Chicago Cubs: Just ask the Dodgers – winning a World Series isn’t easy

Chicago Cubs: Thankfully, 2016 team finished the job in the postseason

Three years ago, Chicago rolled through the regular season – winning 103 games, their most since 1910. The offense broke out in each postseason series after coming out cold and it ended with millions of people lining the streets in Chicago for a World Series parade in early November.

But that doesn’t always happen. This season, Los Angeles won a franchise record 106 wins, absolutely dominating the National League West. Dave Roberts‘ club led its division by at least nine games for every single day post-June 1 this season. They led all of Major League Baseball with a dozen walk-off victories.

"“The expectation from Day 1 was to win the World Series,” Los Angeles infielder Kike Hernández told MLB.com after the game. “We lost the last few years in the World Series and one didn’t hurt more than the other. This one sucks. Winning 106 games in the regular season and going home after one round, it sucks. Maybe down the road when we all retire we can look back on all the records we broke as a team this year for a historic franchise like the Dodgers. For us to be one and done, it’s tough. I don’t think anyone in this clubhouse expected us to be going home this soon. It sucks. There’s no other way of putting it.”"

All season, it seemed to be a foregone conclusion – the Dodgers and Astros would match up in a rematch of the 2017 Fall Classic at season’s end. Now, the Dodgers are cleaning out their lockers at Chavez Ravine and Houston’s chance at another crown comes down to a win-or-go-home Game 5 Thursday against the Tampa Bay Rays.

You can’t take anything for granted in this game. If you don’t believe that by now, there’s nothing I can tell you to change your mind. But there’s something you should hear if you’re a Cubs fan.