Despite leading the NL Central for much of the second half, the Cubs’ World Series ambitions will come down to surviving one game to open the playoffs. The team will face the Rockies, the loser of the NL West tiebreaker, in the 2018 NL Wild Card Game at Wrigley Field on Tuesday night after the Brewers took the division title with a 3-1 win Monday afternoon.
Action is set to begin at 7 p.m. CT and will be broadcast by ESPN. The winner of the wild card battle will head to Milwaukee for Game 1 of the NLDS on Thursday.
The Rockies lost to the Dodgers, 5-2, in the NL West tiebreaker Monday to join the Cubs in the pressure cooker of the Wild Card Game.
The one-game, winner-take-all matchup brings as intense an atmosphere as you’ll see in baseball. One team will be headed to the National League Division Series afterwards. The other will have its season end prematurely. That vibe won’t be anything new to the Cubs after the electricity that filled Wrigley Field on Monday for the game to decide the NL Central, but they’ll need a much different result to avoid a long offseason.
Anthony Rizzo hit a huge homer Monday afternoon as part of an otherwise lifeless offensive performance against Jhoulys Chacin and Milwaukee’s bullpen. As a result, the Brewers celebrated their division title, a spot in the NLDS and home-field advantage throughout the NL playoffs on the Cubs’ home soil, where their season could end Tuesday with another defeat.
Cubs vs. Rockies, 2018 NL Wild Card Game
Time: 7 p.m. CT
TV: ESPN
Live stream: WatchESPN