The Cubs and Brewers both entered Sunday tied for the NL Central lead at 94-67. Both won their games on Sunday, forcing a tiebreaker game on Monday to determine the division winner.
The Cardinals jumped out to an early 2-0 lead over the Cubs, but the Cubs hung a four-spot in both the third and fifth innings. They went on to win 10-5. Anthony Rizzo picked up four hits and a walk, and Willson Contreras homered.
The Brewers blanked the Tigers 11-0 behind five shutout innings from Gio González. The offense put up two runs in the first on RBI singles from Jesús Aguilar and Mike Moustakas. Aguilar drilled a solo homer in the fourth and Manny Piña added a sacrifice fly in the sixth. The Brewers put the game out of reach with a six-run seventh.
The extra game is useful for Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich, who is vying for the Triple Crown in the National League. Stats accumulated in Monday’s tiebreaker will count. Yelich leads the league in batting average (.323), is one homer off the NL lead (37 to 36), and is two RBI off the leaad (111 to 109).
There will be two tiebreakers on Monday, in fact. The Dodgers and Rockies entered Sunday tied for the NL Central crown and both won their games. The loser of both of tomorrow’s tiebreaker games will meet in the NL Wild Card game. The winner of that will play the winner of tomorrow’s NL Central tiebreaker.