Wild Regular Season Finish Results in Two National League Tiebreaker Games Monday

The Major League baseball regular season is going in to extra innings Monday. For the first time in MLB history, two National League tiebreaker games will be necessary. And they both will decide the division winners in the National League.

All four teams won Sunday’s final game of the regular season to remain tied on top of their divisions. Now the NL Central and NL West will be decided on Monday, Oct. 1. The two teams that lose and do not win their respective divisions will meet the following day in the National League Wild Card game on Oct. 2 at 8:00pm ET.

Milwaukee Brewers (95-67) at Chicago Cubs (95-67) – 1:00pm ET Chacin (MIL) +105 / +1.5 -205 / O 8.0 -110 Quintana (CHC) -135 / -1.5 +165 / U 8.0 -110

The Brewers won 7-straight games to close the regular season and catch the Cubs. Milwaukee trailed Chicago by 5 full games Sept. 3, and won four of the six meetings against the Cubs in September.

The winner of Monday’s first National League tiebreaker games gets a two-day break and home-field advantage throughout the NL playoffs. The loser will host the NL wild card game on Tuesday, Oct. 2 against the loser of the Rockies/Dodgers tiebreaker.

Milwaukee is sending one fo their best to the stripe in the form of Jhoulys Chacin, a slider maven who has been pulled early in each of his last five starts because of the team’s reliance on its bullpen.

The Cubs will start left-hander Jose Quintana, who is 6-2 lifetime with a 1.60 ERA in 10 career starts against the Brewers.

Look for a little more scoring in the Cubs vs. Brewers tiebreaker game.

The Dodgers and Rockies looks like a different story, and under the total is preferred.

Colorado Rockies (91-71) at Los Angeles Dodgers (91-71) – 4:00pm ET Marquez (COL) +145 / +1.5 (-155) / O 7.0 (-100) Buehler (LAD) -185 / -1.5 (+125) / U 7.0 (-120)

Marquez has pitched well against the Dodgers this season, notching a 2.57 ERA with 22 strikeouts over three starts (21.0 innings). The strikeout artist threw 7 shutout innings in his most recent start and over the past month has allowed 2 runs or less in six of seven starts. He has 14 wins with a 3.76 ERA logging 191 innings.

Buehler burst on the scene this season with a 2.88 ERA. He faced the Rockies five times this season including twice in September when he allowed 4 runs in 6 innings at Colorado and 2 runs (0 earned) and 12 K’s over 6 innings Sept. 19 in Los Angeles. He won 7 games in 130 innings for LA this season.

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Fairway Jay is a professional handicapper based out of Las Vegas. He focuses primarily on NFL, NCAAF, horse racing, and MLB. You can follow him on Twitter @FairwayJay.