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For the last 107 seasons, any hope the Chicago Cubs held heading into postseason play was almost immediately followed by agony.

What took place in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the National League Division Series on Tuesday night is supposed to happen to the Cubs. Chicago is never the team that dishes out heartbreak.

But at AT&T Park, the Cubs borrowed—or maybe stole—some of the magic that has guided the San Francisco Giants to World Series titles in each of the last three even years.

Down by three runs, with a decisive Game 5 on the minds of everyone in attendance and watching at home, the Cubs scored four runs to take a 6-5 lead.

Chicago closer Aroldis Chapman saved the game with three swinging strikeouts in the ninth.

While the Cubs have been the champions of misfortune, it’s important to note that only one team has ever done what they did Tuesday.

Chicago’s comeback from a three-run deficit tied the largest ninth-inning deficit overcome in a clinching postseason game. The 1986 New York Mets did the same in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series.

It gives reason to believe this is the year for the Cubs.

Tuesday’s theatrics are commonplace at AT&T Park in October, only fans are used to seeing them performed by the home team. Chicago’s victory snapped the Giants’ 10-game winning streak in elimination games.

That means en route to winning the World Series in 2010, 2012 and 2014, San Francisco faced elimination nine times. Their 10th win in an elimination game came Monday, when they captured Game 3.

That’s suggestive of the kind of magic it takes to raise the Commissioner’s Trophy. It’s what the Cubs have been missing but finally seem to have.

All series, Chicago struggled offensively. Only third baseman Kris Bryant, who hit .375/.412/.688 in the four games, was hitting. And he began the ninth-inning rally with a leadoff single.

But seemingly everyone got in on the action. Anthony Rizzo walked, Ben Zobrist lined a run-scoring double and Javier Baez singled home Jason Heyward, who has struggled all year at the plate, for the game-winning run.

Manager Joe Maddon added a little of his out-of-the-box style to the inning, too.

With shortstop Addison Russell, who had 95 RBI this season, coming to the plate and the game-tying runs on second and third, Maddon elected to pinch hit.

He used left-handed batter Chris Coghlan, who hit just .188 and drove in only 30 runs this season, to get a lefty-righty matchup against Giants pitcher Sergio Romo.

Coghlan turned out to be a decoy.

Once his name was announced—the official designation that a player has entered a game—San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy countered by bringing in southpaw reliever Will Smith.

Maddon then removed Coghlan before he even stepped into the batter’s box and inserted right-handed hitting catcher Willson Contreras, who hit .311 against left-handers this season.

The Cubs had the matchup they wanted, and it paid dividends: Contreras singled home Rizzo and Zobrist to tie the game.

It was a picture-perfect ending for Chicago, which is typically the victim in a horror film.

The Cubs await the winner of the NLDS between the Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Dodgers. Those two teams will play a Game 5 on Thursday.

As if winning an NLDS wasn’t enough for Chicago, the Dodgers used ace Clayton Kershaw in Tuesday’s Game 4. The Nationals will throw their ace, Max Scherzer, in Game 5.

That means regardless which team the Cubs play in the NLCS, which starts Saturday, they will not face that team’s ace until at least Game 2.

But by virtue of closing out their NLDS in Game 4, Chicago will get to throw its ace, Jon Lester, in Game 1. Had San Francisco forced Game 5, Lester would have pitched Thursday, and had the Cubs advanced, he would not have been available until Game 3 of the NLCS.

Everything that could have gone the Cubs’ way Tuesday night did.

And while Chicago’s shocking comeback reverberated around the baseball world, it also left onlookers wondering whether the sport’s even-year magic had changed addresses.

It seems as if the Cubs are finally destined for some good fortune.

Seth Gruen is a national baseball columnist for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @SethGruen.

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The National League Division Series field is set after the San Francisco Giants knocked off the New York Mets in the Wild Card Game, setting up the Giants for an NLDS meeting with the Chicago Cubs.

Madison Bumgarner put the Giants on his shoulders once again in the elimination game, twilring a four-hit shutout to improve his already legendary postseason resume.

Now the Giants will have to take on baseball’s best team, as the Cubs wrapped up the regular season at 103-58 with a staggerling plus-252 run differential.

The Cubs took the season series 4-3, taking three of four at home in September after dropping two of three at AT&T Park in May.

This NLDS matchup will begin Friday at Wrigley Field in Chicago, with first pitch of Game 1 scheduled for 9:00 p.m. ET.

Before the series gets underway, let’s take a position-by-position look at how the two teams match up and make a quick prediction for who will come out on top.

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If the Chicago Cubs have their way, 2016 will be the year they finally end a 108-year World Series championship drought and send the Curse of the Billy Goat the way of the Curse of the Bambino.

Addison Russell aims to do his part. He may not have the biggest name on a star-studded Cubs team fresh off a 103-win regular season, but there’s no question he’s a rising star. The second-year shortstop was an All-Star for the first time in 2016, and his stellar defense and strong offense make him one of the best two-way players still standing.

Russell is partnering with MET-Rx for a campaign based on the pressure to deliver in October. As part of that, he took time Tuesday to talk with Bleacher Report about the trajectory of his career and the mood around Chicago and the Cubs themselves on the eve of the team’s National League Division Series matchup against the San Francisco Giants.

Bleacher Report: I want to start by going back into your personal history. You got your first taste of Wrigley Field in 2010, when you were there for the Under Armour All-America Game. Do you recall what your impressions of the stadium were at the time?

Addison Russell: I remember driving up on the bus and seeing where Clark and Addison met. I was like, “Oh, man, I didn’t know that Wrigley Field was on Addison St.” From there, that was my first impression.

And then you go into the ballfield and you see the ivy, you see the brick wall and these things from when you were a kid, and finally it’s just right there in front of you. And you get to play on the field with athletes from all over. So it was a pretty cool experience.

B/R: So you get traded over from Oakland in 2014. You come up last year. And this year, you had your coming-out party. You were an All-Star. Your offensive numbers improved. You played great defense. Is there any one thing from this season that you’re most proud of, and what was the biggest key for you to accomplish it?

AR: I would say my defense is something that I think improved tremendously. Obviously, I think the offensive side has too, with the slugging numbers. But I would say where I improved most would probably be mentally more than physically.

Just going through the grind of 162 games and waking up and going to sleep at different work hours. It’s just a lot. It’s a lot to cope with. That’s something that I’ll take out of this year and use for next year.

B/R: To play off that, how’s your confidence level going into the postseason this year compared to where you were last October?

AR: My confidence level is pretty high right now. I’ve been getting my reps. I’ve been getting my rest. We have another workout today. The body’s feeling great, so everything’s a go right now. Like I said, mentally, I feel like I’m prepared. I had a little bit of experience of it last year, and I’m just trying to use some of that experience going into our first series coming up. It should help a lot.

B/R: I want to ask you about the mood in Chicago these days. Cubs fans are notoriously fatalistic for reasons that are obvious. But what about now? Are they drinking the Kool-Aid? Is Chicago ready for this drought to end?

AR: I would say just from looking at the fans and conversing with the fans, I know that they’re ready for something big to happen here in Chicago. The fans have been awesome.

I know the team has been working really, really hard to make all this come true and that we’re trying our best and getting better every single day. We’re picking each other up. We’re doing the small things that a team needs to do to end up on top.

So yeah, I can definitely see that Chicago is ready for something big to happen here.

B/R: How about the mood in the clubhouse? You guys are obviously all aware of the history surrounding this franchise and the drought that’s been going on for over a century. But is that discussed at all? Is it bulletin-board material for you guys?

AR: I think the way that we go about it is just trying to get better each day. And over the course of the year, that has been the goal. And I think we’ve just been having some fun, man. We’re having some fun winning.

And at the same time, we’re getting the job done. Mentally, I think we need to stay where we’re at right now. That’s been working out for us this far. I don’t think we should change anything up. It’s been working great this whole year, and we’ve been dominating.

If we just stay that course and just try to get better every single day, I think we’ll have something good to look forward to.

B/R: Playing off that, Joe Maddon is in charge, and he’s been known to set a tone. But with guys such as John Lackey, Jason Heyward and Ben Zobrist coming aboard over the winter and all the young guys having a year of experience after last year, how would you say the character of this year’s team is different from the team that went to the National League Championship last year?

AR: You really get a good swirl and a good mix of veterans, rookies, youth and liveliness. Everything’s live. Everything’s fun. It seems like the veterans mesh really well with some of the younger guys and vice versa.

The younger guys say “What’s up?” to the veterans. They’re not shy at all. Just looking at the team in the clubhouse, the way that we converse and the way we interact with each other is something that I haven’t been a part of ever before.

It’s a pretty cool thing to see young Latins talk to the David Rosses or the Ben Zobrists of baseball and myself talk to [Anthony] Rizzo and KB [Kris Bryant] to where we can relate on certain things. We’re just meshing, man. It’s a perfect swirl, and it’s a perfect mix.

We’re definitely embracing what we have here in Chicago.

B/R: Is there one veteran in particular who’s had an especially big impact on you either personally or with your career?

AR: I would say David Ross and Ben Zobrist have been two of the big league guys who I’ve looked at the most. Just to see how they go about their business. They’ve had a lot of time in the big leagues, and they have a pretty good idea of what they need to do to accomplish whatever they need to accomplish for that year.

That’s really what I look at with those two guys.

B/R: You guys obviously had the best record, by far, in the league this year. But in the last 25 years, history hasn’t been so kind to the team with the best record in baseball. Only a couple of teams (h/t ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark) in the last 25 years with the best record have gone on to win the World Series. From your perspective, why can this Cubs team be an exception to the rule?

AR: I would say because not only are we looking at 100 or so wins, but we’ve got the rest that we need. We have a manager that has been in that playoff-type situation, a manager that has won World Series before*.

We have guys who have won World Series before. We have professionals that just know how to handle this situation and that we’re not afraid to pick the ear of and really tap in and get to know what we need to know and what to expect whenever we go through these situations. That’s something that is different, I feel.

*Joe Maddon only took the Tampa Bay Rays to the World Series in 2008 but had won it six years earlier as the bench coach for the 2002 Anaheim Angels.

B/R: One last question for you: If this does become the team to snap the 108-year drought in Chicago, do you know what the first thing you’re going to do to celebrate is?

AR: I’m probably gonna hang out with my family, kiss my children and, yeah, just pop bottles with my family or something like that.

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

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Over the past few weeks, the 2016 Bleacher Report MLB 300 has been ranking the top players at each individual position. Now it’s time for the grand finale: the complete list.

In case you’re just now joining us, the goal of the B/R MLB 300 is to rank the best players from the 2016 season by analyzing their assorted talents and scoring them accordingly. For more on how each individual position was approached, you can go straight to the source:

• September 19: Top 25 First Basemen
• September 21: Top 20 Catchers
• September 22: Top 25 Second Basemen
• September 26: Top 25 Shortstops
• September 28: Top 25 Third Basemen
• September 29: Top 80 Starting Pitchers
• September 30: Top 25 Center Fielders
• October 3: Top 40 Corner Outfielders
• October 4: Top Five Designated Hitters
• October 5: Top 30 Relief Pitchers

With all the scores accounted for, now it’s time to put all 300 players on one list for a definitive look at the top players in Major League Baseball for 2016.

As you go, there are a few things to keep in mind. Many players are tied with the same score, in which case higher ranks became judgment calls. Also, the stats within are current as of the publication date of the given player’s positional ranking.

Take it away.

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So it begins.

After six months and thousands of baseball games, the warm, languid promise of Opening Day gives way to the chilly pressure of the MLB playoffs.

The lights get brighter. Every pitch, at-bat and defensive chance is magnified. If you’re not excited, get excited.

We’ll help with a complete preview of the 2016 postseason, including rankings of every club’s offense and pitching staff, a look at the managers who will be pulling the strings and predictions for every round up to and including the World Series. 

Put the bubbly on ice, limber up your cheering muscles and proceed when ready.

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The upcoming postseason may be the main focus of the baseball world right now, but as the regular season winds down, the debate over who should win each of the league’s major awards generally starts to heat up.

Kris Bryant looks like the front-runner to win NL MVP honors, while the AL race is still wide-open with Boston Red Sox teammates Mookie Betts and David Ortiz perhaps the co-favorites heading into the final week.

The following won’t focus on each league as a whole, though, but instead on who deserves team MVP honors for all 30 MLB franchises.

Position players generally tend to get the nod over pitchers when it comes to the league award, with Clayton Kershaw being a rare exception in 2014, but more than a few pitchers walked away with team honors.

The idea here was to find the player who has meant the most to the success of his respective team here in 2016.

Sometimes that was the player who led his team in WAR, but by no means was WAR the deciding factor in naming each team’s MVP.

Along with a focus on each team’s winner, a full ballot of the top five players was selected for each team to provide a few honorable mentions deserving of recognition as well. 

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After checking in with the game’s top shortstops, the B/R MLB 300 now heads to its final stop on the infield with a look at the top third basemen in Major League Baseball for the 2016 season.

The hot corner may be packed with more talent than any other position, but we’re going to narrow our list to 25 players. They have many different talents, but the scoring system for them reflects how third base is still an offense-oriented position:

• Hitting: 30 points
• Power: 30 points
• Baserunning: 15 points
• Defense: 25 points

Before we move on, here’s a reminder that this year’s B/R MLB 300 is different from past versions in a key way. Rather than use the events of 2016 to project for 2017, the focus is strictly on 2016. Think of these rankings as year-end report cards.

For more on how the scoring and ranking work, read ahead.

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While furious battles for MLB‘s four available wild-card berths will take place over the regular season’s final week, indirect competitions for the game’s highest individual honors are raging as well.

With only a handful of awards looking like they’re wrapped up, players (and managers) have one final chance to impress voters. Some will rise to the occasion, while others will fold under the pressure. These award races only make the last stretch all the more intriguing.

While statistics remain the driving force in calculating the odds on the pages that follow, both gut feeling and past voting trends played a part as well.

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