Colorado Rockies to meet Chicago Cubs in NL Wild Card Game

After dropping Game 163 in Los Angeles, the Colorado Rockies will head to the Windy City for yet another appearance in the National League Wild Card game.

The Chicago Cubs and Colorado Rockies both lost their chances at their respective divisions on Monday and now the two teams will battle to keep their seasons alive on Tuesday night at Wrigley Field.

Tuesday night’s National League Wild Card game will begin at 6 p.m. (Mountain time) and will be televised by ESPN. It will be the first-ever postseason meeting between the two franchises. It will also be the second consecutive season that the Rockies have appeared in the Wild Card game. Arizona ended Colorado’s season last year in the Wild Card game played at Chase Field.

Jon Lester is scheduled to take the mound for the Cubs while Kyle Freeland is expected to be the starter for the Rockies.

The two teams were evenly matched this season, splitting their six games against each other and each scoring 33 runs. Colorado won two of three in Chicago in late April/early May. Their one loss at Wrigley, however, came with Freeland on the mound. He surrendered three runs and six hits in seven innings in a 3-2 loss on April 30. It was the only time this season Freeland has faced the Cubs.

The opposing pitcher in that game? Lester, who didn’t allow an earned run that night and has been very solid as of late.

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For the Rockies, it will be the third game in three days in three different time zones. After finishing off the Washington Nationals on Sunday at Coors Field, the Rockies left for California. After Monday’s loss at Chavez Ravine, the Rockies crossed back over the Mountain time zone to get to Chicago.

It’s a criss-cross kind of trip and it’s one that the Rockies hoped they weren’t going to have to make. However, Walker Buehler was dominant on the mound for the Dodgers on Monday and a pair of two-run homers by Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy pushed Colorado to the brink of elimination.

With the Wild Card game being the true beginning of the postseason, both the Cubs and Rockies will be forced to cut down their rosters back to the 25-man limit. It will be a quick turnaround for both clubs, who had the luxury of expanded rosters for their respective Game 163s.