Well, they did it, and in a pretty impressive fashion Saturday night. Hendricks was superb. I've always like Hendricks ever since they got him in the Demptster trade. He has certainly developed almost to the point where one can legitimately compare him to Greg Maddux. He is likely to be around as a dominant starter for quite a while.
As for Kershaw, the Cubs had him on the ropes from the beginning of the game. Baseball is an oddly humbling game in some respects. Hard to explain how a pitcher can go from compete control to struggle in the course of a week, but we saw an example in the two starts that Kershaw made. Give the Cubs credit, though. They did not succumb to all the hype, and, boy, there was plenty of it. They had a great plan and they kept to it.
Maddon said after the game that their performance was on of the best games they had played all year. I have to agree. No panic, no jitters, no real mistakes, great pitching, solid hitting. These guys are good.
Maybe now we can look forward to a weekend without the appalling references to Bartman and the goat and the Gatorade glove and whatnot, as well as the invincibility of Bumgarner and Kershaw, et al.
I don't know much about the Indians, other than they are a good, young team with good pitching. Interesting that their best reliever is Andrew Miller, the guy the Cubs really wanted at the trade deadline. On the subject of relievers, Kenley Jensen was impressive. If the Cubs want to play in the expensive closer market in the off-season, I think he is a better bet than Chapman.
On a personal note, my father, besides being a diehard Cubs fan all his life, became an Indians fan when he lived in Ohio during the depression. I guess he would have been happy to see them succeed as well.
On to Cleveland!
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