About the Giants continuing to win elimination games.
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It’s hard to imagine either the Dodgers or Nationals being strong enough to beat the Cubs in the NLCS, so Cardinals fans who despise the Cubs might want to brace for what appears like an inevitable World Series title for men who are no longer Lovable Losers.
Whoever wins Game 5 between the Dodgers and Nationals on Thursday better look out for Javier Baez. “It just ends so abruptly and especially the way it ended”. They played so well today. We weren’t ourselves. We weren’t having great at-bats.
“The surprise is how grounded these guys are and how much understanding of the game they have”, pitcher Jon Lester chimed in while standing soaked in the middle of the locker room. “And it’s a tough way to go out”, he said.
San Francisco won its 10th straight game when facing postseason elimination. Then again, most of those wins came with a reliable bullpen.
The Giants had the majors’ best record at the All-Star break but couldn’t sustain it. And that, in a lot of ways, means more to the young core of players like Rizzo and Kris Bryant than any boogeyman that’s chasing the team around Wrigley Field.
It took five relievers – five – to get through the ninth and by then it was too late for the Giants. Giants starting pitcher Matt Moore shut Cubs batters down during his eight innings on the mound, allowing only one earned run and three hits.
He didn’t like the matchup of Addison Russell against Romo, even though Russell had 95 RBIs during the regular season and Romo had allowed a two-run, game-tying homer by Bryant the night before. Javier Baez gave Chicago the lead with an RBI single that scored Jason Heyward.
“We were lined up. We’ve done it before, and the guys, we don’t quit”, Cubs center fielder Dexter Fowler said.
“I think it validates on a lot of different levels the job that we have done to this point”, manager Joe Maddon said.
According to Carl Steward of The Mercury News, the 36-year-old righty, deposed as the team’s closer in September after a rocky season and final month, “had his face buried in his hands as he sat silently and wept at his locker”. Maddon initially wanted to use the lefty-hitting Chris Coghlan as a pinch-hitter against Sergio Romo before Bochy brought in southpaw Will Smith. You gotta get outs.
“One of the downsides of celebrating is that cold water is cold and champagne is cold”, a drenched but somewhat dry Maddon said.”I’m a baby with that, so I wanted to take some precautionary measures”. It just wasn’t us. “I feel like if it did go back to Chicago we were ready to play”. Later, as the orange towel-waving sellout crowd chanted “Con-or!”
In the end, these Giants couldn’t pull off the kind of improbable comeback that defined their championship runs in recent seasons. San Francisco also overcame a 3-1 deficit in the NL Championship Series that year against St. Louis.
The Cubs will play the victor of the National League Divisional Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals.
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Game 5 is Thursday in Washington, with 20-game victor Max Scherzer expected to pitch for the Nationals. Next thing you knew, there was Aroldis Chapman on the mound with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, blowing a 101 miles per hour fastball past Brandon Belt, handing the Giants their first postseason series loss since 2003.
