Rob

My apologies - what does RD stand for? After seeing it in other posts, I don't think it means what I thought it meant. Road? Run differential. The Cubs this season scored a lot more runs than their opponents, and we led the league in that run differential. So when we have a blowout game, it's been referred to as an RD game.

People love to talk up how scary Kluber > Miller > Allen is. Is it really any scarier than Kershaw > Jansen was? The Cubs can do this.

Me all day: http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/df/dff37c9c0ac5a9ca9913abdb6174bbc969f004bcd9f38b0d12ee39cdb6d9cb07.jpg

I like it. I wouldn't have been too upset if they'd started Montero over Contreras (since I know Jake loves Miggy's game calling), but this is a good mix of offense and defense.

My predictions for tonight: 1.) Joe West calling the game hurts us less than it hurts the Indians. Did you see how polite Rizzo was with Angel Hernandez? When you've got an egotistical guy behind the plate, you need to be deferential. The Indians batters have been much more acid-tongued. One of them is going to get tossed tonight. 2.) Heyward comes up in a big spot and makes something happen. 3.) At least one dong from the triumvirate of Bryant, Rizzo, and Schwarber. Maybe more.

I want the Cubs to grind out the AB's and force high pitch counts - just like they did all year. Make Tomlin work. They've been way too aggressive and a ton of strikeouts (13 tonight I think) The problem is that Tomlin is a strike thrower. He's not going to walk anyone so eventually we are going to have to hit him. I think Miller and Allen can go 4 innings or possibly more I game 6 if they have to. They will treat Tuesday like a game 7 We went into Game 3 against Tomlin assuming that he was going to throw strikes. So we wanted to attack early. But a lot of what we swung at were pitcher's pitches. I think we need to get back to doing what we do best -- wait for a pitch that you can hit hard. If he can paint the outside corner, let him. But we aren't doing anything with that pitch, so why swing at it?

It's one run. The wind is blowing out at 20 mph and Rizzo, Zobrist, and Contreras are coming up. This is far from over.

Calm down everybody. It's one run. They can do this.

Not enough to overturn.

Why? Millers spot is coming up either way.

Lindor had 2 legit hits. Everything else was dinky. They haven't been any better than us.

Did I just hear right that they're pulling Carlos Santana out of the game? I hope that's the case. He scares me more than anybody on that roster.

That was so, so huge.

Son of a biscuit. C'mon Grimm. Throw strikes.

My wife agreed that if Javy is the WS MVP, that I can get a dog and name it Javier Chewbacca. So it's time for Javy to dong the heck out of the ball for a few days.

Did they announce who is doing the 7th inning stretch for the next 3 games? I'm hoping for Ozzy Osbourne, Jeff Gordon, and Kellie Pickler. They deserve a shot at redemption.

3 more like that please.

What a ridiculous sentiment. There's no reason for the vitriol at all. Do you think he doesn't want to perform? Do you think he's just being lazy? No. Nobody thinks that. The wrist injury messed with his swing and he's been unable to get back on track, despite working hard at it. But he's managed to provide value on the bases (which was applicable far less often than preferred, but still...) and with his absolutely stellar RF defense. Overall, despite the abysmal offensive season, he managed to put up a slightly below average season overall, ranking 14th out of 21 qualifying RF. We aren't substantially better with Contreras, or Soler, or Coghlan in RF pretending that they know how to play defense. So let's drop the being "held accountable" crap. If you want to win, he's still probably our best option out there. And I bet he'll have himself sorted out after some rest in the offseason and ready to go next year.

I'm still thinking it makes more sense to start Heyward than Contreras, but I admit it's close enough that either decision is defensible.

For six months my dad has been asking me if Schwarber would be back for the playoffs. Every time, I told him "the front office says no, but it's possible." And I believed it. I believed it every time I said it. Until the minor league season ended and there was presumably nowhere to rehab. So I changed my answer to "I don't think so" and gave up hope. My dad thinks I'm a moron now, but I'm okay with it. Schwarber's back, baby!

I'm still rooting for Heyward to be in the lineup most days. Granted, at the bottom of it. I just don't see any of our other options as being good enough offensively to overcome the disparity on defense. Contreras is close, but I kinda like the idea of having him and Soler both on the bench for when Miller comes in.

I can absolutely see why they'd want to do that. Their bullpen is amazing, but 3/4 of their starting rotation are the types of guys that the Cubs have hit very well this season. So the goal for the Indians will be the same it has been for the rest of their postseason -- get to the bullpen before your starters give the other team too much of a lead. Kluber gives them their best chance of that.

The Indians have a deep offense, 6 regulars have a wOBA over .340. For reference, the Cubs had 5 over .340 including Contreras. They have a mix of speed guys who have a bit of pop(Ramirez, Lindor), outright sluggers(Santana, Napoli, Naquin), and Kipnis who does a little of everything. They led the AL in stolen bases and baserunning value, which could mean that if Lester doesn't keep Rajai Davis(and Ramirez/Lindor to a lesser extent) off first base, the NLCS narrative could be very real like it was for Hamilton and Villar. Their rotation is Kluber and a bunch of misfit toys. Kluber is very good, but more 2016 Arrieta than 2015 Arrieta. There is no Kershaw or Hill in the Indians rotation. Trevor Bauer performed like Jason Hammel this year and he cut his finger off with a drone. Salazar has great stuff but he's been hurt for a 6 weeks and was terrible for longer than that before getting hurt. Josh Tomlin is American League for Mike Leake. And by ability, Ryan Merritt would be more at home getting September starts for the Reds than pitching in the ALCS. Their bullpen is nightmare fuel. Miller incinerates righties and lefties and goes for innings at a time. Allen is their nominal closer and strikes out a ton of guys, if you saw how good Thornburg was for the Brewers this year, that gives you an idea. Shaw is Strop-ian in effectiveness. And for days that their starters don't go long, Otero(AL Tyler Clippard) and McAllister(think 2015 Cahill) suck up innings. Long story short: Work the starters hard but don't forget to score on them, their bullpen is deep enough to manage a 7 game series. Let your pitching and defense do the work it has been, there's no Rizzo or Bryant in this lineup but they don't run as many easy outs as LA and SF either. It's worth noting that their offense is good in part because they've been able to split DH duties between Santana and Napoli. Only one of them will be able to play in Chicago unless Francona plays one of those guys out of position, which would be inadvisable at best. Also worth noting that Kipnis slightly sprained his ankle in the ALCS celebration, so that might keep him from running very well tomorrow. I imagine it'll be back to normal by the end of the series though.

I don't know what to do with myself. I'm exhausted, but I don't want to go to bed. I want to enjoy this forever.

Ok, it's official now. This team has overtaken the 2003 Cubs as my favorite Cubs team ever.