After the marathon that is an MLB season, the playoffs are here. Up first in the National League, the Chicago Cubs are slated to host the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday in a winner-advances Wild Card matchup. In other words, it's now or never. The Cubs are already coming off a disappointing end to the regular season. After 162 games, the Chicago club was tied with the Milwaukee Brewers for the NL Central title. The Cubs lost a one-game tiebreaker on Monday night. The team's bats have slumped at precisely the worst time. "Baseball is a hard game," third baseman Kris Bryant told ESPN. "Sometimes you're not going to hit the ball on the barrel. Some of the best hitters find ways to get hits when they don't hit it on the barrel." Manager Joe Maddon suggested to ESPN that the cold streak was a bit confounding. "I can't give you a solid reason. We need to find it, quickly," he said. The Cubs are set to give Jon Lester the start, while Colorado is going with Kyle Freeland. The Rockies suffered the same heartbreak as the Cubs to get into this position, having fallen to the Los Angeles Dodgers in an NL West tiebreaker. Manager Bud Black expressed confidence that his squad would get it done when it mattered. "Excited about it," Black told ESPN. "It's going to be a great environment tomorrow at Wrigley. Their manager and I go way back. This team enjoys playing on the big stage.'' Here's everything else you need to know for the game on Tuesday. Start time: 8:05 p.m. ET TV channel: ESPN Live stream: WatchESPN Odds: The Cubs are considered the favorites at -140, while the Rockies line was set at +120, according to Odds Shark. Predictions: ESPN's Tim Kurkjian wote about the reasons he thought the Cubs would pull it off. Bleacher Report's Paul Kasabian also picked the Cubs. USA Today's Gabe Lacques picked Colorado. Four of six Yahoo experts picked the Cubs.<doc-sep>Normally, we would have already known the start times for the guaranteed games of the first round of the playoffs. In most years, most if not all of the division and wild card races are decided before the final weekend of the season and at the very least we have those answers at the end of 162 games. However, the 2018 season was anything but normal as we had TWO tiebreaking game 163s in the National League which obviously complicates TV scheduling. However, now that that is over and we actually know who is seeded where and who is facing who, MLB fairly quickly got the schedule in order. Below are start times for Division Series games through Sunday, October 7th. FS1 or MLB Network will exclusively cover all National League Division Series games, while TBS will exclusively televise all American League Postseason action. #Postseason pic.twitter.com/y9OZQzziZG — MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) October 2, 2018 The wild card times were already known, but now we know who is actually playing on the NL side with the Chicago Cubs hosting the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night at 8:08 PM EST. After that, we have the Yankees hosting the Athletics at 8:08 PM EST in the AL Wild Card on Wednesday. After that comes the fun part with series play beginning with just the National League on Thursday with the winner of the Wild Card game playing against Milwaukee in an afternoon game before the Braves go on the road to face the Dodgers at 8:37 PM EST. Friday has everyone in action with Cleveland at Houston first from the American League before the other ALDS series between the winner of the wild card gets the “privilege” of going to Fenway park and playing the Boston Red Sox. Playoff baseball starts today, folks. It is time to get excited for October.<doc-sep>The Telegraph Two of the surprise packages of this clay-court season have been British – initially Dan Evans, who made a deep run in Monte Carlo, and more lately Cameron Norrie, who played his second final in three weeks on Sunday. Unfortunately, Norrie wasn’t able to land a maiden ATP title in Lyon. But then he was up against Stefanos Tsitsipas, who has been the dominant force of 2021 outside the slams, and now stands at No 1 in the table of most rankings points gained since January 1. Nevertheless, it had been a hugely creditable effort for Norrie to go this far, especially when you consider that he took out top seed Dominic Thiem on Thursday, and then trounced big-hitting Russian Karen Khachanov in Saturday’s semi-final, losing only two games in the process. Norrie has come to clay late in his career, but it feels like this is developing into his favourite surface. He has one of the heaviest left-handed forehands in the game, loaded with top-spin, and uses it like a miniature version of Rafael Nadal. The result has been a tally of 14 wins and only four losses since he began his European clay-court swing in Barcelona. So while the French Open, which starts next Sunday, has traditionally been a graveyard of British hopes, there are reasons to hope that this year’s event could deliver some more positive results. Norrie’s previous final in Estoril had been a nervewracking affair which he eventually lost on a deciding-set tie-break to the more experienced Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Sunday was more straightforward for Tsitsipas, who needed only 69 minutes to hammer home a 6-3, 6-3 victory. It was Tsitsipas’ second title of the clay-court sequence, after he won Monte Carlo in mid-April, taking out Evans in the semi-final along the way. He has become a serious contender to upset the establishment – specifically Nadal and Novak Djokovic – at Roland Garros over the next few weeks. “I felt in good shape from the beginning of the tournament,” said Tsitsipas afterwards. “I am proud of today’s match, I knew it would be a difficult one against Cameron, who has been showing great tennis this week. He has been winning against good players and showing what the left hand can do on clay. “It was not an easy match today. I had to handle the nerves and I am proud of my performance and the way I stayed focused towards my goal.” On this year’s results, meanwhile, both Evans and Norrie stand among the world’s 20 most successful men. Evans is at No 16 and Norrie No 14. The next challenge for them both is to convert that ATP Tour form into a deep run at a major.<doc-sep>
NEW YORK -- Wednesday night, for the first time in baseball history, a 100-win team will compete in a Wild Card Game. The New York Yankees (100-62) and Oakland Athletics (97-65) will meet in the 2018 AL Wild Card Game at Yankee Stadium. A trip to the ALDS to face the 108-54 Boston Red Sox is on the line. That's three of the four best records in baseball right there. Fortunately, Wednesday's winner-take-all AL Wild Card Game will avoid rain in New York. It rained Tuesday night and it will rain Thursday night. Wednesday night? Crystal clear and cool with a nice breeze. CBS New York has a similar forecast throughout the night. The weather in New York will be close to perfect for the 2018 AL Wild Card Game on Wednesday. CBS Sports Both the Athletics and Yankees announced their Wild Card Game starting lineups Wednesday afternoon. Here's the starting nine the visiting A's will run out there: A's manager Bob Melvin settled on that standard lineup late in the regular season and he'll continue with it in the Wild Card Game. It should be noted Hendriks is an opener and will only pitch one inning (maybe two). The Athletics are planning to use a bullpen game Wednesday night. Edwin Jackson is the only true starter on their Wild Card Game roster and he's the emergency extra innings guy. Now here is the lineup the home Yankees will use Wednesday night: Similar to Melvin and the A's, Yankees manager Aaron Boone settled on that set lineup late in the regular season, after Judge (wrist), Hicks (hamstring), and Gregorius (wrist) returned from injuries. Severino will join Madison Bumgarner (2014, 2016) and Jon Lester (2014, 2018) as the only pitchers to start two Wild Card Games. Severino started last year's AL Wild Card Game and didn't make it out of the first inning against the Twins. The Yankees are surely hoping for a better outcome the second time around.