NL Central

The 2016 baseball season is now to two organizations, which just so happen to be the sport’s most tortured.

The Cleveland Indians and Chicago Cubs will take baseball’s two longest championship droughts into Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday.

But after winning the American League Championship Series and National League Championship Series respectively, each seemed to craft a blueprint for how to get to October’s Fall Classic.

CHICAGO — So, 71 years later, this is what it looks like when the Chicago Cubs storm into the World Series…

Anthony Rizzo hitting everything Clayton Kershaw threw him on the screws: a double, a long ball, a fly ball in the first inning that Los Angeles Dodgers left fielder Andrew Toles plumb dropped. Was that a goat impeding his vision?

Kyle Schwarber's powerful bat has been absent from the Chicago Cubs lineup since the third game of the 2016 season, when the outfielder suffered a torn ACL and LCL. But if the Cubs reach the World Series, there's a chance he could re-enter the lineup as a designated hitter.

Continue for updates.

The Chicago Cubs acquired Aroldis Chapman because he's a flamethrower.

In the 2016 postseason, he's ignited a disconcerting number of fires.

Yes, Chapman can melt the radar gun with his triple-digit heater, and he's impersonated his unhittable self in stretches.

The recent numbers, however, paint a less flattering picture.

The Chicago Cubs are one win away from the World Series, and Jon Lester is back among the pantheon of postseason studs.

On Thursday, the Cubs defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-4 at Chavez Ravine to grab a 3-2 lead in the National League Championship Series. Game 6 will be played Saturday at Wrigley Field.

Chicago Cubs reliever Carl Edwards Jr. was removed from Game 4 of the National League Championship Series with hamstring tightness, per Carrie Muskat of MLB.com.

Continue for updates.

Fact: The Cubs were shut out for the second straight game on Tuesday night, losing to the Dodgers 6-0. This is the first time in Cubs history that they have been shut out twice in a single postseason. 

CHICAGO — The Chicago Cubs led the league this year in, among other things, wins, winning percentage, run differential and multitasking.

Yes, that's right. Multitasking.

The Chicago Cubs enter the National League Championship Series with as much confidence as a team battling a 108-year title drought could possibly have.

Fact: The Cubs overcame a 5-2 deficit in the 9th inning to beat the Giants 6-5 on Tuesday night and move on to the NLCS. They joined the 1986 Mets (LCS) as the only teams to come back from a three-run deficit or more in the 9th inning to win a postseason series clincher.