to add to their lead.

Eighth inning: Brewers 3, Cubs 1

Brewers 3, Cubs 1: Josh Hader goes 1-2-3 against the Cubs’ bottom of the order to get through the eighth inning. The Cubs have just three more outs before they’ll relegated to playing in the NL Wild Card Game.

Brewers 3, Cubs 1: Jesus Aguilar flies out to end the inning but the Brewers add a couple huge runs to take back the lead. Now the Cubs will have to try to break through against a very good Milwaukee bullpen.

Brewers 3, Cubs 1: Willson Contreras throws out Ryan Braun trying to steal second base, so the Cubs can get out of this with a two-run deficit with one more out.

Brewers 3, Cubs 1: Ryan Braun hits a two-strike single over the head of the second baseman to knock in another run. There are still runners on the corners with one out.

Brewers 2, Cubs 1: A big, big strikeout of Christian Yelich by Randy Rosario, who only lasts the one out. Ryan Braun is coming up against Brandon Kintzler.

Brewers 2, Cubs 1: Lorenzo Cain hits an RBI single up the middle to get the Brewers back ahead. There are now runners on the corners with no outs … and Christian Yelich walking up to the plate. Not good, not good at all. Joe Maddon is pulling Steve Cishek in favor of Randy Rosario.

Cubs 1, Brewers 1: Joe Maddon is turning again to Steve Cishek, one of the most reliable guys in the bullpen. He’s pitched four of the previous five days, although he only faced two batters Sunday.

Cubs 1, Brewers 1: The Brewers are threatening with runners on second and third with no outs after a big double down the line by Domingo Santana.

Seventh inning: Cubs 1, Brewers 1

Cubs 1, Brewers 1: Following an Anthony Rizzo groundout and a Kris Bryant strikeout, Tommy La Stella came in to pinch hit for Jesse Chavez, who had been in the No. 6 spot in the batting order. Unfortunately, La Stella also grounded out to end the inning.

During the seventh-inning stretch, we also got a Mike Ditka-led rendition of “Take Me Out To The Ball Game.”

Cubs 1, Brewers 1: Three straight groundouts for the Brewers in Jesse Chavez’s second inning. It would be hard to ask more of the reliever.

Sixth inning: Cubs 1, Brewers 1

Cubs 1, Brewers 1: Soria strikes out Baez with a big, high fastball. We’re all tied through six.

Cubs 1, Brewers 1: Former White Sox closer Joakim Soria is in for the Brewers to face Javy Baez. They acquired him in a trade with the South Siders at the deadline.

Cubs 1, Brewers 1: The Cubs have responded after the double play with a single and a walk off Xavier Cedeno, whose stay in the game didn’t last long. There’s a chance to do some damage with two outs now.

Cubs 1, Brewers 1: Ian Happ drew a walk to start the bottom of the sixth, but Willson Contreras gave it back with a soft grounder to the pitcher off a hard slider for a double play. Milwaukee is now turning to its bullpen with two outs in the frame.

Cubs 1, Brewers 1: Jesse Chavez gets the job done by striking out Ryan Braun then inducing a double play grounder from Jesus Aguilar. The last time Chavez allowed a run was Sept. 5 … against the Brewers.

Cubs 1, Brewers 1: Jesse Chavez is in for the Cubs as Joe Maddon turns to the bullpen. We’re also getting some defensive changes: Ian Happ joins the game in center field with Jason Heyward sliding to right and Ben Zobrist to left. Kyle Schwarber is out.

Cubs 1, Brewers 1: Christian Yelich improves to 3-for-3 on the day by swatting a 3-2 pitch the other way for a leadoff single, and Jose Quintana gets chased from the game as a result. Quintana finishes with six hits and one run allowed over five innings.

Fifth inning: Cubs 1, Brewers 1

Cubs 1, Brewers 1: The umpire hilariously generates a host of boos by accidentally gesturing for a strikeout on a 3-1 pitch to Jason Heyward, then on the 3-2 count, Heyward hits a huge strike to deep left field that falls into Christian Yelich’s glove at the warning track. That would’ve been quite the moment if Heyward had gone deep.

Cubs 1, Brewers 1: One swing and we’re tied! Anthony Rizzo smacked that one so hard the Brewers’ outfielders didn’t even move to try to catch it. An absolute bomb with estimated exit velocity of 110 miles per hour and distance of 429 feet. Rizzo is up to 25 homers and 101 RBI this season.

Brewers 1, Cubs 0: Lorenzo Cain pops out to center field to wrap up the top of the fifth inning. The Cubs have Rizzo-Bryant-Schwarber due up now, so now may be the time to pounce and get this offense going with a hit (or seven).

Brewers 1, Cubs 0: Another single early in an inning for the Brewers, this time from Orlando Arcia with one out, followed by another sacrifice bunt from Jhoulys Chacin. The Brewers have Arcia on second with two outs.

Fourth inning: Brewers 1, Cubs 0

Brewers 1, Cubs 0: Daniel Murphy fouls out to third base, Ben Zobrist flies out to right field and Javy Baez pops out to left field. Jhoulys Chacin has a no-hitter through four innings. (We’re definitely not trying to jinx him by mentioning that. Nope. Couldn’t possibly be thinking that.)

Brewers 1, Cubs 0: Jonathan Schoop flies out then Quintana strikes out Mike Moustakas swinging to wrap up his fourth inning. The Cubs starter has thrown 50 pitches so far.

Brewers 1, Cubs 0: Jose Quintana opens the fourth frame by striking out Jesus Aguilar with a fastball down and away. A beautiful pitch with the desired result.

Third inning: Brewers 1, Cubs 0

Brewers 1, Cubs 0: Some boos from the crowd as the third inning wraps with a 1-0 lead for Milwaukee. Still a lot of baseball to play, though.

Brewers 1, Cubs 0: Good jump by Yelich gets him to second with his 22nd stolen base of the season, but it doesn’t matter because Ryan Braun strikes out to end the inning. Milwaukee takes the first lead.

Brewers 1, Cubs 0: Christian Yelich – of course – gets the Brewers on the scoreboard with a two-out RBI single. It’s a hard line drive through the middle of the infield that gets the job done.

There’s also this to keep an eye on:

Cubs 0, Brewers 0: Javy Baez makes a huge defensive play to get to a hard grounder down the middle and throw out Lorenzo Cain. The Brewers now have a runner on third with two outs, but he couldn’t advance any further with Baez keeping the ball out of the outfield.

Cubs 0, Brewers 0: The Brewers have a man on second base with one out after an opening single followed by a bunt from the pitcher. That’s the first runner in scoring position in this game.

Second inning: Cubs 0, Brewers 0

Cubs 0, Brewers 0: The Brewers get out of the jam with a 3-6-3 double play started by first baseman Jesus Aguilar.

Cubs 0, Brewers 0: Kris Bryant gets the Cubs on base with a one-out walk. Jhoulys Chacin has already thrown 25 pitches. Now Kyle Schwarber is up with a chance to potentially do some damage.

Cubs 0, Brewers 0: Jose Quintana got out of danger in the second inning again after allowing a single to Jesus Aguilar to open the frame. Jonathan Schoop, Mike Moustakas and Erik Kratz all flew out consecutively to keep Aguilar from advancing. That’s 16 pitches through two innings for Quintana, keeping him on the same pace as before.

First inning: Cubs 0, Brewers 0

Cubs 0, Brewers 0: Ben Zobrist got ahold of one but it was pretty much straight at Christian Yelich in the outfield, then Javy Baez struck out to end the Cubs’ first frame of the game. We’re scoreless through one.

Cubs 0, Brewers 0: Double play! The threat is over quickly with a grounder to Javy Baez, who swings it over to Daniel Murphy to set up the 6-4-3 double play. Jose Quintana gets out of his first inning with eight pitches thrown.

Cubs 0, Brewers 0: Christian Yelich’s scorching second half continues with an infield single to open the game. He narrowly beat out a throw from Javy Baez with one out.

Before the game

One of those days you spend all year thinking about as a baseball fan is here. The Cubs and Brewers failed to determine the NL Central champion after the 162-game regular season, so they’re meeting at Wrigley Field on Monday afternoon for a one-game, winner-take-all showdown to determine the division title.

The tiebreaker game has significant implications for how each team will enter the 2018 postseason. The winner of Monday’s game gets the division title, a spot in the National Division League Series and home-field advantage throughout the postseason. The loser will have to play in the NL Wild Card Game on Tuesday night against whichever team loses the Dodgers-Rockies tiebreaker.

After a grueling end to the regular season and an extra game Monday, neither team will want to take the field the next day for a must-win playoff game. The stakes are high for both teams to get out of the day victorious and avoid that dreaded matchup against an NL West foe.

The Cubs are slated to have left-hander Jose Quintana match up against Milwaukee’s Jhoulys Chacin on the mound. Quintana has allowed two or fewer runs in seven of his last eight starts, a stretch in which he’s posted a 3.05 ERA with 44 strikeouts in 44.1 innings. Chacin, meanwhile, has been very solid this season with a 3.56 ERA in 187 innings, but he hasn’t lasted more than five innings in a start since August.

Expect the Cubs to hope to get good work out of Quintana after having to turn to the bullpen early in the win over the Cardinals on Sunday.

Cubs batting order

1. Daniel Murphy 2B
2. Ben Zobrist RF
3. Javy Baez SS
4. Anthony Rizzo 1B
5. Kris Bryant 3B
6. Kyle Schwarber LF
7. Jason Heyward CF
8. Jose Quintana P
9. Willson Contreras C

How to watch the NL Central tiebreaker

Time: 12:05 p.m.

TV: ESPN

Live stream: WatchESPN