The Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers square off in the postseason series for a second consecutive year — with each matchup coming in the National League Championship Series — and only third time overall.
Their first matchup was in the 2008 NL Division Series, which saw Los Angeles get the best of Chicago and in the form of a three-game series sweep. The two clubs wouldn’t meet again until eight years later in the NLCS.
The 2016 Cubs, with the best record in baseball at 103-58, looked poised to win their first World Series in 108 years. They entered the NLCS as heavy favorites over the Dodgers, though Los Angeles wouldn’t go down without a fight.
In the opening game at Wrigley Field, the Dodgers overcame a three-run deficit and tied the score in the eighth inning behind a two-run single by Adrian Gonzalez off electric closer Aroldis Chapman.
The rally was short-lived, however, as Joe Blanton allowed a go-ahead grand slam to Miguel Montero in the bottom half of the inning to propel the Cubs to a Game 1 victory by the score of 8-4.
The Dodgers bounced back in Game 2 with a dominating performance from Clayton Kershaw, who tossed seven shutout innings before handing the ball to Kenley Jansen for a six-out save. Gonzalez contributed the only run of the contest with a solo home run against Kyle Hendricks in the second inning.
After splitting the first two games, the series shifted to Los Angeles with momentum on the Dodgers’ side.
Rich Hill followed up Kershaw’s performance with six scoreless innings against his former team in Game 3. The Dodgers ultimately ensured a 6-0 win behind home runs by Yasmani Grandal and Justin Turner against Jake Arrieta.
With Los Angeles ahead 2-1 in the series, the Cubs finally snapped out of their offensive lull in Game 4. Chicago jumped out to an early four-run lead on Julio Urias, which proved to be the deciding factor.
On the pitching side, John Lackey put together four respectable innings and the Cubs bullpen essentially shut down the Dodgers’ bats for the rest of the way, locking up a 10-2 win.
With the series tied heading into Game 5, Jon Lester lived up to his clutch postseason reputation with seven innings of one-run ball. The Cubs offense secured a win with five runs in the eighth inning against Pedro Baez, coming away with an 8-4 victory.
The NLCS returned back to Chicago for a Game 6 where the Cubs solved Kershaw early on. They tabbed three runs against him in the first two innings behind a crucial error by Andrew Toles and never looked back.
Los Angeles tallied just two hits for the entire contest and lost by a final score of 5-0. The Cubs advanced to the Fall Classic where they went on to defeat the Cleveland Indians in seven games.
