By: Sam Gubner

Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals

The Chicago Cubs came into the series highly touted because of young stars Kyle Schwarber, Kris Bryant, and Anthony Rizzo. But in Game 1, the Cards’ youngsters stole the show with home runs off the bats of Tommy Pham and Stephen Piscotty, scoring 3 of the Cardinals four runs and giving the Cardinals a 4-0 win. Even though they were depleted after a Game 1 loss, the Cubs wouldn’t go down without a fight, taking an early 5-1 lead in the second and never looking back, tying the series at one apiece. With everything back to square one, the Cubs thought that star pitcher Jake Arrieta would dominate the Cardinals, the reality was quite the opposite, with the Cardinals scoring four runs off of the Cubs ace. Even with poor pitching, home runs by six different players (an MLB postseason record) led the Cubs to an 8-6 win. In possibly the final game of the series, the Cubs desperately needed this win, and they came through with Javier Baez, Kyle Schwarber, and Anthony Rizzo each hitting a homerun, sealing the series win and a chance at winning their first World Series in over 100 years.

New York Mets vs. Los Angeles Dodgers

The Chase Utley slide is now one of the most controversial plays in baseball history. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)

The beginning of the Dodgers – Mets series was highlighted by one play, the controversial Chase Utley slide has been all over the news (click here to watch the play). The play in question was Dodgers second basemen Chase Utley’s slide into Mets Shortstop Ruben Tejada, which broke an inning-ending double play, but also broke Tejada’s right leg. Tejada left the game, and the Dodgers took the lead and won the game. If Chase Utley hadn’t made that heavily disputed slide, the game would’ve been tied, and the Dodgers might not’ve won. After a 13-7 deficit in Game 3, the Dodgers were facing elimination in a must-win Game 4. With Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw on the mound even I was a bit skeptical (Kershaw was 0-5 in playoffs with a 4.99 ERA), but he proved the skeptics wrong, leading the Dodgers to a 3-1 win and forcing a winner-take-all Game 5. In this pivotal Game 5, the Dodgers put CY Young contender Zack Greinke on the mound to seal a series win, but sadly for all of us here in LA, the Mets, led by Daniel Murphy, would take a 3-2 lead, and ride it to the end of the game, giving the Mets a NLDS win. The Mets will now face off against the Cubs in an NLCS showdown.