The Los Angeles Dodgers are moving on to the NLCS to take on the Chicago Cubs. Here is the updated playoff bracket.
The Los Angeles Dodgers won as tight a series as you can imagine in their NLDS victory over the Washington Nationals, earning all of their victories by a one-run margin.
Things will not get any easier. The Dodgers head to Chicago to play the Cubs in the NLCS this Saturday, Oct. 15, pitting them against a 103-win team that achieved its own dramatic clincher in its series win over the San Francisco Giants.
Here is a look at the updated bracket, as each team in now just four wins away from a trip to the World Series, where they will face either the Toronto Blue Jays or Cleveland Indians. (The ALCS begins on Friday at Progressive Field in Cleveland, at 8:08 p.m. ET.)
In their regular season series, the Cubs hosted the Dodgers for a four-game set in May and took three games out of four. The teams met again for a three-game series in Los Angeles in August, in which the Dodgers took two out of three. The last time the Cubs and Dodgers faced each other in the postseason was in the 2008 NLDS, a series the Dodgers swept 3-0.
The Cubs have announced they will go with Jon Lester in Game 1 of the NLCS, essentially resetting their rotation to how it started in the NLDS. Kyle Hendricks would pitch Game 2 following that script, but his availability is uncertain after he took a comebacker to his right forearm and was removed during the fourth inning of his NLDS start. Jake Arrieta and John Lackey would presumably follow in the rotation.
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The Dodgers’ starter seems uncertain, but it will likely be Kenta Maeda, who hasn’t pitched since Game 3 on Monday, or possibly fellow rookie Julio Urias, who came in for 30 pitches of relief work during Game 5 allowing no runs on one hit and two walks, striking out one. Urias has yet to start a game this or any postseason.
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The series will pit two historic franchises against each other. The Dodgers are seeking their first World Series title since 1988. The Cubs will be seeking their first since 1908.