LOS ANGELES-- Past the anxiety and the curse, past the 2-1 NLCS series deficit and all the history whispering it's over, past the special kind of excellence the Los Angeles Dodgers possess and past the unique feeling of fear that comes with trying to crack a World Series drought was this one, true fact: Of course the Chicago Cubs weren't going to go down easily.
It is no surprise, looking back, that the best team in baseball would jump all over Julio Urias, the youngest major-leaguer to ever start a postseason baseball game, it's no wonder that arguably the game's most potent offense would find its bats and make a contest of this thing.
In a 10-2 thrashing on Wednesday night, the Cubs didn't just knot the series at 2-2. They proved, again, that this is not the same Chicago Cubs team that in the past hearkened back to -- and could not escape the legacy of -- Bartman, of 1984, of succumbing to the Never Say Die Mets, of all of it.
How many times will this Cubs team have to prove that they are not those other Cubs teams? Six more. We are our history and, fair or not, the Cubs aren't shedding the doubters and worry until they win it all.
With how they played Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium, they might just do it after all.
Make no mistake. The Dodgers are formidable, dangerous and well-equipped to make their own history. So are the Cleveland Indians. So were the Toronto Blue Jays, before they got sent home after five games in the ALCS. So is anyone who finds themselves still standing, here in October, in the pursuit of a championship.
Even these Cubs.
Especially these Cubs.
They were the best team in baseball this season for a reason. For many reasons, including having the game's best pitching staff and a sense that anyone, or everyone, could step up and get it done if need be. No wonder, then, that after starter John Lackey was knocked out in the fourth inning with the bases loaded but no runs yet across the bullpen steps up. Mike Montgomery came in, surrendered two of those runs but otherwise shut the inning down -- and the Cubs never looked back. The five pitchers after Lackey combined to blank the Dodgers for five innings, and give up just three hits.
Because this team doesn't panic.
This Cubs team scored the third-most runs in baseball in the regular season, but with Boston boasting a designated-hitter advantage and the Rockies playing half their games in a ballpark calibrated to homers, the Cubs can make a claim to being the league's best offense. So no wonder they put 10 on the scoreboard with what felt like their season on the line.
It was two hitters who had been excellent until this postseason, guys whose postseason hitting had turned into the stuff of baseball nightmares, who came through big. Both Anthony Rizzo (batting .077 in the postseason entering the game) and Addison Russell (.042) had three hits and a home run apiece. Rizzo drove in three runs. Russell drove in two.
Because, on this Cubs team, their slumping young stars were bound to revert to the mean.
And then the Cubs were off and running, and the dark cloud that supposedly hung over Cubsdom -- again, all that history -- lifted. Simply because the Cubs did what they'd done more than any other team all year: They won a ballgame.
Because maybe, just maybe, curses aren't real.
Not with these guys.
"It's contagious," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. "This whole game, it just follows itself."
This series isn't over. Both the Cubs and the Dodgers are special. The Dodgers rolled out a 20-year-old who will be -- book it -- a star in this game. But that's mighty young to step into this kind of October air, and the Cubs won't get a shot at the rookie again.
The Dodgers have Clayton Kershaw, most likely in a Game 6, and if they need him, Rich Hill in a Game 7. The Cubs get to play two more games at Wrigley, if they need them, a place they've been great this season.
The two best teams in the National League are doing what was inevitable: They're putting on an incredible series, trading wins, battling for the crown.
"It's an interesting baseball series, man," Maddon said. "I think it's great. I think it's great for baseball."
