The Dodgers forced a Game 5, the Giants did not

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Thanks to a ninth-inning comeback, the Giants have been eliminated from the 2016 postseason. We don’t yet know who it is the Cubs will be facing in the NLCS, because the Dodgers had better luck than their California rivals and forced a Game 5 against the Nationals. Chicago, though, joins the Blue Jays and Indians as teams that have advanced, and made a little franchise history in the process: the Cubs have never made it to the NLCS in consecutive years, and the last time they were even in the postseason two years in a row (2007 and 2008) they were eliminated in the NLDS. Before 2016, the last time the won playoffs series in consecutive years was 1907 and 1908, years which Cubs fans are likely tired of hearing about right now.

The Giants’ bullpen blew it, which is fitting given it’s what nearly kept them out of the postseason in the first place. San Francisco was up 5-2 in the ninth, three outs away from earning a flight back to Chicago for Game 5, but instead, the bullpen bullpenned and the only reason the Cubs are going back to Chicago is to prepare for the first game of the NLCS. It felt like such a Giants Playoff Baseball game, too, with Conor Gillaspie an offensive hero again, starting pitcher Matt Moore getting a key hit, and, of course, their history of being impossible to put away. It wasn’t enough, though, and now their season is over.

The Dodgers are still alive, and now have an odd assortment of arms to lean on in Game 5 following Clayton Kershaw’s 6 2/3 innings of work. Kershaw wasn’t perfect, but most of the damage wasn’t his fault, either: the box score will say he gave up five runs, but he gave up two, got two runs in the seventh, left three men on in part due to a tremendous battle with Bryce Harper that resulted in a walk, then saw Pedro Baez and Luis Avilan allow all three of those runners to score before Joe Blanton came in to end the inning with a strikeout. Some of that rests on Kershaw, yes, but he was pitching the seventh because of what the relievers behind him might do in the first place.

Now, it all comes down to Thursday in Washington: that’s when we’ll find out which division winner will meet the Cubs in Chicago on Saturday.