The Chicago Cubs Strike Back, Steal Win from LA Dodgers.

There isn’t anything quite baseball in October. The best teams in the MLB clash in order to decide who is going on to play in the historic World Series. Every year a surprise team or two will show up to start really establishing themselves as a juggernaut. Over the past two years, the Chicago Cubs grew from lovable ‘ascending’ team to the greatest force in the National League, culminating in a World Series win last year. Now, facing elimination at the hands of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago reverted back to form. Falling behind 3 – 0 and facing elimination, Chicago found their bats and rejuvenated Wrigley Field.

The Chicago Cubs are so new to winning that the thought of losing in the NLC is still absolutely heartbreaking. That is why, for all of their early-series troubles, Chicago looked like a different team on Tuesday night. The Chicago Cubs trotted out ace right-hander Jake Arrieta to face off against Los Angeles’ lefty, Alex Wood. Los Angeles knew that they could seal a trip to the World Series with one more road win so the pressure was on for both teams and baseball fans at home got another close experience.

Jake Arrieta took the mound for probably the last time in his career, pending a Cubs’ series-comeback, and boy did he shine. Arrieta threw 111 pitches over 6.2 innings of work, fanning 9 batters while giving up just a single earned run. Arrieta was in rare form as he dominated batters, brought heat with his fastball, and struck out opponents by changing speeds. Arrieta looked like a completely different pitcher than the listless hurler he was early on in the 2016 – 2017 season.

Offensively Chicago didn’t do much different than they had earlier in this series, and that could be a problem. Javier Baez hit a pair of home runs while Wilson Contreras rounded out Chicago’s scoring with a solo shot in the 7th inning. Contrera’s shot was a rocket as it traveled 491 feet. The home runs from Baez were huge as they represented a break from an 0 – 20 skid that the young talent had been facing.

Wade Davis would be called to take the field in order to perform a six out save and the All Star closer would perform in style. Chicago is now looking to another night of baseball in order to keep their World Series dreams alive.