EMBED >More News Videos The Chicago Cubs will face the Colorado Rockies in the NL Wild Card game on Tuesday night at Wrigley Field. EMBED >More News Videos The Cubs will play in the NL Wildcard game Tuesday night. But what does that mean? EMBED >More News Videos Chicago Cubs fans remain hopeful for a win in Tuesday's Wild Card game despite losing NL Division title to Milwaukee Brewers. EMBED >More News Videos Milwaukee Brewers fans are also hoping for a win Monday. CHICAGO (WLS) -- The Chicago Cubs will face the Colorado Rockies in the NL Wild Card game Tuesday night at Wrigley Field for a chance to make into the National League Division Series playoffs.The Cubs lost to the Milwaukee Brewers 3-1 during a tiebreaker game at Wrigley Field Monday afternoon.The team will play the Rockies who lost their tiebreaker game against the LA Dodgers.The Brewers have a break until the start of the NLDS playoffs on Thursday. They have home field advantage during NLDS.Though the Cubs lost today, they still finish the regular season with the second best record in the entire National League. The Brewers finish with the best record in the league.Cubs fans remain hopeful for a win in Tuesday's Wild Card game despite losing the NL Division title.A day watching baseball, even when the Cubs lose, is still better than a day at work for most people.One mom and her son skipped work and school for the rare opportunity to see the Cubs play the 163rd game of the regular season.When asked if he was feeling well, Charlie Ticknor said no. But he said he's felt good enough to be at a Cubs game. "Yeah, I'm not feeling well either. I emailed my boss and said I wasn't going to make it," said Anne Elkhart, Charlie's mother.It was a good day to have the Blue flu if you were a Cubs fan.The team even provided an excuse letter to your boss or principal. Just fill in the blanks. Renee Foley said she sent it to her boss. And did he buy it? "Yeah, he's a Cubs fan," said Foley.The Cubs provided some excitement for fans when they tied the game early. They were celebrating at Murphy's Bleachers. "I think the Cubs are gonna get hot, they're going to get on a roll and I think if they're going to win it all," said Sam Campbell.But today was not the day, as the Brewers came back strong. Cubs fans left the ballpark quietly knowing the road to another possible World Series will have to start with the Wild Card game. But most are still hopeful. "We'll get 'em tomorrow. We'll get maybe the Dodgers or the Rockies. I ain't worried about it, we'll get 'em," said Cubs fan Deja Kendall.Cubs fan Terry Calloway added, "Everybody starts out zero - zero starting tomorrow. Season's over with and now the playoffs really start. "Before the game started, the feeling around the ballpark Monday was electric. "Hopefully it'll be a win also. Besides a huge game, I want it to be a win. We have faith in our Cubs," said Cubs fan Rene Lozano.The Cubs lineup included second baseman Daniel Murphy leading off, followed by right fielder Ben Zobrist, then shortstop Javy Baez, first baseman Anthony Rizzo, third baseman Kris Bryant, left fielder Kyle Schwarber, centerfielder Jason Heyward, pitcher Jose Quintana and catcher Willson Contreras batting last.The big tie-breaker game drew early morning diehards to the box office.Dennis Conto left Grand Rapids, Michigan, at 2:30 a.m. to get to Wrigley Field so he could get in line for tickets after the Cubs beat St. Louis Sunday. "For all of you Cardinals fans and to the one that told me that the acronym for Cubs is completely useless by September, we need to talk in an alley buddy," said Cubs fan Dennis Conto.With the National League Central title up for grabs, a lot is on the line as the Cubs continue to re-write their history. "This is the fourth consecutive year that we're going to the post season more than any other year in baseball in Cubs history this is quite historic," said Cubs Spokesperson Julian Green.The Cubs tweeted out a letter for you to give to work, excusing you from duty so you can cheer on the team.One super fan texted his boss this morning so he could go to the Monday game. "Oh it was very easy, I just texted and said not coming in today, I'm sick," said Cubs fan Rick Calatayud.A lot of Milwaukee Brewers fans made the trip down to Chicago and also fired up for the game. They are of course wearing their Brewers gear and cheese head hats in Cubbie territory.Brewers fans said the trains were packed this morning and, of course, they were also scrambling to get tickets to today's game. "We got on last night, online last night. We had three computers going and an iPad and one phone trying to get tickets and we got our three tickets and obviously able to get off today and here we are," said Brewers fan Laurie Weber.But Cubs fans are optimistic about Flying the W.No matter what the outcome of the game is today, the Cubs will still get a spot in the playoffs, but Central Division champs certainly has a familiar ring to it.Former Bears Coach Mike Ditka was scheduled to sing the 7th inning stretch.<doc-sep>“Two games in a row and the other team celebrated on our field,” third baseman Kris Bryant said. “That makes it a lot tougher, watching them.” Bryant, the league’s most valuable player in that dreamy 2016 season, played just 102 games this year because of shoulder injuries. He struck out three times on Tuesday, going 1 for 6. The Cubs had six hits over all and fanned 16 times, going 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position. That was a chronic problem for these Cubs. They ranked third in the majors in plate appearances with runners in scoring position this season, yet hit just .247 in those spots, ranking 20th. The trend continued in their one-night postseason. “Yeah, we played that game a lot,” Manager Joe Maddon said. “Believe me, it was on my mind for a large part of it. We had some opportunities, we just could not cash in. They pitched really well, too, but we need to figure that out in the off-season, next spring training.” The Cubs have 387 wins in four seasons under Maddon, who is entering the last year of his contract. Theo Epstein, the Cubs’ president of baseball operations, said on Wednesday that he was “very happy” that Maddon was the manager, though he has not focused on the possibility of a contract extension. “We have a terrific working relationship,” Epstein said. “We don’t agree all the time on baseball issues, and that’s the way it should be. I don’t want a yes man as the manager and I don’t want a yes man the other way, either. There should be discord and debate and a healthy trusting relationship where we can work together to make the organization better.” Maddon got little help this season from the Cubs’ splashy off-season moves. The team signed pitchers Yu Darvish, Tyler Chatwood and Brandon Morrow for a combined $185 million, enticed by their hard, sharply moving repertories. Yet all were inactive on Tuesday, felled by injuries, underperformance or both.<doc-sep>CHICAGO — Should the Rockies’ season be considered a failure if Colorado closes with back-to-back losses in the NL West tiebreaker and the wild card game? It’s a tough question, but a question to ponder nonetheless as Colorado heads on the road, again, for a one-game win-or-go-home playoff against a seasoned veteran pitcher (the Cubs’ Jon Lester) in a venue renowned for its historic home field advantage (Wrigley Field). On one hand, the answer to the tough question is absolutely yes. Colorado made this same stage last year and, with high-dollar offseason bullpen acquisitions and the gang of DJ LeMahieu, Nolan Arenado, Carlos Gonzalez, Trevor Story and Charlie Blackmon all together for one last guaranteed ride, preseason expectations were to obtain what the Rockies fell just short of in Monday’s decisive loss at Chavez Ravine. To go out with a wild card defeat for two straight years would be nothing less than a Rocktober gut punch, especially when also considering several of those bullpen “upgrades” (i.e. Bryan Shaw and Jake McGee) have simply not panned out and were unable to be influencers down the stretch. Related Articles Rockies’ Josh Fuentes now, officially, Joshua Fuentes, thanks to hot streak Rockies-Mets game postponed; doubleheader scheduled for Thursday Rockies Mailbag: Colorado has no plans to trade Trevor Story prior to All-Star Game Kyle Freeland’s Rockies season debut spoiled in 3-1 loss at New York Mets Rockies’ Elias Diaz aiming to build on first home run of season On the other hand, this team did come closer to the division title than any other team in the quarter-century of franchise history before it. Despite looming questions on the futures of LeMahieu, Gonzalez and Arenado, there’s a strong young rotation intact as well as plenty of young positional talent on the major league roster and in the high minors. Thus, the heartbreak of falling in a second straight wild card might be somewhat negated by the hope that the 2017 and 2018 postseason trials and tribulations were the start of a new, annually competitive era of Colorado baseball. The only thing for certain at this point is the Rockies are one victory away from the divisional round, with their best and most fiercely competitive pitcher on the mound in Kyle Freeland. Win Tuesday, and get into a five-game divisional series, and anything can happen — even if Colorado has to play as the visiting team to the streaking Brewers, who beat the Cubs in the NL Central tiebreaker. But to get past Chicago, Freeland has to pitch his best. The offense can’t afford to snooze. And the team must bounce back from the brink, once again, following its toughest and weightiest loss of the season. Should Colorado do that, the notion of a failed season becomes a lot less legitimate.<doc-sep>
CHICAGO -- When it was over, the Cubs were more disappointed than stunned that their season came to a close after scoring only a single run in a 2-1 loss in 13 innings to the Colorado Rockies in the National League wild-card game Tuesday. Perhaps they weren't shocked, because just the day before, they had lost the NL Central tiebreaker 3-1 to the Milwaukee Brewers. Twenty-two innings of the most important baseball of the season, and the Cubs managed only two runs. It's really the storyline of their season's second half, as they went from the best record in the NL to out of the postseason in the span of less than 48 hours. "Let's get one thing straight: We're best record in the league, minus one," Cubs pitcher Jon Lester said after Tuesday's season-ending defeat. "We had to play 163 in order to lose that title. I like my chances every year if you come down to the last game of the year and you're fighting for best record in the league." The Cubs put up some fight but not many runs in the second half of the season. So when they came up short on Monday and Tuesday, it wasn't something new for them. Like the rabid crowd at Wrigley Field on both days, Chicago manager Joe Maddon was waiting for something to happen on offense. Inning after inning went by against the Rockies' pitching and nothing materialized, other than a game-extending RBI double by Javier Baez in the eighth inning. Then, silence. Maddon has seen this act before. "Yeah, we played that game a lot," he said. "Believe me, it was on my mind for a large part of it. We had some opportunities. We just could not cash in." It was the 40th time in 2018 that the Cubs had scored one or zero runs -- tops in the league. The Cubs' front office will have the offseason to figure out what went wrong on that side of the ball, because Tuesday's game was simply a microcosm of much of the season. The club managed one extra-base hit in 13 innings. Chicago's slugging capabilities have dried up for a position-player base that won the World Series two seasons ago and includes the same players. Cubs players react as they watch during the 11th inning against the Rockies. The 2-1 loss was the 40th time this season Chicago had scored one or zero runs. AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh "As an offense, we need to mature and develop a little bit more," first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. "At times, we did this year, as a unit, and at times ... not so much." As expected after the game, players vowed to return in a better mindset following a rough end to the season, which saw them at a ballpark on 42 of their last 43 days. The mental fatigue wore on their faces. And they recognized, as one of the top teams in the NL over the past few years, everyone wanted a piece of them. "Sometimes you have to take the bad with the good," Lester said. "Right now, we're taking the bad. ... Maybe we needed that." MVP candidate Baez offered his take. "We struggled the whole year, the whole year," Baez said. "We just kept [saying] we're going to get it back ... but it never came to us. We were never in a rhythm of winning games. I think it was because we were paying attention to other teams." Though in first place the entire second half, there was a constant feeling of things slipping away for the Cubs. Most of the time, they responded when they needed to. But in the end, two teams took what the Cubs were barely holding on to: National League supremacy. Now, they are the first team eliminated from the postseason. "I don't feel like we lost this," Lester said. "They beat us. We played our hearts out. ... Maybe in the long run, this will be good for us. You can only learn from losing." The Cubs will have the longest offseason in four years to do some soul-searching, as they had advanced to the NL Championship Series over the previous three postseasons. Maybe rest is simply what they need most. It's also entirely possible that major personnel changes are coming. For the players, they will lament losing a wild-card game at home, something this organization would have been thrilled with a few years ago.