Kyle Schwarber Hits Ball Very Far, Cubs Advance To NLCS

“It’s a shame that three of the best teams in baseball, one is only moving on to the championship series”, Rizzo said. “I can’t even put it into words”.

The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Mets, 3-1, on Tuesday at Citi Field to even their National League Division Series at two games apiece and force a Game 5 at Dodger Stadium.

That series is locked 2-2 after the Dodgers won 3-1 at Citi Field on Tuesday, sending the series back to Los Angeles for a decisive Game 5 today.

The Cubs won the 1907 and 1908 World Series against the Detroit Tigers.

Hopes are building that this will finally be the season when the jinx ends, although there was late drama to be endured.

Closer Hector Rondon sealed it in the ninth inning, striking out Stephen Piscotty and leaping for joy with catcher Miguel Montero. “We still got a few tough guys to go through”.

“We just played an unbelievable ball club right there”, an emotional Rizzo, who hit a go-ahead solo homer in the sixth inning, said in an on-field television interview.

Players always are asked which team they would prefer to play in situations like these, and Cubs ace Jake Arrieta gave the politically correct answer during Tuesday’s series-clinching celebration on the field at Wrigley Field.

“They’re the standard bearer so for us to be able to beat them tonight really is important to us as a franchise”, Maddon told reporters after the Cubs reached the NL Championship Series for the first time since 2003. The Cubs ended the regular season on an eight-game winning streak before taking four of their first five playoff games. That home run was a monster. Bigger was that shortstop Javier Baez, in the lineup only because Addison Russell got hurt Monday, launched a three-run opposite-field homer off that made it 4-2.

St. Louis equalized in the sixth after Jason Heyward and Jhonny Peralta hit back-to-back singles.

Maddon has all his young weapons clicking, especially rookie slugger Kyle Schwarber and first baseman Anthony Rizzo.

So, here are 8 facts about Chicago Cubs and their momentous win.

“This is a team that was as impressive to watch from day one as any team I’ve ever been around”, he said. A couple of singles, a groundout and a strikeout brought Hammel to the plate with two down, but he surprised with a single up the middle off John Lackey that scored one run. They knocked on the door in the eighth inning, loading the bases with two outs for Murphy, but after he lofted a lazy fly ball to right, the Mets were all but finished.