Anthony Rizzo

Timing is perfect for Cubs to head to World Series

Published Nov. 15, 2016 2:39 p.m. ET

Ken Rosenthal

CHICAGO -- Leave it to Joe Maddon’s wife, Jaye, to find a seemingly meaningful bit of symbolism.

“Did anyone notice,” Jaye asked a group of reporters surrounding her husband, “that the game ended at military time, 19:45?”

Well, the actual time was 9:45 local, 21:45 military. But after 71 years, who’s counting?

The clock might as well have stopped at the moment the Cubs completed their 5-0 victory over the Dodgers in Game 6 of the NLCS to reach the World Series for the first time since, yes, 1945.

The celebration at Wrigley Field was just starting. The noise was deafening. The fans were waving their white “W” flags all over the ancient park, as if time was standing still.

Everything seemed so perfect for the Cubs, it’s difficult to imagine how it could get any better. But the bigger party is yet to come, provided the Cubs, seeking their first title since 1908, defeat the Indians, seeking their first since ‘48.

Drought I vs. Drought II. Tito vs. Theo. Andrew Miller vs. Aroldis Chapman.

Francisco Lindor vs. Javier Baez, both gifted young infielders from Puerto Rico.

Mike Napoli vs. Jon Lester, John Lackey and David Ross, all members of the 2013 World Series champion Red Sox.

The Indians are not to be dismissed, not after going 7-1 against the Red Sox and Blue Jays in the first two rounds, not with right-handers Danny Salazar and Trevor Bauer possibly returning to fortify their rotation.

Yet on Saturday night, more than a century’s worth of agony in Chicago ended almost poetically. A foul pop landed near the infamous Bartman seat in the ninth inning. The game finished on a 6-4-3 double play, reducing to a footnote the one that the Cubs failed to turn in 2003.

“The thing I’ve always heard about the Cubs being lovable losers, I never quite understood that. That’s not the way I was raised,” said Maddon, who left the Rays for the Cubs prior to the 2015 season.

“Getting here and not paying attention to the superficial nonsense, the superstition that really has dragged a lot of people’s minds down ... to escape that is great, to continue to move it forward. The perception has changed.”

A victory in the Series, of course, would change it forever. But Game 6 of the NLCS, the Cubs’ Waterloo in 1984 and 2003, evolved into an utter catharsis in ’16.

Kyle Hendricks pitched 7 1/3 brilliant innings. The offense tattooed Clayton Kershaw for six extra-base hits, including home runs by Willson Contreras and Anthony Rizzo. The historically efficient defense turned three double plays to prevent the Dodgers from advancing a single runner to scoring position.

Not to be overlooked, Chapman recorded the final five outs, with Maddon saying afterward that stints of one-plus innings for the closer are now “something you can explore more readily or easily” moving forward.

There also was this: The Cubs -- facing Kershaw, trying to avoid Game 7 – started five players 24-or-under – Baez, Contreras, third baseman Kris Bryant, shortstop Addison Russell and right fielder Albert Almora Jr.

“That was us tonight,” said Theo Epstein, the Cubs’ president of baseball operations.

And my, how things line up nicely now.

Jon Lester can start Game 1 of the Series on normal rest Tuesday night in Cleveland. Or, righty Jake Arrieta can start Game 1 to give Lester an extra day’s rest for Game 2. Either way, Hendricks is lined up to pitch Game 3 at Wrigley, where he has a 1.37 ERA this season, including his three postseason starts.

Oh, and guess who likely is coming to Cleveland? None other than Kyle Schwarber, who missed nearly the entire season after undergoing major surgery to repair a left-knee injury, but was activated from the 60-day DL on Saturday so he could appear in the Arizona Fall League.

Epstein and other Cubs executives watched Schwarber’s at-bats during Game 6 through a live feed on closed-circuit television. Schwarber, making his first game appearance since April 7, went 0-for-3 with a walk. Yet, he still looms as the Cubs’ best option at designated hitter, a left-handed menace who also can pinch-hit in the games at Wrigley.

Heaven knows how the Series will unfold, even if Schwarber becomes the sixth member of the team’s 24-or-under club. The Cubs, however, already have shown championship mettle by passing two significant tests.

First, they clinched the Division Series in San Francisco to avoid playing a Game 5 at Wrigley against Johnny Cueto - “I did not want to come back here and face Cueto. That was a big concern of mine,” Maddon said.

Next, they recovered from back-to-back shutouts and a two-games-to-one deficit in the NLCS, sparked by a bunt single from Ben Zobrist that triggered a four-run fourth inning in Game 4. Russell ended his slump with a two-run homer that inning, and Anthony Rizzo ended his with a solo shot one inning later.

Prior to that 10-2 victory, “I just didn’t know what to expect from an offensive perspective. I didn’t have any clue, I really didn’t,” Maddon said. “Before the game, Theo came in. Theo was very confident that we were going to start hitting. Theo was right.”

The weight of history? Bartman, the billy goat and the black cat? The players never cared about any of that, barely even acknowledged it. Maddon asked them to “embrace the target” from the first day of spring training, and his troops obliged.

“This team truly lives for today,” said Ryan Dempster, the former Cub who now works for the team as a special assistant. “I know that’s a cliché, but it’s really true. They don’t think about yesterday and what happened. And they’re not thinking about down the road. They just play for today.”

Dempster experienced his own form of closure Saturday night, watching Hendricks -- the pitcher whom the Cubs acquired for him from the Rangers at the 2012 non-waiver deadline -- seal the National League title.

“Can I tell you how incredible that feels to me?” Dempster said. “I loved playing here, man. For nine years, I played here. And I loved being a Chicago Cub. To see the guy that you get traded for send your team to the World Series -- and I bleed Cubbie blue -- it’s so special.”

It’s special for all of Chicago. And it’s not over yet.