A Cubs Fan's Guide to the National League Championship Series

If we were talking about the National League Championship Series back in April, most baseball fans probably would have known that the all-powerful Los Angeles Dodgers would be playing in it. The New York Mets, on the other hand, perhaps not so much. On June 2, FanGraphs playoff odds for the Mets bottomed out at 7.9 percent.

But baseball is baseball, so we now have three games in the NLCS with the Mets trailing the Dodgers two games to one.

It's been a pretty fun series so far, as the Dodgers beat the Mets in games one and three and the Mets got revenge in game two. While likely National League MVP candidate Shohei Ohtani stole the show in Game 3 with a towering home run that looked like it was leaving Citi Field (VIDEO), you might be amazed to know that he is the most impactful hitter, according to wRC+ of both teams in the extremely small sample. The greatest player of the postseason was Jesse Winker of the Mets, who posted a wRC+ of 201 in 21 plate appearances this October.

Winker was a trade deadline acquisition from the Nationals who has two walks and a run scored so far in this NLCS.

There aren't many former Cubs on these rosters, although close observers of the team will remember the brief stint in which Luis Torrens was the backup catcher for 13 games for the 2023 team. There are no players on the Dodgers roster who spent time with the Cubs at the MLB level.

The far more familiar face on the Mets roster to Cubs fans is starting pitcher Jose Quintana, who appears to have bounced back in his age-35 season. Quintana threw 170 ¹⁄₃ Innings worth 3.75 ERA this season. He has yet to give up a run in 11 innings pitched this postseason and will start the fourth game tonight in New York. He was outstanding in his last game, striking out six Phillies (VIDEO).

Honestly, the most impressive thing about this game might be that the Mets are starting Kodai Senga (who largely plays the opening role after missing all but five innings of the regular season due to injury), Sean Manaea, Luis Severino and Quintana to fit together well and perhaps even be stronger than the Dodgers' starting rotation of Jack Flaherty, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Walker Buehler and rookie Landon Knack (who has largely pursued an opening pitch).

Both teams relied heavily on their bullpens early in this series, which could lead to an advantage for hitters who see the same thing over and over again as the series continues. We'll find out more this evening in New York. Game 4 begins tonight at 7:08 p.m. CT.