October 13, 2017

NBC Sports Chicago, Cubs get World Series flashbacks amid craziness of Max Scherzer meltdown http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/cubs-get-world-series-flashbacks-amid-craziness-max-scherzer-meltdown

NBC Sports Chicago, The unsung hero of Cubs' epic Game 5 victory doesn't even wear a uniform http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/unsung-hero-cubs-epic-game-5-victory-doesnt-even-wear-uniform-theo-epstein-maddon-contreras-rizzo-nlcs

NBC Sports Chicago, Wade Davis saves Cubs: ‘That’s a bad motherf----- right there’ http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/wade-davis-saves-cubs-thats-bad-motherf-right-there-lester-nlcs-nlds-nationals

NBC Sports Chicago, Jon Lester 'blacked out' during Wade Davis' seven-out save in Cubs' bonkers Game 5 win http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/jon-lester-blacked-out-during-wade-davis-seven-out-save-cubs-bonkers-game-5-win

NBC Sports Chicago, BREATHE and the 7 biggest things as the Cubs advance to a third straight NLCS http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/breathe-and-6-biggest-things-cubs-advance-third-straight-nlcs-nationals-wade-davis-maddon

NBC Sports Chicago, Jon Jay's future and how Cubs are looking to fix leadoff spot http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/jon-jay-future-and-how-cubs-are-looking-fix-leadoff-spot-cardinals-dexter-fowler-joe-maddon

Chicago Tribune, 15 pivotal moments in Cubs' 9-8 victory over Nationals in Game 5 of NLDS http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-cubs-game-5-pivotal-moments-spt-1013-20171012-story.html

Chicago Tribune, Cubs look forward to Dodgers series http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-kris-bryant-dodgers-cubs-20171013-story.html

Chicago Tribune, Rotation, roster decisions await Cubs vs. Dodgers in NLCS rematch http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-cubs-theo-epstein-20171013-story.html

Chicago Tribune, Cubs dig deep, show incredible character and advance to third straight NLCS http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/ct-haugh-cubs-show-mettle-spt-1013-20171012-column.html

Chicago Tribune, Cubs' wild win over Nationals in series clincher proves worth the wait http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/ct-cubs-wild-game-5-sullivan-spt-1013-20171012-column.html

Chicago Tribune, Cubs outlast Nationals 9-8 in decisive NLDS Game 5 to clinch series, advance to NLCS http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-cubs-nationals-spt-1013-20171012-story.html

Chicago Tribune, NLCS preview: Cubs-Dodgers regular season recap http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-cubs-dodgers-season-recap-spt-1014-20171013-story.html

Chicago Tribune, NLDS Game 5 turning point: Addison Russell's 2-run double fuels Cubs' 4-run 5th http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-cubs--nationals-game-5-turning-point-spt-1013-20171012-story.html

Chicago Tribune, Fans at Wrigley watch party endure gut-wrenching twists, turns as Cubs advance http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-met-cubs-fans-game-5-story.html

Chicago Tribune, NLCS rematch: Cubs will face new-look Dodgers team http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-cubs-dodgers-nlcs-preview-spt-1013-20171013-story.html

Chicago Tribune, A game like no other sends Cubs to the NLCS http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/ct-a-game-like-no-other-sends-cubs-to-the-nlcs-20171012-column.html

Chicago Tribune, Cubs pull out all stops to win 'nutty' National League Division Series http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-cubs-jon-lester-20171012-story.html

Chicago Sun-Times, Meet Cubs’ Carl Edwards Jr. in L.A., and then give him the damn ball https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/meet-cubs-carl-edwards-jr-in-l-a-and-then-give-him-the-damn-ball/

Chicago Sun-Times, Cubs win epic Game 5 to eliminate Nats, earn NLCS rematch with Dodgers https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/cubs-win-epic-game-5-to-eliminate-nats-earn-nlcs-rematch-with-dodgers/

Chicago Sun-Times, Another crushing — and sloppy — ending for Nationals https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/another-crushing-and-sloppy-ending-for-nationals/

Chicago Sun-Times, TELANDER: Cubs show they’re in it for the long haul https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/cubs-show-theyre-in-it-for-the-long-haul/

Chicago Sun-Times, MORRISSEY: A wild, improbable inning helps propel Cubs into the NLCS https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/morrissey-a-wild-improbable-inning-helps-propel-cubs-into-the-nlcs/

Chicago Sun-Times, NLDS win anything but old-hat for Cub fans celebrating in Wrigleyville https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/nlds-win-anything-but-old-hat-for-cub-fans-celebrating-in-wrigleyville/

Chicago Sun-Times, Talk about unpredictable: Hendricks falters, but Cubs pick him up https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/now-thats-different-hendricks-gives-himself-the-early-hook-in-game-5/

Chicago Sun-Times, MLB finds no cheating from Cubs coach wearing FitBit in NLDS: report https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/mlb-finds-no-cheating-from-cubs-coach-wearing-fitbit-in-nlds-report/

Daily Herald, Chicago Cubs hang on for 9-8 win, advance to NLCS http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/20171012/chicago-cubs-hang-on-for-9-8-win-advance-to-nlcs

Daily Herald, Rozner: Chicago Cubs overcome Joe Maddon again http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/20171012/rozner-chicago-cubs-overcome-joe-maddon-again

Daily Herald, Imrem: Chicago Cubs win the mind game again, eliminate Nationals http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/20171012/imrem-chicago-cubs-win-the-mind-game-again-eliminate-nationals

Daily Herald, Maddon remains confident in Edwards http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/20171012/maddon-remains-confident-in-edwards

Cubs.com, Fall 4! Cubs return to LCS, Fly The W in DC http://m.cubs.mlb.com/news/article/258393242/cubs-outlast-nationals-advance-to-nlcs/

Cubs.com, 'Stone cold' Davis closes NLDS with 7-out save http://m.cubs.mlb.com/news/article/258421226/cubs-wade-davis-ends-nlds-with-7-out-save/

Cubs.com, Cubs savor moment after hard-fought series http://m.cubs.mlb.com/news/article/258428046/cubs-celebrate-after-nlds-win-in-washington/

Cubs.com, In crucial spots, Cubs believe they will prevail http://m.cubs.mlb.com/news/article/258433972/cubs-overcome-obstacles-for-3rd-straight-nlcs/

Cubs.com, Fifth inning of NLDS Game 5 is 'bizarro world' http://m.cubs.mlb.com/news/article/258403306/bizarre-fifth-inning-pivots-nlds-game-5/

Cubs.com, Cubs' repeat quest heads to Los Angeles http://m.cubs.mlb.com/news/article/258380472/cubs-to-face-dodgers-in-nlcs-rematch/

Cubs.com, Cubs, Dodgers get rematch of '16 NLCS http://m.cubs.mlb.com/news/article/258360796/cubs-dodgers-get-rematch-of-16-nlcs

Cubs.com, Cubs tip caps to the Nats after NLDS win http://m.cubs.mlb.com/news/article/258433246/nationals-give-cubs-everything-they-had/

Cubs.com, DYK? Facts, figures from wild NLDS Game 5 http://m.cubs.mlb.com/news/article/258421094/facts-figures-about-wild-nlds-game-5

ESPNChicago.com, From the four-run inning to the seven-out save, how the Cubs salvaged their season http://www.espn.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/id/46110/from-the-four-run-inning-to-the-seven-out-save-how-the-cubs-salvaged-their-season

ESPNChicago.com, Cubs weigh in on overturned call: No reason not to challenge there http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/21007104/anthony-rizzo-chicago-cubs-sure-got-tag-initially-nationals-jose-lobaton

ESPNChicago.com, Max Scherzer's unbelievable, impossible, unprecedented loss http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/21006931/max-scherzer-unbelievable-impossible-unprecedented-loss

ESPNChicago.com, Cubs survive one of the strangest elimination games ever played http://www.espn.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/id/46096/cubs-survive-strangest-elimination-game-ever-played

-- NBC Sports Chicago Cubs get World Series flashbacks amid craziness of Max Scherzer meltdown By Patrick Mooney

WASHINGTON — All the beer and champagne flying across the visiting clubhouse at Nationals Park, the layers of cigar smoke floating around the room and all the mind-blowing aspects to this elimination game left Cubs players feeling like they just blacked out, not sure what really happened here in Washington as Thursday night turned into Friday morning. Have you ever experienced anything like this before? “Yeah, Game 7 of the World Series,” said Anthony Rizzo, the Cubs first baseman laughing and being serious at the same time. This National League Division Series absolutely lived up to the hype. A Cubs team that spent most of the regular season looking a little bored or distracted — jonesing for this adrenaline rush — found a match in the Nationals. The unpredictability of a 9-8 game that lasted 4 hours and 37 minutes could be boiled down to the fifth inning and a total Max Scherzer breakdown. “It was bizarro world, there’s no question about it,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “But it happens. It happens this time of the year.” There’s an eerie banner facing out from the right-center-field deck at Nationals Park, a close-up shot of Scherzer’s blue and brown eyes, with a backward K and a K in each one, an artistic rendering of a two-time Cy Young Award winner with more than 2,100 career strikeouts. Scherzer’s outsized presence loomed over this entire NLDS, from the hamstring “tweak” that would allow him to start only once in a best-of-five format, to the no-hitter he took into the seventh inning on a bad right leg in a Game 3 loss at Wrigley Field, to turning into Washington’s bullpen weapon, ready to end the reign of the defending World Series champs. Except these Cubs are built for moments like this, the ones that will now haunt Scherzer, manager Dusty Baker and the rest of the Nationals until they outrun their reputation for underachieving in October — four first-round knockouts since 2012 — and ride in a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue. “We’ve been through it,” said Ben Zobrist, last year’s World Series MVP. “In those situations, we tend to start believing we’re going to get the job done, even if it doesn’t look like we are.” Baker was in toothpick-chewing mode as the Nationals clung to a 4-3 lead in the fifth inning. Scherzer fired six pitches at Kris Bryant and Rizzo and quickly notched the first two outs. But an NLDS that already brought you Rizzo screaming “RESPECT ME!” and Baker’s Chicago mold conspiracy theory and The Stephen Strasburg Under The Weather Game was going to get weird. Bat-flipping catcher Willson Contreras and the pinch-hitting Zobrist knocked back-to-back singles to set up Addison Russell, who bounced a two-run, go-ahead double down the left-field line, stunning and silencing the sellout crowd of 43,849. “You got to believe that as a club we’re just going to find a way to do it,” Zobrist said. “We’ve done it so many times in the past now that you just start believing it’s going to happen again. “That’s what great teams do. And we were able to pull out a crazy one.” This is where the Nationals collapsed. Scherzer intentionally walked Jason Heyward, perhaps the least dangerous hitter in this lineup. Javier Baez swung and missed a strike three that went through the legs of catcher Matt Wieters, who chased after the ball and carelessly threw it into right field, allowing another run to score. Pinch-hitter Tommy La Stella then went to first base on a Wieters catcher interference. Scherzer drilled Jon Jay’s left knee with a pitch to make it 7-4. Score it all as ... WTF?

“I would say that this is the most fun I’ve had playing in a baseball game,” Russell said. “It ranks right up there with winning the World Series, (coming back from) being down 3-1 in the World Series. “Just to see the fight that my team had, (how) everyone's up there top-stepping every pitch. Just to see the energy, the flow within the dugout was ... I get chills just talking about it. It was awesome.” The Cubs didn’t exactly go into cruise control from there, but they have an internal compass for when things go absolutely bonkers, like it did early and often and late in Game 5, remembering how they got here in the first place. While the Nationals wonder, “Wait until next year?,” the Cubs don’t think like that anymore, focusing only on the next pitch and trying to treat each one like a separate event. That’s why they will be flying cross-country overnight to the West Coast on their third straight trip into the NL Championship Series and Saturday’s Game 1 at Dodger Stadium. “It’s not easy to control your emotions,” Rizzo said. “We’re really good at going one pitch at a time, especially in these situations. We got to keep it going now. We’re going have some fun on the plane ride. We’re going to L.A. and have some fun.” -- NBC Sports Chicago The unsung hero of Cubs' epic Game 5 victory doesn't even wear a uniform By Tony Andracki WASHINGTON, D.C. — Oh man, another challenge?? That was the reaction from about half the press box at Nationals Park as the hour moved to early Friday morning in an epic Game 5. Anybody who had to wake up early for work the next morning likely went through the same exasperation when Joe Maddon called for a challenge with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning on a play that seemed pretty cut-and-dry. But it wasn't cut-and-dry. The Cubs won the challenge, successfully picking backup catcher Jose Lobaton off first base and ending the inning. It completely halted the Nationals' momentum, sniping any chance they had of completing a comeback against the Cubs and their discombobulated bullpen. Theo Epstein and Kris Bryant both said that moment — the backpick at first base and subsequent challenge — will be the one thing from this zany, bonkers game that they remember for the rest of their lives. "Willson's pickoff there was huge to shift the momentum," Bryant said. "Not many people would attempt that throw because if you throw it into right field, the runner scores. "That's one of the times we really enjoy the replay review." And yet the hero of that moment was a guy that doesn't even suit up to play for the Cubs. Nate Halm's official title is advance scouting coordinator, but he is also in charge of replays during the game, sitting in front of screens ready to challenge at a moment's notice. He was sitting in his usual war room as Thursday night bled into Friday morning and noticed on one angle that Lobaton's foot appeared to come off the bag.

Halm looked again at another angle — quickly, of course, because teams are only allotted 30 seconds after a play to either challenge or move on — and saw Lobaton's foot clearly came off the bag while Anthony Rizzo was still holding the tag firmly on Lobaton's...crotch. So Halm jumped up, screaming for Maddon and the Cubs coaching staff in the dugout to challenge the play. They did, and the rest is history. Three pitches before that soon-to-be-infamous challenge, Lobaton had singled off Wade Davis with two outs. The Nationals had just scored one run off yet another Michael A. Taylor RBI and Lobaton's hit moved Taylor into scoring position as the tying run. Davis got a quick strike on Trea Turner at the plate and when he ran the count to 1-1 with a curveball that missed the zone, Contreras noticed Lobaton dancing far off the bag on his secondary lead. So the Cubs catcher gave the signal to Rizzo at first base to be ready for a backpick. Davis' next pitch missed, but Contreras wasn't worried about the location, snapping a perfect strike over to Rizzo, who was somehow able to keep the tag on Lobaton as the Cubs caught a major break. It was a horrendous error on Lobaton's part, because he was going nowhere with a runner (the tying run, no less) in front of him on the basepaths. And it was just the boost the Cubs needed to regain momentum they never again relinquished. "We were trying to find a way to get to the finish line," Epstein said. "The double play was big with [Nationals pinch-hitter Adam] Lind and then the replay, with two guys on. "Real close play. I didn't even think we were gonna challenge and Nate saw something on the replay, saw Lobaton's foot come off the base. That was a huge moment in the game to get an out without having to throw more pitches. Obviously they had the tying run on base there in scoring position." Nineteen different guys suited up for the Cubs in that epic Game 5. Yet it was a guy that doesn't even put on a uniform that wound up the hero. -- NBC Sports Chicago Wade Davis saves Cubs: ‘That’s a bad motherf----- right there’ By Patrick Mooney WASHINGTON – Wade Davis stood on the mound at Nationals Park and suddenly lunged forward – the way someone would throw up in a toilet – and smacked his glove against right hand three times. Davis never looks nervous or shows really any emotions, but the Cubs closer embraced catcher Willson Contreras, twirled around and got swallowed by the mosh pit once it finally ended at 12:45 a.m. on Friday in Washington. Davis had just struck out Bryce Harper, the Nationals superstar whiffing on a cutter that broke sharply toward the dirt, the last out in a 9-8 rollercoaster and a five-game National League Division Series pushed to the limits. “That’s a bad mother----- right there,” pitcher Jon Lester said amid the champagne-and-beer celebration inside the visiting clubhouse. “I love that guy. I’ve got to play with a lot of good closers, and he’s a bad sumb----. He proved it tonight.” Davis already proved it with the 2015 Kansas City Royals team that rode a power bullpen to a World Series title – and during a regular season where he converted his first 32 save chances as a Cub – but even this was next-level stuff.

In an elimination game where Kyle Hendricks lasted only four innings – and in a reversal the Twitter opinion trended toward why didn’t Joe Maddon pull him sooner – the manager cycled through Brian Duensing, Pedro Strop, Mike Montgomery, Carl Edwards Jr. and Jose Quintana, Saturday’s likely NL Championship Series Game 1 starter at Dodger Stadium. “No, we hadn’t talked about it,” said Davis, the totally low-maintenance closer. “You just kind of figure it might happen.” Eventually, the all-hands-on-deck strategy just became Davis as the last line of defense, responsible for the final seven outs. In the same way that Aroldis Chapman gave this team an entirely different dimension during last year’s playoff run, Davis jogged in from the left-field bullpen at 11:47 p.m., inherited two runners in a two-run game and needed only four pitches to strike out Ryan Zimmerman to end the seventh inning. “He’s got ice in his veins,” said Ben Zobrist, who played with Davis on that championship team in Kansas City. “He really hung in tough there for us and pulled it off.” The Cubs acquired Davis during the winter meetings for moments like this, knowing how valuable he would be in October, even if he cashes in somewhere else as a free agent. Davis walked Daniel Murphy and Anthony Rendon to lead off the eighth inning, but he doesn’t rattle easily, getting pinch-hitter Adam Lind to ground into a double play. After Michael A. Taylor’s broken-bat RBI single, Contreras and first baseman Anthony Rizzo executed a back-pick play to throw out Jose Lobaton and end the threat. “He does a great job of turning the page,” outfielder Jason Heyward said. “That last inning, in the ninth, I swear (it was like) he had just come out of the bullpen and he was a different Wade Davis. That’s unbelievable.” Davis mowed down the top of the Washington lineup and maxed out at 44 pitches, sending Harper and the Nationals home for the winter, because the Cubs felt like they had no other choice. “I looked down there a couple times – no one was warming up,” Davis said. “I had to. These guys fought so hard, all season long. They fought hard in this game. The offense and the defense – everybody’s been battling – and I really didn’t want to let it happen to us then.” -- NBC Sports Chicago Jon Lester 'blacked out' during Wade Davis' seven-out save in Cubs' bonkers Game 5 win By Vinnie Duber If you had trouble keeping your eyes on that insane Game 5, you weren't the only one. Among the legions of nerve-wracked viewers: Jon Lester. The Cubs' starting pitcher had trouble watching as the drama unfolded and got cranked up to 11 as Thursday night turned into Friday morning in Washington, as he explained with a big bottle of champagne in his hand following the Cubs' incredible 9-8 win. Asked to break down Wade Davis' seven-out save, Lester replied: "I have no idea, I blacked out." So while you were tweeting nervous GIFs, Lester was ... he was nervous, too. "I watched, literally, probably three outs of it. I have a problem in postseason games actually watching the game in the dugout. I watched the last three outs in the dugout, and it was awesome. He did a great job the last three outs.

"The other four? I have no idea what happened." Lester was one of the few Cubs that didn't play in Thursday's instant classic. He threw 55 pitches in relief in the team's Game 4 loss a day earlier. But he was in party mode after the Cubs advanced to their third straight NLCS. Hopefully he's recovered enough to face down the Los Angeles Dodgers. Until then, keep partying, Jon. -- NBC Sports Chicago BREATHE and the 7 biggest things as the Cubs advance to a third straight NLCS By Tony Andracki WASHINGTON, D.C. — Holy. Cow. Have you digested all that? Game 5 of the NLDS turned into an absolute classic, taking 4 hours and 37 minutes to play with 14 different pitchers combining to throw 377 pitches in Washington D.C. The end result is this: The Cubs are headed to their third straight National League Championship Series after outlasting the Washington Nationals 9-8. The Cubs are now 5-1 under Joe Maddon when facing elimination in October. First, take a deep breath, get out of your glass case of emotion, and then try to wrap your head around the 5 biggest things from an epic night of baseball: Big game experience It's an overblown storyline, but it's a fact. The Cubs have experience in wacky, edge-of-your-seat, bite-all-your-nails-off-until-your-fingers-bleed October baseball games. And they somehow keep finding ways to come out on top of them. I don't know how, in reality. Some of it is definitely luck and the breaks going your way. But the players deserve credit, too, for somehow keeping their wits about them and getting the job done juuuuust enough to win. Max truly is mad Cubs fans were absolutely not feeling good about things when Max Scherzer was announced as the new pitcher for the fifth inning. Ditto when he retired Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo as the first two hitters. But then baseball happened. The weird, quirky, nonsensical sport that has imbedded itself into American culture happened. Here's a summary of the inning that changed the fortunes of the Cubs' season: — With two strikes on him, Willson Contreras fought to put the ball in play and reached on an infield single. — Ben Zobrist pinch-hit, fought off some tough two-strike pitches, then blooped one into shallow left for a single. — Addison Russell jumped on Scherzer's first offering and grounded a ball just inside the third base line for a two-out, two-run double.

— Jason Heyward was intentionally walked. — Javy Baez reached on a dropped third strike, Russell scored on Matt Wieters' errant throw to first base. — Pinch hitter Tommy La Stella reached on catcher's interference. — Jon Jay was hit with a pitch, plating another run. — Bryant finally ended the inning with a pop out to shortstop. The inning had everything, and it had everybody triggered: Scherzer's final line: one inning pitched, three hits, four runs (two earned), one walk, one strikeout. And one L. Time for fall break The Professor is about take his fall break. But he'll be back next week. Kyle Hendricks didn't have his A stuff Thursday night, giving up four earned runs on nine hits, a walk and two homers across four innings. He did strike out seven Nationals and only allowed Washington to score in one inning, but it was a grind to even get through four innings. This wasn't the same Professor we saw in Game 1, when he patiently lulled the Washington hitters to sleep. But it was enough to get by and eat up some outs and that's what the Cubs truly needed. Hendricks found ways to shut the door on Nationals rallies at just the right time, allowing his team back into the game. Wade. Davis. I don't have any cute, catchy sub-head for the Wade Davis category, because he wouldn't want it any other way. Maddon called on his guy to close out the game, bringing the closer in in the seventh inning with two on and two out. Davis responded by striking out Ryan Zimmerman to escape the seventh-inning jam. He walked the first two hitters of the eighth inning before getting pinch-hitter Adam Lind to ground the first pitch of the at-bat into a double play. But then, naturally, the guy in the next bullet came to the plate. Still, Davis got the job done by the skin of his teeth and pitched the Cubs to the NLCS. It was his longest outing (both in terms of pitches thrown and outs recorded) since August 2013, when he was still working as a starting pitcher. Michael F. Taylor (The F is for "freakin.") The young Washington outfielder did his best to carry his team the last two nights, following his backbreaking grand slam in Game 4 with a three-run shot in the second inning of Game 5. That second blast seemed to be a dagger for the Cubs early on, but that was long before things got weird. Like really, really weird.

Taylor became the first player ever to drive in a combined seven runs on back-to-back plate appearances in the postseason and became a hero in our nation's capital for it. But Taylor wasn't done in the second inning. He started the seventh-inning rally with a leadoff walk and scored a run. Then he drove in another run in the eighth off Davis, trying to singlehandedly will his team back into the game. All hands on deck Maddon has used four starting pitchers the last two games and yet still John Lackey couldn't get in either game. Here is a list of the pitchers used by Maddon and how many outs they accounted for: Hendricks: 12 Brian Duensing: 2 Pedro Strop: 3 Mike Montgomery: 1 Carl Edwards Jr.: 0 Jose Quintana: 2 Davis: 7 Maddon also used Zobrist, Tommy La Stella and Kyle Schwarber as pinch-hitters and Leonys Martin as part of a double switch. In the last two nights, the only guys who didn't enter either game were backup catcher Alex Avila and Lackey. Like Maddon said, there is no Game 6, and he managed like it. Cubbie occurrences? Nahh But Nattie occurrences? Maybe... The Nationals will head into 2018 — the final year of Bryce Harper's contract — still having not won a postseason series. That makes four failures in four tries for the Nats since 2012, the year they shut Stephen Strasburg down because they wanted to prioritize his arm health and figured they'd have plenty of postseason runs in years to come. Thursday's game was absolutely crazy and sloppy. Cubs fans are used to seeing some of those wacky occurrences happen against them, but that's all changed now with a 108-year championship drought ended. Instead, it was the Nationals who looked star-crossed, making mistakes all over the field and essentially handing the Cubs the game on a silver platter. The end result is what figures to be another loooong winter in D.C. breaking down this specific missed opportunity. But we live in Chicago, and Cubdom only need worry about one thing: Onto L.A. -- NBC Sports Chicago Jon Jay's future and how Cubs are looking to fix leadoff spot By Patrick Mooney

WASHINGTON — Dexter Fowler set the tone in the last elimination game the Cubs played, leading off with a home run against Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber and backpedaling between first and second base, showing the natural swagger and tension-free attitude needed to end a 108-year championship drought. Out of that epic World Series Game 7 win over the Cleveland Indians, Fowler switched sides in the rivalry when the St. Louis Cardinals made him an offer he couldn’t refuse — five years and $82.5 million — and the Cubs couldn’t come close to matching. The 2017 leadoff formula never became as simple as Joe Maddon’s reminder to Fowler: “You go, we go.” But with this season on the line, the Cubs manager absolutely wanted Jon Jay at the top of Thursday night’s Game 5 lineup against Washington Nationals lefty Gio Gonzalez. After rolling with Fowler thorough six playoff rounds across the last two seasons, the Cubs went 0-for-13 from the leadoff spot in the first four games of this National League Division Series, part of an overall Washington shutdown where they hit .159 with a .514 OPS. “You know what’s going to fix that? Facing different pitchers, hopefully,” Maddon said with a laugh inside his temporary office at Nationals Park. “That’s what would fix that. They’ve just been that good. Listen, there’s no running away from it. There’s not an excuse. (Max) Scherzer was good. (Stephen) Strasburg’s been good twice. “We’ve scored eight runs and won two games out of four? That’s not (bad). All this stuff is typical higher-mound baseball, (Bob) Gibson, (Sandy) Koufax kind of stuff. “They’re really imposing and they got great stuff — every one of them — and also command. That’s been the big thing.” Think Fowler misses Chicago? He didn’t put any emoji underneath a family photo at McKee Ranch in Las Vegas, but the caption on his Instagram account summed it up: “This October is less climactic than the last, but no less filled with joy.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Jose de Jesus Ortiz also called him out this week in a story about embracing The Cardinal Way: “When teams are winning, teammates hardly ever bother to notice or even care if Dexter Fowler is usually the last guy in the clubhouse and one of the first to leave.” Jay was drafted and developed under The Cardinal Way and earned a World Series ring with the 2011 team. The Cubs wanted that veteran leadership and playoff experience and got their money’s worth out of a one-year, $8 million deal. Jay hit .296 with a .749 OPS, played all over the outfield and called a pivotal team meeting on Sept. 10 after the Milwaukee Brewers swept a three-game series at Wrigley Field, helping refocus a team that closed with a 15-4 surge. Maddon won’t lobby for Jay or any other upcoming free agent: “Listen, that’s up to the front office to decide that.” Jay also doesn’t want to get distracted or tip his hand about his plans for the future. “Right now, it’s simple for me,” Jay said. “We’re here trying to win. When I came here, it was for the chance to be in October, and that's what we're doing right now, and I'm extremely happy with that. Right now, my goal is to continue to help this team win.” Whether or not Jay is still part of the 2018 solution, the Kyle Schwarber leadoff experiment was a failure (though he still wound up with 30 homers after a detour to Triple-A Iowa). Ben Zobrist will be 37 early next season and coming off one of the worst offensive years of his career. A winter focused on top-of-the-rotation pitching will also have to account for top-of-the-lineup production.

“You’re always looking for the prototypical leadoff guy,” Maddon said. “Everybody is, and that’s not an easy animal to find. We thought, honestly, at the beginning of the year with Schwarbs, that would play. “He just did not have his typical year. He’s unconventional but really highly conventional in the fact that I expected a higher on-base percentage. That’s where it started to alter, and then having to splice it out among Jay and Zobrist, etc., that was just Plan B and C. “Overall, we have not been displeased, but I think every team wants a guy that can hit a little bit and run a little bit, a little bit of pop on the top. I mean, that’s what everybody’s looking for.” -- Chicago Tribune 15 pivotal moments in Cubs' 9-8 victory over Nationals in Game 5 of NLDS By Paul Skrbina 1. Jon Jay doubled on the second pitch of the game from Gio Gonzalez and was ruled safe at home on Anthony Rizzo's ground ball to second, a call that was upheld after the Nationals challenged he was out after a headfirst slide. After Kris Bryant struck out, the Cubs loaded the bases thanks to a Willson Contreras walk, Albert Almora Jr. single and Addison Russell walk, prompting, Matt Albers to begin to warm up in the Nationals' bullpen. But Gonzalez avoided further damage when he got Jason Heyward to ground out to first. 2. With Trea Turner at third after an infield single, stolen base and advancing on a flyout, Javier Baez threw a strike to Contreras at home on Bryce Harper's ground ball for the second out of the Nationals first. Kyle Hendricks then struck out Ryan Zimmerman. 3. Gonzalez retired the Cubs in order in the second, the last on a strikeout looking against Jay, but ended the inning at 42 pitches. 4. Nine Nationals batted in the second. The first was Daniel Murphy, who hit two home runs off Hendricks on Aug. 4, and he tied the score 1-1 with a homer on the first pitch of the inning. After Anthony Rendon singled, Matt Wieters foiled the shift with a perfect bunt down the third-base line to put runners on first and second with nobody out. It was the first bunt hit of Wieters' career. After a visit from pitching coach Chris Bosio, Hendricks allowed a three-run homer to Michael Taylor, who had hit a grand slam in the eighth inning of Game 4, to put the Nationals ahead 4-1. Jayson Werth later doubled and Bryce Harper was walked intentionally as Brian Duensing began to warm up. Hendricks struck out Zimmerman to end his 30-pitch inning. 5. Kris Bryant blooped a double past a diving Taylor to start the third for the Cubs. The hit ended a string of six consecutive strikeouts for Bryant. Rizzo then struck out looking on a pitch that looked outside. Contreras and Almora then walked to load the bases. Bryant scored on Russell's ground ball to short to cut the Cubs' deficit to 4-2. Contreras scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-3 with Heyward at the plate. Heyward, who hit .328 with runners in scoring position and two outs during the regular season, struck out to end the inning. 6. Albers, a former White Sox pitcher, relieved Gonzalez to start the fourth inning and retired the Cubs in order. 7. Down 4-3, the Cubs let Kyle Hendricks bat in the fourth. He grounded out to short. 8. Max Scherzer, the two time Cy Young winner who started Game 3, entered the game in the fifth for the Nationals with Bryant, Rizzo and Contreras coming up. Bryant grounded out to shortstop and Rizzo flew out to center field. Then seven straight Cubs reached base — one on after dropped third strike, another by catcher's interference, another by intentional walk and another hit by a pitch.

9. Here's how it happened. Contreras' infield single started the rally. Ben Zobrist's pinch-hit, bloop single to left extended it. Then the Cubs scored two runs on Russell's double down the third-base line to take a 5-4 lead. After Heyward was walked intentionally, Javier Baez reached on dropped-third strike that allowed Russell to score to make it 6-4. Tommy La Stella, pinch hitting for Hendricks, then reached on catcher's interference to load the bases. Jay, the ninth batter of the inning, was hit by a pitch to force in another run to make it 7-4. Bryant, who led off the inning, popped out to end it. According to baseballreference.com, never in baseball history have four batters reached consecutively on an intentional walk, a dropped-third strike, a catcher's interference and a hit by pitch. "It was nutty. There was a little bit of everything in this game," Zobrist said. "Willy got it going. I'm just trying to put together a good at-bat against Scherzer. Addison Russell is such a clutch player, I think he was just hungry for that swing down the line." 10. The Cubs struck again with two outs in the sixth inning, this time on another Russell RBI double that scored Zobrist to give the Cubs an 8-4 lead. "Benny, he has been there. Everyone knows what he's capable of," Jay said. 11. Werth walked against Pedro Strop, who then was lifted for Mike Montgomery. Harper doubled down the first-base line to put runners on second and third with two outs. Montgomery's wild pitch on ball four to Zimmerman allowed Werth to score to cut the deficit to 8-5. Murphy doubled off the left-field wall to score Harper and make it 8-6. 12. Kyle Schwarber's pinch-hit single off the top of the right-field wall started the Cubs' mini-rally in the seventh. Jay followed with a single to put runners on first and third. Schwarber scored to make it 9-6 when Bryant beat out what would have been a double play, but not without controversy. Jay slid hard into second base, but the play was reviewed and the call on the field stood. 13. After Carl Edwards Jr. walked Taylor to start the Nationals seventh, Maddon brought in Jose Quintana, who would have been slated to pitch Game 1 of the NLCS. It was Quintana's first relief appearance since 2012. After retiring his first batter, Quintana allowed a single to Turner and walked Werth to load the bases for Harper, who flew out while Taylor tagged to make it 9-7. Quintana then was pulled with two outs in favor of Wade Davis, who never had pitched more than two innings of relief in a playoff game (did if four times). He struck out Zimmerman to end the seventh. "Maybe we'll figure out a plan before the heavy drinking starts," President Theo Epstein said of the pitching rotation for the NLCS. 14. Wade walked back-to-back batters to start the eighth. Pinch-hitter Adam Lind then grounded into a double play, putting Murphy on third with two outs for Taylor, who singled up the middle, making it 9-8 Cubs. Contreras then picked Jose Lobaton off first to end the inning. Lobaton's foot came off the base after he had slid safely into first, but Rizzo's tag still was on him and replay officials reversed the call. "I really didn't see it. Thank goodness that was the outcome," Davis said. 15. Wade retired the top of the Nationals order in the ninth, finishing with strikeouts of Werth and Harper. Davis threw 44 pitches, the most he had thrown since he was a starter on Aug. 24, 2013. The game lasted 4 hours, 37 minutes and clinched the Cubs' third trip in three seasons to the NLCS, where they will face the Dodgers beginning Saturday in Los Angeles. "I started to get a little tired there toward the end," Davis said. "That's a first-class team over there. To come out with a win is big." "He saved us," Edwards said.

-- Chicago Tribune Cubs look forward to Dodgers series By Mark Gonzales The unpredictability of the Chicago Cubs' comeback win Thursday night over the Washington Nationals fortifies their confidence that they'll fare better against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series than they did during the regular season. “You never know what to expect in the playoffs," Bryant said early Friday morning. "A lot of people didn’t expect us to compete with the Nationals. "It will be nice to play the Dodgers. It's a nice rematch. We know what to expect. They're a good team." The Cubs beat the Dodgers in the 2016 NLCS in six games, but the Dodgers won four of six from the Cubs during the regular season, including a three-game sweep at Dodger Stadium in late May. "The slate is clean," Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. "We’re coming in, and both teams will be fighting. It will be a fun series. "We’re having fun. We’re going to play hard. This team is something else. We have guys who live for these moments." Cubs infielder Mike Freeman spent more than two months in the Dodgers’ organization, including one week with the major league team at the end of its 10-game winning streak as it surged to 104 victories. Freeman was around the Dodgers long enough to draw some comparisons with the Cubs, particularly with the blossoming of their young players. “(Ian) Happ stepped up and filled a few jobs, and some rookies with the Dodgers did the same,” Freeman said. “That’s what you got to have to make the playoffs and play in October. “I played against Chris Taylor in the minors, and he’s a great story. And (Cody) Bellinger is legit.” -- Chicago Tribune Rotation, roster decisions await Cubs vs. Dodgers in NLCS rematch By Mark Gonzales Perhaps somewhere over the Midwest, the celebration has subsided and Chicago Cubs officials have started preparations for the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Most of attention surrounds the rotation, especially after Jon Lester and Jose Quintana were used in relief in Games 4 and 5. But Saturday night's Game 1 assignment at Dodger Stadium might not be so difficult. Quintana threw only 12 pitches Thursday, which could be equated to a bullpen session before his next start. Quintana might make the most sense unless the Cubs opt for 38-year-old veteran John Lackey, who didn't pitch in the NL Division Series but has plenty of postseason experience. Jake Arrieta, who threw four innings and 90 pitches on Wednesday in his first start in two weeks due to a right hamstring injury, likely won't be ready until the NLCS returns to Wrigley Field for Game 3 on Tuesday.

Kyle Hendricks also won't be under consideration to start Game 1 or 2 after throwing four innings and 81 pitches Thursday. Left-hander Jon Lester, however, could be ready to start Game 2 after throwing 55 pitches and 3 2/3 innings in relief on Wednesday. In regards to the roster, the Cubs might need another pitcher in this best-of-seven series. The Cubs managed to win Game 5 of the NLDS despite nine walks. Hector Rondon could be added after the Cubs opted to carry outfielder Leonys Martin for the NLDS. -- Chicago Tribune Cubs dig deep, show incredible character and advance to third straight NLCS By David Haugh Wade Davis peered in at Bryce Harper, one All-Star locked in against another Thursday night at Nationals Park, a scintillating National League Division Series coming down to the showdown everybody deserved. Harper represented the tying run, Davis the symbol of the survival mode the Cubs required during a 4-hour, 37-minute marathon. When Harper swung and missed to give the Cubs a 9-8 victory over the Nats, Davis showed more emotion than Chicago ever has seen from him. He yelled, he pumped his fists, he exulted. It was Davis' 44th pitch, his seventh out and his finest moment as a Cub. California, here the Cubs come. They will play the Dodgers on Saturday in the NL Championship Series. October baseball doesn't build character among playoff teams as much as reveals it. While the Cubs relied on theirs time and again in a riveting Game 5, the Nationals dug every bit as deep. In the end, the Nationals responded to the moment like a cursed team unable to prevent its past from interfering with its future, the way the Cubs once did. But not anymore. Down 4-1 after two innings, the Cubs never lost hope. In contrast, ahead 4-3 with a Cy Young Award winner taking the mound, the Nationals simply lost their poise. That summed up the slight but significant difference in the winner-take-all game between a team that knows how to win in the postseason and one that kinda, sorta thinks it does. What a National nightmare the home crowd of 43,849 feared reliving as the resilient Cubs braced for their third straight NLCS. "That's one of the most incredible victories I've ever been part of," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. Nationals right-hander Max Scherzer wanted the ball on three days' rest, so manager Dusty Baker gave it to him to start the fifth, an idea that sounded good until Cubs shortstop Addison Russell doubled down the third base line to drive in two runs. For Russell, the big hit represented baseball karma after his surefire home run in Game 4 was reduced to a flyout due to a 16-mph wind. For Scherzer, a fifth inning that included four runs, a throwing error, a hit batsman and catcher's interference fit the working definition of "implosion." The sudden mood change in the ballpark also felt eerily familiar to the people in red shirts supporting a team that never has advanced past the first round. Exactly five years earlier in Game 5 of an NLDS, the Nationals led the Cardinals 6-0 after three innings but lost. Now here they were again, blowing another big lead and a great opportunity to make history. The most ominous cloud that hovered over the District before the franchise's biggest game ever had nothing to do with the overcast sky. The Nationals lost Game 5 at home last year too. They play in the only sports city with at least three pro teams that haven't reached the championship semifinals since 1997. Apparently, the closer a team

plays to the White House, the less chance it has of celebrating a championship at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Washington gridlock, indeed. "We have to dispel those negative thoughts," Baker said, "and just say, 'Hey, it will be us.'" It started to look promising for them in the second inning. Less than 24 hours after hitting a grand slam at Wrigley Field, Michael A. Taylor drilled a three-run home run at Nationals Park. Around Chicago, Taylor's middle initial always will stand for A-##!!*&!#@#. With two swings of the bat in successive playoff games, Taylor drove in seven runs and joined a list of Cubs villains that includes Steve Garvey, Will Clark and Daniel Murphy, the ex-Met and current teammate who homered for the Nationals' first run. Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks elevated an 0-2 pitch and Taylor attacked, sending the ball over the fence and fans into a frenzy. Meanwhile, the Cubs refused to get rattled. The daily Cubs lineup surprise featured World Series MVP Ben Zobrist sitting and center fielder Albert Almora Jr. starting with left-hander Gio Gonzalez on the mound. Zobrist had started 21 straight postseason games for the Cubs. But sloppy fielding lately compelled Maddon to favor defense, with Almora and Jason Heyward in the outfield and Javy Baez at second. Almost on cue, Baez cut down speedy Trea Turner in the first inning on a ground ball with the infield in. As for Zobrist, he stayed engaged like a savvy veteran and contributed a pinch bloop single in the decisive four-run fifth. A suspenseful game frayed the nerves of both teams' fans. Harper came up with the bases loaded in the seventh to face Jose Quintana and produced only a sacrifice fly. Davis eventually replaced Quintana with two outs and two on in the seventh, striking out Ryan Zimmerman as he began his elusive seven-out save. The Cubs never flinched, gradually chipping away at Gonzalez and, eventually, Scherzer. They played as if they never questioned success, starting when they trailed 4-1 and exuding the confidence of a champion through the last out. "I would say that this is the most fun I’ve had playing in a baseball game, and it ranks right up there with winning the World Series, being down 3-1," Addison Russell said. Reliever Carl Edwards Jr., the guy who can't throw straight, set the tone in the clubhouse after the Game 4 loss by boldly declaring: "We'll see you guys in LA." Similar bravado came through during Cubs president Theo Epstein's pre-game interview on WSCR-AM when Epstein said matter-of-factly: "We know it's going to take a hell of a lot the to beat us and that's a good feeling to have." And Maddon maintained the loose vibe pre-game sharing with reporters how a Jon Lester fist -pump convinced him the lefty was ready for his rare relief role in Game 4. "He never comes up and gives me a fist pump before the game, never," Maddon said. Cubs players wildly pumped fists in the dugout after Davis induced a double-play grounder in the eighth and again after a replay review confirmed Willson Contreras' pickoff of Jose Lobaton with the tying run on second. They exhausted so much emotion in an elimination game Maddon reduced to its simplest terms. "It's either exultation," Maddon said, "or being a bug on a windshield." After wiping the residue of the Nats away, the Cubs still can see everything they want to accomplish. As Maddon was saying, bring on the Dodgers. --

Chicago Tribune Cubs' wild win over Nationals in series clincher proves worth the wait By Paul Sullivan You knew it wouldn't be your typical Game 5. Not with the Cubs, who never do anything easy. And certainly not with the Nationals, whose history of blowing do-or-die games in the postseason is second to none. With managers Joe Maddon and Dusty Baker matching wits and an army of pitchers marching out of the bullpens all night, the Cubs and Nats staged a classic that seemed like it never would end. Eventually it had to, and the Cubs came out with a wild 9-8 win to survive the National League Division Series and live to fight another day. They will face Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers on Saturday in Los Angeles in Game 1 of the NL Championship Series, a rematch of last year's thrilling six-game affair. In a crazy game in which both managers had to go to the bullpen early and often, the Cubs grabbed the lead with a four-run fifth off Max Scherzer and spent the rest of the night trying to hang on. They led 9-6 in the seventh when Maddon called on embattled Carl Edwards Jr. to face Michael Taylor. Edwards had walked a pair in Game 4 before Taylor hit a grand slam off Wade Davis, and he responded to Maddon's show of faith by issuing another walk. Finally, Maddon had seen enough. Jose Quintana entered and gave up a one-out single and walk to load the bases for Bryce Harper, whose sacrifice fly pulled the Nats within two. Then the call went out for Davis, who had never entered a game in the seventh as a Cub but promptly struck out Ryan Zimmerman to end the inning. Taylor's two-out, RBI single up the middle in the eighth sliced the lead to one, and visions of Aroldis Chapman danced in everyone's heads. But Willson Contreras came up big, picking Jose Lobaton off first to get out of the jam. Lobaton was ruled safe, but a challenge by Maddon reversed the call as replay showed Lobaton's foot came off the bag, enraging Baker in the Nats dugout. The Nats had pulled out every stop before Game 5, including having the team priest bless the bats in the dugout. Baker had sprinkled some kind of magic dust on the infield at Wrigley Field when he was the Cubs manager, so it was par for the course. The Cubs had tried a similar ploy in the 2008 postseason, having a priest spread holy water in the dugout before Game 1 of the NLDS against the Dodgers. But spiritual blessings weren't going to decide this game. The Cubs needed to rev up their offense. They came in with only eight runs and a .159 average in the first four games but came away with two wins, which Maddon called "absurd." "It's a classically old-school kind of series we've played, and I think it's great," he said before the game. "It's good for baseball. It shows how 2-1 can be exciting." Naturally, the great pitching of the first four games went out the window, and both teams batted around in four-run innings, trading leads and putting scares into their fan bases.

The Cubs were looking for Kyle Hendricks to pull a repeat of his dazzling Game 1 performance, but he lasted only four innings, allowing four runs and nine hits. All of those runs came in a brutal second inning, and Hendricks at least settled down for the Cubs to come back, scoring six unanswered runs to grab a 7-4 lead. The big question heading into the game was whether the experience of playing in and losing a pair of Game 5s would help the Nats finally come out on the other end. Their history of choking was a topic of discussion all during the postseason, just as it was for the Cubs in years past until they finally won it all. "Nothing makes a difference except what happens (in Game 5)," Zimmerman said. "We've beaten this horse into the ground. If you want to say experience helps or it hurts, then you guys can say whatever you want. "But we've got to show up and play a good game. If we don't, we'll lose; if we do, we'll probably win." When Daniel Murphy homered off Hendricks to lead off the second and Taylor crushed a chin-high fastball into the left-field bleachers for a three-run homer, the crowd came alive. The Cubs went back to their new mantra: "So what? Now what?" They scored twice off starter Gio Gonzalez in the third to pull within a run and broke through with a four-run, two-out rally off Scherzer in the wacky fifth, in which runs scored on a strikeout/passed ball/wild throw combo platter and catcher's interference. This was not exactly a classically old-school kind of game, but no one really cared. Winter may be coming, but it's not here yet. -- Chicago Tribune Cubs outlast Nationals 9-8 in decisive NLDS Game 5 to clinch series, advance to NLCS By Mark Gonzales Even after rallying for four runs off All-Star Max Scherzer and employing starter Jose Quintana in relief the Cubs still needed some help to survive Game 5 of the National League Division Series. Considering the choppy route they took to get to the playoffs, the clinching game in the series was a perfect microcosm of their eventful ride. Thanks to some eighth-inning help from the Nationals, the Cubs held on for a 9-8 victory to advance to their third straight NL Championship Series that begins against the Dodgers on Saturday night in Los Angeles. Closer Wade Davis earned the save after allowing one run in 2 1/3 innings of relief. Davis walked the first two batters of the eighth inning, but pinch-hitter Adam Lind swung at the first pitch he faced for a double play. Later in the inning, the Nationals had the potential tying and winning runs on base, but catcher Willson Contreras picked Jose Lobaton off first on a play that was overturned after a replay challenge. Manager Joe Maddon, who used left-handed ace Jon Lester for 32/3 innings in relief in Game 4 on Wednesday, stuck with starter Kyle Hendricks as long as he could but finally was moved to pull him after only four innings. The Cubs bullpen became so unreliable that Quintana, targeted as a Game 1 starter for the NLCS, was called upon after embattled reliever Carl Edwards Jr. walked Michael Taylor to start the seventh with a 9-6 lead. The desperation continued as Davis was summoned with two outs in the inning, and he came through by striking out Jordan Zimmerman with the tying run at first.

The ingredients for a wacky game surfaced in the second when the usually dependable Hendricks allowed a game-tying home run to Cubs playoff villain Daniel Murphy and continued when Taylor cranked a three-run homer on an 0-2 pitch. But the Cubs chipped away against inconsistent left-handed starter Gio Gonzalez, who escaped with allowing only one run during a 26-pitch first but allowed the Cubs to cut their deficit to one after three innings. That set the stage for the Cubs' incredible breakthrough against Scherzer, who was summoned in the fifth to provide a bridge to the back end of the Nationals bullpen. Scherzer initially showed no fatigue from his 98-pitch outing Monday, as he promptly retired Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo. But the Cubs, who batted .159 in the first four games of this series, then stunned everyone but themselves with three consecutive hits, capped by Addison Russell's two-run double. After an intentional walk to Jason Heyward, the Nationals compounded their troubles. Catcher Matt Wieters committed a passed ball on a third strike to Javier Baez and a throwing error that allowed Russell to score the inning's third run and Baez to advance to second. Tommy La Stella then reached on a catcher's interference call to load the bases before Scherzer nailed Jon Jay in the leg to force in Heyward. Then the Cubs bullpen remained unreliable as left-hander Mike Montgomery allowed a wild pitch and an RBI double to Murphy that cut the lead to 8-6 before Heyward made a running catch near the right field corner with the tying run at second. This marked the Cubs' first elimination game of an ever-changing season, Maddon elaborated before the game on the sudden changes that can occur during the course of a playoff run. "This time of year something hot happens," Maddon said. "The hot hitter, the hot pitcher or two like what (the Nationals) have right now. We have to respond offensively." They did. -- Chicago Tribune NLCS preview: Cubs-Dodgers regular season recap By Colleen Kane Dodgers won season series 4-2 April 10, 12-13, Wrigley Field, Chicago Cubs won series 2-1 Game 1: Cubs 3, Dodgers 2 A 1-hour, 56-minute rain delay put off the game — and the raising of the World Series championship banner in the home opener. But the Cubs made it worth the wait when Anthony Rizzo hit a walk-off single in the ninth against Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen. Cubs starter Jon Lester gave up one earned run and struck out seven over six innings, but the Dodgers tied it in the eighth to set up Rizzo's big moment. Game 2: Dodgers 2, Cubs 0 The Cubs went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position to suffer their first shutout loss of the season. Dodgers starter Brandon McCarthy pitched six scoreless innings despite allowing four hits and walking three. John Lackey

took the hard-luck loss despite limiting the Dodgers to one earned run — on a first-inning Andrew Toles homer — and striking out 10 over six innings. Game 3: Cubs 4, Dodgers 0 The Cubs won for the second and final time against the Dodgers in the regular season thanks to homers from Rizzo and Addison Russell. Dodgers starter Hyun-Jin Ryu gave up all four runs over 4 2/3 innings as Brett Anderson, Carl Edwards Jr., Koji Uehara and Wade Davis combined for the six-hit shutout. Albert Almora Jr. made two key catches in the outfield. May 26-28, Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles Dodgers won series 3-0 Game 1: Dodgers 4, Cubs 0 Dodgers pitchers Alex Wood, Pedro Baez and Chris Hatcher combined for a two-hit shutout. The Cubs struck out 10 times, including eight against Wood. Chase Utley and Adrian Gonzalez homered off Cubs starter Jake Arrieta, who gave up all four runs over six innings with nine strikeouts. Game 2: Dodgers 5, Cubs 0 The Cubs suffered their second straight shutout loss and third of the year against the Dodgers, totaling just three hits this time. Brandon McCarthy started his second combined shutout of the Cubs in 2017, allowing two hits over six innings. Chase Utley had three RBIs on a pair of singles off Cubs starter John Lackey, who gave up all five runs. Game 3: Dodgers 9, Cubs 4 The teams combined for seven home runs, including three Cubs homers off Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw. But Cubs starter Jon Lester gave up a pair of three-run shots to Cody Bellinger and Enrique Hernandez over 3 1/3 innings, and Mike Montgomery and Hector Rondon also surrendered homers as the Cubs were swept. -- Chicago Tribune NLDS Game 5 turning point: Addison Russell's 2-run double fuels Cubs' 4-run 5th By Chris Kuc The situation: Trailing 4-3 entering the fifth inning, Nationals manager Dusty Baker brought ace Max Scherzer on in relief. The right-hander got Kris Bryant to ground out to short and Anthony Rizzo to fly out to center before Willson Contreras reached on an infield single. Pinch hitting for Albert Almora Jr., Ben Zobrist dropped a single into left to put runners on first and second. That brought up Addison Russell. What happened next: Russell jumped on Scherzer's first pitch, an 85-mph changeup, and ripped the ball into the left-field corner for a two-run double to give the Cubs a 5-4 lead. The aftermath: The hit changed the complexion of the game as the Nationals soon unraveled. After an intentional walk to Jason Heyward, Javier Baez struck out, but the ball got away from catcher Matt Wieters for a dropped third strike, then the veteran threw the ball away for an error that scored Russell and sent Heyward to third. Tommy La Stella, pinch hitting for Kyle Hendricks, reached on catcher's interference to load the bases. Scherzer then plunked Jon Jay with a pitch to force in a run for a 7-4 Cubs lead. Bryant made his second out of the inning with a pop to short, but the damage had been done, and the Cubs never relinquished their lead. The reaction: "You see Scherzer up there and you think one of the best, if not the best pitcher (is) out there on the mound. And he's coming in the middle of the game, and you have to change your game plan, your approach,

because he's a starter; now he's throwing in the bullpen. You just want to get something over the plate (and) try not to do too much. Just move the runners, and (I) ended up driving in two runs." — Russell -- Chicago Tribune Fans at Wrigley watch party endure gut-wrenching twists, turns as Cubs advance By Marissa Page and Tony Briscoe Cubs fans went through a range of emotions as they endured a dramatic, winner-take-all game marked by a seemingly insurmountable deficit, a nearly squandered lead and nerve-racking video reviews. Through the ninth inning of Game 5 of the National League Division Series, Cubs fans held praying hands to their faces and nervously paced the Park at Wrigley as their team clung to a one run lead over the Nationals. By the time the game finally reached its conclusion, Rinaldo Malcolme, who celebrated his 52nd birthday Thursday, was down on both knees clutching his rally towel. Ultimately, the North Siders concerns were allayed with the final strikeout by closer Wade Davis, which sent Malcolme and others into a frenzy “They won for me," Malcolme, of Englewood, said. "I was scared. Oh, didn't know what to do. I was down on my knees praying. But they did it. It's time to come back home!" The day after Chicago was shut out 5-0 in Game 4 at home Wednesday night, Wrigleyville started out fairly quiet. The air held the slight damp chill of October in Chicago, and clouds blotted out the sky. Several fans said they were anxious yet confident as the Cubs chipped away at an early Nationals lead. Donning a Cubs bandanna and jacket, John Vargas, 51, rode a train from his home in Bridgeport to join the crowd of fans who mostly stood as they watched the tight game. Vargas, who lives three blocks from Guaranteed Rate Field, left White Sox country for what he felt would be a friendlier space. "I had to be here," Vargas said. "I said, 'I can cry at home. I want to be here to be optimistic.'" "Tense," he said. "This sucks. If they lose my heart will break. I swear I'll cry." Though the crowd seemed to reflect a fan base still content with ending the historic World Series drought last year, Vargas said that wasn't the case for him. "When the Bulls won six championships, we wanted to just keep winning," he said." Last year we won for the first time in 100 years. and everyone was so happy. But I expect to win." Cubs fan William Gonzalez, 36, said he thought the Cubs could make another World Series appearance, but it would be a difficult ride. “It’s gonna be tough,” Gonzalez said. “The Cubs have got a bulls-eye on their back. Everybody wants to take ’em out.” Richard Knight, 31, originally from Aurora, drove up from Camden, Tenn., to visit a relative. He said he was unable to drive up for last year’s playoff run, so this was the next best thing. “If you’re a Cubs fan, you gotta come out,” Knight said. Thursday night’s game was do-or-die for the defending World Series champions. Heidi Dukat, a die-hard fan from Chicago, said she had faith the Cubs would advance to the next playoff series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be here,” Dukat, 39, said. Other fans at the Park echoed Dukat’s confidence. Orlando Esparza, a 29-year-old South Sider, said he expected the Cubs to pick up some runs tonight. “Their bats haven’t been hot, so they’re due for something,” Esparza said. Esparza said he felt good with Cubs ace Kyle Hendricks returning to the mound. Hendricks kept the Nationals off the board in Game 1 in Washington, with a score of 3-0. Hendricks didn’t last long in Game 5, but the Cubs held on to win 9-8. Cynthia Ocampo, 21, was perched at the edge of a bench along the Park’s Clark Street border. At Bryce Harper’s decisive strikeout, she lunged toward the plaza to celebrate. “I knew they were going to make it through,” she said. “I just believe in these guys.” -- Chicago Tribune NLCS rematch: Cubs will face new-look Dodgers team By Chris Kuc Now that the pesky Nationals are out of the way, the Cubs can exhale and continue on their merry way in the postseason and … uh-oh. The next hurdle for the Cubs looms significantly larger than the one they just cleared after edging the Nationals 9-8 on Thursday night in Game 5 of the NL Division Series. The defending World Series champions now must face a Dodgers team that led baseball with 104 victories in the regular season and is coming off a sweep of the Diamondbacks. Oh, and the Dodgers are well-rested and have home-field advantage. Here are some key storylines heading into Game 1 on Saturday at Dodger Stadium: Here's the pitch: By going the distance with the Nationals, the Cubs' starting rotation is in flux. One thing for certain is that ace Kyle Hendricks, who started against the Nationals on Thursday, won't be on the mound for the Cubs in Game 1 and Jake Arrieta can be ruled out as well after pitching four innings Wednesday night. Jose Quintana was next in line to start before manager Joe Maddon used the left-hander in a relief role to help close out the Nationals. That likely leaves Maddon to decide between Jon Lester, who threw 55 pitches in relief Wednesday, and John Lackey. Meanwhile, the Dodgers' starters are locked and loaded with Clayton Kershaw leading the way, likely followed by Rich Hill and then Yu Darvish. Different Dodgers: This isn't the same Dodgers team the Cubs eliminated in the 2016 NLCS. While some of the same characters remain, including Yasiel Puig, Corey Seager and Justin Turner, the Dodgers added some firepower to their lineup and pitching staff. The biggest addition is rookie first baseman Cody Bellinger, who burst onto the scene with 39 home runs and 97 RBIs and anchors the Dodgers lineup. Darvish came to the Dodgers at the trade deadline and was masterful in the clinching game against the D'backs. The veteran right-hander threw five strong innings and allowed one run on two hits with no walks and seven strikeouts. Darvish will be a formidable opponent, especially against right-handed hitters.

Home is very sweet: No team had more wins at home than the Dodgers, who were 57-24 at Dodger Stadium during the regular season and won the first two games of the NLDS there. The Cubs can be buoyed by the fact that they won two games in Los Angeles during the '16 NLCS, outscoring the Dodgers 18-6, but the defending champions must hope their offense is cooking before heading west. -- Chicago Tribune A game like no other sends Cubs to the NLCS By Paul Sullivan It was one of those nights the Cubs will never forget, a game so unbelievable it boggled the mind. The Cubs were off to Los Angeles early Friday morning after their heart-stopping, 9-8 win over the Nationals in Game 5 of the National League Division Series, having survived a heavyweight fight in which they threw only a few haymakers but managed to knock out the Nats anyways. “That’s the hottest game I’ve ever been involved in,” manager Joe Maddon said. “All-time… except the minor leagues.” “That’s the only clinching game I’m never going to watch a single highlight of,” president Theo Epstein said. “I’m never going to watch a video of it. I don’t even think it really happened.” It did happen. It was on TV. You may have seen it. “It’s good for baseball,” Anthony Rizzo said. “The intensity, what the bullpens did on both sides, that’s what it’s all about. These are moments you play for. You’ve got to enjoy them, like we do.” Game 5 wasn’t a classic in the sense of most postseason classics. There was no huge home run, no dominant pitching performances and a lot of plays that just didn’t make sense. It featured Wade Davis coming on in the seventh inning and posting a seven-out save, throwing 44 pitches to get the job done. It wasn’t vintage Davis, but it worked. “Two guys left (in the bullpen,) but when you’ve got a guy like Wade Davis there, that’s what he does,” starter Kyle Hendricks said. “He’s one of the toughest guys on this team. Any situation he’s ready to go.” Jayson Werth hit a wicked drive in the ninth that would’ve tied the game if it didn’t hook foul. Davis appeared to be on fumes. Did he still feel strong in the ninth? “Oh yeah, I had to,” Davis said. “Those guys fought so hard all season long, they fought so hard in this game. The offense, defense, everyone was battling.” Rizzo said everyone had faith in Davis, who “laid it on the line this series.” Epstein noted Davis has "broad shoulders, and he carried us tonight." Maddon said he was going to stick with Davis no matter what. Justin Wilson and John Lackey were in the bullpen, but didn’t even get up.

“I looked down there a couple times, and nobody is warming up,” Davis said. “There are no other options,” Maddon explained. “And I did the double switch because there was a chance the inning we did it he could’ve come in (to hit) with the bases loaded and two outs, so I had to move him, just in case.” Another key moment was when catcher Willson Contreras threw out Jose Lobaton at first in the eighth to end the inning. Lobaton strayed off the bag even though he had nowhere to go with a runner on second. It looked like Lobaton was safe after Rizzo’s late tag, but Maddon challenged anyways. “You’ve got two challenges, so just burn it,” he said. “It’s that part of the game so you just do it. Our guy said he was out.” That guy was Nate Halm, also known as “Nate the Video Guy.” Halm saw an angle that Lobaton’s foot came off the bag, and the decision to challenge proved to be a huge one for the Cubs. “Nate Halm went from winning the bunt tournament to maybe winning the NLDS with that challenge,” Epstein said. But Maddon said the biggest play to him was when Javier Baez threw Trea Turner out at the plate in the first inning, after Maddon pulled in the infield with the Cubs ahead 1-0. Who knew it would end up a 9-8 game? “That one run, the guy hitting (Bryce Harper) is not a base-stealer, so you take a chance,” Maddon said. “Who else does that? Anybody else playing second base, he’s safe, and it’s a different game. I told him ‘Javy, that play in the first inning, that won the game.” Epstein pointed out the Cubs had only one really “clean hit, but somehow put up nine (runs)," referring to Addison Russell’s two-run double in the fifth. “There were times when it wasn’t pretty and it was kind of a war of attrition, and we were just trying to find a way to get 27 outs,” Epstein said. “It seemed impossible. We weren’t throwing strikes. (Plate ump) Jerry Layne has a real tight zone and it just made things really difficult, and we kind of got in our own way at times. “In the end, our guys, as always, seemingly had just enough to power their way through." Epstein said Jose Quintana could be starter in Game 1 of the NLCS, but they wouldn’t decide until they were on the plane to L.A. “Before the heavy drinking starts,” he said with a grin. Quintana, who pitched 2/3 of an inning in relief, said he’s ready to go. “Hopefully, because I’m the guy that’s fresh," he said. “I’m ready to go, man. “To come back in their house and take this series, it wasn’t easy. It’s happened to me for the first time in the postseason. Amazing. It was good. "My mind was strong. I think I can go, but for sure they’ll tell us (Friday).: The Cubs will have a casual workout at Dodger Stadium on Friday, but mostly they’ll be recovering from this wackiest of games in this craziest of series in this most unpredictable season.

“We were written off the first two months of the season, and we’re here,” Jon Lester said. “We’re in the NLCS, and we’re going to play a really good team. We beat a really good (Dodgers) team last year, and hopefully that’s the case this year.” -- Chicago Tribune Cubs pull out all stops to win 'nutty' National League Division Series By Mark Gonzales The sight of Cubs bench coach Dave Martinez bear-hugging team president Theo Esptein in a alcohol-soaked, cigar smoke-reeking clubhouse early Friday morning seemed odd, but it merely was one of many zany scenes that capped their National League Division Series victory over the Nationals. "It was nutty," said Ben Zobrist, who came off the bench to deliver a pinch-hit single off Max Scherzer that helped fuel a four-run fifth inning that enabled the Cubs to overcome a 4-1 deficit and seize a harrowing 9-8 victory in Game 5. "There was a little bit of everything. A lot of odd things that happened that you usually don’t expect to happen, especially in a big game like this. In the end, we were able to pull it out, and that’s all that matters." The first major turning point involved the Cubs' four-run fifth after Scherzer entered the game with a 4-3 lead and retired Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo. Bryant and Rizzo figured Scherzer wasn't at his sharpest after throwing 6 1/3 innings and 98 pitches Monday with a tender right hamstring. "I led off the inning, made two outs and didn’t do anything but we scored," Bryant said. "Everyone contributed. It was the craziest inning, but we got it done. It feels good." Addison Russell's two-run double gave the Cubs the lead for good, but they still needed plenty of help. "It's part of baseball," said Jon Lester, who threw 3 2/3 innings of relief in Game 4 after starting Game 2 four days earlier. "It’s more playoff baseball. You got guys coming in who aren’t normally relievers. You got guys coming in who aren’t normally pinch-hitting in certain innings. So that’s playoff baseball. "You got to make adjustments. You’re put in certain circumstances that we don't like. But if this is July 25, we can analyze differently. But it’s the post-season. You’re going to have (Jose) Quintana come in. You’re going to have Wade (Davis) come in for seven outs. It's part of the game. No holds barred. You got to make adjustments as you go." Davis played the biggest role of the pitching staff by throwing 2 1/3 innings and striking out Bryce Harper to end the game. Davis never earned a save requiring more than four outs prior to Thursday. "He just showed us how much heart he has," said Carl Edwards Jr., who was bailed out in the seventh after walking Michael A. Taylor to start the inning. The biggest assist, however, came from catcher Willson Contreras. With the Nationals threatening to at least tie the game in the bottom of the eighth, Contreras threw to first base to nail Jose Lobaton - representing the tying run - on a pickoff to end the threat. "Willson peeked over," said Anthony Rizzo, who wasn't sure that Lobaton was out until the Cubs asked for a replay review that overturned the safe call. "I gave him the sign and he acknowledged it. A big play for us." Said Kris Bryant: "It shifted the momentum. It could have been bad for us, but not many (catchers) would attempt that throw because if you throw it into right field, the (tying run) scores. I think that was a huge point for us. "That's one of the times where you enjoy the replay review."

With the victory, the Cubs advanced to the NLCS for the third consecutive season, the first NL team to accomplish this since the rival St. Louis Cardinals (2011-14). After the game, Cubs manager Joe Maddon said John Lackey, who didn't pitch in the NLDS, was "in the mix" to start Game 1 of the NLCS. -- Chicago Sun-Times Meet Cubs’ Carl Edwards Jr. in L.A., and then give him the damn ball By Gordon Wittenmyer WASHINGTON – Carl Edwards Jr. had two critical rough spots during the Division Series against the Nationals. He also had a signature moment in between, has the 10th inning of Game 7 of the World Series on his resume, and if you don’t think he’s in line to be the Cubs’ closer someday (next year?), then you haven’t been watching the way Joe Maddon uses him or listened to Edwards talk. Even after walking both batters he faced in an four-run eighth inning that buried the Cubs in their Game 4 loss, Edwards spoke with confidence, wanted the ball again and even made it clear he expected to get it against the Dodgers in the next round of the playoffs. “I know for a fact that [Kyle Hendricks] is going to be on,” Edwards said just before the Cubs’ Wednesday night charter to Washington for Thursday’s decisive Game 5. “He’s just going to go out there, and we’re going to have fun, and we’ll see you guys in L.A.” Give him credit. He got it right. But give him even more credit for what it says about his confidence and maybe even his future — both this postseason and moving forward in his career role with the team. “I love it,” manager Maddon said. “You have to have a real short memory to be really good at that particular job. He’s been good. Even after the home run by Harper [that tied Game 2], he came back and had a really good outing right after that.” That was Game 3, when Edwards struck out Harper swinging at a strikeout leading off the eighth during the Cubs’ 2-1 victory. “It just didn’t play out [Thursday],” Maddon said. “This kid’s going to be so good over the next several years. You have to help guide him through it at this moment. I love the fact that he does eject negativity rather quickly. “He’s going to be really good. He’s already really good.” -- Chicago Sun-Times Cubs win epic Game 5 to eliminate Nats, earn NLCS rematch with Dodgers By Gordon Wittenmyer WASHINGTON – If this is what the rest of October has in store for the Cubs, buckle up for another wild ride. And maybe even November. In an epic, strange, often ugly Game 5 of their National League Division Series against the Nationals, the Cubs came from behind to win 9-8 and clinch a third consecutive trip to the National League Championship Series.

“We’re not done yet, either,” pitcher Jake Arrieta said. If manager Joe Maddon wanted the Dodgers – as he suggested when asked about them in August – he’s got them. Game 1 is Saturday in Los Angeles, with Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw staring the Cubs in the face and, probably, Jose Quintana going for the Cubs – the same Quintana who came out of the bullpen in the seventh inning for a nail-biter appearance that likely doubled as his between-starts side session. Game 5 was anything but routine from start to electric finish – with Cubs closer Wade Davis striking out Nats superstar Bryce Harper to close out his third inning of work on this night and send the Cubs into another raucous celebration. “This is the most fun I’ve had playing in a baseball game,” said Cubs shortstop Addison Russell, who drove in four runs, including a two-run double during the Cubs’ big fifth-inning comeback. “It ranks right up there with winning the World Series after being down three [games to] one. … Just to see the energy, the flow within the dugout was – I get chills just talking about it. It was awesome.” The Cubs moved to within eight victories of a championship defense. The hard-luck Nationals were bounced from the first round for the fourth time in six seasons. Who knew Todd Ricketts was a baseball savant to rival Casey Stengel and Bob Costas when he joined the team for their trip to Washington in June? The Nationals? “We’re going to run into these guys in the playoffs,” the Cubs’ co-owner said to president Donald Trump during the team’s second White House visit in barely five months. “You’ll see them crumble.” Wild pitches, passed balls, fielding errors, poor base running, a hit batter and a catcher’s interference call all conspired with Cubs’ hitting and pitching against the Nats. “You’ve got to find a way to win. It doesn’t matter how you do it,” right fielder Jason Heyward said. These Cubs took what Maddon called a different path all season to even get here, so why would it be any different a winner-take-all, loser-out Division Series victory. They pulled it off without Anthony Rizzo reaching base, with postseason stud Kyle Hendricks fighting through just four innings, with Daniel Murphy looking like a Cub killer again – and with only Justin Wilson and John Lackey left in their bullpen. “I had nothing tonight, and it didn’t matter,” Hendricks said. “That was incredible.” Murphy hit a second-inning home run off Hendricks, a sixth-inning RBI double off Mike Montgomery, and he drew two walks – including the leadoff walk in the eighth off Davis that led to a two-out run that cut the Cubs’ lead to one. And it took the Cubs’ biggest replay challenge of the year to eventually end that threat and get to the ninth with the lead. With Michael Taylor on second, Jose Lobaton on first and leadoff man Trea Turner at the plate, Cubs catcher Willson Contreras threw behind Lobaton for the pickoff that looked like anything but – until the replay showed Lobaton’s foot came off the bag on his slide. Inning over.

Davis got the final seven outs of the game, his best inning his last, when he retired the top of the Nats lineup in order, including back-to-back strikeouts of Jayson Werth and Harper to end it. The Cubs have played three winner-take-all Game 5s in their history, all on the road. This was their first since beating the Braves in Atlanta the Division Series in 2003. They also lost to the Padres in San Diego in the 1984 NLCS. It’s hard to imagine anything in their postseason history – from called shots by Babe Ruth to curses by Billy goats – ever looked like this one did on Thursday night. –Cubs starter Hendricks – brilliant in Game 1 – gave up two home runs in the third, fell behind 4-1 and, even after the Cubs took a lead, was replaced after four innings. –When the Cubs answered in the top of the fifth with their own four-run inning, they did it against two-time Cy Young winner Max Scherzer, who was brilliant in Game 3 and entered this one as a reliever to hold a one-run lead with the middle of the Cubs order batting. — After getting Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo for the first two outs, the following sequence produced the four runs: infield single, bloop single, Addison Russell double, intentional walk, strikeout/passed ball/E2, catcher’s interference and a hit batter with the bases loaded. Not a bad run – so far – for a team that limped to the All-Star break with a losing record and trailing first-place Milwaukee by 5 ½ games. “Hoo-doggie!” Maddon yelled as he was doused by champagne Thursday night. “God bless America.” -- Chicago Sun-Times Another crushing — and sloppy — ending for Nationals By Daryl Van Schouwen WASHINGTON — Say this for the Nationals. They blew this one in grand fashion, failing in the postseason once again in Washington-monumental style with one more cave-in to chronicle in their tarnished playoff history. This was the fourth lost NLDS since 2012 and the second in a row for the Nationals on their home field. This one stung and a lot of the hurt was self-inflicted. “This game’s cruel sometimes,” right-hander Max Scherzer said. “It’s the way things can happen. What a series.” “We didn’t play a very good game,” Nationals manager Dusty Baker said. “But we battled to the end.’’ That they did, but the decisive Game 5 that sent the Cubs to the NLCS and the Nationals to the offseason was was pretty much decided in a whacky four-run fifth inning. “That was one of the weirdest innings I’ve ever seen,” Baker said. “We gave away at least three or four runs. It was a series of bad events.” Bad, bad, bad. And when everyting was seemingly in good hands with a 4-3 lead and two-time Cy Young winner Scherzer pitching in relief to bridge the middle innings to the Nats’ seventh-, eighth- and ninth-inning relievers. The Nats were in good shape. Especially after Scherzer, the Nationals Park crowd roaring with every strike, retired Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo to open the inning.

“I’ve never seen Max have an inning like that,’’ Baker said. There were other culprits, catcher Matt Wieters first and foremost. “Most of the mistakes were me,’’ Wieters said. “It was a bad night to have one of the worst defensive nights of my career.’’ Willson Contreras got things rolling downhill for the Nationals when he reached on an infield single. Pinch-hitter Ben Zobrist hit a bloop single to left, and Addison Russell drove them both in with a double to put the Cubs in front 5-4. Now reeling, that’s when things began to turn Halloween-season spooky for the home team. When Scherzer fell behind 2-0 to Jason Heyward, Baker put him on with an intentional walk. Scherzer struck out Javier Baez but Wieters couldn’t block Scherzer’s slider and Baez was safe on a dropped third strike. What’s more, Wieters’ throw to first bounced into right field allowing Russell to score. Wieters was hit on the mask by Baez’ bat on his backswing, lobbied for interference but lost the argument. Then he reached in and committed catcher’s interference on pinch hitter Tommy La Stella to load the bases before Scherzer hit Jon Jay on the foot with the bases loaded to score a run and give the Cubs a 7-4 lead. There was more. In the sixth, left fielder Jayson Werth, likely playing his last game for the Nationals, misplayed a Russell liner into an RBI double, adding to the Nats folly and the Cubs run total. And just after they chipped away at an 8-4 Cubs lead by scoring in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings – getting to within a run on Jose Lobaton’s RBI single against Wade Davis – Lobaton got picked off first by Cubs catcher Contreras to end the inning with the tying run on second. It took a replay challenge and a snap throw by Contreras and aggressive tag by first baseman Anthony Rizzo to get him, but still. Not there, not then. “I was ready for the throw,’’ Lobaton said. “I thought I was safe, for sure. Until I saw the replay.’’ “I thought he was out — I thought his foot came off the bag,” said Nats superstar Bryce Harper, who struck out against Wade Davis to end the game. “Snap throw from Contreras, got to be aware.” Those misplays only dropped and dragged the Nationals troubled postseason past throughout the stadium, where fans held hope that this 97-win team, built to break the old, bad habits, would get it done. Add this one to 2012, 2014 and 2016. And another for Baker, who has lost 10 straight closeout games as a manager of four teams “It hurts after what we’ve been through this season,’’ said Baker, who gave lots of hugs in the clubhouse, his status for next season uncertain. “I can’t believe we lost this game,” Werth said. “It’s kind of a shock because we had the feeling all year this was a team that was going to go,’’ Wieters said. “It’s a tough pill to swallow.’’ -- Chicago Sun-Times TELANDER: Cubs show they’re in it for the long haul By Rick Telander WASHINGTON — Get the ski goggles out and keep ’em out!

The champagne was flying Thursday night after the Cubs won a crazy Game 5 of the NLDS that lasted about as long as their impending 3,000-mile plane trip from here to Los Angeles will. Was there doubt? Yes, there was. When your solid starting pitcher, Kyle Hendricks, gives up five hits, including two home runs, and four runs in the second inning, you have to figure it might not be the Cubs’ night. Maybe winning the World Series last year was enough for the franchise, and it was time for everybody to head for beaches and watch the rest of the tournament on TV, umbrella drinks in hand. That all seemed possible early on. It seemed possible late, as the tension wore on and on. The Cubs were behind, then ahead, then way ahead, then threatened with doom as the Nationals chipped away at the lead. It all ended with the 9-8 victory, and the move-on to a second straight NLCS against the Dodgers starting Saturday. But this game — oh, man, there was nothing the managers and pitching coaches and catchers and infielders and umpires couldn’t meet and talk about, through all the drama, on and on. There was video to be reviewed. Calls to be questioned. Even the outfielders got together and jawboned. And why not? Even obscure Leonys Martin came in to play center field. As the players danced around the final pitcher, exhausted Wade Davis, the great joy was laced with relief. It seemed like everybody who rode a bus to the ballpark played. “All hands on deck,” was the mantra from both Cubs manager Joe Maddon and Nationals manager Dusty Baker. Hey, even Kyle Schwarber hacked his way out of the fans’ doghouse, cranking an off-the-wall pinch-hit single in the seventh inning. “It’s either exultation or being a bug on a windshield,” Maddon said of closeout games. Baker, this game’s splattered bug, got philosophical beforehand, pondering his continued drive. “What keeps me going is the quest for excellence, the thrill of competition,” he said. “Plus, there’s a few things I want to accomplish in life. And until I figure out why the lows of losing don’t match the highs of winning, then I’ll probably be a manager for a while.” What does a manager do when his closer, a dependable guy like the Cubs’ Davis, suddenly gets wild and starts walking guys and giving up hits? How about when he throws a pitch that sails high over catcher Willson Contreras’ glove in the eighth inning and almost kills home-plate ump Jerry Layne? All part of the mayhem. All over now, because, blessedly, this marathon is over. And on go the Cubs. There are so many things in the game that could have happened but didn’t, or had odd twists, that the event will be a hot-stove favorite for months. Even the four huge-headed “presidents” who race around the warning track at Nationals Park were fanning the people into near hysterics in the ninth inning. It was fitting that Nationals superstar Bryce Harper was the last out, striking out on Davis’ 44th pitch of the evening. The Cubs swarmed Davis like honeybees around their queen. How often does a team give up 14 hits and still win? How often does a team go behind by a 4-1 score and come back to win? How often, let’s be honest here, does a team get as lucky as the Cubs, with the opponent making so many blunders in one inning — the fifth, in this case — that they win one like this?

Somehow, the Cubs did. And it’s all bubbly now. -- Chicago Sun-Times MORRISSEY: A wild, improbable inning helps propel Cubs into the NLCS By Rick Morrissey WASHINGTON — So this is what preposterous looks like. I had seen bad before with the Cubs, lots of it, decades of the stuff. And then I had watched a World Series arrive in 2016, a stunning, beautiful thing. And, really, what was left? I can tell you in unequivocal terms that there was plenty of room left for crazy. And silly. And, especially, the aforementioned preposterous. One inning, one ridiculous inning, helped push the Cubs into the National League Championship Series and the Washington Nationals into heavy duty counseling. But it was only one shove. The rest of the innings were a ride on a winding mountain road inside a bus with no brakes. Finally, after four hours, 37 minutes, a fever dream of a baseball game was over. The Cubs beat the Nationals 9-8 in Game 5 of their first-round series Thursday night for reasons that aren’t entirely clear at this moment. Because. Just because. A four-run fifth inning, powered by a passed ball, an error, a catcher’s interference call and a hit batter, all of it with Nationals ace Max Scherzer standing on the mound as a reliever, pretty much summed up the evening. It’s exactly how Picasso would have drawn it up. It’s a big reason why two hours later, Cubs players were celebrating like children late Thursday night, first on the grass at Nationals Park and then in their champagne-soaked clubhouse. “It’s one of those will-to-win situations,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “Our guys were not going to be denied.” Said shortstop Addison Russell: “Just to see the energy flow within the dugout was just — I get chills just talking about it. It was awesome.” That fifth inning. That absurd inning. It was a scorer’s nightmare, a weird, happy lark for the Cubs and a reminder that one of the best pitchers around isn’t a guarantee of anything in postseason baseball. His team leading 4-3, Scherzer got through the first two hitters in the inning, and Nationals Park was a happy place. Willson Conteras got an infield single, but what was that to the likes of Scherzer? A dust particle. Pinch hitter Ben Zobrist followed with a bloop single to left. Again, a paper cut for Scherzer. That’s where it went all very right for the Cubs and all very wrong for the Nationals. Russell doubled down the left-field line, scoring two. An intentional walk of Jason Heyward (odd), was followed by a passed ball on a strikeout of Javy Baez (strange), which also included an error by Washington catcher Matt Wieters on the throw to first (are you kidding?), scoring Russell, sending Heyward to third and Baez to second. A catcher’s interference call sent Tommy La Stella to first loaded the bases. Scherzer hit Jon Jay with a pitch, bringing in Heyward. Ten batters, three measly hits, four runs. Who would have conceived of such a thing? Nobody in his or her right mind. The fifth inning was only most obvious manifestation of the insanity. There was more — actually too much more. There was the seventh inning, when the Cubs brought in starter Jose Quintana, and he proceeded to give up a

single to Trea Turner and a walk to Jayson Werth. Bryce Harper’s sacrifice fly scored a run, making it 9-7. Out came Quintana, in came closer Wade Davis to face Ryan Zimmerman. To repeat: This was the seventh inning, and the closer was in. Davis struck out Zimmerman to end the inning. At that point, the only pitchers left in the Cubs bullpen who hadn’t seen recent action were John Lackey and Justin Wilson. There was desperation in every thing each team did. It was fascinating. It was torturous. In the eighth, with two men on and no out for the Nationals, Davis got Adam Lind to hit into a double play. But Michael Taylor, the Cubs slayer, knocked in Daniel Murphy to cut the lead to 9-8. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, Conteras fired a pickoff attempt to first base, but umpire Will Little called Jose Lobaton safe. Not so fast. Replay showed Lobaton’s foot had come off the bag during Rizzo’s tag. Maddon challenged the call, and in the mad spirit of the night, won. Soccer has its Hand of God goal. The Cubs have their Foot of God pickoff. Neither team budged. Even in the face of evidence that they might want to pack it in, they kept at it, refusing to give in. In the ninth, with the crowd on its feet, Davis got Turner to fly out to center, then struck out Werth. And here came Harper, one of the best players of his era. A game down to its last drop, Davis vs. Harper, as it should be. On his 44th pitch of the night, Davis struck out Harper swinging. Mostly quiet here. Bedlam surely in Chicago. The Cubs have done crazy before and done it well. They won two playoff series last season that could have gone the other way. They came back in dramatic fashion to win Game 7 of the World Series. But this was more up and down. More twisty, more turny. “I would say this is the most fun I’ve had playing in a baseball game, and it ranks right up there with winning the World Series, being down 3-1 in the World Series,” Russell said. The Cubs have traveled far and wide in their long history, mostly across the Land of Bad, a vast territory of deserts and valleys. But finally, at long last, they arrived at the Promised Land in 2016. On Thursday, they ventured into the preposterous. A strange, wonderful, nerve-wracking place indeed. -- Chicago Sun-Times NLDS win anything but old-hat for Cub fans celebrating in Wrigleyville By Nader Issa While the Cubs were in Washington taking part in a thrilling winner-take-all Game 5, Wrigleyville wasn’t nearly its usual electric self — until the final out secured the team’s third straight trip to the National League Championship Series. The streets around Wrigley Field were mostly empty until the Cubs won and the team’s faithful poured outside to reprise their raucous celebrations from a title-winning 2016 postseason. “I’m shaking,” Jessica Castrejon said outside the Cubby Bear after the win. “It’s like last year all over again. Baseball is taking over my life.” Castrejon was wearing her “lucky earring” that she wore during last year’s playoffs. “I lost the other one, but I still have this one on.”

In its inaugural postseason, crowds filled about half the Park at Wrigley, directly next to the ballpark and Clark Street. Juan Rudek, 64, was at the Park with his friends from Georgia. He plugged his ears and closed his eyes during a tense moment in the Nationals’ one-run 8th inning. “I call it depression,” Rudek said. “I’m going to get a heart attack. I told him to grab some pills.” Rudek, a Cubs fan since he was a toddler, said he watched the Cubs playoff games in Wrigleyville last year, but has liked this year’s atmosphere better to this point even if there aren’t as many people. A block down Clark Street, it was the same story at Wrigley bars. David Strauss and his family own Sluggers Sports Bar, 3540 N. Clark, where Strauss says the same number of fans are showing up as last year’s NLDS against the San Francisco Giants. But the crowds have understandably been smaller than during last year’s NCLS and World Series, when the Cubs won their first title since 1908. “The only difference obviously is the fact that they [bleeping] won last year,” Strauss said. “A lot of people are just kind of waiting in the weeds until the next series.” Strauss’s dad opened the bar in 1985, after which Chicago teams have won 12 major sports championships. “We’re spoiled now,” the 35-year-old Strauss said. “We saw the same thing happen with the Bulls in the early 90s and then the Hawks.” Authorities still prepared for large crowds. Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said last week that there were additional officers patrolling the neighborhood during all NLDS games, though Clark and Addison Streets weren’t shut down as they were during last year’s run. The NLCS is slated to start Saturday in Los Angeles, with the North Siders returning home Tuesday. -- Chicago Sun-Times Talk about unpredictable: Hendricks falters, but Cubs pick him up By Steve Greenberg WASHINGTON — There was a Twitter poll that made the rounds Thursday, leading into Game 5 of the division series between the Cubs and Nationals, and it blew up in the face of the smart-alecky media nudnik who created it. “In what inning,” he wrote — OK, fine, I wrote — “will Joe Maddon prematurely lift Kyle Hendricks tonight?” The choices were the sixth, the fifth and even earlier than that, and by the time about 1,300 people had responded, 43 percent were foreseeing an extra-early hook from Maddon. But don’t blame them. I’m the one who offered up a faulty premise. I didn’t ask if Maddon would pull Hendricks too soon — as he infamously did in Game 7 of last year’s World Series — but rather when he would do it. In hindsight, imagine the nerve of assuming anything about Game 5 between the Cubs and Nats, which unraveled into an event so strange and unpredictable, baseball analysts and historians — maybe Talmudic scholars, too — will ruminate on it for a long time.

As it turned out, Maddon did pull Hendricks before the fifth inning. Yet he stayed with the struggling right-hander quite a bit longer than a lot of managers would have. He stayed with him even after Michael Taylor’s three-run home run in the second inning put the Cubs in a 4-1 hole. I don’t know about you, but that’s when I figured Hendricks’ night was over. It’s almost like Maddon wasn’t pulling our legs at all before the game when he said: “I think you’ve got to give Kyle a little more leeway tonight based on the cachet that he’s built.” Give Maddon credit for sticking with his guy for four innings — which doesn’t sound like much, but in this stupendously drunk game was a vital stretch — and give Hendricks a tip of the cap for surviving that long. He didn’t look like the guy who outdueled the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw in the NLCS clincher last October. He didn’t look like the guy who would’ve won Game 7 against the Indians if only his manager had let him. He looked like a skinny pitcher who, without a great many natural gifts, was merely trying to hold things together. But let’s not forget how extraordinary the results have been during Hendricks’ time in the big leagues, all with the Cubs. His career regular-season ERA of 2.94 is second among active pitchers with at least 75 starts, behind only Kershaw’s. He came into Game 5 with a 1.98 ERA in eight postseason starts. And throughout the last two-plus months of this season, he repeatedly picked up his team. When Jon Lester was struggling or injured, when Jake Arrieta had a rough go with his hamstring, when series popped up here or there and the Cubs just weren’t hitting, Hendricks responded with excellence. There were times it seemed he couldn’t buy one in his own victory column, but Hendricks had a miniscule 2.19 ERA in 13 starts after returning from the disabled list in late July. In Game 5, everyone in the building picked Hendricks up. His teammates, who pulled together nine runs with much help from the oft-bumbling Nats. The Nats themselves, who made enough mistakes to fill an entire postseason. The great Max Scherzer, who faltered when called upon out of the bullpen. Wade Davis, who took the long road for the best non-World Series save of his career. “I had nothing tonight, and it didn’t matter,” Hendricks said. “That was incredible.” They all took Hendricks off the hook on a rare night when he could’ve been the goat. Quick poll: Who’s OK with that? Me too. -- Chicago Sun-Times MLB finds no cheating from Cubs coach wearing FitBit in NLDS: report By Madeline Kenney A Cubs coach was accused of cheating by using what appeared to be a smart watch during Game 4 of the NLDS. Tyler Williams shared a video of an unidentified Cubs coach tapping the watch on his wrist twice. Williams speculated that the man was messing with an Apple Watch. The MLB investigated the device, according to the Washington Post, and found it was actually a FitBit that wasn’t connected to the internet. The MLB determined the Cubs didn’t violate any rules. Apple Watches have stirred up controversy in the MLB this season. Two teams have found themselves in hot water after someone in their dugout was spotted with the device.

The Red Sox were caught stealing signs from the Yankees by using an Apple Watch. And last week, the Diamondbacks got in trouble for using the same device, although it was decided they weren’t stealing signs with it. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred sent a letter to MLB teams, writing: “All 30 clubs have been notified that future violations of this type will be subject to more serious sanctions, including the possible loss of draft picks.” -- Daily Herald Chicago Cubs hang on for 9-8 win, advance to NLCS By Bruce Miles WASHINGTON -- The Chicago Cubs spent the 2015 season on the ascent. They reached the top of the mountain in 2016. It can be just as hard, if not harder to stay at the top, as the Cubs found out all during a start-and-stop 2017 season. They spent most of a wild Thursday night trying -- clawing with their fingernails -- to stay there. Until further notice they're still there. During a wild, stomach-churning, 4-hour, 37-minute thrill ride that wasn't always pretty, the Cubs somehow prevailed Thursday night in Game 5 of the National League division series, beating the star-crossed Washington Nationals 9-8. With the victory, the Cubs advance to their third straight NL championship series. They'll take on the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium in Game 1 on Saturday night. In yet another champagne-soaked celebration, Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer summed up this evening and early Friday morning best. "Every game in the series was amazing and I'm glad we came out on top, but that was a mess out there tonight," he said. Oh, but what happy, crazy, mess for the defending world champions. The Cubs will have one day off to prepare for the Dodgers, and they'll need it after emptying the tank to beat the Nats. In Thursday's game, starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks lasted only 4 innings, but that was 1 more than the Nationals' Gio Gonzalez. However, the Cubs again used one of their starting pitchers -- possible Game 1 starter Jose Quintana -- for two-thirds of an inning. It's still possible Quintana could come back to start Game 1, but the Cubs may have to turn to veteran John Lackey to go up against Clayton Kershaw. "Right now we just … champagne after this, a long flight to L.A. which Im really pleased about," manager Joe Maddon said. "We haven't even talked about that yet. He (Lackey) is definitely in the mix, no question." The real heroics were turned in by closer Wade Davis, who worked 2⅓ innings, throwing 44 pitches. Davis ended the game by striking out the dangerous Bryce Harper.

"I looked down there a couple times; nobody's warming up," Davis said. "These guys fought so hard all season long. They fought hard in this game. The offense and the defense, everybody's been battling. Energy level? It's bad now, but it was good." The Cubs looked to be in trouble earlier as the Nats scored 4 runs in the second, on a solo homer by Daniel Murphy and a 3-run shot by Michael Taylor. That erased a 1-0 lead the Cubs took in the first. But the Cubs put up 2 in the third and 4 more in the fifth and held before holding on the rest of the way. They sent 10 men to the plate in the fifth and took advantage of 2 errors and a passed ball charged to Matt Wieters. Addison Russell had yet another big playoff performance, going 2-for-4 with 2 doubles and 4 RBI. "I would say this is the most fun I've had playing a baseball game," he said, "and it ranks right up there with winning the World Series, being down 3-1 in the World Series. Just to see the energy, you know, the flow withing the dugout was just … I get chills just talking about it. It was awesome." For Nats manager and former Cubs skipper Dusty Baker, it was yet another crushing postseason defeat. "Yeah, it was," he said. "And Bryce was just starting to swing the bat. It's very disappointing, not to be going to L.A., not to go home to see my family and play in Dodger Stadium and go to the next step. You know, it was just a tough game to lose." -- Daily Herald Rozner: Chicago Cubs overcome Joe Maddon again By Barry Rozner For those who never understood the plan, Theo Epstein and Jason McLeod spent years trying to explain that the character of their players and the heart of a champion would ultimately matter for a tortured franchise trying to open a window into the postseason world. Though the prosecutors never rest, a simple "asked and answered" would certainly suffice. Yup, with one title safely in their back pockets, the Chicago Cubs are into the NLCS for the third straight season for the first time in their history. And it took every ounce of their heart and character to overcome Joe Maddon once again. He used a ring to defend himself last winter. The Cubs have a long way to go if they're going to bail out Maddon again with a pitching staff in tatters. But all that Cubs management preached during those rebuilding years was on display throughout another series in which the Cubs rarely looked like the better team. And all they did was win an NLDS -- again -- taking out the Nationals in a wild and wacky Game 5 Thursday night when Maddon nearly ran himself out of pitchers, and used closer Wade Davis for a ridiculous seven outs and 44 pitches. World Series champs don't even make the playoffs much anymore -- only five in the last 15 years -- let alone win a series, which hasn't happened since the 2011 champion Cardinals defeated the Nationals in the first round in 2012. The last champ to get back to the World Series was Philadelphia in 2009 when the Phillies lost to the Yankees, but the Cubs have a chance now after taking out the hapless and helpless Nationals 9-8 in Washington.

So it's on to the league championship for the Cubs and Maddon, who left fans scratching their heads throughout the opening round, a match for the mismanagement of Dusty Baker, who will go down as one of the worst big-game managers of all time. Baker has now lost 10 straight series-clinching games, an extraordinary record of futility that is no surprise to anyone in Chicago with a decent memory and ordinary eyesight. The Nationals are trail dust -- but the Dodgers will be a considerable foe. Maddon has his work cut out for him considering the state of the Cubs' pitching staff after a debilitating five-game series, while the Dodgers are rested, relaxed and waiting for the Cubs to fly six hours across the country. The Cubs will have to survive the first two games with marginal pitching before a crucial day off, and a split in Los Angeles would be a significant victory. That is, in all fairness, for tomorrow. For today, celebrate again Kyle Hendricks, who was not nearly as good as he was last fall in a deciding Game 6 of the NLCS and in Game 7 of the World Series, but after a rough second inning Thursday he settled down, and with the Cubs trailing 4-1 he gave them 2 scoreless innings to allow the visitors to rally and take the lead. It's too bad Maddon didn't leave him in after a crazy top of the fifth that saw the Cubs jump in front. Infield hit, bloop hit, dropped third strike, catcher's interference, hit batter, errors and a huge Addison Russell double off Max Scherzer, all with two outs, and the Cubs were alive and well. On the one side of the field, it was the quintessential Nationals postseason inning. On the other side, whatever magic the Cubs found in 2016 and thought they had lost in 2017, returned with a vengeance at the perfect time in Washington, giving them just enough to squeeze past the Nationals. Yes, the 2017 Dodgers feel a lot like the Cubs of 2016, a runaway train that appears unstoppable, but even the Cubs of last year had to fight through three very difficult series, any of which they could have lost. So the Dodgers are promised nothing, even with the advantage of setting up their rotation and resting the bullpen, but the pressure is all on Los Angeles as the Cubs arrive in town covered in champagne, playing with house money and knowing how to count cards. Until it is determined otherwise, the champs are still the champs. -- Daily Herald Imrem: Chicago Cubs win the mind game again, eliminate Nationals By Mike Imrem The Nationals probably knew before the first pitch Thursday night what the challenge was in the decisive Game 5 of the NLDS. To beat the Chicago Cubs between the lines, the Nats were going to have to beat them between the ears. It was as simple as this: Win the mind game, win the series; lose the mind game, lose the series. All you need to know is that the Cubs prevailed 9-8 to advance to the NLCS, which begins Saturday night in Los Angeles.

Give the Nationals credit, though. They didn't crack. They simply couldn't make the Cubs crack. Both teams made some bad plays and some dumb plays, but it took two good teams, two resolute teams, to play a game this dramatic. The Cubs have become expert at postseason psychological operations after qualifying the past three seasons. Just before the NLDS began, Cubs infielder/outfielder Ben Zobrist, last season's World Series MVP, said the pressure is on the Nationals. It was hard to dispute the claim, considering the Nationals made a habit of making the playoffs this decade but not winning a single series. Meanwhile, over the past two years the Cubs had won a wild-card game, two NLDS, an NLCS and a World Series. The disparity was the demon the Nationals had to slay. The way the game unfolded -- and at times unraveled -- both teams had ample opportunity to show what they're made of. The lead changed hands a couple of times early with each team going up by 3 runs. How they responded to falling behind would determine the outcome. Both responded by continuing to keep on keeping on. The Cubs had developed a reputation for knowing how to deal with winning, with losing, with setting tones, with playing from behind, with playing from ahead, with every circumstance imaginable. "We've been through a lot of different scenarios," is the way Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo puts it. The Nationals had to know they had to do more than stick a fork in the Cubs' ribs; they were going to have to stick a stake in their hearts. The outwardly confident and inwardly cocky Cubs not only tweaked Washington but also smacked Los Angeles over the head back in August, when it looked like the Dodgers were going to win maybe a million regular-season games. "I'm very confident playing against (the Dodgers), absolutely," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. "I like the way we match up against them -- a lot, not a little bit." Well, we'll see next whether Maddon is right, and more important whether the Cubs can win the head games against the Dodgers. The Cubs have developed a sort of quiet swagger bordering on an underdog arrogance. Their attitude was a factor this season in surviving the dreaded World Series hangover, an uninspiring first half of the season and assorted injuries. So there the Cubs were Thursday night, strengthened by last year's successes, hardened by this season's struggles, facing another challenge. Their heart rate didn't accelerate enough to cripple them, and their brain cells didn't frazzle enough to paralyze them. Even then, nothing was guaranteed because teams that play better and execute better wind up advancing. But winning the mind game can contribute as mightily toward that end as winning the physical game.

-- Daily Herald Maddon remains confident in Edwards By Bruce Miles WASHINGTON -- Entering Thursday night's fifth and decisive game of the National League division series, Chicago Cubs reliever Carl Edwards Jr. had appeared in each of the previous four. He alternated between a good outing followed by a bad outing. Edwards stood and took all questions from the media after the bad games. He walked the only two batters he faced in Game 4 at Wrigley Field but talked afterward of going to Los Angeles to start the championship series. "Why wouldn't CJ say, 'Meet you in L.A.?' " asked manager Joe Maddon. "He's into initials." But seriously. "I've told him before this, 'If you want to be a relief pitcher, a quality relief pitcher in the big leagues, you have to have a short memory, have a real short memory to be really good at that particular job," Maddon said. "He's been good. I thought even after the home run (to Bryce Harper in Game 2), he came back and had a really good outing right after that. (Wednesday) he was well rested. Everything was right. It just didn't play out. "This kid is going to be so good over the next several years. You have to help guide him through it at this moment. I love the fact that he does eject negativity rather quickly. I'm seeing that with him." Good pitching wins out: Joe Maddon was more into giving credit to the Nationals' pitchers than blaming his own hitters for a lack of runs. In fact, neither side entered Thursday hitting well overall. In particular, Maddon praised Nats pitchers Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg. "All this stuff is typical higher-mound baseball -- Gibson, Koufax-kind of stuff. Bob Veale. Jim Maloney. Don Drysdale," Maddon said. "Just when you think about the pitching and the '60s, a lot of National League dudes really pop. "They (Nats pitchers) are really imposing, and they've got great stuff, every one of them. And also command. That's been the big thing. The command has been so good. "Strasburg two games. That guy threw a strike whenever he wanted to. Scherzer's command, in spite of injury, was impressive, and Gio (Gonzalez) also. It's just been one of those four-game events. Just keep pushing." Winner-take-all history: Thursday night's Game 5 of the NLDS was the seventh "winner-take-all" postseason game for the Cubs. Last year they went to Game 7 of the World Series, winning in 10 innings at Cleveland. Before that, the Cubs' other decisive games in the postseason were Game 7 of the 1945 World Series against Detroit, Game 5 of the 1984 NLCS against San Diego, Game 5 of the 2003 NLDS against Atlanta, Game 7 of the '03 NLCS against Florida and the 2015 wild-card game at Pittsburgh. The Cubs entered Thursday 14-22 in games in which they or their opponent could be eliminated.

-- Cubs.com Fall 4! Cubs return to LCS, Fly The W in DC By Carrie Muskat and Jamal Collier WASHINGTON -- Three down, eight to go. That's the countdown for Cubs' wins in their bid to repeat as defending World Series champions. They needed to rally Thursday night against the Nationals and Max Scherzer with a bizarre fifth inning that checked nearly every item in the box score to post a 9-8 Game 5 victory and clinch the National League Division Series presented by T-Mobile. Next stop is Los Angeles, where the Cubs will face the Dodgers in a rematch of the NL Championship Series presented by Camping World, which begins Saturday at Dodger Stadium. The two NL teams join the American League Championship Series finalists -- the Astros and Yankees -- in baseball's Fall 4. "That's one of the most incredible victories I've ever been part of," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. "Under the circumstances, in the other team's ballpark, after a tough loss at home [in Game 4], to come back and do that, give our guys all the credit in the world." Addison Russell had four RBIs, hitting a pair of clutch run-scoring doubles, to spark the Cubs, who will be making their third straight trip to the LCS. Their resilience was tested by the Nationals. "I would say this is the most fun I've had playing in a baseball game, and it ranks right up there with winning the World Series," Russell said. "We knew at the start of the series, the start of the postseason, Joe talks about how there's going to be moments where things aren't going your way," Cubs outfielder Jason Heyward said. "It's not so important that you keep them from happening as how you're going to respond to them. You know they're going to happen at some point. We had a few of those moments tonight, but we don't dwell on them. We go to the next moment, focus on the next pitch, then we get back at it and believe we're going to find a way." It was a whirlwind of a winner-take-all game, and extended into the wee hours of Friday the 13th. There were big home runs by the Nationals' Michael A. Taylor and Daniel Murphy, starting pitchers used in relief, closers going extended innings, and a huge pickoff. And that doesn't include the wacky Chicago fifth inning. "Usually there's three or four or five plays that change the landscape of the game, or decide the game," said Nationals outfielder Jayson Werth, whose misplay on a two-out fly ball in the sixth resulted in a run for the Cubs. "I feel like there was like 50 plays in this game. This is like the craziest game I've ever been a part of." The Cubs needed seven pitchers, starting with four innings from Kyle Hendricks and ending with a seven-out save from closer Wade Davis. Chicago scratched out runs on groundouts, errors, hit batters and missed line drives. "It was nutty," Chicago's Ben Zobrist said. "In the end, you've got to win those kinds of games, too. That's what great teams do. We were able to pull out a crazy one." It started with Cubs second baseman Javier Baez throwing out speedy Nationals leadoff hitter Trea Turner at the plate in the first. With the infield in and one out, Turner broke from third on contact when Bryce Harper hit a ground ball to Baez, who barely had to move to field it and fired home for the out. Despite the early setback, Washington built a four-run lead for Gio Gonzalez, who lasted three innings. After Matt Albers got through a clean fourth, the Nats called on Scherzer for the fifth. The ace got two quick outs, but what followed was two singles, a double, an intentional walk, a strikeout and passed ball, an error on catcher's interference, and a hit batter. "It was bizarro world, there's no question about it," Maddon said of the fifth.

Three times the Nationals had reached the postseason, and three times it ended in heartbreak. They believed this year was different. This was their deepest team, their most talented. "It's very disappointing not to be going to L.A., not to go home and see my family and play in Dodger Stadium and go to the next step," Nationals manager Dusty Baker said. "You know, it was just a tough game to lose." MOMENTS THAT MATTERED Taylor does it again: Taylor received the loudest cheers of the night during pregame introductions for his grand-slam heroics in Game 4. And on his first at-bat of Game 5, the outfielder tomahawked a three-run home run into the stands in left field, and the reception was even louder. The pitch from Hendricks was 4.06 feet above home plate, the second-highest pitch hit for a homer run by anyone in the postseason since Statcast™ began tracking in 2015. Taylor drove in a franchise-record eight runs during this NLDS. Cubs rally against Scherzer: With a one-run lead, the Nationals called upon Scherzer, their ace and NL Cy Young Award favorite, out of the bullpen. They were hoping to get two innings from Scherzer, and he came out pumping fastballs in the upper 90s to retire the first two batters, Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo, with ease. Then the Cubs put together an unlikely rally, as seven consecutive hitters reached base. "You're just numb," Scherzer said. "Things weren't going my way; fine, what do I have to do next? ... You can't ride the emotional roller coaster in that situation. You stay numb -- and I was. The situation didn't amp up where I was going too fast." Here's how the Cubs' fifth-inning rally looked: an infield single, a bloop single, a two-run double from Russell down the third-base line, an intentional walk, a dropped third strike that turned into a passed ball and a throwing error to score another run, a catcher's interference, a hit batter to score another run before Bryant popped out to short to end the inning. Handing the ball to Davis: The Nationals did not go quietly, as they rallied in the seventh. Carl Edwards Jr. began the inning with a leadoff walk, which prompted the Cubs to bring in Jose Quintana for his first relief appearance since 2012. Quintana got an out, then gave up a single and a walk to bring up Harper with the bases loaded. Harper drove in a run on a sacrifice fly and Maddon turned to his closer in the seventh. Davis struck out Ryan Zimmerman to end the inning. Davis threw 44 pitches to close it out, the last of which was thrown to strike out Harper in the ninth. He knew he was the last man standing. "I looked down there [in the bullpen] a couple times, and nobody was warming up," Davis said. QUOTABLE "We know them and they know us. It'll be another intense series." -- Cubs reliever Pedro Strop, on facing the Dodgers "Seriously, I'm still trying to wrap my head around this one. I just keep thinking of different stuff that was happening that was off the wall. I'll probably go watch the whole game back, re-live it, torture myself." -- Werth, on what could be his final game with the Nationals "They all burn. This one burns. I don't know how else to describe it. You're just going to be sitting there kicking yourself the whole offseason." -- Scherzer, on another playoff exit AFTER FURTHER REVIEW The Cubs began the game with a leadoff double by Jon Jay, although Harper made it close at second with a throw that beat Jay to the base. It was so close that the Nationals challenged the call, but Turner did not tag Jay and the call on the field stood. Jay advanced to third on a wild pitch from Gonzalez, then scored on a groundout from Rizzo.

Chicago scored another run in the seventh inning after the Nationals could not turn a double play on a groundout from Bryant with runners at the corners. Anthony Rendon fielded the ball deep at third base and near the line, but rather than throw home to try to prevent the run, he went around the horn in an attempt at an inning-ending double play. Washington believed Jay violated the slide rule going into second base, but after review, the call on the field was confirmed and the Cubs had an insurance run that proved to be the game-winner. Jose Lobaton ventured too far off first base in the eighth inning with runners on first and second, prompting a pickoff throw from catcher Willson Contreras. Lobaton was initially ruled safe after he appeared to slide in ahead of the throw, but a crew-chief review overturned the call, as replays showed he came off the base. "I thought I was safe; I didn't know my foot came off," Lobaton said. "I was ready for [the throw]. I was ready for it." Said Cubs first baseman Rizzo: "You've got to take chances there. When we call a play like that, the heart starts beating real fast. You've got to control it. Willson made a great throw, and luckily [Lobaton's] foot came off." WHAT'S NEXT Cubs: The Cubs will open the NLCS against the Dodgers on Saturday at 7 p.m. CT. Quintana is expected to start Game 1, although the team has yet to announce that. John Lackey is another option. -- Cubs.com 'Stone cold' Davis closes NLDS with 7-out save By Carrie Muskat WASHINGTON -- A few times during the eighth and ninth innings, Wade Davis glanced at the visitors' bullpen at Nationals Park. No one was stirring. Davis was the last Cubs pitcher standing. Thursday belonged to the right-hander, who earned a seven-out save, the longest of his career, to preserve the Cubs' 9-8 win over the Nationals in Game 5 of the National League Division Series presented by T-Mobile. The Cubs advance to play the Dodgers in the NL Championship Series presented by Camping World. "The guy has been awesome for us," third baseman Kris Bryant said of Davis. "I love watching him pitch." Davis was the seventh Cubs pitcher used after starter Kyle Hendricks lasted four innings. Manager Joe Maddon had already called upon starter Jose Quintana, as well as Carl Edwards Jr., who pitched in all five games of the series. Davis entered with two on and two outs in the seventh, striking out Ryan Zimmerman to end the inning. He walked the first two batters in the eighth, but induced a double play from pinch-hitter Adam Lind. Michael A. Taylor, who had hit a three-run homer in the second, added an RBI single to close the gap to 9-8. Jose Lobaton singled, but he was picked off by catcher Willson Contreras, although Lobaton was originally called safe. The Cubs challenged the ruling, and after a review, it was overturned. "All of [the at-bats] felt pretty key," Davis said, unable to pick one. "They put a lot of pressure on. They're such a good team. They're definitely one of the best offenses I've ever faced. We got some lucky outs there, getting the double play was big. Everything fell into place." "I was prepared to use Wade for six, but what's the difference between six and seven outs, right?" manager Joe Maddon said. Davis' previous career high was a six-out save, which he did twice in the 2015 postseason with the Royals. He has never recorded a save of four or more outs in the regular season.

"He's one of the toughest guys on this team, and he'll give you whatever you need," Hendricks said. "He's a special guy, and made huge pitches tonight to get that 'W.'" Davis admitted he struggled a bit in the eighth. "I was just trying to find some timing," Davis said. "I was rushing a little bit, maybe too amped up. The last inning, I made about 50 percent of the pitches I needed to make, and it ended up working out." It came down to Davis vs. Bryce Harper for the final out, and the Nationals' right fielder struck out to end the game. "I was just trying to stay relaxed," Davis said. "He took such an aggressive swing the first swing that I was hoping he'd stay aggressive. Up to the last pitch, he was still pretty aggressive." Davis' teammates were impressed. "To me, in the ninth inning, it looked like he just came out of the bullpen and he refocused, locked in and stayed in the moment," right fielder Jason Heyward said. "That's the testament of our season. You have to stay in the moment." Pedro Strop, who pitched one inning of relief, was rooting for Davis, too. "He's such a great man," Strop said. "I'm really happy for him, and for the team, the way he did that. I know he used to be a starter, but I've never seen him throw that many pitches in an outing. That was huge for us as a team. Hopefully, that doesn't happen again for us." Ben Zobrist was teammates with Davis in Tampa Bay from 2009-12 and again in Kansas City in 2015. "I've seen him throw a lot," Zobrist said. "I've always known he's got a lot of mettle in his soul. The guy really just shows up. He's got ice in his veins. When you extend a closer that long, he has to get up a couple different times like that and try to shut down a hot team that's really coming back in the game. It was a very tough moment. He really hung tough there for us and pulled it out for us." Said first baseman Anthony Rizzo of Davis: "He's stone cold. He doesn't have a heartbeat. He goes out there, does his thing and lays it all on the line. That's what this team builds on." -- Cubs.com Cubs savor moment after hard-fought series By Nathan Ruiz WASHINGTON -- Jon Lester doesn't remember who first provided the mindset, but he practices it after each series victory. A three-time World Series champion, Lester has found himself at the center of many celebrations like the one the Cubs enjoyed after their 9-8 victory Thursday against the Nationals in Game 5 of the National League Division Series presented by T-Mobile. At 33, he knows the cruelty of the game he plays. He knows his total of 20 postseason starts is not ever-expanding. He knows the joyous moments could end at any time. So as the music blared, the cheers loudened, and the smells of smoke and champagne filled the visitors' clubhouse at Nationals Park, Lester, as he always does, savored it. He was among the biggest celebrators in the small, square room, further restricted by the plastic sheeting covering the lockers as players doused one another.

"These moments are always great," Lester said. "I've been a firm believer in that since Day 1. Somebody told me that early on in my career where you don't take these moments for granted. It may be your last. "This game is very fickle, to the fact that you never know when your last one may come, so I always try to enjoy them as best you can." The party was not diluted despite the Cubs needing two more series victories to repeat as World Series champions. For them, there has been plenty to celebrate of late. Chicago advanced to its third straight NL Championship Series, presented by Camping World, with its wild victory over Washington. The celebration afterward was arguably just as raucous. Corks, caps and ice cubes speckled the blue carpet. Champagne dripped from the beards of outfielders Ben Zobrist and Jason Heyward. Others smoked cigars. Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein, wearing shorts, sandals and a postseason T-shirt, jumped into the arms of anyone near him. The imprint of the dress socks he had been wearing less than an hour before was still evident on his calves. "This is why you watch 240 baseball games a year or whatever it is," Epstein said. "Our players grind through a whole year, and our front-office guys pull the all-nighters. This is what it's all about. Now that our guys are establishing that identity of finding a way to win this time of year, there's no better thing to be known for, and they've earned it." The Cubs next face the challenge of the Dodgers, the best team in baseball, but thoughts of the game took a respite for the night. Chicago has to decide a starting pitcher for the series opener in Los Angeles, a decision Epstein said would be discussed on the team's flight there. Lester, who won two World Series with the Red Sox in addition to last year's title, is likely not an option, having pitched 3 2/3 innings of relief in Game 4. But at some point, he'll make his 21st postseason start, tying him for eighth all time. There is more to come for these Cubs. For a night, though, they enjoyed what was already guaranteed to be theirs. "You live for this right here," third baseman Kris Bryant said. "You go through the grind of the year just to make this moment. This feels so good, and I've been fortunate to be a part of a bunch of these so far. "I don't ever want it to end." -- Cubs.com In crucial spots, Cubs believe they will prevail By Adam Berry WASHINGTON -- Standing in the visitors' clubhouse at Nationals Park, soaked in beer and champagne as the club he assembled took part in a familiar celebration, Theo Epstein reeled off all the reasons the Cubs should have been heading home for the winter. Stephen Strasburg no-hit them into the sixth inning in Game 1 of the National League Division Series presented by T-Mobile. Max Scherzer carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning of Game 3. Their pitching plan for Game 5 fell apart as they gave up 14 hits and walked nine, and they managed exactly one hit with runners in scoring position in the 4-hour, 37-minute elimination-game slugfest.

But there the Cubs were anyway, celebrating their third straight trip to the National League Championship Series presented by Camping World -- a rematch with the Dodgers that starts Saturday in Los Angeles -- after Thursday night gave way to Friday morning during their wild, harrowing 9-8 win over the Nationals. "It says a ton about our guys and their belief," Epstein said. The Cubs believe their series of unlikely victories also says a lot about the way they reached the postseason and why this year's club is different than last year's World Series championship team. Last year, the road to the World Series was relatively smooth. The 103-win Cubs of 2016 cruised to an NL Central title, lost once in the NLDS and beat the Dodgers, 4-2, in the NLCS. It was never so easy this season, when they found themselves below .500 at the All-Star break and fighting for the division lead in late September. They didn't expect this series to be easy, either. "We don't really have a choice," outfielder Jason Heyward said. "We haven't had the luxury of being able to say, 'OK, you can dwell on what's happened.' This year's been different for us. "In our eyes, this is what we've had to do all year. That helped us prepare for this moment, and we know there's more ahead." The series seemed to shift in the Nationals' favor when Strasburg and Michael A. Taylor silenced Wrigley Field in their 5-0 Game 4 victory over the Cubs on Wednesday. And "different" doesn't do justice to what manager Joe Maddon described as a "bizarro world" clincher. "Give the boys credit," Maddon said. "That's one of the most incredible victories I've ever been a part of." Held to eight runs in the first 35 innings of the NLDS, the Cubs broke out for nine runs in Game 5. They did not hit a home run in any of their three victories. Particularly when Strasburg and Scherzer shut them down with what Maddon called "Gibson, Koufax kind of stuff," the Cubs had to find different ways to win. Their starting pitching picked up the slack -- Kyle Hendricks in Game 1, Jose Quintana in Game 3. Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo led the way offensively in those victories, then Addison Russell stepped up with four RBIs in Game 5. Down by three runs after two innings Thursday, they rallied against Gio Gonzalez and Scherzer. Asked for a seven-out save, Wade Davis delivered. For all they overcame this season and in this series, the Cubs are nonetheless four wins away from another Fall Classic. "We've been through it," Ben Zobrist said. "In those situations, we tend to start believing we're going to get the job done even if it doesn't look like we are. ... We've done it so many times in the past now that you start believing it's going to happen again." -- Cubs.com Fifth inning of NLDS Game 5 is 'bizarro world' By Adam Berry WASHINGTON -- In the solemn Nationals clubhouse and amid the rowdy celebration taking place on the other side of Nationals Park on Thursday night, everyone tried to find the right words to describe the pivotal fifth inning of the Cubs' 9-8 victory, which clinched their third straight trip to the National League Championship Series presented by Camping World. How do you explain an inning that saw Max Scherzer, one of baseball's best starters, come out of the bullpen in a winner-take-all Game 5 of the NL Division Series presented by T-Mobile, and give up four runs on three straight two-out hits, an intentional walk, a contested passed-ball strikeout call, catcher's interference and a hit batter?

"Baseball. That's baseball," Cubs outfielder Jason Heyward said. "Regardless of the stage, baseball's gonna happen." But how did this happen? How did the Nationals let a two-run lead slowly evaporate with their best pitcher on the mound? How did the Cubs put up four runs, all of them with two outs, using only one hit? "It's the playoffs. Anything can happen," Scherzer said. "I'm sure I've been part of crazy things before, but nothing like that. That's playoff baseball. You've got to be able to withstand anything and be ready for any situation. You've just got to find a way to execute. We just couldn't find a way to get that last out." Summoned in the fifth inning to hold a 4-3 lead and get the ball to the Nats' late-inning relievers, Scherzer quickly retired Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo on six pitches. Then cleanup man Willson Contreras legged out an infield single, and pinch-hitter Ben Zobrist placed a single in shallow left field. Up came Addison Russell, who ripped a changeup into the left-field corner for a double, driving in both runners. "Addison Russell is such a clutch player. He was just hungry for that swing down the line there that put us in the lead," Zobrist said. "That really made us feel like we got over the hump in the early part of the game." As for everything after that? "It was nutty," Zobrist said. With first base open, Scherzer intentionally walked Heyward. Javier Baez swung at three straight pitches, including a third-strike slider that slipped through catcher Matt Wieters' legs to the backstop. Wieters, who was struck in the mask during Baez's backswing, compounded his mistake after recovering the passed ball, by firing it past both first baseman Ryan Zimmerman and second baseman Daniel Murphy. Baez reached second, Heyward advanced to third and Russell scored on the play. Wieters admitted he should have blocked Scherzer's pitch, but he attempted to appeal the play by citing interference on Baez's backswing. Home-plate umpire Jerry Layne, the crew chief, told Wieters the rule only applies when a runner is attempting to steal a base. "Backswing interference is a play where a guy is stealing or there's a play being made by a runner hindering the catch. It was a wild pitch and went past him," Layne said. "That is no longer in that particular description, in my judgment. In my judgment, the passed ball changed the whole rule around to where, in my judgment, it had nothing to do with everything [that happened]. Therefore, it didn't have any effect on it, in my judgment." Scherzer's third pitch to the next batter, pinch-hitter Tommy La Stella, was a cutter inside. Wieters reached out to receive the pitch, and La Stella's bat made contact with the catcher's mitt. La Stella was awarded first base on catcher's interference. "It's a bad time for me to have one of my worst defensive nights of my career," Wieters said. "It will take a little while to get over it." Three pitches later, Scherzer plunked Jon Jay -- the ninth Cubs hitter to bat in the fifth -- with a cutter to force in a run. He finally retired Bryant, for the second time, to end the string of seven straight Cubs who reached safely in the 28-pitch frame. Scherzer said he never lost his composure on the mound, but he was clearly frustrated with the part he played in the Nationals' latest postseason defeat. "They all burn. This one burns," Scherzer said. "I don't know how else to describe it." But both clubs tried to do just that, the Nationals searching for answers as the Cubs relived their opportunistic rally. Zimmerman called it "one of the craziest games I think I've ever been a part of." Closer Sean Doolittle chalked it up as a "really weird inning."

Cubs manager Joe Maddon said the whole night was "bizarro world, there's no question about it." Theo Epstein called the Cubs' comeback "crazy" and smiled as he said Baez's "strikeout-wild pitch is a huge part of our offense." How else to explain it? "You're playing against great teams. You've got to find a way to get it done," Heyward said. "At the end of the day, nobody's going to say how it happened in this clubhouse or on the field. It's just who won and who hung in there at the end." -- Cubs.com Cubs' repeat quest heads to Los Angeles By Carrie Muskat WASHINGTON -- In late August, the Dodgers had the best record in the Major Leagues, and Cubs manager Joe Maddon was asked about the possibility of facing them in the postseason. The Cubs were waiting for some of their injured players to get healthy and had a slim lead in the National League Central. "I'm very confident playing against them -- absolutely," Maddon said at that time. "I like the way we match up against them -- a lot, not a little bit." The comments were not meant to denigrate the other potential playoff teams, but they turned out to be prophetic. After Thursday's 9-8 win over the Nationals in Game 5 of the NL Division Series presented by T-Mobile, the Cubs now face the Dodgers in the NL Championship Series presented by Camping World, a rematch of last year's NLCS. Game 1 of the best-of-seven series will be played Saturday at Dodger Stadium. After the Nationals extended the NLDS to five games, it's not clear who will start the NLCS opener for the Cubs. The Cubs planned to talk about their options once they got to Los Angeles. John Lackey and Jose Quintana are both among the Cubs' choices for the start. A few players volunteered as they celebrated their third straight trip to the NLCS. "Can I [start]? Yeah," Jon Lester said. "I'll be there. I'll be in L.A. I think the plane tonight is going to L.A., so I'll be there." Said Kyle Hendricks, who started Thursday: "We'll figure it out. I don't know." The Cubs beat the Dodgers in six games in last year's NLCS, with Hendricks and Aroldis Chapman combining on a two-hitter in Game 6, a contest many thought was one of the Cubs' best games of the postseason. Hendricks went 7 1/3 innings in the 5-0 win at Wrigley Field, sparked by home runs by Anthony Rizzo and Willson Contreras off Clayton Kershaw. The 2016 LCS win was a little payback after the Dodgers swept the Cubs in the '08 NLDS. The Cubs went 2-4 against the Dodgers this season, winning two of three in the opening home series at Wrigley, April 10-13, before being swept at Dodger Stadium, May 26-28. Kershaw pitched twice in the 2016 NLCS, winning Game 2 but losing Game 6. Kershaw is 5-3 with a 2.64 ERA in nine career starts against the Cubs, including an outing May 28 in which he gave up four runs on 11 hits over 4 1/3 innings and did not get a decision. Whether it's the Dodgers or the 1927 Yankees, Maddon feels his team is ready.

"I often say you have to beat the best to be the best," he said. "The question could've been about any team. Pick the '27 Yankees, pick the '64 Cardinals, the Big Red Machine, the 'We are Family' [Pirates]. You just want to believe your guys will match up against anybody." We meet again: All-time LCS rematches ALCS 1970 Orioles def. Twins, 3-0 1971 Orioles def. Twins, 3-0 1973 A's def. Orioles, 3-2 1974 A's def. Orioles, 3-1 1976 Yankees def. Royals, 3-2 1977 Yankees def. Royals, 3-2 1978 Yankees def. Royals, 3-1 2000 Yankees def. Mariners, 4-2 2001 Yankees def. Mariners, 4-1 2003 Yankees def. Red Sox, 4-3 2004 Red Sox def. Yankees, 4-3 NLCS 1977 Dodgers def. Phillies, 3-1 1978 Dodgers def. Phillies, 3-1 1991 Braves def. Pirates, 4-3 1992 Braves def. Pirates, 4-3 2004 Cardinals def. Astros, 4-3 2005 Astros def. Cardinals, 4-2 2008 Phillies def. Dodgers, 4-1 2009 Phillies def. Dodgers, 4-1 -- Cubs.com Cubs, Dodgers get rematch of '16 NLCS By Doug Miller One team ended up winning it all and thrilling a fan base that had waited more than a century. One team went home early, spent the whole winter shoring up weaknesses, and became the best team in the Major Leagues a year later. A lot has changed for the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers since they met in the postseason last October, but as unpredictable as baseball might be, it does have a funny way of coming full circle. Both teams are back in each other's way in October, and once again the National League pennant is on the line. Game 1 of the NL Championship Series presented by Camping World is set for Saturday at 8 p.m. ET on TBS, but it's not beginning at Wrigley Field, and this time it's the Dodgers who are the ones with the long World Series title drought. This time, the Dodgers, who finished the regular season with 104 wins and then swept the D-backs in theiir NL Division Series presnted by T-Mobile, will have home-field advantage against the Cubs, who squeaked by the Nationals in an epic five-game NLDS thriller.

Chavez Ravine figures to be percolating and the Dodgers, coming off a series in which they beat the D-backs with a well-rounded mix of offense, defense and pitching from their mix of veterans and emerging young stars, are primed to reach their first World Series since they won it all 29 years ago over the heavily favored A's. "You look at the three games in the series, and they're all team wins," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after the NLDS. "Guys in certain roles … it was special. It really was. From the first pitch there was a plan in place, and we executed. Our guys, the hitting coach did a great job preparing the guys, and we were relentless every single pitch." They'll hope to do it Saturday, and they'll also hope that they get a signature October performance from their own ace, Clayton Kershaw, who wasn't his usual Cy Young-sharp self in his NLDS outing. Kershaw, who battled through back woes to go 18-4 with a 2.31 ERA and 202 strikeouts in 175 innings during the regular season, gave up back-to-back home runs in the seventh inning -- his third and fourth homers of the night of the game -- and all told he has a 21.86 ERA in the seventh inning of postseason games in his career. "The intensity of playoff games, there is more riding on each pitch," Kershaw said after that game. "Mentally, for sure, you try to focus that much harder every single pitch and just let the moment try to take over that moment every single time. Yeah, that can be taxing, for sure. "There are a lot of factors. No excuses, I gave up too many home runs tonight. Maybe some of that played a factor. I don't know.'' Fortunately for Kershaw, the Dodgers are loaded, so even if their three-time Cy and former NL MVP is on a shorter-than-usual leash moving forward through this postseason, there's a good chance their bats can get the job done. During the NLDS, for example, Justin Turner (6-for-13 with five RBIs), Yasiel Puig (5-for-11 with four RBIs), Austin Barnes (4-for-8 with three RBIs) and Logan Forsythe (4-for-9 with four runs scored) did a lot of the heavy lifting, and closer Kenley Jansen did his usual job of slamming the door. Jansen appeared in three games and gave up one earned run in 3 2/3 innings. "I think we all take it for granted, I know I do," Kershaw said of Jansen. "You just assume it's the eighth or ninth inning and the game's over." One thing about the Cubs, though: It seems like the game is never over when they're battling in the thick of it. They came back from an early three-run deficit to outlast the Nationals, 9-8, in the deciding Game 5 on the road on Thursday. They are the defending champs, they will not be intimidated, and they evolved even more over the course of a 2017 season that saw them 5 1/2 games back in the NL Central Division at the All-Star break, only to regroup and find themselves in a very familiar spot. "That's the beauty of this group, that they really support one another," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. "We grew throughout the course of the year, and listen, any manager would love this group." Maddon said the club had some things to think about regarding who might take the ball as the starting pitcher for Game 1. The five-game bout vs. the Nationals left Chicago thin in the pitching department, with regular starters Jon Lester and Jose Quintana being used in relief the last two games, after Jake Arrieta and Kyle Hendricks started them. Maddon said veteran playoff presence John Lackey is in the conversation for Game 1, and one would think it's possible they could turn to Quintana, whose relief stint in Game 5 in Washington only lasted two-thirds of an inning and 12 pitches. "Champagne after this, a long flight to L.A., which I'm really pleased about … we haven't even talked about that yet," Maddon said late Thursday night of the Game 1 starter.

One thing Maddon didn't have a problem discussing was this long-anticipated rematch. "It's very interesting once again," Maddon said when asked to compare the upcoming NLCS to last year's, which the Cubs won in six games. "[The Dodgers] are different because they really overcame the inability to really work against lefties;. They are better. They made some nice moves. They are more balanced in that regard. They have lefties that hit lefties, too, which make them more difficult. They always have a good bullpen. They have a specific plan regarding how they like to pitch. "They have Mr. Kershaw, obviously, and now they have [Yu] Darvish, et cetera. Listen, we just went through [Stephen] Strasburg and [Max] Scherzer. I mean, that's no day at the beach, either. When you get to this time of the year, you really have to be prepared to beat good pitching." So here we go again. The Dodgers are looking for payback. The Cubs are looking to keep hitting paydirt. The matchup is set for Saturday, a perfect prime-time feature in the hills high above the land of silver screens. "They're a good team, we're a good team," Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. "They're hungry and we're hungry, so it's going to be good baseball. "It's going to be hard-fought. We're going to go do our best." -- Cubs.com Cubs tip caps to the Nats after NLDS win By Nathan Ruiz WASHINGTON -- In many ways, Thursday night's marathon into Friday morning between the Cubs and Nationals was emblematic of the National League Division Series presented by T-Mobile as a whole. Chicago, in the end, took Game 5, winning 9-8, to complete the dramatic series between two teams that have established themselves in the upper echelon of the NL. "This was such a tough series, just a dogfight," said Cubs right-hander Kyle Hendricks, who started the series' opener and finale. "You've got to tip your hat. That club on the other side is really, really good. Lot of tough ballplayers over there. Top to bottom, they're just so deep. "We're just lucky we were able to come out on top." Hendricks stifled the Nationals in Game 1, tossing seven shutout innings, but it was a tougher go on Thursday. After Daniel Murphy smacked a game-tying solo shot off Hendricks' first pitch of the second, Michael A. Taylor increased Washington's lead with a three-run home run later in the inning. Yet the Cubs created their own rally, striking for a four-run frame in the fifth against two-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer. The Nationals relentlessly clawed back, continuing to pressure Chicago, the reigning World Series winner. "Really anxious, almost bemused at some of the things that were happening in that game," said Theo Epstein, the Cubs' president of baseball operations. "It was kind of a surreal game. We got all those runs with only one big hit to drive in runs, and then it was a matter of just holding on, finding a way to get 27 outs. It seemed impossible at times."

The Nationals twice held the Cubs hitless until the sixth. In Game 2, they rallied from a late deficit behind home runs from Bryce Harper and Ryan Zimmerman. An ill Stephen Strasburg supplied seven scoreless innings in Game 4 to push the series to its climactic finale. Kris Bryant, the Cubs' reigning NL MVP Award winner, went 4-for-20 in the five-game set. "They battled us," Bryant said. "They've got probably the best pitching in the league. [Max] Scherzer coming in today and beating a guy like that, that's probably one of the best pitchers of my time, we feel really good about it." There was plenty to celebrate, indeed. The Cubs, after all, are the team left advancing to the NL Championship Series presented by Camping World against the Dodgers beginning Saturday, a rematch of the NLCS from a year ago. "This game was probably more surreal from start to finish than any other game," Epstein said. "We only had one clean hit to drive in a run, and we scored nine, and then we had to find to get 27 outs without throwing strikes. Our guys did an unbelievable job of finding a way to gut through it." -- Cubs.com DYK? Facts, figures from wild NLDS Game 5 By David Adler, Andrew Simon and Matt Kelly It was long, grueling, dramatic and historic. When the dust settled at Nationals Park late Thursday night -- technically in the early hours of Friday morning on the East Coast -- the Cubs had outlasted the Nationals, 9-8, in Game 5 of the National League Division Series presented by T-Mobile. The bruising battle lasted four hours and 37 minutes, making it the longest nine-inning postseason game in history -- five minutes longer than last year's NLDS Game 5 in Washington, which the Dodgers won. Here is everything you need to know about the Cubs' heart-stopping victory and the Nats' gut-wrenching defeat. • This is the first time in Cubs history that the franchise has won a postseason series in three consecutive seasons. • The Nationals/Expos franchise has gone 36 consecutive seasons without winning a postseason series, since Montreal advanced through the 1981 National League Division Series. That is tied with the White Sox (1969-2004) for the third longest such streak since the postseason expanded to include the League Championship Series in 1969. Only the Rangers (41 seasons, 1969-2009) and Pirates (38 seasons, 1980-2017) have endured a longer drought. • The Nationals/Expos franchise has lost its last six games in which it had an opportunity to clinch a series victory, dating back to the 1981 NLCS against the Dodgers. That's tied with five other teams for the second longest losing streak in potential clinchers. Only the A's, who lost nine straight potential clinchers from 2000-03, have posted a longer streak. Davis saves the day • The Cubs went to Wade Davis early, bringing the closer in with two outs in the seventh inning. He got the job done, pitching the final 2 1/3 innings to save the game and send the Cubs to the NL Championship Series presented by Camping World. He became just the fifth pitcher to record a save of seven or more outs in postseason history. • The last time Davis had appeared in a game in the seventh inning or earlier was Game 7 of the 2014 World Series with the Royals. Coincidentally, that was also the last time a reliever recorded a seven-plus-out save in a winner-take-all postseason game. But it wasn't Davis. It was San Francisco's Madison Bumgarner, who pitched the final five innings of a one-run game in one of the postseason's legendary pitching performances.

• The other three pitchers to record a save as long as Davis' in a winner-take-all playoff game: Vida Blue in Game 5 of the 1972 ALCS, Bob Kuzava in Game 7 of the 1952 World Series and Grover Cleveland Alexander in Game 7 of the 1926 World Series. • Davis hadn't recorded seven outs in a game since Aug. 24, 2013, his final game as a starter for the Rays -- facing the Nationals. He had only gotten seven or more outs in relief three times in his career, all in 2012. • Davis threw 44 pitches in his relief effort. That wasn't just his season high, it was his highest in any game since that last 2013 start. He hadn't thrown that many pitches in relief since a pair of long-relief outings in 2012, and he had never eclipsed the 40-pitch mark in a postseason relief appearance. Break out the bats • The Cubs scored more runs in Game 5 (nine) than they did in the series' first 35 innings through Game 4 (eight). • Oddly enough, the Cubs didn't homer for any of those nine runs. Chicago's only two home runs of the series came in a Game 2 loss, as the club became the first to win a Division Series without going deep in any of its three victories. Only the A's in the 1972 ALCS had done it in a best-of-five series. • This was the third winner-take-all postseason game -- with the exception of Wild Card Games -- in which both teams scored at least eight runs. The Red Sox beat the Indians, 12-8, in Game 5 of the 1999 ALDS and the Pirates beat the Yankees, 10-9, in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series on Bill Mazeroski's famous walk-off homer. • The Nationals are the second team to lose a winner-take-all postseason game while tallying as many as 14 hits, joining the 1980 Astros, who fell to the Phillies in Game 5 of that year's NLCS. Their 23 times reaching base safely is the most for any losing team in a nine-inning postseason game. • This game featured the two hardest hits of the 2017 postseason thus far, according to Statcast™ -- Bryce Harper's 112.6-mph single up the middle in the fourth and Kyle Schwarber's 114.8-mph rocket single off the right-field wall in the seventh. • Daniel Murphy's game-tying solo homer in the second was the eighth of his postseason career, with the first seven all coming for the Mets in 2015. Over that three-year span, Chicago's Anthony Rizzo and Toronto's Jose Bautista are tied for second behind Murphy with six postseason homers. Murphy is now tied for third all time in postseason homers by a second baseman, behind only Chase Utley (10) and Jeff Kent (nine). • Michael A. Taylor helped the Nationals jump ahead with a three-run home run off Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks in the second. Taylor's RBI single in the eighth gave him eight RBIs in the series, the most by any player in franchise history (Expos/Nationals) in a Division Series. Taylor recorded four RBIs for the second straight day for the Nationals, becoming the first player in Major League history to record at least four RBIs in back-to-back postseason games. Hendricks left an 86.4-mph sinker up above the zone, but with that low velocity, Taylor still took him deep. In fact, the pitch Taylor homered on measured 4.06 feet above home plate, according to Statcast™, to mark the highest pitch any Nationals player has taken deep since Harper (4.16 feet) in 2014. The only player to go long on a higher pitch in the postseason since Statcast™ launched in 2015 was Toronto's Kevin Pillar, who homered on a pitch that measured 4.15 feet above the plate in Game 2 of the 2016 ALDS against the Rangers. A night of oddities • When Max Scherzer trotted in from the bullpen in the fifth, it was his first relief appearance since Game 4 of the 2013 American League Division Series. Scherzer pitched two innings in that game to earn the win for the Tigers, while current Nationals closer Sean Doolittle took the loss for Oakland.

• Scherzer struggled in relief, allowing four runs (two earned). He had only allowed four or more runs in five of his 32 starts this year, including the postseason. • Matt Wieters helped set up Taylor's homer by dropping a bunt down the third-base line against the Cubs' shift. It was his first bunt hit in the Majors. • Wieters had as tough a fifth inning as Scherzer, committing both a throwing error after a dropped third strike and a catcher's interference. Only one other time has a catcher committed both an interference and an error in the same game -- Carlos Ruiz in the Cardinals' 1-0 victory in Game 5 of the 2011 National League Division Series. • The Cubs' strange go-ahead fifth included an intentional walk, a passed ball after a strikeout, a catcher's interference and a hit by pitch. According to Baseball-Reference, none of the 2.73 million half-innings from Major League Baseball stored in the site's database contained these four plays in the same turn at the plate. In fact, only five games within the database contained those four plays in the same game. • With Hendricks going four innings and Gio Gonzalez pitching three, that makes 17 starts this postseason with no more than four innings completed. The all-time record for a postseason is 19, set last year. • Jose Quintana entered the game in the seventh to make his first relief appearance since his rookie season with the White Sox in 2012. Quintana pitched out of the bullpen three times that year, with his final relief appearance coming on Sept. 25 against the Indians. • All seven Cubs pitchers in the game issued at least one walk, making them just the second team to have that many different hurlers give up a free pass in a postseason game. The White Sox equaled that wild feat against the Astros in Game 3 of the 2005 World Series, but they used nine pitchers in 14 innings. -- ESPNChicago.com From the four-run inning to the seven-out save, how the Cubs salvaged their season By Jesse Rogers WASHINGTON -- In one corner of the victorious clubhouse, the mild-mannered closer of the Chicago Cubs tried to answer questions but could barely string his words together to form a sentence. "I'm emotionally drained," Wade Davis said with a sigh. On the other side of the room, Ben Zobrist and Jason Heyward attempted to explain away what exactly happened in the fifth inning of the deciding Game 5 against the Washington Nationals on Thursday night. The Cubs scored four runs off Max Scherzer after two outs and no one on base. No one saw it coming. "That was nutty," Zobrist said between champagne showers after the thrilling 9-8 win to close out the National League Division Series. "There were a lot of weird things that happened in the game tonight." And in the middle of the clubhouse stood someone who never made it into the game, or even into the dugout. Cubs video coordinator Nate Halm played as large a role as anyone when he noticed Nationals baserunner Jose Lobaton's foot come off first base on a pickoff attempt in the eighth inning, just as the Cubs were about give the lead back to Washington. Halm was being doused during the Cubs' celebration as if he had hit a home run, because the ensuing video challenge ended that Nationals threat. "I didn't think we were going to challenge, then Nate saw something on the replay," team president Theo Epstein said between sips of beer. "That was a huge moment in the game."

There were so many big moments in Game 5, it might be remembered as much as Game 7 of last year's World Series. The Cubs survived -- and despite issuing nine walks and going 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position, they scored nine runs. Bizarre indeed. "It was crazy," Jon Jay declared. "It was one of those classic games." Jay was part of that four-run fifth inning, which included the following four consecutive plays that netted the Cubs two runs: intentional walk; dropped third strike; catcher's interference; and a hit by pitch. "That's playoffs," a happy Jon Lester said. "That's what you see in the postseason." But against Scherzer? It was hard to believe. "Just the fact that we went from two outs no one on to a huge turning point in the game," Epstein said. "We got the two singles, but then it was filling out the box score." The lead the Cubs took that inning would be challenged the rest of the night, as Chicago's relievers once again could not find the strike zone. With Kyle Hendricks off his game, manager Joe Maddon asked his bullpen for 15 outs. Instead, they gave him eight walks. "We had to get 27 outs without throwing strikes, seemingly," Epstein said with a hint of sarcasm. As Maddon began to use his relievers, the math didn't add up. There were more outs than competent arms left. That's when Davis got the call. He was asked if he knew ahead of time that he might enter in the seventh inning. "No, let's never do it again," he said with a smile. Davis played the role of this year's Aroldis Chapman, entering with two outs in the seventh inning and the tying runs on base. He struck out Ryan Zimmerman to end that threat, but then got into a jam of his own the next inning. That's when Halm stepped in. With two on and two outs, catcher Willson Contreras back-picked Lobaton at first base. It looked like Lobaton made it back to the bag easily, but first looks can be deceiving when video replay is available. "I didn't think I had him initially," Anthony Rizzo said. "But on those bang-bang plays, you never know. It's one of those you have to take a peek." Halm signaled to Maddon to challenge it, and the Cubs won on the reversal. Davis was out of the jam without throwing another pitch. "I was rushing so much I kind of needed a reset," Davis said. "That was definitely huge. It saved me a bunch of pitches." Davis finally caught his breath, but there was still the ninth inning to take care, with the top of the order due up for the Nationals. After getting the first two outs, he only needed to get by Bryce Harper to clinch the series. It was a classic battle, which Davis won over the course of six pitches. He struck out Harper. "I was trying not to give up a homer," Davis said. He avoided the long ball and put up a heroic performance, even if it didn't look so good. Most games that take nearly five hours are kind of ugly, but if you win, it's something special. "It certainly wasn't pretty, but gutsy it was," Epstein said.

Davis was asked how he was feeling after throwing 44 pitches and getting seven outs to help send the Cubs back to the National League Championship Series for the third consecutive year. "My arm is OK," he said. "I'm emotionally tired right now." Anyone who played or watched the entire series between the two teams has to feel the same. It was an epic bout with the Cubs once again coming out on top. They've faced every challenge this year and have overcome. That's not easy the season after winning a championship. "This is what it's all about," Epstein said. "There is no better thing to be known for: winning at this time of year." The Cubs are getting used to these crazy affairs, after having played that wild Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. But this one might be remembered for more than just a great finish. An early deficit was overcome by taking down a Cy Young winner and then recovering after near bullpen implosions at every turn. It all seemed on the brink of falling apart, until a video challenge changed the late-game momentum. This night was one for the ages. "It was one of the most fun games I've ever been a part of," Addison Russell said as he wiped the champagne from his eyes. The biggest praise was left for Davis. Like Chapman before him, he dug deep and found something he wasn't even sure he had. But his teammates believed in him, and it's one reason they're one step away from a return to the World Series. "He's one of the toughest guys I've ever met," Hendricks said of Davis. "When asked to go seven outs, he didn't bat an eye." Zobrist offered his take on Davis. "He's got ice in his veins," Zobrist said. "That was a very tough moment. He pulled it out for us. A wild finish to a wild game." -- ESPNChicago.com Cubs weigh in on overturned call: No reason not to challenge there By Eddie Matz WASHINGTON -- Even Anthony Rizzo wasn't sure he had gotten the tag. With two outs and two on in the bottom of the eighth inning and the Washington Nationals trailing 9-8 to the Chicago Cubs in Game 5 of the National League Division Series, catcher Willson Contreras fired a snap throw to Rizzo at first base, who slapped the tag on a sliding Jose Lobaton. First-base umpire Will Little called Lobaton safe, but Cubs manager Joe Maddon challenged the call. After a replay review, the ruling was reversed and Lobaton was called out to end the inning. Washington went on to lose by that same 9-8 score, ending the season for the NL East champs and sending the 2016 World Series champion Cubs to the NLCS for a third straight year. "I didn't think I had him initially," Rizzo said. "But on those bang-bang plays, you never know. It's one of those you have to take a peek." The Cubs did just that. "We saw the foot come off then looked at another angle and figured it was worth the challenge," said Nate Halm, the Cubs' advance scouting coordinator. "Rizzo held the tag, so it worked out."

The outcome was a surprise to Lobaton. "I thought I was safe," said the Washington catcher, who was on first after lining a single to center off Cubs closer Wade Davis. "I didn't know my foot came off. You see in the replay that it was just my foot just came off just a little bit. That was enough for the replay to show I was out. What can I say? It's part of the rules right now. We have to take it." And Maddon knew he had to challenge it. "You've just got to," Maddon said. "You've got to. I looked for Anthony all the time. You have to trust your guys on the field, but there's no reason to not. We have two challenges. It's that part of the game. There's no reason to not challenge right there." Although the move paid off for Maddon and the Cubs, it was a killer for the Nationals and manager Dusty Baker. "It really hurts," Baker said. "To lose like that, especially after what we went through all year long, that was tough." -- ESPNChicago.com Max Scherzer's unbelievable, impossible, unprecedented loss By Sam Miller Max Scherzer didn't deserve the loss. This is often true of pitchers who get the loss, but this one goes in the Didn't Deserve The Loss Hall of Fame. I mean, mathematically speaking, he really didn't deserve the loss. Just look at this: After entering in the fifth and getting the first two batters he faced easily -- Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo, the Cubs' two best hitters -- Scherzer and the Washington Nationals' chances of winning were 71.5 percent, when: Willson Contreras hits a ground ball toward shortstop. Most likely scenario: Contreras grounds out. Just 25 percent of all ground balls Contreras has hit in his career have gone for hits. And, according to Statcast, only 15 percent of ground balls hit that hard were hits this year. But knowing that shortstop Trea Turner fielded the ball, knowing it stayed in the infield, we could arguably go even lower than that: Only 11 percent of ground balls that Contreras hit this year went for infield hits. If an out: Scherzer has the third out and is clear of the fifth inning untouched. Nationals are 72 percent likely to win. Instead, Contreras beats it for an infield hit. Nationals' chances go down just a tick, to 69 percent, when: Ben Zobrist hits a popup into shallow left field. Most likely scenario: Actually, one way of looking at it, the most likely outcome was that it'd be a single. The ball was hit high (28 degree launch angle) and not hard (72 mph off the bat), but that puts it into what has become known among Statcast watchers as the Donut Hole. These are weak flies that are far more likely to become hits than harder-hit fly balls, because they aren't hit well enough to reach the outfielders. Zobrist hit a good pitch poorly, and a lot of times that works. But by another way of looking at it, Scherzer got a fly ball that stayed in the park -- and fly balls that stay in the park are almost always outs. League wide, the batting average on fly balls that stayed in the park was just .090 this year. If all you knew was that Scherzer got Zobrist to hit a fly ball that stayed in the park, you'd estimate a 91 percent chance it was an out.

If an out: Scherzer has the first out of the top of the sixth inning, and the Nationals are 73 percent likely to win. Instead, it drops in for a single. With two men on, Nationals' chances go down to 66 percent, when: Addison Russell hits a hard grounder down the third-base line. Most likely scenario: Narrowly, a hit. Balls hit that hard at that trajectory are hits 52 percent of the time, according to Statcast. Third baseman Anthony Rendon missed it by inches, but this coin flip went against Scherzer. If an out: Scherzer has the second out of the sixth inning, and the Nationals are 76 percent likely to win. Instead, two runs score, and the Nationals chances are down to 39 percent, when: Jason Heyward steps in. Most likely scenario: If they pitch to Heyward, an out. Scherzer has allowed a .248 OBP as a National. In any other situation Scherzer almost certainly pitches to Heyward, most likely gets him out, is out of the sixth inning, and the Nationals are 77 percent likely to win. Instead, with a runner on second, he's ordered to intentionally walk him. We'll just note that only 37 pitchers in history (minimum 1,000 innings) have issued intentional walks less frequently than Scherzer. So, with two on, the Nationals' chances are now 37 percent, when: Javy Baez strikes out. What are the chances a batter striking out will end up on base? Across the league this year, about one quarter of 1 percent of strikeouts led to a baserunner. Scherzer has struck out 2,149 batters in the regular season in his career, and only five reached base: About one in 400, consistent with the league-wide rates. So: 0.25 percent. But! Those include wild pitches, and Scherzer didn't throw a wild pitch, so we can't very well assume he might have. Instead, at the moment the ball reached the catcher, a third strike and not a wild pitch, there was about a 999-in-1,000 chance that the out would be recorded. Only two baserunners in his career have reached base from that starting point: One on a passed ball, one on a catcher's throwing error. So: 0.0009 percent. If he'd recorded the strikeout, he has the first out of the seventh. The Nationals are 76 percent to win. Instead, Wieters misses the ball, then throws it wildly to first, and Baez reaches second. (We won't even get into the apparently wrong call by the umpire, which should have nullified the play.) The Cubs lead by two. The Nationals' chances are 24 percent, when: Tommy La Stella swings at a 1-2 pitch and fouls the pitch off. Most likely scenario: La Stella will eventually make an out. Batters hit .115, with a .164 OBP, against Scherzer after 1-2 counts this year. The chances of a catcher's interference, on the other hand, were minuscule: There were only 43 across all of major league baseball this year, in about 340,000 swings -- about one in 8,000 swings. The Nationals allowed only one all year, and that was with Jose Lobaton, not Matt Wieters, catching. Generously, we might say the odds were closer to 1-in-350, because La Stella has collected four catchers interference, in about 1,400 swings, in his career. He's kind of good at that. If there's no catcher's interference and Scherzer gets him: He's got two out in the seventh, and -- even without assuming the two runs that the Nationals would actually score in the sixth -- an 80 percent chance of winning. Instead, La Stella loads the bases, and the Nationals' chances are 22 percent, when:

Jon Jay is hit by a pitch. That one is unlikely, but it's on Scherzer. He rarely hits left-handed batters -- about .5 percent of the ones he sees -- but Jay is one of the best in the game at getting plunked by right-handers. Scherzer can't blame it on anybody else. So even in the version of events that all go Scherzer's way, Jay reaches as the potential tying run with two outs in the seventh. The Nationals would be about 76 percent likely to win. Instead, the darkest timeline, Jay pushes another run home, and Scherzer leaves having allowed four runs. He allowed more in only three starts all year. The Nationals are 15 percent likely to win. They would not. Scherzer took the loss. Now, it might seem unlikely that all of these events would go Scherzer's way, as I laid them out. And it is: By my math, there's only about a 1-in-4 chance that Scherzer would have all of those scenarios -- Contreras, Zobrist, Russell, Heyward, Baez, La Stella -- turn into outs. Just 1 in 4! But the chances that they'd all go against him? I get 4.58055e-10. What's that, .000000000458? I might have missed by a zero. But 1 in 2,183,406,113. Those are the odds that they'd all go against Scherzer. Maybe I'm just a softie. But that's a tough loss to give. -- ESPNChicago.com Cubs survive one of the strangest elimination games ever played By Jesse Rogers WASHINGTON -- It'll go down as one of the wildest elimination games in postseason history, but somehow, some way -- while using seven pitchers -- the Chicago Cubs advanced to their third consecutive National League Championship Series behind a 9-8 win over the Washington Nationals. It wasn't supposed to end this way for Washington, not when righty Max Scherzer marched in from the bullpen in the top of the fifth inning to a roar from the sold-out crowd. But the reigning Cy Young winner wasn't his usual dominant self. Leading 4-3 at home in Thursday night's elimination game, Scherzer was supposed to bridge the middle innings and deliver the lead to the Nationals' brilliant late-game pitchers. It never happened, because the most unusual of innings did. After Scherzer got reigning MVP Kris Bryant to ground out and current Hank Aaron Award finalist Anthony Rizzo to line out to center, that's when the Cubs went to work. Willson Contreras singled, followed by a Ben Zobrist pinch-hit base knock. Then came the hit of the game, a first-pitch double down the left field line by shortstop Addison Russell. Scherzer was on the ropes, all after two outs. But the Cubs weren't done. A dropped third strike, catcher's interference and a hit by pitch followed. Really. All that happened with Scherzer on the mound. A 4-3 deficit turned into a 7-4 Chicago lead. The Cubs would spend the next five innings doing everything they could to walk the game away, as their bullpen issued eight free passes and the Nationals chipped away at the lead. It wasn't enough, though, as Russell doubled home another run and Bryant beat out a double-play ball to plate one more. The Cubs scored just enough to outlast a Nationals squad that simply wouldn't go away. But a break in the eighth inning sealed the deal for the visitors. With a runner ahead of him at second base, Jose Lobaton was picked off first by Contreras when his foot came off the bag on his slide back into the base, as replay reversed the initial safe call. It saved closer Wade Davis some pitches, as he would get the final seven outs. Davis threw 44 pitches.

The Cubs' chances for a World Series championship repeat live on, as they get a rematch with the Dodgers in the NLCS, beginning Saturday in Los Angeles. But first they'll need to take a deep breath or two after eliminating the Nationals. It was that insane of a night. --