“The series which begins tomorrow is, of course, also a shot at redemption for the Cubs. The club with the best overall 2016 regular season record found themselves swept by the Mets this time last year. While the Cubbies did Wrigleyville Nation proud in 2015, Joe Maddon’s guys were ultimately outmatched. In the first-ever postseason meeting between the two teams, a short-staffed and exhausted Chicago pitching squad underwrote an NLCS in which the losing team never held a scoring lead.
Yet and still “Wait ‘til next year” finally felt like more than meaningless consolation. Except for one lackluster pre-All Star Game stretch early this summer, the Cubbies have dominated the game. So much so that it’s almost (almost!) easy to disregard last year’s New York humbling. Theo Epstein and company have painstakingly shored up at the field, bat and bullpen weaknesses that stood between the Cubs and the World Series in 2015.”
becky sarwate 