MLB Tournament of Champions: NLCS

The MLB Tournament of Champions rolls on as we continue with the postseason and the League Championship Series!

We're over in the National League today as two of the best teams from the regular season collide. For a series like this, I can't just do this half-heartedly. We're doing a full-on look, game by game, at this series that promises to be a classic.

In one dugout we have the 2016 Chicago Cubs. The Cubs won 59 games in the regular season and were pretty much wire to wire the best team in the tournament. They earned the top overall seed in the postseason with those 59 wins, but they faced a tough NLDS opponent in the 1975 Reds. The Cubs needed a pair of walkoff home runs, including one in the winner-take-all Game 5, to advance to this stage. Anthony Rizzo hit a pair of homers against Cincy, including a Game 1 walkoff, while Jake Arrieta pitched masterfully in Games 1 and 5.

They take on the 1995 Atlanta Braves. The Braves overcame having to play on 34 straight days and logged the longest winning streak of any team in the tournament en route to a 55 win campaign. That gave them home field advantage in the last round, though they lost Game 1 against the 2007 Rockies before taking three straight to advance. Ryan Klesko had a monster NLDS with three home runs, and the starting rotation threw 22 1/3 innings and allowed just seven runs against the Rockies.

The Cubs and Braves will play a best of seven series, and by virtue of having the best record in the tournament, the Cubs get home field advantage in a 2-3-2 format. They may need the help, considering the Braves won four of six in the regular season. Stats for this and every series of the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's play some baseball!

Tuesday, August 1st

Game 1 
'95 ATL 7, @ '16 CHC 3
W: Maddux (1-0) | L: Lester (0-2)

The Cubs got off to the early Game 1 lead as Anthony Rizzo launched an opposite field solo home run in the bottom of the first. Jon Lester faced the minimum through two innings, but ran into some trouble in the third as the Braves rallied with two outs. David Justice flipped the script with a two run single, and Ryan Klesko followed with a two run bomb that made it 4-1 Atlanta. Chicago loaded the bases with one out in the bottom half, but only managed one run on a Rizzo sac fly. Lester settled in after that inning and limited the damage, but the Cubs were unable to muster anything on their end. Once the bullpen was in, the Braves took advantage again as in the top of the eighth, Klesko got one into the basket in right center for a solo shot, and Fred McGriff followed two batters later with a two run homer to make it 7-2. Chicago got one run back on a Jason Heyward double in the bottom of the inning, but the Braves retired the last four men to take the opener.

Klesko finished the game 2-3 with a pair of home runs and three RBIs, McGriff went 2-4 with that insurance home run, and starter Greg Maddux threw seven innings of two run ball, allowing eight hits and walking one while striking out nine for the Braves. Rizzo went 2-3 with a home run and two runs knocked in, Heyward had two hits, including an RBI double, and Lester took the loss after allowing four runs on six hits in seven innings, though he only walked one and struck out six for Chicago.

Wednesday, August 2nd

Game 2 
'95 ATL 5, @ '16 CHC 4 (11)
W: Clontz (1-1) | L: Montgomery (0-1) | SV: Wohlers (2)

The Cubs got the early momentum in this one. Kyle Hendricks loaded the bases with nobody out in the top of the first, but he escaped with no damage done, and the Cubs got on the board in the second inning on a sac fly by Willson Contreras. They added another run in the third on a Ben Zobrist single. Hendricks cruised into the seventh when he started to run into trouble; he retired the first two men before plunking Jeff Blauser, and Mark Lemke doubled him home. After intentionally walking pinch hitter Mike Mordecai, Marquis Grissom singled home Lemke to tie the game. The Cubs regrabbed the lead in the bottom half as Dexter Fowler doubled and came around on a Kris Bryant single, but in the top of the eighth the bullpen faltered. Hector Rondon allowed back to back one out singles, was lifted for Justin Grimm, and Grimm promptly allowed a game tying single, then threw a wild pitch to make it 4-3 Braves. The Cubs' bench came through in the bottom of the eighth though when Jorge Soler crushed a pinch hit solo home run to tie the game again. Neither team threatened in the ninth, forcing extras, and in the tenth the Cubs put the first two men on but couldn't convert. In the 11th, Mike Montgomery allowed the first three men to reach, and after retiring the first two batters he was lifted for Trevor Cahill, who issued a bases loaded walk to give the Braves a 5-4 lead. The Cubs were then retired in order in the bottom half, and the Braves head home up two games to none.

Braves starter John Smoltz pitched pretty well, going seven innings and allowing two runs on seven hits, walking three and striking out nine. Lemke went 2-4 with a double and two runs scored, Fred McGriff and Grissom each had two hits, and Ryan Klesko went 0-3, but drew three walks, including what turned out to be the game-winning one for Atlanta. Addison Russell had four hits for the Cubs, while Bryant added three in support of Hendricks who finished his day having allowed two runs on five hits in 6 2/3 innings while walking three and striking out eight.

Friday, August 4th

Game 3
'16 CHC 15, @ '95 ATL 1
W: Arrieta (1-0) | L: Glavine (1-1)

The Cubs made sure they wouldn't need the bullpen to protect a small lead in this one as the offense roared to life. Anthony Rizzo singled home a run in the top of the first to give the Cubs the early lead, then broke out in the second with a six run outburst with bases loaded walks by Dexter Fowler and Kris Bryant, a fielder's choice by Rizzo, an error on Chipper Jones that allowed Ben Zobrist to reach and Fowler to score, and capped with run-scoring singles by Addison Russell and Jason Heyward. Bryant singled home a run in the third to make it 8-0. Chicago starter Jake Arrieta cruised until the fourth when Ryan Klesko took him deep, but Arrieta shook it off and continued his dominance. The Cubs got three more runs in the sixth, two on a Russell single, then capped off the night with four more in the seventh, including a Bryant solo shot.

Russell had a big day, going 3-6 with two runs scored and four RBIs, Bryant went 3-5 with a double, homer, two runs scored and three RBIs, while Rizzo, Heyward, and Javier Baez each knocked in a pair of runs. Arrieta went eight magnificent innings allowing just one run on four hits while walking one and striking out six for the Cubs. Klesko had the only damage for the Braves with a 2-3 day that included his sixth home run of the postseason, while Tom Glavine took the loss allowing 11 runs, eight of them earned, on ten hits in five innings.

Saturday, August 5th

Game 4
'16 CHC 10, @ '95 ATL 1
W: Lackey (1-1) | L: Mercker (1-1)

After both teams went down in order in the first, the Cubs opened the scoring in the top of the second with an Addison Russell solo shot. The Cubs added three more in the third on a Jorge Soler solo shot and two run single by Anthony Rizzo. In the fourth, a pair of errors loaded the bases for Chicago with nobody out, and the Cubs cashed them all in on a pair of bases loaded walks and a fielder's choice where a close play at the plate was called safe. In the sixth, Atlanta finally got on the board against John Lackey as Fred McGriff lined a solo home run to make it 7-1. Ben Zobrist had the dagger in the top of the eighth with a three run blast, and Trevor Cahill took it home to even up the series.

Lackey was very good, throwing seven innings of one run ball while striking out eight, though he did allow seven hits and four walks. Rizzo and Zobrist each drove in three runs for the Cubs, Russell had a home run, knocked in a pair, and scored twice, and Soler went 3-5 with a home run, RBI, and two runs scored. McGriff had Atlanta's lone tally with his solo shot, Ryan Klesko went 2-5, and starter Kent Mercker departed after four innings allowing four earned runs and seven total on six hits with three walks and three strikeouts.

Sunday, August 6th

Game 5
'16 CHC 7, @ '95 ATL 2
W: Rondon (1-0) | L: Wohlers (0-1)

This one was a shocker in Atlanta. We had a fantastic pitchers' duel as Jon Lester and Greg Maddux traded zeroes until the bottom of the sixth, when Ryan Klesko came through again with a two run homer. After seven innings, each team turned it over to the bullpen, and in the top of the ninth everything fell apart for closer Mark Wohlers and the rest of the pen. He walked Addison Russell to start the inning, then after getting Jason Heyward to line out and Ben Zobrist to strike out, Jorge Soler kept the game alive with an infield single, and David Ross came through with a three run home run to the opposite field to give the Cubs a 3-2 lead. Wohlers was pulled for Steve Bedrosian, but he promptly gave up a pinch hit home run to Willson Contreras. Bedrosian was then immediately pulled for Jason Schmidt, who walked Dexter Fowler and gave up a single to Kris Bryant, and he was lifted for Brad Clontz, who promptly gave up a three run blast to Anthony Rizzo. Suddenly it was 7-2 Cubs, and the Braves had no answer for Justin Grimm in the bottom of the ninth, sending the series back to Wrigley with the Cubs up three games to two.

Lester was excellent for Chicago, other than the one mistake that put up two runs on him in seven innings, where he allowed a total of five hits and two walks, while he recorded four strikeouts. Bryant, Rizzo, and Soler each had two hits and a run scored, with Rizzo notching three RBIs. Ross had the big blow with the game winning three run homer, and Contreras also homered. That seven run rally spoiled a Greg Maddux gem as he threw seven shutout innings, scattering five hits while walking none and striking out nine. Klesko went 1-4 but launched his seventh homer of the playoffs for the Braves.

Tuesday, August 8th

Game 6
'95 ATL 4, @ '16 CHC 1
W: Smoltz (2-0) | L: Hendricks (1-1) | SV: Wohlers (3)

Both offenses struggled to get out of the gate in Game 6 until the fourth inning, when Mark Lemke and Ryan Klesko hit back to back doubles to put the Braves up 1-0. They loaded the bases with one out, but Kyle Hendricks was able to escape the jam without any further damage. His offense then rewarded him as Kris Bryant hit one into the first row of the left field bleachers to tie the game. Unfortuantely, the wrong part of the Brave order came back up as Klesko doubled home another run to give Atlanta the lead again. The score remained 2-1 until the eighth, when the Braves tacked on two more on a fielder's choice and a Carl Edwards, Jr. wild pitch, and this time the Braves bullpen held on to force a Game 7.

John Smoltz was brilliant in the win for Atlanta, going seven innings and allowing just one run on four hits, walking two and striking out ten. Klesko finished the day 3-5 with three doubles and two runs knocked in, while Lemke went 2-5 with a double and two runs scored. Bryant led the Cubs' offense with a 2-4 day, including a solo home run, Jason Heyward had two hits, and Hendricks took the tough loss after allowing just two runs on five hits in six innings, walking one and striking out six for Chicago.

Wednesday, August 9th

Game 7
@ '16 CHC 3, '95 ATL 2
W: Arrieta (2-0) | L: Glavine (1-2) | SV: Rondon (1)

Like the last winner-take-all game at Wrigley Field, we had a pitchers' duel for most of it. The Cubs couldn't muster a hit off Tom Glavine until the third inning while the Braves had a couple base runners, but only one in scoring position for the first four innings. The Cubs left the bases loaded in their half of the fourth, and the Braves got runners to the corners with one out in the fifth, but Glavine bounced into a double play to end the threat. In the bottom of the inning, the Cubs were able to load the bases with two outs, and Ben Zobrist came through with a two run single to open the scoring. Atlanta was able to answer in the sixth after Arrieta retired Atlanta's two best hitters, Mark Lemke and Ryan Klesko, but Fred McGriff singled home Marquis Grissom to cut Chicago's lead in half. In the seventh, the Cubs got that run back when Kris Bryant hit one into the basket in right center. Arrieta handed it over to Aroldis Chapman for the ninth, but Chapman allowed a pair of singles sandwiched by a wild pitch before getting a double play ball to pick up two outs at the cost of a run. Hector Rondon came in, and he got David Justice to fly out to right and send the Cubs on to the final round.

Arrieta was masterful once again for the Cubs, going eight innings and allowing just one run on seven hits, walking one and striking out six. Bryant went 2-4 with two runs scored, including that critical insurance home run, while Zobrist went 1-3 with a walk and two runs knocked in. Tom Glavine had a quality start for the Braves, but his offense didn't give him enough support considering his three runs on six hits allowed, with six walks and four strikeouts. McGriff went 2-4 with a run and an RBI and Javy Lopez had two hits, but the Cubs contained Ryan Klesko, holding him hitless in three at bats.

To see the updated bracket, click here.

NLCS MVP

Jake Arrieta ('16 CHC): 2 G (2 GS), 2-0, 1.13 ERA, 0.81 WHIP, .200/.254/.273; 16 IP, 2 ER, 11 H, 2 BB, 12 K

There was never a dull moment, as for the second straight series involving this Cubs team, I was super nervous going into the sim of the winner-take-all game. This was especially true given that the road team won the first six games before the Cubs bucked the trend, but here they are. Congratulations to the 2016 Chicago Cubs, who advance to the Championship of Champions! They will take on the 2011 Texas Rangers in a battle for all time supremacy beginning on Saturday. Check back again in a week to a week and a half for the thrilling conclusion of the MLB Tournament of Champions!