The 2018 National League Central tie-breaker game was a one-game extension to Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2018 regular season, played between the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs to determine the champion of the National League's (NL) Central Division. It was played at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois on October 1, 2018. The Brewers won, 3–1, and became the top seed in the NL playoffs. The Cubs hosted the NL West runner-up Colorado Rockies in the NL Wild Card Game on October 2, with the Rockies winning 2–1 in 13 innings to advance to face the Brewers in the National League Division Series. The Cubs and Brewers ended the 2018 season tied for the division lead and the NL's best win–loss record at , thereby guaranteeing that whoever came in second will host the Wild Card Game two days later. The tie-breaker was counted as a regular season game for both teams, with all events in the game added to regular season statistics. October 1 also marked the first time two division tie-breakers had been played in a single season. Background Chicago had won two consecutive National League Central division championships, and were expected to win a third-consecutive Division title. The Milwaukee Brewers finished 2017 six games back of the Cubs, despite leading the 2017 division race by 5.5 games at the All-Star break. Milwaukee's last playoff appearance was its 2011 division title. To challenge for the 2018 division, the Brewers made several key offseason acquisitions, among them starter Jhoulys Chacin, former Kansas City Royal Lorenzo Cain and then-Marlins outfielder Christian Yelich. The Cubs' high-profile offseason acquisitions, Yu Darvish and Brandon Morrow, were lost to injury during the season, and both missed the tie-breaker game. Milwaukee emerged from a crowded early division race on May 18. Chicago took the division lead from the Brewers on July 14 and maintained sole possession of first place until falling to a third-place St. Louis club at home in the penultimate game of the season. Chicago had surged out of the All-Star break to a five-game lead over the Brewers lead on September 2, but Milwaukee put together a 19–7 September record that included four wins over the Cubs in nine days. The Brewers ended the season on an 8-game win streak, while the Cubs won their final game 10–5 over the Cards to force the tiebreaker. The Cubs won the right to host the