Anyway, what a competitive series. And the final game, what can you say? That was one of the most exciting and crazy games I've ever seen. In the end, the Cubs prevailed, mainly on the strength of a series of weird plays in the fifth and eighth inning and on sheer grit.
To begin with, Hendricks, who, on the whole, pitched well, had a bad second inning when, for some reason, he and Contreras thought the way to go was to throw high fastballs to the Washington hitters. The result was 4-1 deficit early, but Gio Gonzalez wasn't exactly the answer for the Nationals either. Gonzalez was wild and let the Cubs back in, leaving after three innings ahead only by a run.
The fifth inning turned things around in the Cubs favor. Scherzer was Dusty Baker's ace in the hole, but after getting two quick outs in relief to start the inning, the wheels came off for him. The Cubs got an infield single from Contreras and a bloop single from Zobrist. Addison Russell then smashed the first pitch down the left field line to give the Cubs a 5-4 lead. That's when things got weird and wild.
Heyward was intentionally walked. That brought up Javier Baez, who dutifully struck himself out on some wild swings. The last one, though, bounced through the catcher's legs. Baez's bat may have bonked Weiters mask on the follow-through, which would have made the play dead in Weiters mind, but nobody noticed. Everyone started running like crazy. Weiters retrieved the ball and proceeded to launch it into right field. Actually, the rule only applies when a runner is stealing a base, so Weiters and a number of commentators are wrong in giving him an out here.
In the end, Russell scored. That wasn't it. LaStella batted for Hendricks. With two strikes, Weiters, who was clearly having a bad night, touched LaStella's bat with his glove on a foul ball, leading to a call of catcher's interference. Scherzer then hit Jay with a pitch to force in a run.
To me, even though the Nationals clawed back to within a run, that was the game. It is impossible to over-estimate the emotional cost of playing your trump card and having it blow up in your face, especially as a result of a series of improbable events.
The last series instance of bizarro world happened in the midst of a Washington rally in the bottom of the eighth. Wade Davis had come in to rescue the Cubs from another Edwards-induced crisis. He struck out Zimmerman to end the seventh. In the eighth, however, he didn't have it. Actually, the only outs he recorded were a scorched double play grounder from Lind and the Contreras pickoff. Even though the Washington runner beat the throw to first and was out because his foot came off the base, you have to wonder why he was wandering around in no-man's-land with a huge secondary lead and Contreras catching.
That was it. Davis recovered his form in the ninth, striking out Harper on a 3-2 pitch to seal the victory.
My take-away from all this is the Cubs bats didn't so much come alive, but their indomitable will. Somehow, just as in the World Series last year, they found a way to win. They are a formidable team, to say the least.
As to who is going to pitch Game 1 of the NLCS, that seems to be anyone's guess. You have to assume anyone who pitched over the last two games is out, which means Lester, Hendricks, Arrieta, and probably Quintana. The same goes for Montgomery. Unless they think Quintana's short and ineffective appearance Thursday didn't ruin things for Saturday, you have to believe it will be Lackey.
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