Wide World of Women

It's still early but I like the Nats' chances. Taylor with 2 HRs and 7 RBIs in his last two at bats.

Oops. Never mind. 5th inning & the Cubs just batted around on Scherzer. Insane. 7-4 Cubs lead.

That fifth inning, the Cubs took advantage of many Washington missteps: Addison Russell getting that huge double down the left field line, Matt Wieters passed ball off what could have been a third strike and instead of putting the ball in his hip pocket--threw wildly to first. Then, Jon Jay walked into a HBP plating in another run.

Still no sign of John Lackey or Mike Montgomery. Pedro Strop is the latest to warm up in the Cubs bullpen.

Cubs 9, Nationals 8

The Capital City Choking Culture continues! Bryce Harper serves as the final out that sends the Cubs to their third straight NLCS.

What an ending!
Where to start--how about Wade Davis getting seven outs for the save, his first career serve of more than 4 outs to get.

And Wilsson Contreras' snap throw to Anthony Rizzo in the eighth getting the overturned replay in the Cubs favor? That was huge as well.

But Washington refused to go quietly, chipping away and at times almost felt like watching other Game 5's in years past.

It turned out to be the longest 9 inning playoff game in history: 4 hours and 40 minutes.

Historians will probably rank this NLDS very high in terms of drama, emotion, and of course just how exciting and nerve-racking it truly was.
And combine the Nationals history with the Montreal Expos, they are 0-4 at home in series deciding games.

As for the defending champions, they have won 4 straight elimination games and 5 of their last 6 going back to the 2015 Wild Card win at Pittsburgh.

All I can say is--

Good Bye D.C.
and Hello smoke-filled L.A.
on Saturday.

And not only that, the Expos/Nationals have only won one playoff series: the makeshift NL East Division Series in 1981. They will enter their 50th season next year still serving as one of only two teams to have never reached the World Series.

The most startling stat of all:

The Cubs scored more runs in Game 5 (nine) than they did in the first four games of the NLDS (eight total).