The Chicago Cubs already had a spot in the NLCS locked up following Tuesday's Game 4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals, but the New York Mets secured their place with a dramatic 3-2 victory against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday evening.
With the matchup set and a pennant on the line, here's a preview of when and where you can catch all the NLCS action between two championship-starved franchises:
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The Cubs are in the NLCS for the first time in 12 years, and if their performance against the Cardinals in the NLDS was any indication, they won't be intimidated by the Mets' big arms.
"I can't emphasize this enough, that the process is fearless," Cubs manger Joe Maddon said, per MLB.com's Adam Berry. "If you want to go out a little bit wide-eyed and worry about outcomes, you're not going to play as good as you can. You're not."
Although Chicago batted just .242 throughout the series, it smoked 10 home runs and held the Cardinals below five runs in all but one game. Kyle Schwarber and Jorge Soler cleaned up throughout the four-game set, batting .500 and .571, respectively.
However, the Cubs will be without second baseman Addison Russell for the entirety of the NLCS, per CSN Chicago's Patrick Mooney. As ESPN's Jayson Stark and ESPN Stats & Info explained, Russell's absence could loom large:
According to Baseball-Reference.com, Russell led the Cubs in defensive wins above replacement this season with a mark of 2.6—1.7 wins better than the team's second-closest player (David Ross, 0.9).
Along with defensive concerns, the Cubs need to hope for more disciplined pitching performances with a trip to the World Series on the line. As a team, Chicago posted a 4.37 ERA against the Cardinals, and Jon Lester was the team's only starter to top six innings after getting a nod.
Not surprisingly, Lester will reportedly start Game 1 on Saturday, per CBSSports.com's Matt Snyder, after the southpaw started Game 1 of the NLDS—scattering five hits over 7.1 innings. Jake Arrieta, meanwhile, is slated to start Game 2, when he'll look to rebound from a a shaky Division Series effort that saw him allow four earned runs in five innings.
"I just thought he was getting a little side to side, spinning off things," Maddon said of Arrieta's NLDS start, per ESPN.com's Jesse Rogers. "That’s why the pitches were where they were. Now sometimes that can be fatigue-related, but I didn’t see that. I just thought it was more him being off mechanically a little bit."
As for the Mets, they're back in the NLCS for the first time since 2006 and seeking their first World Series appearance in 15 years.
And if there's one group of pitchers capable of taming the Cubs' big bats, it's New York's. Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard are the postseason's most dominant pitching trinity, and as they proved against the Dodgers, the postseason stage doesn't rattle them.
The test for the Mets will be producing enough runs to help their pitchers out. With the exception of a 13-run explosion in Game 3 against the Dodgers, the Mets scored three runs or fewer in every other NLDS outing.
According to Baseball-Reference, the Mets went 0-7 against the Cubs this year, scoring just 11 runs over the course of 63 innings against their NLCS competition. Over that stretch, the Cubs posted a plus-16 run differential.
While the playoffs are a different beast, those struggles will loom large as the two sides get set to square off Saturday. It's up to the Mets to decide if they're going to parlay those losses into motivation or let them fester as a source of frustration.
Prediction: Chicago Cubs def. New York Mets in seven games
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