Wrigley Field was the place to in the world of sports. Pretty much every you look was just pure jubilation. After seventy plus Years Chicago Cubs Are Headed to the MLB World Series. That was not a typo; The Chicago Cubs are going to the World Series. Dexter Fowler, Kris Bryant and Ben Zobrist helped the Cubs take the lead early. They never looked back after driving in runs early. Later in the fourth Willson Contreras homered quickly followed by Anthony Rizzo in the fifth. Kyle Hendricks played beyond his age. He played live a vet. His pitches were on target all night. Aroldis Chapman stepped in and finish the game off. The Cubs didn’t just beat the Dodgers, they demolished them 5-0 on the way to winning the National League Championship Series. I know hopes have been high before but this seems to be their year. The Cubs won league high 103 games during the regular season. For any other team that would be enough. Not so for this one. The regular season means very little going into the NLCS. In fact the Six times the Cubs have played in the NLCS they had lost. The thing about it was that they were leading those games. Three times in 1984 and three times in 2003 the Cubs held leads only to lose year after year. Only to give its fans disappointment after disappointment. Not this year however. They survived the Giants and Dodgers to win the National League playoffs.
Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw who is the best pitcher in baseball and happened to shut out the Cubs over seven innings in Game 2 was not enough this time. Javier Baez made a phenomenal acrobatic tag on Andrew Toles and completed a double play. Later on Hendricks, who at this point is a lock for the NL Cy Young award. The guy is 9-2 at Wrigley with an MLB-best 1.32 home ERA. Once he was done Chapman came in for the eighth and ninth innings. He was able to keep the Dodgers off the scoreboard the rest of the night. However the tension and a nervous energy was there for the whole night until the last pitch. That didn’t stop people from celebrating just a bit. In fact fireworks were set off in the second inning. Clark Street was the place to be and crowded.
Now it’s just one more team; the Cleveland Indians. Now it’s just four more wins standing in way of history. This year’s Cubs team have a chance to do what Hall of Famers Ryne Sandberg, Billy Williams, Ernie Banks, Ferguson Jenkins, Andre Dawson, Bruce Sutter and even the legendary Greg Maddux never got to do; win the Fall Classic.
NLCS ✔️ pic.twitter.com/2thTGltZRC
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) October 23, 2016