Momentum has shifted. The prize? A shot at Hollywood, and the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Chicago Cubs and the Washington Nationals battle it out to decide who will progress to the NLCS and lose to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Who will have that right? We'll DX it and break it down.....
Starters
Kyle Hendricks will start for the Cubs, barring mold of course.....
Hendricks has been good this season, on the whole. A 3.03 ERA, with 7 wins and 5 losses from 24 starts and 139.2 starts. A strikeout to walk ratio of 3.08. Not bad, not great. However, the Cubs season rests upon his accountant like shoulders. Should Maddon try to take him out early, it's goodbye season. Simple as that. Maddon has to manage him correctly or the Cubs will lose. Simple as that. He is very capable of making it through this game, while still being close. He will give up runs, everyone barring the Cubs seems to be scoring runs lately, it's been a weird postseason on the whole. Maybe it's the mold? Who knows eh Dusty? He was fantastic in Game 1, holding the Nats to two hits in seven innings. Scoreless no less. Expect much of the same this evening, as he is becoming one of the Cubs most dependable faces when it counts. What will be nice, considering he has only six walks in just over 25 innings of baseball overall, he is the anti-Edwards and Arrieta. Which is always nice....
Tanner Roark or Gio Gonzalez or Max Scherzer will start for the Nationals. Who knows? Depends on the mold according to Dusty Baker. Do they even have mold in Washington? Oh who knows.....
Relievers
The Cubs relievers have been very hit and miss this postseason. Mostly miss. If Maddon is delving into the bullpen early, pray for rain. Or Carl Edwards jr becomes Mariano Rivera overnight. Neither is likely, so Hendricks has to go deep. It really is as simple as that. Should he come out early, Quintana will mostly likely be the guy who gets the nod. Expect things to be tighter than a nuns.... if we're seeing Quintana tonight. After him, if things are going well and he is kept for the NLCS, then expect Lackey to come in in relief. Hopefully the less MR used the better and we get to Wade Davis to close. We can all wish. Probably not however, and the way our relievers are performing, expect a long night.
We don't even know who is starting for the Nationals at this point (of writing) so it would be fanciful to suggest who comes in relief. One of whichever doesn't start will come in at some point. Probably Gonzalez with Roark starting (with Roark not playing so far in this series, I expect him to start.)
Hitting
Well its been a case of anything you can do, we can do better. If better is wafting uncontrollably at anything within 1000 miles of home plate. It hasn't been pretty so far. The Nationals have been hitting .172 this postseason, the Cubs batting .159. It's been a contest who who can win the ugliest so far. No one wants to hit consistently. And Anthony Rizzo wants "respect" and people to want to avoid him? Buddy, a 10kph toss down the middle would strike you out right now. You're not Barry Bonds buddy, chill. (Lesson? Steroids. All the steroids.)
Conclusion
So. In conclusion. This was pretty damn painful to write. The Cubs or Nationals, whoever wins the battle of the most fertile nun this evening, will face the very in form Dodgers in the NLCS. They will be molested worse than an actress at a Harvey Weinstein casting call should they bring this form in to the Championship Series. Cubs 3-2 in 9.
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