Rob

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.

My nipples could cut glass right now.

Ok Cubs, put your boots on Kershaw's neck and choke the life out of him.

Hell yeah, Rizzo.

Hendricks has ice in his veins.

The start of this game has been encouraging.

TOOTBLAN, eh? Is Theriot still a special assistant with the Dodgers?

THE HIGH, STINKY LIMBURGER!!!

More fireworks!!!

Yeah, you wouldn't want to ruin the magic of three minutes of lovemaking and falling asleep halfway through a rerun of CHiPs.

Should we start a GoFundMe to help Kershaw pay for the therapy he's gonna need after this game?

Even fangraphs, which is slobbing on knob of the Dodgers this postseason, has us as no worse than 43.8% odds to win the game. And thats presumably without factoring in Hendricks's ability to limit hard contact.

It's game day. Prepare your anus, Clayton Kershaw.

I want everybody to take a look at our path to the World Series. - To get through the Wild Card round we won the most games in baseball this season. - To get through the NLDS we had to beat a historic franchise and one of the greatest postseason pitchers of our generation. - To get through the NLCS we will have to beat a historic franchise with the greatest pitcher of our generation. - To win the WS we will have to go through yet another historic franchise in the Cleveland Indians, who last won the WS in 1948. That was the year they signed a 42 year old rookie known as Satchel Paige. This is the kind of horsefeathers you have to go through if you want to kick history right in the teeth. This is the stuff of Disney stories. Kershaw, you're on notice.

Yeah, I could've gotten on board with an Almora start. He's way more likely to put the ball in play, and the Dodgers defense isn't exactly ours out there... But I think part of the reason Heyward is in there is for his plate discipline. We want to wear Kershaw out and get him out early. Heyward gives the better shot of that.

Yeah, I've heard that a number of them were complaining about the "lucky" defensive plays. The best response I heard to that was that the Cubs defense is not a bug, it's a feature. Just curious, what Dodgers forum were you looking at? The only one I used to look at was Dodger Blues, before it got hacked and died.

Or maybe I'll just get divorced. Go Cubs !!

I'm getting dragged out to celebrate my six-month wedding anniversary tomorrow night, so I will be stuck checking the game on my phone. Hoping for a good one though.

Honestly, I think Joe nailed the managing for the most part. Pulling Lester was a tough call, but Jon was getting hit a bit harder than his results indicated. And with how solid our bullpen unit should be, it made sense to pull Lester and try to tack on a few runs. After he made that tough decision, I think he made exactly the same calls I would have made with respect to bullpen management and pinch hitters. I think the only place he got a bit surprised was in the 8th when Roberts walked Coghlan to load the bases. I'm guessing Maddon would have swapped in Montero and Coghlan in reverse order if he knew that would be the case. But it was a risky play on Roberts' part, and it didn't pay off for him.