The Cubs needed a win Wednesday night to avert a three-game sweep by division rival Milwaukee Hank Aaron Jersey , and Murphy played a big role with three hits and a solo home run in Chicago’s 6-4 victory against the Brewers.Pedro Strop closed out a tense ninth inning as Chicago boosted its NL Central lead to four games over the second-place Brewers. Milwaukee is a half-game ahead of St. Louis for the top NL wild card.Jose Quintana (12-9) gave up two runs in 6 2/3 innings, improving to 3-1 at Miller Park with the Cubs.Strop allowed a walk and a single to open the ninth but got the final three outs, striking out Curtis Granderson with two runners on to preserve the win.“It’s a young group with a veteran mindset,” said Murphy, who joined the Cubs in a trade with Washington on Aug. 21. “You lose a tough one (Monday) and they played really well yesterday. All you can do is come out and try to win this ballgame.”Granderson belted his first home run as a member of the Brewers in a pinch-hit role in the seventh, a two-run shot that cut Chicago’s lead to 6-4.After Travis Shaw walked and pinch-hitter Christian Yelich singled to start the ninth, the crowd of 37,427 was on its feet, nearly equally divided between Brewers and Cubs fans. Eric Thames flied out before Strop got Lorenzo Cain to ground to third for a force play. Then a nasty slider on a 2-2 pitch struck out Granderson.“I thought he gained his composure nicely,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said of Strop. “He’s got 95 or 96 (mph) with that sink. The slider he got Granderson on, it’s good against righties and lefties.”Jhoulys Chacin (14-6) had tossed 16 consecutive scoreless innings against the Cubs this season before Murphy led off the fourth with an opposite-field homer into the Brewers’ left-field bullpen.“I was able to leverage the count in my favor and was able to look for something up in the zone,” Murphy said. “I didn’t think it was going to get out of the ballpark.”Javier Baez followed with a single and his aggressive baserunning helped the Cubs extend their lead. He raced for third on a single by Anthony Rizzo, and when Cain’s throw from center field sailed, Baez scored and Rizzo went to third on a second error by shortstop Orlando Arcia. Ben Zobrist doubled to score Rizzo and give the Cubs a 3-0 lead.A soft RBI single by Willson Contreras capped the four-run rally.Jonathan Scoop’s bad-hop single drove home a run in the bottom of the inning, and the Brewers loaded the bases with two outs. Quintana induced Arcia to hit a pop fly to shortstop to escape the jam.Zobrist drove in his second run in the fifth with a two-out single, but Rizzo was thrown out at the plate trying to score from second base.Kyle Schwarber belted his 25th homer into the second deck in right field in the sixth to make it 6-1.Quintana allowed a leadoff single to Jesus Aguilar and a double to Ryan Braun in the sixth, but the Brewers managed just one run on a groundout by Schoop.“It was his best fastball of the year,” Maddon said. “He primarily could have pitched with his fastball today — it was that good.”The Brewers and Cubs will meet again in a three-game series at Wrigley Field next week.“It was a fun series http://www.bravesfanproshop.com/authentic-nick-markakis-jersey ,” Granderson said. “It’s definitely something both teams can look at and say, all right, it’s going to be a fight to the end.”NOT MOVINGA funny moment came in the fourth after Baez singled. He never moved off the base while Chacin threw over to first twice.“They know I wanted to run,” Baez said. “Right before Rizzo stepped to the plate, I saw the catcher (Erik Kratz) and he wasn’t giving signs, so I knew (Chacin) was coming back (to first). Then after the first one, and he tried to act like he was giving signs. But I saw he was so fake about it, I just stayed there.”Baez scored moments later after Rizzo singled and Cain overthrew third base.TRAINER’S ROOMCubs: Schwarber injured his back and left the game after homering in the sixth. “Before he went up to hit he told me it was tight,” Maddon said. “But he may have taken his best swing of the year.” . RHP Brandon Morrow may be reaching the point of no return for the Cubs, and Maddon said he will have to use several relievers in the closer role the rest of the season. Morrow, who posted 22 saves as the closer before being injured, has been sidelined since July 18 with right biceps inflammation. He has yet to throw off a mound in his rehab. “We’d love to have him back, but even if he does come back, how do you utilize that?” Maddon said. “You just can’t push him two days in a row.”Brewers: Yelich was not in the starting lineup as the Brewers headed into the final stretch of the season. He singled as a pinch-hitter in the ninth to reach base in his 22nd straight game. “He needs a day off,” manager Craig Counsell said before the game. “Friday was a thought, but it just reached a point where it had to be today.” Yelich had not been out of the lineup since July 3.UP NEXTCubs: RHP Kyle Hendricks (11-10, 3.77 ERA) will open a four-game series in Washington on Thursday night.Brewers: RHP Chase Anderson (9-7, 3.96 ERA) starts a three-game series against the Giants on Friday at Miller Park. Home-field advantage tends to be overvalued by bettors in the MLB playoffs Julio Teheran Jersey , especially in the early rounds.Blindly betting every road underdog of +120 or more in the MLB postseason since 2006 would have won a $100 bettor about $1,600, with a 7.3% ROI.As I do at the beginning of every October, I wanted to remind everyone of the historical value of MLB home-field advantage.Of the four major professional sports, MLB home teams have the lowest win percentage 鈥?regular season or postseason. The 54% win percentage implies that the crowd, umpire bias, park familiarity, ability to bat last and other home factors swing the result in only one out of every 12 or so games.Per Sports Reference, home teams in the NBA and NFL both won at least 5% more games in the postseason, as opposed to the NHL and MLB, which don’t see any historical “bump” in the playoffs.When diving a little more deeply into the MLB numbers, I noticed that home-field advantage is even less of a factor earlier in the postseason.I split the postseason history into four separate time periods based on when Major League Baseball added a new round (or second wild card in 2012).World Series and Pennant Odds Entering the MLB PlayoffsRead nowSince the American League and National League split into separate divisions in 1969, home teams have won 60% of World Series games but only 52% of Division Series contests.Dating back to 1995, after the strike and realignment, teams with home-field advantage have won exactly 50% of League Division Series (46-46).Since 1998, when MLB adapted the 2-2-1 format, teams with home-field advantage have actually lost more series than they have won in the LDS (37-39).Playing at home seems to hold the most value in the World Series, as teams with home-field advantage have won 59% of Fall Classics since 1925.MLB Playoff Betting: Do Hot Septembers Translate to Postseason Success?Read nowLast season http://www.bravesfanproshop.com/authentic-nick-markakis-jersey , the Astros pulled out a road win in the 40th “winner-take-all” game in World Series history. Home teams in World Series “winner-take-all” scenarios now own an overall losing record of 19-20 after the Cubs and Astros won the past two World Series in Game 7 on the road.Also, three of the 10 MLB playoff teams in 2018 (Braves, Astros and Dodgers) actually had better road records this season.聽However, exceptions do exist for certain teams as a result of other variables such as:Team experienceBallpark dimensionsWeatherSightlinesFor example, the Rockies historically play much better at home in the altitude of Denver (although this year they won a franchise-best 44 games on the road). Among other reasons, it is simply much tougher for them to hit on the road, where they see much sharper breaking balls.Having reviewed all of the above data, you would presume that home favorites in the postseason, especially in earlier rounds, are overvalued.Using the valuable tools on BetLabs, I ran a return analysis on betting road underdogs in the MLB playoffs. Here are the results:If you bet $100 on every road MLB underdog of +120 or better since 2006, you would have won ~$1600 (7.3% ROI) with a record of 94-122 (43.5%). However, road underdogs fitting that criteria went 3-14 last postseason.The sample size is meaningless, but road teams have a 7-5 record in the 12 wild-card games played since 2012.We have our first road dog of +120 or better in Tuesday’s NL wild-card game. Check out our betting preview to see if there’s value in the underdog Rockies.