One year later, the teams in the National League
Championship Series are the same so it makes sense that the plot
lines are similar.
There is a team four victories away from getting a chance to
vanquish a long World Series drought. There is a fan base starved
for a championship, hanging on every pitch. And there is a group of
players who have bonded together to craft a memorable summer, while
moving into the fall where destiny appears to be on its side.
The twist is that it is the Los Angeles Dodgers who carry all those
credentials into the NLCS this time. The Cubs wore all those same
markers on their sleeve as they plowed their way through the
postseason last year.
Further solidifying the role reversals are the facts that the
Dodgers are owners of home-field advantage this time, while the
Cubs are the team arriving at the NLCS following a hard-fought
division series. Both the Dodgers last year, and the Cubs this
year, had to dispatch a determined Washington Nationals team in
Game 5 in the nation's capital.
Added to Chicago's plate was a travel issue while flying overnight
from Washington to Los Angeles early Friday. The plane was diverted
to Albuquerque when a family member of somebody on the charter
flight fell ill. Then the pilots had to go off duty because of
accumulated flight time. The Cubs finally arrived to their Los
Angeles hotel at 12:30 p.m. Friday.
"Everybody understood the reasoning behind it," said Cubs manager
Joe Maddon, who has yet to decide between John Lackey and Jose
Quintana as his Game 1 starter. "I thought our guys handled it
extremely well. Biggest concern was that there might be enough food
for everybody. But big 767, plenty of room. We all settled in."
The Dodgers will enter the NLCS with a well-rested Clayton Kershaw
starting Game 1. Manager Dave Roberts said Kershaw will be followed
in the rotation by Rich Hill, Yu Darvish and Alex Wood, in that
order. Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager has been limited in recent
days with a sore back, but is expected to play in Game 1.
For Kershaw, having plenty of rest before a playoff series is a
rare luxury. He did not pitch until Game 2 of the 2016 NLCS after
getting the save in the deciding victory of the NLDS. When he
returned to the mound again in Game 6 of the 2016 NLCS, he appeared
tired and vulnerable as the Cubs pounced.
The Dodgers were eliminated last year after a 5-0 defeat at Wrigley
Field and they were left to wait for another season, just as they
have done every year since Kirk Gibson delivered his 1988 miracle
that baseball fans in Los Angeles still clutch cLose to their
collective heart.
"We want to win this series; we want to go to the World Series,"
Kershaw said Friday. "We didn't get to do that last year, and the
Cubs were the reason why. No doubt about it, we know that. But if
the Nationals won this, I'd be saying the same thing. I don't hold
grudges, it's not billboard material for me or bulletin-board
material that we've got to get revenge on the Cubs."
After defeating Los Angeles in the NLCS last year, the Cubs went on
to get past the Cleveland Indians in seven games of the World
Series. Fans filled the streets in Chicago as the Cubs vanquished a
108-year championship drought.
The Dodgers are working on a 29-year dry spell of their own. They
haven't even been to the World Series since their underdog team
upended the mighty Oakland Athletics for their last title. They
have made 10 postseason appearances since and have come up empty
each time.
"It's very clear what our ultimate goal is," Roberts said. "But our
guys, all year long have done a very good job of not getting ahead
of themselves. So our only focus is tomorrow, it really is, and
whatever we can do to win a baseball game tomorrow."
Roberts' Dodgers went 52-9 at one stretch this season. They also
went 1-16 late in the year in what appeared to be a collective
exhale. But a three-game sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the
NLDS had the Dodgers looking more like the team that dominated most
of the season.
The Cubs had their woes during a sluggish first half of the season.
But they scored more runs than anybody in the NL since the All-Star
break and their OPS was best in the league too. Only one NL team
hit more home runs in the second half.
Starting Saturday, it is the Dodgers and their major league-best
104-58 record against the 92-70 Cubs, the reigning champs. The
credentials of both are clear.
"They were the best team last year, and until somebody beats them,
they're the best team," Kershaw said. "So we've got to go get them."
