Kuzul

The Cleveland Indians are just one win away from the World Series after a dramatic victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 3 of the ALCS Monday night, while the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers are deadlocked in a tightly contested NLCS.

Cleveland’s advantage is far from insurmountable, especially after it was forced to lean heavily on its bullpen in Game 3, while Chicago still seemingly has the upper hand in the NLCS despite panic potentially starting to set in among fans due to Clayton Kershaw‘s sparkling performance for L.A. in Game 2.

As both series trend toward producing the two teams that will battle it out in the World Series, here is a look at the remaining league championship series schedule, the results thus far and predictions for how the series will play out.

LCS Schedule

ALCS Results and Predictions

The Tribe entered the ALCS down a pair of ace pitchers in Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar, and things seemingly got even worse on the pitching front when Trevor Bauer severely cut his finger while repairing a drone ahead of his scheduled Game 2 start.

Josh Tomlin was moved up in the rotation, and Bauer was slated for Game 3, but the 25-year-old was forced to exit in the first inning Monday when the bleeding from his finger was too heavy to control.

That prompted manager Terry Francona to use seven pitchers, including Cody Allen and Andrew Miller sharing the final three innings in a 4-2 victory spurred by timely home runs from Mike Napoli and the previously slumping Jason Kipnis.

After sweeping through the ALDS and taking a 3-0 ALCS lead, the Indians are in some elite company over the course of MLB playoff history, according to ESPN:

Many have contributed to Cleveland’s remarkable run, but it is difficult to argue against the notion that Miller has been the team’s MVP.

Miller has allowed just four hits and two walks in nine postseason innings thus far to go along with a ridiculous 20 strikeouts.

Per SportsCenter, no pitcher in MLB history has racked up that many strikeouts in his first nine innings of a single postseason:

Miller has been so dominant, in fact, that Dodgers pitcher Brandon McCarthy questioned why Blue Jays hitters are even making an effort when they step to the plate against him:

For as great as Miller has been whenever called upon, it is unclear how much he’ll be able to give the Indians Tuesday in Game 4 if needed.

Cleveland will start Corey Kluber in Game 4 on just three days of rest after he went 6.1 innings on Friday, allowing six hits, two walks and no runs in a Game 1 victory over Toronto.

It is unclear how much length Kluber will be able to give the Indians in Game 4, but legendary pitcher and TBS analyst Pedro Martinez believes he is in ideal position to potentially shut the door on the series:

The Blue Jays are capable of going on a big-time hot streak when their top hitters are in rhythm, and although that hasn’t happened yet in the ALCS, one big performance and one win could go a long way toward mounting a comeback.

Kluber is the only constant and certainty in the Indians rotation, though, and there is no better option to put on the mound in a potential series-clincher.

Because of that, look for Kluber to come through with another big outing to complete the sweep and send Cleveland to its first World Series since 1997.

NLCS Results and Predictions

Kershaw has long been criticized for a lack of dominance in the playoffs in comparison to his regular-season production, but he came through in a big way when needed in Game 2 of the NLCS against the Cubs.

With the Dodgers trailing 1-0 in the series, Kershaw gave them seven innings of two-hit, shutout ball in a 1-0 victory to even the series at 1-1.

The most remarkable aspect of his performance was that he racked up so many innings in the NLDS against the Washington Nationals as well, as pointed out by Jon Morosi of MLB Network:

Although Kershaw seems superhuman at times, he can’t pitch in every game for the Dodgers, and that means the Cubbies have the advantage any time he doesn’t.

Chicago has a strong staff with four starters who can toss a gem on any given day, and Jake Arrieta is chief among them.

Arrieta will pitch for the Cubs in Game 3 against the struggling Rich Hill, and he has given the Dodgers fits over the past couple of seasons, according to ESPN Stats & Info:

Los Angeles has yet to finalize its NLCS rotation, but the Cubs will counter with veteran John Lackey in Game 4 and Game 1 starter Jon Lester once again in Game 5.

One can only assume Kershaw will get the ball in Game 5 if the Dodgers go down 3-1 in the series, but even if he manages to shut the Cubs down once again, that would leave L.A. at a major disadvantage in potential Game 6 and Game 7 clashes.

In addition to having the better all-around rotation, the Cubs also boast a better lineup from top to bottom, and they’ll be especially dangerous if Anthony Rizzo and Addison Russell can shake off slumps and join Kris Bryant and Javier Baez in tearing the cover off the ball.

It was no accident that Chicago was far and away Major League Baseball’s best team during the regular season, and it will prove that in the NLCS by advancing to the World Series in six games.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers split the first two games of their National League Championship Series matchup, and the series now shifts to Dodger Stadium for a pivotal Game 3.

Miguel Montero delivered the big blow with a pinch-hit grand slam in Game 1 as the Cubs picked up a thrilling 8-4 victory in front of the home fans.

They ran into a buzz saw in Game 2, though: Clayton Kershaw and Kenley Jansen combined for a two-hit shutout, and the Dodgers earned a 1-0 victory behind a solo home run from Adrian Gonzalez.

Now it’s on to Game 3, where Rich Hill will take the ball for the Dodgers, and the Cubs will turn to Jake Arrieta.

Before the action resumes Tuesday night, let’s take a look at some keys to victory for both teams.

Begin Slideshow

Show me someone who, back in October 2015, predicted that two major Cleveland sports teams would make it to their respective championship rounds in 2016, and I’ll show you an irrational Clevelander. 

However, as of Monday night, the Cleveland Indians are just one win away from turning that fantasy into a stunning reality as they try to follow in the footsteps of the defending NBA champion Cavaliers.

With a victory on the road in Game 3, Cleveland now leads the Toronto Blue Jays 3-0 in the American League Championship Series, and the two squads will play a potentially series-ending Game 4 on Tuesday afternoon at 4 p.m. ET at the Rogers Centre. 

Despite coming out on top, the Indians had an unusual and inauspicious start to Monday’s contest. After taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning, Cleveland’s starter, Trevor Bauer, exited the game after pitching just two-thirds of an inning when his stitched-up right pinkie began dripping blood.

Bauer badly injured the pinkie finger on his pitching hand days earlier when—and this is true—he was repairing a drone. He even brought the drone that had malfunctioned and sliced his finger to a press conference, where he explained the incident. 

While Bauer will recover, his bizarre injury ended up having a significant impact on his team’s pitching staff, as Cleveland had to use six pitchers to get through Game 3 after Bauer left the mound. 

But before we get to how Bauer’s odd start will affect his team, let’s discuss what Toronto must do on Tuesday to avoid elimination. 

The term “must-win” gets thrown around too often in sports, but when I say Game 4 is a must-win for Toronto, I mean it in the old-fashioned sense—as in, the Jays must win, or they can hit the golf course until spring training. If they are to avoid that fate, the Blue Jays must get at least one home run from the trio of Jose Bautista, Josh Donaldson and Edwin Encarnacion and score at least three runs by end of the fifth inning. 

Baseball is a complicated sport, and it can be managed and micromanaged with painstaking detail. Having said that, there’s a simple explanation as to why Toronto is facing a devastating sweep—the Blue Jays’ infamous home run-blasting offense has become a hollow shell of itself this series.

As I noted during their division series, the Blue Jays rely on the long ball to power their offense and win games, and they are strikingly unsuccessful when they do not hit home runs. 

Michael Saunders did go deep in the second inning of Game 3, but his solo home run was the only big fly Toronto hit in the game. Even beyond home runs, the Blue Jays’ normally prolific offense has turned anemic by any measure. Toronto had just seven hits in Game 3. 

For Monday’s Game 3, Toronto manager John Gibbons shook up his lineup in an attempt to generate runs. In the first two games, Ezequiel Carrera led off and Bautista hit fourth. 

After scoring just one run total in those two games, Gibbons moved Bautista and his .366 regular-season OBP into the leadoff spot and dropped Carrera to eighth, thus getting his best hitters to the plate earlier and more often. The move did not ignite the offense the way Gibbons had hoped, though. 

Cleveland’s pitching has been outstanding, yes, but the Indians started Josh Tomlin in Game 2 and depended almost completely on their bullpen in Game 3. In other words, the kind of power outage Toronto has experienced can’t be blamed solely on the Indians’ pitching acumen. 

Next, the timing of Toronto’s run scoring is vitally important because of the dominance that Cleveland’s bullpen, deftly handled by manager Terry Francona, has exhibited late in games these playoffs. There is no better symbol of the success of the Indians bullpen than Andrew Miller.

In Game 2, Miller came on to throw two perfect innings while striking out five of the six batters he faced. Then in Game 3, Miller recorded the last four outs while giving up only one hit and striking out three. His postseason ERA remained at zero. 

If the Jays can’t get on the board early in Game 4, they’ll rue their incompetence when they have to score off Miller, Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen, which has proven to be nearly impossible. 

Of course, Toronto must limit the Indians offense as well if it hopes to keep its season alive, but Cleveland hasn’t been tearing the cover off the ball, scoring fewer than three runs per game so far in this series.

The Blue Jays don’t necessarily need to hang 10 runs on the Indians like they did to the Texas Rangers in Game 1 of the division series. Instead, it likely will be enough to extend the series if Toronto’s offense can even resemble its past potency in Game 4. 

As for Cleveland, the Indians find themselves in the driver’s seat entering Game 4. Hailing from Cleveland, though, the last thing they want to do is tempt fate and give the Blue Jays any momentum. If Cleveland is going to complete the championship series sweep, which would give the team its seventh consecutive win this postseason, it will have to combat Toronto’s probable paths to victory.

Namely, the Indians must continue their excellent defensive play behind projected starter Corey Kluber to keep Toronto’s offense down, particularly Bautista, Donaldson and Encarnacion, as well as get production from the top half of their batting order against Toronto starter Aaron Sanchez. If Francona does send Kluber to the mound, he will be pitching on just three days’ rest after starting Game 1 on Friday. 

Kluber, unsurprisingly, impressed in Game 1, tossing 6.1 strong, scoreless innings to lift the Indians to a 2-0 win. He did give up six hits and two walks in the game, but he gave up just one extra-base hit—a double to Encarnacion. 

Although they scored only two runs in Game 3, the Blue Jays did put several good swings on the ball throughout the game. Notably, Francisco Lindor turned a slick double play from one knee on a hard ground ball from Ryan Goins in the second inning, and Coco Crisp made a sliding grab in left field to save at least one run in the seventh on a stinging line drive from Donaldson. 

Perhaps Kluber will limit such hard-hit balls in Game 4, but if the Blue Jays start putting together at-bats culminating in rockets hit to all fields, Cleveland must be able to limit the damage with its gloves. 

Half of the Indians’ runs in Game 3 were produced by the previously silent bat of Mike Napoli. Entering Monday’s game, Napoli had been 2-for-18 in the postseason and had yet to drive in a run, but he went 2-for-3 with a walk in Game 3. His two hits came in the form of an RBI-double in the first inning—one that clanked off Bautista’s glove in left-center field—and, three innings later, a home run to nearly the same spot that his double had landed short of the wall. 

After Toronto managed to tie the game up in the fifth, Jason Kipnis went deep as well, hitting his second home run of the playoffs but his first since the first game of the division series. 

It is guys like Napoli and Kipnis, as well as Carlos Santana and Lindor, who will be responsible for securing Cleveland’s ticket to the World Series. In a closeout game, where else should the team look for offense but to the guys who have been doing it all year long?

However, they will have their work cut out for them. Although Sanchez is not necessarily a household name, the 24-year-old pitched to a 15-2 record in 2016 and added 161 strikeouts. 

If Sanchez and the Jays bullpen can silence those guys’ bats, the Indians might have to head home to Cleveland to wrap this series up. 

Lastly, it would be wrong to take the Indians’ outstanding bullpen for granted, but how can one not have confidence in that group at this point in the postseason after what we’ve seen? If the Indians bring a lead late, or even midway, into Game 4, Cleveland and its fans will have to feel good about their chances to make the franchise’s first World Series since 1997. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Cleveland Indians are one win away from the World Series, but the Toronto Blue Jays are going to keep fighting until they are officially eliminated.

Any comeback in the American League Championship Series will have to start in Game 4, with the Blue Jays down 3-0 and facing the Indians’ best pitcher. Clearly, it is going to be an uphill battle to get back in the series.

Still, Indians manager Terry Francona knows you can win an ALCS from down 3-0 after accomplishing the feat with the Boston Red Sox in 2004. This will keep things interesting heading into the upcoming battle between the two talented squads.

ALCS Game 4

When: Tuesday, Oct. 18

Where: Rogers Centre, Toronto

Time: 4 p.m. ET

TV: TBS

Live Stream: TBS.com

Preview

The story of this series through three games has been the performance of the Indians bullpen. The group had shut down the Blue Jays in the first two contests with six scoreless innings, but Game 3 was a completely different type of impressive.

Starter Trevor Bauer only lasted two outs before a bloody pinkie forced him to leave the game, per Steve Gardner of USA Today. The bullpen responded by going 8.1 innings while allowing just two runs in a 4-2 victory.

Andrew Miller has been the star of the show with five shutout innings in three games, striking out 13 while allowing just two hits in this stretch.

Meanwhile, Joel Sherman of MLB Network wanted to give credit to the managing job as well as Miller:

Although Francona can’t win MVP, he deserves a lot of praise for the work he has done in this series. While anyone can just tell a setup man and a closer to go out in the eighth and ninth innings, the Indians manager has been more creative to put his pitchers in the best possible chances to win.

This includes flipping the duo Monday, sending in closer Cody Allen in the seventh inning and start of the eighth against the tougher right-handers before Miller came on for the last four outs.

All of this has worked perfectly to keep the Blue Jays out of rhythm offensively.

Jose Bautista is just 1-for-9 in the series, Edwin Encarnacion is 2-for-11 and Troy Tulowitzki is 1-for-11, contributing to just three runs for Toronto in three games. This is a big drop from the 27 runs scored in the first four games of the postseason.

There is obvious talent on the roster, but the question is whether the players can figure out a way to produce against this Cleveland staff.

Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said after Game 3 that his offense is “due to erupt,” per the Associated Press (via USA Today): “It hasn’t happened yet. But I’ve seen it too many times. Hopefully [Tuesday] is that day. We’ll see.”

The confidence is a good thing, but getting it done against Game 4 starter Corey Kluber won’t be an easy task. The one positive is the unknown of pitching on three days’ rest for the first time in his career, per ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick.

While one would think pitching Kluber on short rest would be an unnecessary risk up 3-0, there aren’t many options with a makeshift rotation, as Zack Meisel of Cleveland.com explained:

Rookie Ryan Merritt would be forced to start if Kluber can’t close things out, which makes winning Tuesday’s game important. It should also give Toronto confidence knowing that one win can turn around the series.

Aaron Sanchez gets the ball for the Blue Jays after going 15-2 during the regular season. Although he struggled in his only other postseason start, he has the talent necessary to keep a tough Cleveland offense in check.

However, none of it will matter if Toronto’s offense doesn’t start hitting.

Follow Rob Goldberg on Twitter.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Chicago Cubs won Game 1 of the National League Championship Series. Clayton Kershaw—er, the Los Angeles Dodgers—won Game 2.

You don’t want to miss Game 3.

Below, we’ll review all of the information for viewing Tuesday night’s contest along with the odds and a preview of the crucial Game 3 matchup.

Viewing Information

The game can be streamed on FSGO or MLB.tv.

Preview

The Dodgers are 4-0 this postseason in games that Kershaw pitched and 0-3 in games in which he didn’t make an appearance. Kershaw won’t be pitching in Game 3. 

You do the math.

OK, OK—we can’t reduce Game 3 to one stat. Fine. So how has Rich Hill, who will be starting the game for the Dodgers, fared this postseason?

Well, not great. In two starts, he has a 6.43 ERA in 7.0 innings pitched. He gave up four runs in 4.1 innings against the Washington Nationals in Game 2 of the National League Division Series before pitching better in a brief appearance in Game 5 on short rest, going 2.2 innings and giving up a run.

Jake Arrieta, meanwhile, doesn’t have a decision yet this postseason, though he threw 6.0 innings in a Game 3 loss to the San Francisco Giants, giving up two runs in 6.0 innings.  

Here’s how the pair stacked up against each other in the regular season:

Given Hill’s shaky postseason thus far, the Cubs get the slightest of edges in this comparison. 

The Cubs would normally hold the advantage in the offensive department given their depth of star hitters, but the trio of Anthony Rizzo, Ben Zobrist and Addison Russell is a combined 6-for-60 this postseason.

That’s become a major concern, as Dieter Kurtenbach of FoxSports.com wrote:

We’re yet to see the Cubs at their best so far in these playoffs—they’ve been in every game they’ve played, losing only two contests, and we’ve seen resplendent displays from the pitching and defense, but they’re yet to post a sustained offensive outburst this postseason—the kind that was commonplace in the regular season. There have been spurts here and there, and they’ve often been well-timed, but there hasn’t been a singular contest where you could say through all nine innings, “the Cubs’ bats are really clicking.”

The Cubs are going to need one of those games—soon. And while the situation is hardly doom-and-gloom, in a postseason that has so far been charmed, that is the challenge the Cubs still need to prove they can overcome.

Yes, Javier Baez (.391 with a homer and three RBI) and Kris Bryant (.333 with a homer and four RBI) have been excellent. They’ve carried the team’s offense to this point. But the Cubs, as a team, are hitting just .193 this postseason.

The Dodgers aren’t exactly raking either, hitting .218 as a team. Through seven games, they’ve scored 24 runs. Through six games, the Cubs have managed 25. Neither team is lighting up the scoreboard, though both teams can argue they’ve faced excellent pitching all postseason.

So the offenses are a wash right now, though given that the Cubs scored the second-most runs in the National League this season (808), they still have to be considered the more dangerous offensive unit. Well, if the bats wake up, that is.

Again, give the Cubs the slight advantage in that department.

The bullpens? A wash. Kenley Jansen and Aroldis Chapman are both excellent and headline solid units. The managers? Joe Maddon may be the crafty, experienced soothsayer, but Dave Roberts has been fantastic in his first year at the helm for Los Angeles. Maybe you give the Dodgers a slight advantage because they’re at home. Maybe you counter that the Cubs were an impressive 46-34 on the road this year, the second-best road record in baseball.

See where we’re headed here? 

Ultimately, the Cubs have proved, to this point in the season, to be the better team. Arrieta has been better this postseason than Hill, Baez and Bryant have played like superstars, and it’s hard to imagine the Cubs bats remaining so quiet for the duration of October.

Game 3 is a pivotal contest. Look for the Cubs to sneak away with a tight win.

Prediction: Cubs win 4-3 

You can follow Timothy Rapp on Twitter.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Cleveland Indians put together one of the greatest examples possible of a team win Monday night.

Starting pitcher Trevor Bauer’s bloody finger caused him to come out in the first inning, and the Indians used seven pitchers to again stifle the Toronto Blue Jays in a 4-2 win in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.

Cleveland leads the series 3-0 and can clinch its first World Series appearance since 1997 with a win Tuesday.

Mike Napoli was the offensive star for the Indians, either driving in or scoring three of their four runs. He doubled home Carlos Santana in the first inning, hit a solo home run in the fourth and scored on Jose Ramirez’s single in a two-run sixth that broke a 2-2 tie. Cleveland took the lead for good that inning on a solo home by Jason Kipnis.

Bauer, who sliced open his right pinky last week while working on a drone, began to bleed profusely against the fourth batter in the bottom of the first and had to leave after two-thirds of an inning. He was followed by six relievers—the last being Andrew Miller, who struck out three over the final 1 1/3 innings to earn the save. Bryan Shaw picked up the win.

Toronto got a solo homer from Michael Saunders in the second and an RBI groundout from Ryan Goins in the sixth after Ezequiel Carrera tripled. The Blue Jays have scored only three runs in the series.

Scroll down for all of our updates, analysis, statistics, photos, tweets and anything else worth noting from the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

In the American League, the Cleveland Indians appear ready to rock their way to the World Series for the first time in nearly two decades. In the National League, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs seem prepared for a toss-up classic.

The Indians have raced out to a 2-0 lead over the Toronto Blue Jays, winning a pair of low-scoring nail-biters. Toronto’s high-powered offense has put up just one run over the first 18 innings; Cleveland had to be more than thrilled to see Josh Tomlin go 5.2 innings while giving up only a single run in Game 2.

Tomlin was not originally the scheduled starter but had his day moved up when Trevor Bauer suffered a non-baseball injury. Bauer cut his pinkie finger while working on a custom-built drone at his house Thursday. 

“Obviously you feel bad,” Bauer said, per Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon Journal:

I want to go out and be able to make my start and help the team any way that I can. I was really looking forward to pitching on Saturday. Just one of those things, freak accident you can’t really control. And try to maintain a positive attitude the whole time. Literally I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to pitch at some point in the series. I got pretty lucky.

Bauer and the Indians say he should be fine to go in Game 3. The Blue Jays will hand the ball to Marcus Stroman, who gave up two runs in six innings of work in his Wild Card Game start against the Baltimore Orioles. He did not pitch in the ALDS.

The Jays pitching staff has done its job so far. Marco Estrada gave up just two runs over a complete-game loss in Game 1, while J.A. Happ only gave up a pair of runs over his five innings of work in Game 2. Having failed to produce a run in Game 2 despite racking up seven hits, the Toronto offense has to save the series.

Jays star Jose Bautista put some of the onus onto the umpires.

“All you gotta do is look at video and count how many times [Indians pitchers have] thrown pitches over the heart of the plate,” Bautista said, per Lewis. “It hasn’t been many. They’ve been able to do that because of the circumstances that I’m not trying to talk about because I can’t. That’s for you guys to do but you guys don’t really want to talk about that either.”

The Jays appear closer than ever to missing out on a World Series berth in the ALCS for the second straight year. Bautista‘s comments likely spell out an increasing frustration from the clubhouse more than an actual indictment of the umpires.

The NLCS is much harder to predict. Clayton Kershaw once again threw the Dodgers on his back in Game 2, going seven shutout innings to outduel Kyle Kendricks in a 1-0 win. Kershaw‘s heroics flips home-field advantage to Los Angeles, which will put Rich Hill on the bump for Game 3.

Acquired in a deadline deal with the Oakland Athletics, Hill’s time as a Dodger hasn‘t gone as expected. He was limited throughout the second half of the season due to recurring blisters on his pitching hand, and the Washington Nationals lit him up for four runs in 4.1 innings in his first NLDS start. He lasted all of 2.2 innings in his second before being pulled for a relief committee in Game 5.

The Cubs will use Jake Arrieta, who has become a near-automatic win over the last few years. Arrieta‘s 2016 was his worst full season as a Cub, and he posted a 3.69 ERA after the All-Star break. But he threw six solid innings in his lone NLDS start against the San Francisco Giants—though that turned out to be Chicago’s only loss of the series.

“We can’t win all of them,” Javy Baez said, per Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times. “We know we’re the best. We’ve got the best team out there.”

The Cubs remain the favorites to not only win the NL but the whole thing. They’re the most complete team in baseball, equipped with a great pitching staff, an elite young lineup and arguably the best manager in the sport. If it weren’t for that nonexistent curse talk—curses do not exist, people—the idea of favoring any other team would be laughable.

And it still is. Baseball’s postseason tends to be wonky, so sometimes the best overall team doesn’t win. But these Cubs have been the class of MLB since the outset, and one loss against the best pitcher in the game doesn’t make them any less of a favorite. 

World Series prediction: Cubs over Indians in 6 games

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Major League Baseball and its fans couldn’t have asked for much more in the first two games of the 2016 National League Championship Series.

The Chicago Cubs took a step toward ending their World Series curse in Game 1 when Miguel Montero hit a dramatic, game-winning grand slam in the eighth inning off the bench. The Los Angeles Dodgers answered in Game 2 with seven shutout innings from the dominant Clayton Kershaw to tie the series at a game apiece.

This NLCS of iconic locales now shifts from Wrigley Field to Dodger Stadium for Games 3-5.

With that in mind, here is a look at an updated schedule with broadcast information (courtesy of MLB.com) before delving into a series prediction.

Series Prediction

Chicago’s bats were invisible in Game 2, but there are still plenty of reasons to like the 103-win team moving forward in this series.

For one, the Cubs shouldn’t be intimidated playing on the road after they knocked out the 2010, 2012 and 2014 World Series champion San Francisco Giants in Game 4 of the division series at AT&T Park.

They also have some favorable pitching matchups to rely on, which comes as no surprise for the team that led all of baseball in ERA this year.

Jake Arrieta will take the ball in Game 3. Last year’s National League Cy Young winner already has a no-hitter in his career at Dodger Stadium and will get some run support from his offense against lefty Rich Hill. The Cubs finished third in the league with 220 runs scored and second in the league with a .807 OPS against southpaws this season.

Elsewhere, Chicago’s John Lackey is a battle-tested veteran with 24 postseason appearances on his resume and a 3.22 ERA and 1.25 WHIP in those contests. The Cubs also have Cy Young candidates Jon Lester and Kyle Hendricks available for later in the series after the two combined to allow two earned runs in 11.1 innings in the first two games.

Los Angeles’ Kenta Maeda will pitch at least one more time in this series, and Chicago already scored three runs against him in four innings in its Game 1 victory. He also allowed four earned runs in three innings in his division-series start against the Washington Nationals.

Despite some advantages on paper for the Cubs, Kershaw looms over this series.

He already proved he can shut down the Chicago offense on Sunday and demonstrated his mettle in the division series against the Nationals when he started Game 4 with the Dodgers’ backs against the wall and then came out of the bullpen to register the pressure-packed save in Game 5.

New York Times best-selling author Molly Knight put Kershaw’s Game 2 performance from this series into perspective:

Considering he has three Cy Youngs and a National League MVP on his sparkling resume, that is saying something about his outing that prevented the Dodgers from falling into a daunting 2-0 hole in the first two games at Wrigley.

In theory, he can start one or possibly even two more games in this series or be used as a weapon out of the bullpen if needed.

Still, the thought here is that some of the Chicago bats that have been hibernating will wake up enough during the rest of the NLCS against the other pitchers for the Cubs to clinch their first World Series appearance since 1945.

Anthony Rizzo was one of the best players in all of baseball this year and slashed .292/.385/.544 with 32 home runs and 109 RBI. However, he is mired in an abysmal 1-for-23 slump with six strikeouts in the postseason.

Catcher David Ross didn’t seem too concerned, per Steve Greenberg of the Chicago Sun-Times: “People just need to stay positive—this is Anthony Rizzo we’re talking about. I told him I’ve seen David Ortiz not do well in the playoffs, and the next thing you know, he’s World Series MVP.”

Rizzo isn’t the only one the Cubs need to bust out of a slump. Addison Russell drilled 21 home runs and tallied 95 RBI from the shortstop position this year, but he is just 1-for-22 in the postseason.

If those two get going alongside an already red-hot Kris Bryant (slashing .333/.385/.625 in the playoffs) and Javier Baez (slashing .391/.417/.609 in the playoffs), Chicago will have enough of an advantage on the mound and at the plate when Kershaw isn’t pitching to win three of the final five games.      

Prediction: Chicago wins in seven games.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Are the Cleveland Indians ready to play the role of destiny’s darlings?

It seems that way as the American League playoffs unfold. They have picked up two consecutive wins over the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series after sweeping the Boston Red Sox in the American League Division Series.

Cleveland’s win in Game 1 of the ALCS was not a surprise, as the Indians had home-field advantage and ace Corey Kluber on the mound. However, when they were able to come up with their second straight victory with Josh Tomlin pitching Saturday, that was surprising.

Edwin Encarnacion, Josh Donaldson, Troy Tulowitzki and Jose Bautista gave the Blue Jays a formidable lineup against Tomlin, who had a 13-9 record with a 4.40 ERA while allowing 36 home runs in the regular season.

However, the Blue Jays couldn’t figure him out in Game 2, and he allowed just one run in 5.2 innings before Cleveland manager Terry Francona went to his bullpen.

That has been the key factor for the Indians in their first five postseason games. Their relief pitchers, led by sensational left-hander Andrew Miller, have dominated against the Red Sox and Blue Jays.

Miller pitched two scoreless innings apiece in the first two games of the ALCS. He struck out five of the six hitters he faced in Game 2 before closer Cody Allen took care of the ninth inning without any issue. Allen retired the side in order, striking out two hitters.

The lesson for Cleveland’s postseason opponents is to get a lead off the Indians starters before Francona goes to the bullpen.

The Blue Jays will try to make that happen Monday at Rogers Centre in Toronto:

The Blue Jays hitters again appear to have a favorable matchup as Trevor Bauer takes the mound against Marcus Stroman in Game 3. Bauer was 12-8 during the regular season, but he had a 4.26 ERA and 1.31 WHIP. 

He also suffered a laceration of his right pinkie while trying to repair a drone, forcing Francona to make Tomlin his Game 2 starter while pushing Bauer back to Game 3.

Sportsnet shared Francona’s thoughts on the situation:

The Blue Jays will send out Stroman, who will have the huge responsibility of trying to hold down the Cleveland attack while hoping the Blue Jays hitters figure out how to get to Bauer.

Stroman was 9-10 with a 4.37 ERA and 1.29 WHIP in the regular season, but he limited the Baltimore Orioles to two runs in six innings on the mound in Toronto’s Wild Card Game victory.

Toronto catcher Russell Martin thinks the Blue Jays’ past postseason success can help them come back from their deficit. The team rebounded from a 2-0 deficit against the Texas Rangers to win the 2015 ALDS and then climbed out of a 2-0 hole to extend the ALCS to six games before bowing out to the World Series champion Kansas City Royals.

“Because we’re a good team,” Martin said, per Scott Mitchell of the Toronto Sun. “Just because somebody gets ahead or whatever, I think, we were down 0-2 against Texas last year, and we ended up finding a way to win.”

Nobody in the Cleveland dugout is taking anything for granted.

“Continue to be ourselves,” shortstop Francisco Lindor said, per Richard Justice of MLB.com. “We got to continue to play the game the right way, respect our opponent. Just because we’re up 2-0 doesn’t mean nothing. We have to respect who’s on the other side, because they can come back just like that.”

The Blue Jays are favored to win Game 3 and cut the series deficit to 2-1, according to Odds Shark. They range from minus-183 (bet $183 to win $100) to minus-200 favorites, while the Indians range from plus-165 to plus-183 underdogs for Monday’s game.   

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Marcus Stroman is about to pitch one of the biggest games of his life for the Toronto Blue Jays.

When he takes the mound Monday at the Rogers Centre against the Cleveland Indians for Game 3 of the American League Championship Series, he will be attempting to keep his team in the series and out of a desperation 0-3 hole.

Despite possessing a huge power advantage with Edwin Encarnacion (42 home runs, 127 RBI during the regular season), Josh Donaldson (37 homers, 99 RBI), Troy Tulowitzki (24 home runs) and Jose Bautista (22 home runs), the Blue Jays scored a grand total of one run in the two games played in Cleveland and are down 0-2.

The Blue Jays’ inability to get to Cleveland starters Corey Kluber and Josh Tomlin in the first two games caused huge problems. The Indians were able to build small but significant leads at 2-0 and 2-1, and that enabled Cleveland manager Terry Francona to turn the game over to his scintillating bullpen. The Toronto Star‘s Richard Griffin (via his colleague Brendan Kennedy) elaborated on the dominance of Cleveland’s bullpen:

That’s something Toronto manager John Gibbons does not want to see. The Cleveland bullpen, led by the redoubtable 6’7″ left-hander Andrew Miller, may be the single most intimidating weapon of the postseason.

The Cleveland bullpen will almost certainly have an opportunity in Game 3 Monday night, but the Blue Jays need to find a way to get to starting pitcher Trevor Bauer before the bullpen gets called into action.

Encarnacion and Donaldson should be able to hammer the ball off of Bauer. The Cleveland starting pitcher was 12-8 during the regular season but posted an ERA of 4.26 and a WHIP of 1.311.

The Blue Jays should be able to find a way to get to him and get their booming bats going. They ripped through a strong Texas Rangers pitching staff by scoring 22 runs in three games, but the Indians’ pitching staff simply hasn’t allowed the Blue Jays to gain any traction.

Nevertheless, Donaldson says the Blue Jays believe they have the ability to turn things around. 

“Everyone in this room is confident,” Donaldson told Andrew Marchand of ESPN.com. “We get to play three at home. We feel good at home. We feel good in playing in front of our fans. They have had two to play in front of their fans.”

They should feel confident that they can get to Bauer, who was pushed back from a Game 2 start after cutting the pinkie finger on his right hand while trying to repair a drone, according to ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick:

However, once the game gets turned over to Miller, Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen, the Blue Jays need to have the lead or they will be playing with fire.

Miller has thrown 3.2 scoreless innings against the Blue Jays in Games 1 and 2, and there is no reason to think Francona will lessen his workload in Toronto. Allen closed out each of the first two games, while Shaw, who appeared in 75 games in the regular season, has been a workhorse for the Indians.

Keys for Cleveland

The Indians must get another strong pitching effort from their starter. Francona can’t expect Bauer to come through with a Kluber-like effort, but if he can provide five solid innings and the Indians are within a run, they should have an excellent chance of tying the game or going ahead in the late innings. If he can leave with the lead, the Tribe will likely secure a 3-0 series advantage.

Carlos Santana hit a home run in Game 2, and that’s not a surprise, considering he hit 34 home runs during the regular season. Mike Napoli also hit 34 bombs during the regular season, and the Indians would like to see him come through with a long ball or two in Toronto.

Of course, the Indians need superior relief pitching from their bullpen stars. As good as Miller is, he can’t have any lapses. Allen will likely be asked to close out the game if the Tribe has the lead. He needs to remain consistent against a powerful lineup.

Keys for Toronto

The Blue Jays need to jump out to an early lead and then keep adding to it. The best thing they can do for themselves and their fans is get runs in the first inning. They need to dictate the pace of the game by hitting the ball hard from the start against Bauer, who is not an ace.

They must also run the bases well—take the extra base when it is available, but don’t force the issue. Cleveland is a strong defensive team and would be happy to take advantage of reckless baserunning.

Finally, Stroman needs to do a solid job. He pitched six innings and gave up two runs in the Wild Card Game victory over the Baltimore Orioles. A similar or better effort will be needed here.

Stats are courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com