Today at noon, we will finally find out who's really the best in the MLB's toughest division. The winner of this game wins the NL Central, the loser has to play in the wild card game, leaving their season up to a single game. Milwaukee made a late push to get within 1/2 a game by the last day of the season. Then, Chicago beat St. Louis, 10-5, while Milwaukee shut down Detroit 11-0. This forced the one-game playoff tiebreaker. Here's a quick guide of the upcoming game.
1. Yelich's chase for the Triple Crown- A feat that has not been accomplished by a NL player since Joe Medwick in 1937, game 163 gives the Brewers' outfielder a shot at ending that 81-year drought of a triple crown in the NL. He leads in average by 14 points (.323), one HR behind Nolan Arenado (36) and two RBI behind Javier Baez (109).
2. Quintana comes in experienced- One of the Cubs' top pitchers this season has been Jose Quintana who was acquired in a trade from the White Sox last season. He has also faced Milwaukee seven times in 2018, so he knows his opponents pretty well. Experience will be the key in this one, especially facing the red hot bats of Lorenzo Cain and Christian Yelich. As Kyle Schwarber put it, "When ever hes's on the mound for us, we're really confident and it doesn't matter what team we're playing".
3. Rizzo is on a roll- After notching his 100th RBI in a game changing rally yesterday versus St. Louis, watch for Rizzo to continue his hot hitting. Offense will be very important and if Rizzo is playing well, usually the whole team will too.
Watch: ESPN, 12:05 CT
Good blog. Yes, Yelich got hot at the right time for the Brewers. Cubs need to show up and get some offense going from Rizzo, KB and Javy. Quintana will hopefully shut down the Brew-Crew early today. Go Cubs!