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At the beginning of the postseason, I predicted that the Chicago Cubs would win the World Series this year and end the organization’s famous title drought. I’m sticking to my guns, folks. 

Sure, I also predicted that they would ultimately beat the Boston Red Sox to do so. Instead, if the Cubs reach the World Series, they’ll have to contend with Cleveland, which has gone 7-1 in the postseason and dispatched two of baseball’s most dangerous offenses, the Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays.

Below, we’ll take a look at the remaining schedule 

Finally, it happened. Finally, the Cubs offense awoke.

After being shut out in the last two NLCS games, the Cubs exploded in a 10-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night. Perhaps more importantly, the slumping Addison Russell and Anthony Rizzo each homered and combined to go 6-for-10 with five RBI and four runs scored between them.

“This is a big win, for sure,” Rizzo said after the game, per Ken Gurnick and Carrie Muskat of MLB.com. “To even up the series, we have a chance to take another one here [Thursday] and go home with a 3-2 lead. In a way, this is just one game and we know it’s going to be a quick turnaround, but this was definitely a big game for us.”

Added Ben Zobrist: “We know our offense is too good to keep down for a long time. Hopefully, tonight is an indication of what’s to come.”

If nothing else, the win guarantees the series will return to Chicago for at least one game, where the Cubs were an MLB-best 57-24 during the regular season. The Dodgers will be hoping that Kenta Maeda can pitch them to a Game 5 win, setting them up to wrap up the series with Clayton Kershaw in Game 6.

Game 5, then, is crucial for the Cubs. Heading into an elimination game against Kershaw is hardly ideal. Win, however, and the Cubs get two cracks at advancing at home. Look for this series to go the full seven games but the Cubs moving one step closer to ending their championship drought.

While the Cubs perhaps turned the NLCS around, Cleveland booked its berth in the Fall Classic:

Cleveland has won behind a pitching staff that has posted a remarkable 1.77 ERA with 81 strikeouts over 71 innings. Opposing hitters have posted a meager .206 batting average against the Tribe, and starter Corey Kluber (2-1 with a 0.89 ERA and 1.09 WHIP), reliever extraordinaire Andrew Miller (21 strikeouts in 11.2 innings, no earned runs allowed, 0.60 WHIP) and closer Cody Allen (five saves, no earned runs, 1.04 WHIP) have been borderline unhittable.

Despite that fact, the team will likely continue to be overshadowed by their gaudier NL counterparts. That doesn’t seem to bother the Tribe much, as Jerry Crasnick of ESPN wrote:

As the Cleveland players and coaches doused each other with cold beverages and filled the clubhouse air with stale cigar smoke Wednesday evening, talk inevitably turned to what comes next in the aftermath of their American League Championship Series victory against Toronto. When it was suggested to second baseman Jason Kipnis that the Indians have more talent than their reputation suggests and all the “gritty gamer” talk is mere sandbagging, he took it as a personal affront. Kipnis turned to pitcher Josh Tomlin and disputed the notion that some Cleveland players might actually be good.

“I’m hitting [.167] in the postseason, and he can’t touch 90 miles an hour,” Kipnis said of Tomlin. “I don’t know what talent you’re talking about. We’re grinders. If you want guys who run fast and throw hard and can’t play the game, go find them. We’ve got baseball players on this team. We’ve got 25 guys who compete in between the lines and are having a blast doing it next to each other.”

In other words, the Tribe have embraced the underdog role. And why not? Playing baseball their way helped them roll the Red Sox and Blue Jays. Why change now?

Of course, timely hitting and excellent pitching is always a recipe for success in the postseason. The Cubs certainly experienced that fact in Games 2 and 3 of the NLCS. The Tribe earned a World Series berth due to that combination.

The Cubs, from top to bottom, are still the most talented team in this postseason. On paper, they’ll win the World Series. On the field, I believe they’ll do the same. But the Dodgers and the Tribe will certainly have something to say about that.

You can follow Timothy Rapp on Twitter.

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The Cleveland Indians cruised through the American League playoffs with a sparkling 7-1 record and will now await their National League opponent in the 2016 World Series.

Whether the Chicago Cubs or Los Angeles Dodgers prevail in their clash, the eventual Fall Classic winner will break a lengthy drought. The Cubs famously have not won a title since 1908, while Indians fans have been waiting since 1948. Los Angeles hasn’t lifted the trophy since 1988.

The National League Championship Series is tied at two games apiece, and the potential for a memorable World Series between two title-hungry franchises looms. With that in mind, here is a look at the event’s schedule, as well as a breakdown of the potential pitching matchups.

Schedule information is courtesy of MLB.com.

World Series Schedule

Pitching Analysis

Cleveland Indians

The Indians clinched their spot in the World Series on Wednesday, which gives them the luxury of setting their pitching staff exactly as they like while the two National League teams battle in a six- or seven-game series.

Factoring in a combination of how Cleveland started its pitchers in the postseason and overall performance, here is a projected starting rotation for the World Series:

Corey Kluber is the clear-cut ace and the Indians’ best chance of matching someone like Clayton Kershaw or Jon Lester. He finished the year with a 3.14 ERA, 1.06 WHIP and 227 strikeouts in 215 innings. He could also be used in a potential Game 7 out of the bullpen, much like Kershaw was in the decisive Game 5 of Los Angeles’ division series win against the Washington Nationals.

The Indians will likely use Trevor Bauer in Game 2 even though he threw just 21 pitches in his American League Championship Series start because of a pinkie laceration, per MLB.com’s Richard Justice. Blood was dripping onto his jersey, but he will have the chance to recover with the break in-between series. 

Manager Terry Francona trusted Bauer in Cleveland’s first postseason game this year, and that trust will still be there in the World Series.

The Indians will probably use Josh Tomlin in Game 3, especially since he has been more effective in the postseason than during the year. He has allowed just three earned runs with a 0.94 WHIP in 10.2 playoff innings after posting a 4.40 ERA this season.

Rookie Ryan Merritt proved his mettle in Game 5 of the ALCS with 4.1 shutout innings. He wasn’t intimidated by the Rogers Centre crowd in Toronto and supported the impressive numbers (1.64 ERA and 0.55 WHIP) he posted in 11 innings of work during the season.

Steve Gardner of USA Today noted injuries to Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar (on top of the setback to Bauer) have taxed the Indians bullpen. However, the group that has tallied a 1.67 ERA in 32.1 innings of playoff work will have the chance to recuperate during the break.

Andrew Miller won the ALCS MVP with 7.2 shutout innings, but Kluber pointed out there are a number of capable options behind the starting staff, per Gardner: “We have a lot of guys down there that can mix and match. We’ve got guys that have unbelievable stuff and we have a lot of faith in them to come in and finish games for us.”

The bullpen will need to continue doing so if the Indians are going to win the World Series.

Chicago Cubs

The assumption here is the NLCS goes a full seven games with the Cubs pitching Lester in Game 5 and the Dodgers answering with Kershaw in Game 6. Therefore, the NL representative will take the field for Tuesday’s Game 1 of the World Series with just one day of rest since the Game 7 showdown on Sunday.

That would mean veteran John Lackey would open up the Fall Classic for Chicago if manager Joe Maddon stuck with his postseason rotation. Here is a look at how things would set up:

From a statistical standpoint, the Cubs have the best remaining pitching staff in the playoffs. They finished first in all of baseball with a 3.15 ERA, have two legitimate Cy Young candidates in Lester and Kyle Hendricks, count last year’s National League Cy Young winner as a No. 3 starter (Jake Arrieta) and have a bullpen that features fireballers Pedro Strop, Hector Rondon and Aroldis Chapman.

Lackey may not stand out among that group, but the playoff-tested veteran has 25 postseason appearances and 22 postseason starts on his resume. In addition to his solid 3.26 ERA in those games, he won a title in 2002 with the Anaheim Angels and 2013 with the Boston Red Sox. He started Game 7 of the World Series in 2002 as a rookie and allowed just one earned run in five innings.

With Lackey supporting the numbers of Lester (2.44 ERA and 1.02 WHIP), Hendricks (2.13 ERA and 0.98 WHIP) and Arrieta (3.10 ERA and 1.08 WHIP), the Cubs won’t be overmatched when comparing their pitching to Cleveland’s if they reach the World Series.

Los Angeles Dodgers

Kershaw will pitch Saturday’s NLCS game, so he won’t be set to start the World Series for the Dodgers. However, he has proved throughout the postseason that he is willing to take the ball on short rest. He will start Game 2, which will set up Los Angeles’ rotation exactly how it was for the series against the Cubs:

The three-time Cy Young winner and 2014 National League MVP is the best remaining weapon in the postseason. Kershaw started Game 4 against Washington and came in for a pressure-packed save in the very next contest. He also prevailed against Hendricks in the NLCS with seven shutout innings in a 1-0 Dodgers win.

Don’t overlook Rich Hill, though, after he finished the season with a 2.12 ERA and 1.00 WHIP and threw six shutout innings against the Cubs. New York Times bestselling author Molly Knight said Chicago’s shutout losses in Games 2 and 3 of the NLCS were largely because of the southpaw combination:

Kenta Maeda (seven earned runs in seven postseason innings) and 20-year-old Julio Urias (four earned runs in 5.2 postseason innings) are still major question marks, but Los Angeles would win the World Series if it prevailed in just games started by Kershaw and Hill.

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From Javier Baez to Clayton Kershaw, there has been no shortage of emerging talents and established megastars who are stealing the show this October. 

Beginning with the Chicago Cubs’ electric infielder and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ indomitable ace, let’s take a look around the baseball world to zero in on the five big leaguers who have taken over the postseason and helped carry their respective clubs onward toward the Fall Classic.

The five players who crack this list have either rewritten the storyline from playoffs past or are in the midst of churning out an entirely new script. Two of those five share the same American League clubhouse of a team that has been defying logic throughout its postseason run. 

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After suffering through back-to-back shutouts in Games 2 and 3 of the National League Championship Series, the Chicago Cubs‘ slumbering offense awoke for a 10-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4 to tie the series at two games apiece.

Addison Russell and Anthony Rizzo, who had both been slumping badly throughout the postseason, both homered to trigger the Chicago attack. Both men had three hits in the game, with Russell scoring two runs and driving in two while Rizzo scored two and drove in three runs.

While the Cubs got back to work at the plate, the Dodgers were held to six hits and committed four errors. 

The Cubs, whose 103-58 record was the best in baseball during the regular season, have seemingly recaptured the momentum that had disappeared in their consecutive losses.

They will attempt to regain the lead in the series Thursday night in Game 5 at 8:08 p.m. ET at Dodger Stadium, sending left-handed ace Jon Lester to the mound to face Kenta Maeda of the Dodgers. The game will be televised on FS1, and the live stream is available on Fox Sports Go.

Some thought the Dodgers would send Clayton Kershaw to the mound in Game 5 on short rest, but Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts opted to go with Maeda.

The Washington Nationals tagged Maeda with a loss in the National League Division Series, and he allowed three runs on four hits in Game 1 against the Cubs.

Roberts explained his decision to go with Maeda to the media prior to Game 4.

“Well, I think that [Thursday] isn’t a deciding game,” Roberts said, per CBSSports.com. “It’s not an elimination game. And I think the accumulation of [Kershaw’s] usage over the last 10 days plays a factor in our decision.”

Lester has been in good form this postseason, as he is 1-0 with a 0.64 earned run average. In Game 1 of the NLCS, he gave up one run and four hits in six innings. Manager Joe Maddon replaced him after that, even though it looked like he could have gone further after throwing just 77 pitches.

Lester is coming off a strong regular season that included a 19-5 record, a 2.44 ERA and a 1.016 WHIP. He also struck out 197 batters and walked 52 in 202.2 innings.

Lester has also had success throughout his career in the postseason. The 6’4″, 240-pound Tacoma, Washington, native has a 2.57 ERA and 1.027 WHIP in 18 career appearances.

Lester’s status as one of the best money pitchers in baseball helps the Cubs in the eyes of the oddsmakers. Chicago is a -151 (bet $151 to win $100) favorite to take the 3-2 lead in the series, according to Odds Shark. The Dodgers are +141 (bet $100 to win $141) underdogs in the game.

Kershaw is scheduled to pitch Game 6 of the series on Saturday night against Kyle Hendricks. If the series goes the full seven games, Rich Hill of the Dodgers and Chicago’s Jake Arrieta are likely to be slated for a rematch.

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Fact: The Cleveland Indians beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-0 on Wednesday to win the American League Championship Series in five games and advance to the World Series for the first time since 1997.

Bleacher Report will be bringing sports fans the most interesting and engaging Cold Hard Fact of the day, presented by Coors Light.

Source: B/R Insights

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With the American League pennant wrapped up, the final stage of the 2016 MLB playoffs is nearly set as the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers are now interlocked in a 2-2 series.

For the first time since 1997, the Cleveland Indians are in the World Series. Despite several key injuries, the team used timely hitting and a dynamite bullpen to beat the high-powered Toronto Blue Jays in five games. Cleveland has not won baseball’s top prize since 1948, which is the longest active drought of any AL team, per Jay Jaffe of Sports Illustrated.

As for the National League Championship Series, the Cubs bats finally showed some life to get Chicago back into the series. Meanwhile, the Dodgers’ lack of pitching depth looks to be hurting the team the longer this matchup goes on.

Take a look below at the television and live-streaming schedule for the remainder of the postseason. Continue reading for a look at the top comments, highlights and key statistics for the Indians and the NLCS. 

Cleveland Continues to Disprove Doubters

With two starters in Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar out with injuries, it appeared that Cleveland would not have enough pitching to conquer two elite offenses in Boston and Toronto. Yet, players like Ryan Merritt have defied that notion.

Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista seemed rather confident before taking on the unknown Merritt, a 24-year-old who made his second-ever MLB start—and first in the playoffs—in Game 5.

“With our experience in our lineup, I’m pretty sure [Merritt]’s going to be shaking in his boots more than we are,” Bautista said prior to the game, per Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith.

After Merritt allowed only two hits in 4.1 scoreless innings in the Indians’ 3-0 win, Cleveland was not shy in responding to the comments, per the Boston Herald‘s Evan Drellich:

Cleveland ace Corey Kluber also took to Twitter for his own take:

While Merritt’s performance helped clinch the series’ deciding game, the Cleveland bullpen has been the star of its postseason run.

Manager Terry Francona has opted with leaning on his relief staff often in these playoffs, and the unit has shined, as the numbers below show:

Andrew Miller has led this charge, as the trade-deadline acquisition is leading the bullpen in innings pitched while absolutely dominating with a commanding fastball and complementary slider, netting him nearly two strikeouts per inning. His stuff was on full display in another extended appearance in Game 5 of the ALCS, via MLB.com:

Boston led the majors in runs scored this season, and Toronto possessed one of the scariest lineups in baseball that allowed it to rank fourth in MLB in home runs. Thus, the Cleveland bullpen should be able to handle either the Cubs or the Dodgers in the Fall Classic.

The key for the Indians will be building early leads. Kluber, and possibly Josh Tomlin, is the team’s only given as far as a bona fide starter, so Cleveland cannot ride its rotation too heavily. If the Indians hold a lead by the fifth inning, they should be expected to win, which is a frightening proposition for opponents as the Cleveland bullpen essentially cuts the game in half.

Can the Cubs Continue Offensive Resurgence?

Despite featuring a deep, loaded lineup that is headlined by NL MVP candidates Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo, Chicago has been mired in an offensive slump in these playoffs.

The team came into Game 4 of the NLCS averaging just over 3.5 runs per game and hitting .185 as a team, which is the worst by far of any club remaining in the postseason. Yet, Bryant was not too worried about his squad’s struggles after it failed to score a run in consecutive losses to the Dodgers, per the Chicago Tribune‘s Mark Gonzales.

“We’ll figure it out,” Bryant said. “We’re very confident here. The peaks and valleys of this game sometimes make you go crazy, but we got more games to play.”

That assurance came to fruition, as the Cubs seemingly grabbed the momentum in this series with a 10-2 thrashing of Los Angeles in Game 4. The team scored all 10 runs in a three-inning span between the fourth and sixth with Rizzo breaking out of his slump for three RBI and Addison Russell hitting a two-run jack. The two were due to step up, per MLB Stat of the Day:

After the game, other Cubs echoed Bryant’s sentiment that the team was confident it would find offense, including veteran Ben Zobrist, per CSN Chicago’s Patrick Mooney:

Jason Heyward, another Cub in a deep offensive struggle, commented that just getting people on base was key to the team’s performance, as it had not done that much this postseason, per Gonzales:

It was tough when you have nobody on base, trying to get people on base. Until you get somebody on base, you cant steal first. Until you can do that, it’s tough. There’s a lot of pressure, especially in the postseason. We were able to do that with some singles. It wasn’t home runs. It was singles.

We got people on base and it allowed us to hit a ground ball to second base. The first (at-bat) was a tough AB, trying to put the ball in play. (Urias) made some pitches to Rizzo and me, but it’s a lot easier to get that run home with a runner on third base with less than two outs.

The win was not without some controversy. With the game scoreless in the second inning, Adrian Gonzalez appeared to score at home, but he was called out in a play that stood up on review, via MLB.com:

This did not make a huge difference in the rout, but it could have changed the game a bit if the Dodgers began with a lead. Gonzalez was heard pleading his case from the dugout on Fox’s television broadcast, and he continued to do so after the game, per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register:

In hopes of taking a critical 3-2 series lead, the Dodgers will turn to Kenta Maeda in possibly their last home game of the season. Maeda was roughed up for four hits and three runs through only four innings in his Game 1 start.

Los Angeles better hope Maeda rebounds from that performance, as it will take on an ace in Jon Lester who has thrived against the Dodgers this season.

The lefty has only allowed a mere two runs in three quality starts while consistently frustrating the Dodgers. This comes as no surprise, considering Los Angeles finished last in the majors this season with a .214 batting average against lefty pitching, according to MLB.com.

Whether or not the Cubs have completely broken out of their slump is not yet known, but the good news is that they do not need to replicate this for Game 5. Lester is an established star in the playoffs, posting a 2.57 career ERA in 18 appearances, including 16 starts.

Chicago will have a tremendous chance to take a series lead back home, as it should only need to score around its average for this postseason to pull out a win. However, this matchup could very well go seven games with Clayton Kershaw looming as a potential Game 6 starter.

Statistics are courtesy of ESPN.com unless otherwise noted. 

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It’s now a best-of-three series between the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers for a spot in the World Series. The Cubs’ 10-2 win at Los Angeles on Wednesday evened the National League Championship Series at two games apiece. Basically, the first team to claim the next two victories moves on.

Now we’re guaranteed to get two more matchups between the Cubs and Dodgers: first Game 5 on Thursday at Dodger Stadium and then Saturday at Wrigley Field in Chicago. None is more important than the next one, though, because it puts the winner in position to advance the following game.

Surprisingly, past scenarios like the one we’re currently in haven’t favored the team with home-field advantage for the rest of the series. According to ESPN, in league championship series where the road team won Game 4 to make it 2-2, only three of nine teams who had two of the next three at home ended up making the World Series.

What are the keys for each team in order to win this pivotal fifth game? Follow along as we break down what both the Cubs and Dodgers need to do in order to take the next one.

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The Cleveland Indians have already booked their World Series flights. Now it’s up to the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs to round things out and get the 2016 Fall Classic underway.

The Chicago Cubs earned a 10-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday to bring the NLCS to a 2-2 tie. John Lackey gave up two runs over four innings of work, the Cubs bullpen kept things afloat and their offense finally felt unshackled in the critical Game 4.

Anthony Rizzo and Addison Russell each went deep, combining to drive in five runs to awaken the slumbering juggernaut. Rizzo drove in three runs, going deep in the fifth and smacking a single with the bases loaded in the sixth. Russell hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the fourth, which gave Chicago a comfortable 4-0 lead.

The two teams will play Game 5 on Thursday before heading back to Chicago for Games 6 and (potentially) 7. 

Cleveland, meanwhile, took care of its final piece of business Wednesday night. Behind surprise starter Ryan Merritt and a sterling bullpen, the Indians finished off the Toronto Blue Jays with a 3-0 victory in the fifth game of the American League Championship Series.

Reliever Andrew Miller was named series MVP after adding 2.2 innings of work to his stellar postseason body. Miller has not given up a run in 11.2 innings and has gone over an inning pitched in each of his six appearances. Brought over by a midseason trade with the New York Yankees, Miller has emerged as the best setup man in baseball and an anchor next to closer Cody Allen.

Miller shared his thoughts about winning the award with Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com: 

I don’t deserve this recognition. I don’t think anybody does. I don’t think anybody should be singled out after this series.

It’s such a special team. It’s a special organization. The way they treat us from top to bottom, it’s paid off. It’s not because of one person or one thing. It’s neat to be recognized, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is we won a game today and we’re going to the World Series and it doesn’t get any better than that.

Miller came in to help finish the job started by Merritt, one of the unlikeliest LCS starters in recent memory. The 24-year-old entered Wednesday with one career MLB start and 11 innings under his belt. He had not thrown competitively since Sept. 30 and had been a spot reliever who occasionally got called up from the minors as an injury replacement.

In finishing off the Jays, he was nothing short of great. He retired the first nine batters he faced and gave up only two hits over 4.1 innings, striking out three. Manager Terry Francona may have even erred on the side of caution pulling him after 49 pitches; it looked as if he could have gone through the order another time.

“Going into today, I told myself to have fun, enjoy the moment, don’t try to do too much, be yourself, trust in your team, trust in yourself and just go out there and compete. There was a lot of emotion, lot of nerves. Tough to sleep at night,” Merritt said, per John Telich of Fox 8.

Merritt likely didn’t get much sleep last night, but he’ll be slumbering like a baby for the next few as the Indians prepare themselves for the World Series. It’s unlikely we’ll see much or any of Merritt going forward; Trevor Bauer should be recovered enough from his drone-related injury to make his scheduled start in the rotation.

All that’s left to determine is whether it’ll be the Cubs or Dodgers making the trip to Cleveland for Game 1. The longer the series goes, the better it is for the AL champs. Los Angeles will almost certainly use Clayton Kershaw again in Game 6, while Jon Lester will also be taking another turn in the rotation. Depending on the timing of those starts, the Cubs and Dodgers could be forced to wait until Game 2 before using their aces.

No matter, Cleveland will likely walk into the Series as an underdog. Either potential NL champion poses a formidable threat. The Dodgers have been throwing money at elite players for a handful of years now in hopes of throwing together a World Series contender. They’ve come up just short in their effort.

The Cubs have been throwing together a World Series contender for, oh, let’s just say more than a century now. Theo Epstein’s plan of building a young lineup and surrounding it with a strong veteran pitching staff resulted in one of the best regular seasons in recent memory. 

The Cubs remain the overall favorite and should take care of business now that they’ve wrested home-field advantage back from Los Angeles. But either way, I’m taking the NL winner. 

Prediction: Dodgers over Indians in 7 or Cubs over Indians in 6

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You know that thing about momentum being the next day’s starting pitcher? The Los Angeles Dodgers are about to put that to an interesting test.

The Dodgers had all the momentum over the Chicago Cubs in the National League Championship Series, responding to a Game 1 loss with back-to-back shutouts in Games 2 and 3. But then came a 10-2 drubbing at Dodger Stadium in Game 4 on Wednesday. The momentum is with the Cubs again.

And they have ace left-hander Jon Lester ready to take the mound for Game 5. He might have been opposed by Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers’ own ace lefty, if manager Dave Roberts had made the bold call of starting him on three days’ rest for the second time this postseason.

Instead, Roberts is giving the ball to Kenta Maeda. As he implied after Game 4, per Arash Markazi of ESPN.com, the situation simply doesn’t warrant going to Kershaw:

This checks out. It’s a best-of-seven series. The Dodgers and Cubs have each won two games. Roberts need not act like tickets to the World Series or tickets home are on the line.

Still, it’s not hard to guess where the Cubs come down on this matter. After going into Game 4 with zero runs since a five-run explosion in the eighth inning of Game 1, they breathed some life into their bats in Wednesday’s blowout. Facing Kershaw in Game 5 would have threatened to suck that life right out again.

He is Clayton Kershaw, after all. He has three Cy Youngs. He had a 1.69 ERA this season. Most recently, he shut out the Cubs on two hits in seven innings in Game 2. He also has a good track record on three days’ rest in the postseason, putting up a 3.21 ERA in four starts.

For his part, Maeda is not a bad pitcher. The Japan native put up a solid 3.48 ERA in his first MLB season this year. He struck out over a batter per inning and, per Baseball Savant, ranked among the leaders in average exit velocity at 86.0 mph.

The Cubs weren’t too scared of him in Game 1, however. They got to Maeda for three runs on four hits and three walks in four innings. 

That performance kept up a trend of not-so-good starts when Maeda only gets four days of rest. He had a 3.97 ERA in such situations in the regular season. When he takes the mound Thursday, he’ll be on four days’ rest once again. Cue ominous music.

“This time around, I think I can better imagine how I’m going to get these guys out,” Maeda said ahead of Game 4, per Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times. “I remember how each hitter reacted to a certain pitch, so I’m going to base off that when I pitch again.”

Simply being sharper with location would be a good idea. Maeda made mistakes in Game 1, and BrooksBaseball.net shows the Cubs didn’t miss a couple of them. Otherwise, they waited him out and took their walks.

Maeda is at his best when he’s working the outside edge of the zone with his fastball and getting hitters to chase off-speed. That’s not only where he gets his whiffs, but as Baseball Savant shows, most of his soft contact as well. 

Trouble is, the Cubs don’t do much chasing outside the zone. They did that at a smaller rate than all but five other teams this season. If they can force Maeda in the zone, they can beat him.

That’s not something Kershaw has to worry about most days. He works in the zone as much as any starting pitcher not named Rich Hill. He does that because he has the stuff to do it. It’s no wonder he silenced the Cubs in Game 1, not to mention all the other teams he’s ever stifled.

There’s also the long-game portion of this matter. If Kershaw were starting Game 5, he could be used in relief if needed in a Game 7 on Sunday. After what he did in Game 5 of the National League Division Series, that’s an appealing hypothetical.

But does this mean Roberts is making an obvious mistake by not starting Kershaw in Game 5? Not really.

As promising as Kershaw’s track record on three days’ rest may be, the Dodgers have no idea how he can manage two starts on three days’ rest within the same postseason—much less two starts on three days’ rest within the same postseason following an injury-marred regular season.

Make no mistake, these are scary unknowns. Scarier than any matchup nitpicks to be made about Maeda and the Cubs. Too scary to risk on a game that doesn’t need to be won.

And while getting Maeda a couple extra days of rest would be ideal, the fact he would be pitching away from Dodger Stadium in Game 6 may have rendered that moot. He had a 3.74 ERA on the road in 2016, compared to 3.22 at home.

Roberts is effectively gambling on that split. If it works, he’ll have Kershaw ready for the kill on regular rest in Game 6 back in Chicago on Saturday. If it doesn’t, the Dodgers could ask for a worse duo to pin their hopes of a comeback on than Kershaw in Game 6 and Hill in Game 7.

If the Dodgers were going into Game 5 looking to punch their ticket to the World Series or stave off elimination, this conversation would look entirely different. Either circumstance would have made starting Kershaw on short rest again awfully tempting.

But that’s not the situation. The Dodgers are not in a desperate hour. And as such, they can afford to roll the dice on a tough matchup in Game 5 if it means having Kershaw fully locked and loaded for a Game 6 that’s happening no matter what.

Not starting Kershaw in Game 5 may end up hurting the Dodgers. But it’s not going to kill them.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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While the Cleveland Indians won the American League Championship Series in a quick five games, there is plenty of drama remaining in the National League showdown between the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Chicago evened things up at two games apiece with a 10-2 victory in Wednesday’s Game 4, which means Thursday’s Game 5 is a crucial contest that will leave the victor a single win away from a World Series berth.

The Dodgers will want to avoid a 3-2 hole before the series shifts to Wrigley Field for Games 6 and possibly 7, while the Cubs will want to prevent a scenario where Los Angeles holds a 3-2 lead and gives the ball to the dominant Clayton Kershaw.

According to MLB.com, Thursday’s Game 5 starts at 8 p.m. ET at Dodger Stadium and will feature Chicago’s Jon Lester squaring off with Los Angeles’ Kenta Maeda. The live stream is available on Fox Sports Go.

Game 5 Preview and Prediction

The Cubs bats woke up in Game 4 after finishing without a single run in their losses in Games 2 and 3. In fact, Chicago’s four runs in the fourth on Wednesday snapped a scoreless streak of 21 innings dating back to the eighth inning of Game 1.

Two key figures led the charge in a much-needed way.

Anthony Rizzo and Addison Russell had a combined three hits in the entire playoffs before Wednesday’s contest, but they each blasted home runs in Game 4. Rizzo tallied three hits, three RBI and two runs, while Russell added three hits, two RBI and two runs.

Considering Rizzo was an MVP candidate almost all season with slash numbers of .292/.385/.544 with 32 home runs and 109 RBI, the Cubs need him to be a catalyst in this series. Mark Schanowski of Comcast SportsNet Chicago pointed out how important the slugging first baseman is to the Cubs’ title chances:

Rizzo, Russell and the rest of the Cubs offense will face Maeda in Game 5, but there was some question about whether Kershaw would start in the swing game. Manager Dave Roberts ended that speculation after Wednesday’s contest and said he would stick with Maeda, especially since “tomorrow is not an elimination game or a deciding game,” per Arash Markazi of ESPN.com.

However, Maeda has been a disaster in the playoffs for the Dodgers. He allowed four earned runs, five hits and two walks in three innings in his division series start against the Washington Nationals and followed that up with three earned runs, four hits and three walks in four innings in Game 1 of this series against the Cubs.

Chicago’s pitching situation is much more favorable for Game 5.

Manager Joe Maddon will go with Lester, who was one of the best pitchers in all of baseball this season with a 2.44 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and 197 strikeouts in 202.2 innings. The Cy Young candidate has been even better in the postseason with just one run allowed in 14 innings and a 0.71 WHIP.

He should also be fresh after throwing just 77 pitches in six innings of work in Game 1 of this series. He allowed four hits and a single run and was a critical figure in Chicago’s 8-4 victory even though he didn’t get credit for the win after the bullpen blew his lead.

Pressure-packed moments are nothing new for Lester after pitching for the Boston Red Sox from 2006-14. He has 18 career postseason appearances in all with a sparkling 2.57 ERA and 1.03 WHIP.

The Cubs also have a fresh Aroldis Chapman after he wasn’t needed in Wednesday’s blowout victory.

The Dodgers may still win the series with Kershaw likely to start Game 6 and Rich Hill as the most realistic option for a potential Game 7, but Thursday’s matchup significantly favors the Cubs. Look for them to get to Maeda early once again and take a 3-2 lead to Wrigley Field with a chance to earn their first spot in a World Series since 1945.

Game 5 Prediction: Cubs 5, Dodgers 2

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