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| Date | October 2, 2018 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Venue | Wrigley Field | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| City | Chicago, Illinois | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Umpires | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 40,151 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Television | ESPN ESPN2 (Statcast Edition) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TV announcers | Matt Vasgersian,Alex Rodriguez,Jessica Mendoza, andBuster Olney (ESPN) Jason Benetti,Eduardo Pérez, and Mike Petriello (ESPN2) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Radio | ESPN | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Radio announcers | Dan Shulman andChris Singleton | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The2018 National League Wild Card Game was aplay-in game duringMajor League Baseball's (MLB)2018 postseason between theNational League's twowild card teams, theColorado Rockies and theChicago Cubs. The Cubs earned home field advantage by having a better regular season record. The game occurred on October 2, 2018, with the Rockies victorious by a score of 2–1 in 13 innings—the second-longest winner-take-all MLB postseason game.[1] The Rockies advanced to face theMilwaukee Brewers in theNational League Division Series.
At the scheduled end of the regular season, the NL Central and NL West divisions each had two teams tied for the division lead; Cubs and Brewers in the Central, andDodgers and Rockies in the West. This resulted in twotiebreaker games being played on October 1 to determine division winners, with the losers of the tiebreaker games—the Rockies and Cubs—relegated to this Wild Card Game.[2]
This was the first Wild Card Game to require tiebreakers to determine both teams,[3] and the first NL Wild Card Game to require any tiebreaker game, as the only other Wild Card Game to require a tiebreaker was the2013 AL Wild Card Game. The Cubs and Rockies became the first teams in MLB history to lose tiebreaker games at the end of the regular season yet still enter postseason play,[3] as they played in the first divisional tie-breaker games needed since MLB's addition of a second Wild Card team in 2012.
The Cubs entered the Wild Card Game with a record of 95–68, while the Rockies entered at 91–72. The Cubs and Rockies tied the six-game regular season series 3–3, with each team winning two of the three games in its opponent's ballpark.[4] This was the first postseason meeting between the two teams.
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| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | R | H | E | |||||||||||||||||
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| Colorado | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| Chicago | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| WP:Scott Oberg (1–0) LP:Kyle Hendricks (0–1) Attendance: 40,151 Boxscore | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Charlie Blackmon walked to lead off the game for the Rockies andDJ LeMahieu followed with adouble. They recorded their firstrun in the first inning whenNolan Arenado hit asacrifice fly that scored Blackmon. In the eighth inning,Anthony Rizzo hit asingle for the Cubs.Pinch runnerTerrance Gorestole second base and scored on anRBI double byJavier Báez.[5]Tony Wolters, who entered the game in the 12th inning in adouble switch, had an RBI single for Colorado in the 13th inning, scoringTrevor Story.[6]Scott Oberg recorded the win, striking out Gore, Baez, andAlbert Almora in the bottom of the 13th to secure a spot in the NLDS.[7] Oberg became the first reliever to win a postseason game when facing at least four batters and striking out all of them.[8]