LOS ANGELES, CA - MARCH 29: Los Angeles Dodgers fans before the game against the San Francisco Giants during the 2018 Major League Baseball opening day at Dodger Stadium on March 29, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) With blowout wins on Sunday afternoon, the Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers have one more game to play to determine which team is the 2018 National League West champion. Sporting identical 91-71 records, the Colorado Rockies will travel to Chavez Ravine to face the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday afternoon. Game time is set for 2:09 p.m. (Mountain time). The game will be televised on ESPN and available on ESPN Radio as well as KOA (850 AM/94.1 FM) in the Denver area. The winning team will be the National League West champion and the second seed in the National League playoffs, hosting the Atlanta Braves on Thursday night. The losing team will be the second National League Wild Card team and will have a quick turnaround as they will travel to play the winner of the Chicago Cubs-Milwaukee Brewers Game 163 that will take place on Monday (starting at 11:05 a.m. Mountain time on ESPN) before the Rockies and Dodgers meet. Los Angeles holds a 12-7 edge over the Rockies this season, including a three-game sweep in Colorado’s last visit to Chavez Ravine (September 17-19). German Marquez (14-10, 3.76 ERA) is expected to get the start for the Rockies. In his last start on Wednesday night, he struck out the first eight batters of the game on his way to establishing a new franchise single-season strikeout record with 221 whiffs. He will have the opportunity to add to that against the Dodgers in a place that has been friendly to him in 2018. The 23-year-old right-hander is 2-0 with a 1.20 ERA in 15 innings pitched this season in L.A. Walker Buehler (7-5, 2.76 ERA) is expected to draw the start for the Dodgers. As our Jake Shapiro noted, Buehler has been solid against the Rockies this season. Walker Buehler has been terrific but he’s been slightly—very slightly—less terrific against the Rockies. He’s 0-1 with a 2.61 ERA in 31 innings this season. — Jake Shapiro (@Shapalicious) September 30, 2018 As a reminder, Game 163 is considered a regular-season game, so each team will have expanded rosters at their disposal. Those expanded rosters played a big role in the Los Angeles sweep in September, including Yasiel Puig coming off the bench to hit the go-ahead home run in the third game of the three-game series.<doc-sep>The Los Angeles Dodgers and Colorado Rockies have ended the regular season with identical 91-71 records. That means, in keeping with ancient laws of combat, the Rockies and Dodgers on Monday will play a one-game tiebreaker for the National League West title. Now let's break down what you need to know about Monday's determinative matchup: NL West tiebreaker: Rockies (91-71) at Dodgers (91-71) Date : Monday, Oct. 1 : Monday, Oct. 1 Time : 4:09 p.m. ET : 4:09 p.m. ET Location : Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif. : Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif. TV channel : ESPN : ESPN Streaming: WatchESPN WatchESPN Live stats : GameTracker : GameTracker Picks: Check SportsLine's MLB pick sheet for all your daily odds. As noted above, the tiebreaker is at Dodger Stadium Since the Dodgers won the season series against Colorado (the Dodgers went 12-7 against the Rockies in regular season and outscored them by a margin of 98-69), L.A. will host the tiebreaker game. Some relevant facts insofar as that is concerned: The Dodgers this season were actually worse at home (.543) than they were on the road (.580). The Rockies, meantime, had a respectable .543 winning percentage in road games this season. In 2018, the Dodgers went 6-3 against the Rockies at home. The last time these two teams met, Sept. 17-19, the Dodgers swept the Rockies in L.A. Overall, home teams in MLB tend win about 54 percent of the time. It's an edge, yes, but it's not as substantial as the home-field advantage in, say, the NFL or NBA. There's much at stake Not only does the winner of Monday's tiebreaker get NL West bragging rights, but they also advance to the best-of-five NLDS against the Braves with home-field advantage. The loser, meantime, will play the loser of the NL Central tiebreaker in the NL Wild Card Game. Obviously, you want to avoid having any part of that playoff knockout game. The potential pitching matchup is a compelling one It seems likely that on Monday the Rockies will start German Marquez, while the Dodgers will counter with Walker Buehler. The digits on the two this season: German Marquez COL • SP • 48 2018 ERA 3.76 WHIP 1.20 IP 191.1 BB 55 K 221 View Profile Walker Buehler LAD • SP • 21 2018 ERA 2.76 WHIP .98 IP 130.2 BB 34 K 148 View Profile The 23-year-old Marquez has mid-90s velocity, and he leads with his fastball and curve. However, he also boasts a slider, sinker, and change that he can throw for strikes. As for Buehler, 24, he sits 97 with his fastball and sinker, and he keeps hitters off balance with a curve, cutter and slider. Now for some additional numbers: In 35 road games (33 starts), Marquez for his career has a 3.74 ERA and 3.28 K/BB ratio. This season, he has a 2.91 ERA and 4.63 K/BB ratio in 16 starts away from Coors Field. For his young career, Buehler has made 11 starts and four relief appearances at Dodger Stadium, and over that span he's pitched to a 2.52 ERA and a 5.31 K/BB ratio. Hitters currently on the Dodgers' roster have hit a combined .188/.259/.386 in a total of 113 plate appearances against Marquez. Hitters currently on the Rockies' roster have hit a combined .213/.281/.339 in a total of 139 plate appearances against Buehler. The Dodgers this season ranked fifth in the NL with a .752 OPS at home. The Rockies this season ranked 14th in the NL with a .665 OPS on the road. As ever, it may come down to the Rockies' ability to put runs on the board outside of Coors Field. The bullpens will surely be a factor While it's not an elimination game, the stakes are certainly high. That means managers Bud Black and Dave Roberts will probably go with an all-hands-on-deck approach. In a neutral context, the two bullpens are similar in terms of quality (mostly this means adjusting for the distortive effects of Coors Field). Both are relatively healthy at the moment. Bud Black will likely lean heavily on Adam Ottavino, Seung-hwan Oh and Scott Oberg. Of those core guys, only Oh pitched in Sunday's blowout win over the Nationals, and he threw just five pitches. Meantime, Oberg, Ottavino and Davis haven't pitched since Friday. They'll be about as fresh as you can be by the standards of late September/early October. The issue for the Rockies will be getting some reliable work from the left side. Don't be surprised if Ottavino, who tames both sides, gets the call against a left-handed bat in a key spot on Monday. As for the Dodgers, they're without Daniel Hudson and Erik Goeddel, but otherwise Roberts will have his go-tos available. He used none of Kenley Jansen, Ryan Madson, Kenta Maeda, Dylan Floro and Scott Alexander in Sunday's bombing of the Giants. In simple terms, give the Rockies the edge when it comes to the front line and the Dodgers the edge when it comes to depth. Also bear in mind that rested starters might also get a look. Sunday's starters Tyler Anderson and Rich Hill will presumably be unavailable. The Dodgers are trying to join elite company The Dodgers are trying to win their sixth straight NL West title. If they do, then they'll join the Yankees (1998-2006) and Braves (1995-2005) as the only franchises to win at least six straight division championships. The Rockies are trying to get it done for the first time. While Colorado will be making its fifth trip to the postseason in its relatively brief history, the Rockies have never done so via a division title. They've had just three second-place finishes, as well.<doc-sep>The final day of the 2018 regular season is in the books and several National League postseason spots remain up for grabs. As per recent tradition, every game started at approximately 3 p.m. ET on Sunday to maximize drama. It's was a fun day, baseball fans. Here's everything you need to know about Sunday's MLB action. Sunday's scores Two tiebreaker games on tap Monday For the first time in baseball history, there will be two Game 163 tiebreaker games the day after the end of the regular season. The 162-game regular season was not enough to decide the NL Central and NL West races. Going into Sunday, the Cubs needed a win and a Brewers loss to clinch the NL Central. The Brewers needed a win and a Cubs loss to clinch. The same applied in the NL West. The Dodgers and Rockies needed a win while the other team lost to clinch the division title. So what happened? The Brewers, Cubs, Dodgers, and Rockies all won Sunday. Handily too. The combined score of those four games: 48-5. Never underestimate the "they're all playing teams that have been eliminated and just want to go home" aspect of the final day of the regular season. Because the Brewers and Cubs are tied atop the NL Central and the Dodgers and Rockies are tied atop the NL West, there will be two Game 163 tiebreaker games Monday. The schedule: 1:05 p.m. ET: Brewers at Cubs (winner wins NL Central, loser hosts the Wild Card Game) Brewers at Cubs (winner wins NL Central, loser hosts the Wild Card Game) 4:09 p.m. ET: Rockies at Dodgers (winner wins NL West, loser is road team in Wild Card Game) It is entirely possible the Dodgers' path to the NLDS will involve winning in San Francisco on Sunday, losing in Los Angeles on Monday, and winning in Chicago or Milwaukee in the Wild Card Game on Tuesday. The two tiebreaker games Monday will be MLB's first tiebreaker games since the Rays beat the Rangers in Game 163 in 2013 to claim the second wild-card spot. Monday's games will determine the NL Central champion, the NL West champion, and the two wild card teams. Total chaos. Can't wait. Yelich still has a chance at Triple Crown Thanks to Monday's tiebreaker game, Brewers outfielder and MVP candidate Christian Yelich will still have a chance to win the first Triple Crown in the National League since Hall of Famer Joe Medwick with the 1937 Cardinals. Game 163 goes into the books as a regular season game. The stats count. Here's where Yelich sits in the Triple Crown categories: Batting average: .323 (leads by 14 points) .323 (leads by 14 points) Home runs: 36 (one behind Nolan Arenado for NL lead) 36 (one behind Nolan Arenado for NL lead) Runs batted in: 109 (trails Javier Baez by two for NL lead) The batting title is in the bag. Hitting two home runs to pass Arenado and picking up three runs batted in to pass Baez will be awfully tough. To make it even tougher, Arenado and Baez are both playing in tiebreaker games Monday as well! So they can still pad their season totals. Maybe the Game 163 aspect makes it unfair, but winning the Triple Crown is really cool, and Yelich still has a chance to do it Monday. Blackmon hits for the cycle In what amounted to a must-win game for the Rockies, Charlie Blackmon delivered the first ever Game 162 cycle in baseball history on Sunday. Blackmon had a triple in the first inning, a homer in the third inning, an infield single in the fifth inning, and a double in the eighth inning. Here's the homer: Blackmon's cycle is the fourth in baseball this season. Mookie Betts hit for the cycle in early August and Yelich hit for the cycle twice in the span of 20 days recently. Blackmon had the ninth cycle in Rockies history and the first since Arenado hit for the cycle last August. A's Davis finishes with .247 average For the fourth consecutive season, Khris Davis is a .247 hitter. Davis went 0 for 2 on Sunday before being removed from the game as part of the A's mass exodus in the meaningless regular season finale. Here are his batting averages the last four years carried out another decimal point: 2015: .2474 .2474 2016: .2468 .2468 2017: . 2473 2473 2018: .2465 So, technically, Davis hit .247 for the fourth straight season and also finished with his lowest batting average in those four years. Still a pretty neat bit of symmetry. When you've hit 40-plus home runs in three straight seasons like Davis, walking around with a .247 batting average 24/7 is A-OK. Andujar ties AL rookie record Yankees rookie third baseman Miguel Andujar strengthened his Rookie of the Year case with his 47th double of the season Sunday afternoon. The high fly ball clanked in and out of Brock Holt's glove near the Green Monster. Andujar's double is notable because it tied Fred Lynn's American League rookie doubles record. Here are the most doubles among AL rookies all-time: Miguel Andujar, 2018 Yankees: 47 Fred Lynn, 1975 Red Sox: 47 Hal Trosky, 1934 Indians: 45 Roy Johnson, 1929 Tigers: 45 Shoeless Joe Jackson, 1911 Naps: 45 Andujar broke Joe DiMaggio's franchise rookie record with his 45th double early in the season. As recently as last Opening Day, DiMaggio held he rookie franchise record for doubles (44) and home runs (29). Now those records are held by Andujar (47) and Aaron Judge (52), respectively. Flaherty finishes with impressive strikeout rate Cardinals rookie righty Jack Flaherty did not finish his season on a strong note Sunday -- he allowed four runs in 2 2/3 innings to the Cubs -- but it was an overall excellent season for the 22-year-old. He threw 151 innings with a 3.34 ERA in 28 starts. Flaherty also posted the fourth highest strikeout rate in history for a rookie pitcher (min. 150 innings):<doc-sep>Last week, I examined the small possibility that the Dodgers, Rockies, Diamondbacks and Cardinals would finish with the same exact record, creating essentially a four-team tie for two postseason berths — the NL West pennant and the second NL wild card — and a wild play-in scenario. But the D-Backs have lost five of their seven games since and now sit 4 1/2 games back in the West, making such a scenario extremely unlikely. Entering play Monday, though, the Rockies, Cardinals and Dodgers all have exactly 82 wins. The Rockies, at 82-67, hold a half-game lead over the Dodgers in the West, and Los Angeles and St. Louis currently sport identical 82-68 records and a claim to the second NL wild-card spot. So what happens if all three teams end up tied? It turns out it’s still quite wild. The Dodgers and Rockies would first need to play a Game 163 to determine the NL West champion. The club with the better record in their season series gets home-field advantage. Los Angeles and Colorado begin a three-game set at Dodger Stadium on Monday, and since the Dodgers currently hold a 9-7 advantage on the year, a single win in this series would guarantee them home-field advantage for an NL West title game. The Rockies would need to sweep the Dodgers to host that game, but doing so would put them 3 1/2 games up in the division with 10 left to play and, as such, likely make all of this immaterial. So assuming the Dodgers do take at least one of these next three games and finish in a tie with the Rockies and Cardinals, they’d host Colorado on Monday, Oct. 1. The winner of that game becomes the NL West champion and advances to the proper playoffs. The loser of that game then travels to St. Louis — presumably on Tuesday, Oct. 2 — to play the Cardinals for the second wild-card spot. The NL wild-card game is currently scheduled for that same day, which complicates MLB’s announced postseason schedule. The simplest way of resolving it would be to flip-flop the NL and AL wild-card contests, moving the AL game up to Oct. 2 and pushing the NL one to Oct. 3. But that would mean some chance that the Rockies could finish the season at home in Denver, go to Los Angeles the next day for Game 163, then, if they lose that one, go to St. Louis the next day for Game 164. If they win that one, they’d go to either Chicago or Milwaukee for the NL wild-card game the day after that, and if they win that — and the league otherwise keeps its postseason schedule as currently planned — it’d be on to yet another city to begin the NLDS. Just to spell that out again, if, for instance, the Cubs hold off the Brewers in the NL Central and Milwaukee earns the top wild-card spot, and the Dodgers, Rockies and Cardinals wind up in a three-way tie for the two remaining spots, the Rockies’ schedule could look like this: Sept. 21-30: 10 straight games to end the regular season. Oct. 1: Play the Dodgers in L.A. for the NL West pennant. Oct. 2 (If they lose Game 163): On to St. Louis to play for a wild card. Oct. 3 (If they win in St. Louis): In Milwaukee for NL wild-card game. Oct. 4 (If they beat the Brewers): Chicago for Game 1 of the NLDS. If you’re playing at home, that stretch would include five straight games in five different cities, every one of them with massive postseason implications. For a variety of reasons, it’s not likely to happen. But it’d be mind-bogglingly weird and cool if it did.<doc-sep>
The good news is the Rockies are still alive for their first ever division title. The bad news is it’s complicated. After a rather torturous loss on Saturday night at the hands of the Nationals, the Rockies fell to 90-71 on the season and into a tie for first in the NL West with the Dodgers, who defeated the Giants earlier in the day. This means that, after these two teams have played 303 games in 2018, the division will be decided by the results of the final day of the regular season—unless they remain tied and need to play another game. There are a lot of moving parts to this last day not only for the Rockies but for the entire National League playoff picture. The Cubs and Brewers are also tied atop the NL Central and the Braves, the only team to have clinched a playoff spot before Wednesday, could begin the NLDS in Denver, Los Angeles, or Atlanta based on Sunday’s games. Like I said: complicated. 161 games and we still don’t know pic.twitter.com/rKoXSr8JWo — Jake Shapiro (@Shapalicious) September 30, 2018 We will attempt to make sense of everything that can happen on the last day of the regular season for you. What we know The Braves (90-71), Cubs (94-67), Brewers (94-67), Rockies (90-71), and Dodgers (90-71) have all clinched playoff spots. The Braves will play in the National League Division Series beginning Thursday against the National League West champion. On that day the National League Central champion will host the winner of the National League Wild Card Game, which will be played on Tuesday with whoever finishes second in the NL Central hosting whoever finishes second in the NL West. If it seems like we don’t know a lot it’s because we don’t. What’s happening Sunday On Sunday, all 15 games being played will begin between 1:05 pm MT and 1:20 pm MT. I hope you didn’t have afternoon plans. The Brewers will host the Tigers, the Cubs will host the Cardinals, and the Braves will host the Phillies. More on all of them in a minute. Firstly, the Rockies will host the Nationals at Coors FIeld starting at 1:10 pm MT. Tyler Anderson will get the start for the Rockies. He hasn’t pitched since September 14 but went six innings and gave up two runs in each of he previous two starts. Who will be starting opposite him? At the beginning of the weekend it seemed likely that two-time-defending NL Cy Young Award winner (and likely 2018 runner-up) Max Scherzer would start the game for the Nats. But Washington manager Dave Martinez said after Saturday’s game that, because the Rockies and Dodgers both already have playoff spots, Scherzer won’t start the series finale. That means Erick Fedde, owner of a 5.24 ERA in ten starts this season, will take the mound. This news made Dodgers fans, unsurprisingly, salty and it sent the team into deliberation mode. Rookie Walker Buehler (7-5, 2.76 ERA) was scheduled to start the regular season finale in San Francisco against Giants rookie Andrew Suarez (7-12, 4.76 ERA), but was pushed in favor of Rich Hill (10-5, 3.87 ERA) so that Buehler would be available for a potential one-game playoff on Monday. Then, when news came that Scherzer wouldn’t be starting on Sunday, the team went into further deliberations. Just before midnight pacific the Dodgers announced that Rich Hill would indeed start against the Giants on Sunday. So it will be Anderson vs. Fedde and Suarez vs. Hill to (maybe) decide the NL West. In case you’re keeping track, that’s five games to scoreboard-watch on Sunday. The Scenarios First, the NL Central. The Cubs and Brewers are tied for the best record in the National League. If the Cubs win and the Brewers lose, or vise versa, the winning team will lock up the division title and home field advantage through the NLCS and the losing team will take the first Wild Card. If the Brewers and Cubs both win or both lose, they will play a Game 163 at Wrigley Field on Monday to determine the NL Central champion. The loser of that game (or whoever ends up second in the division) will host the Wild Card Game on Tuesday night on ESPN. Who they will play depends on the Rockies and Dodgers, who are in an almost identical situation.