Chicago Cubs: Ranking all postseason series since 1984

Cubs History: There have been 14 different postseason series that the Cubs have played in since 1984.

Cubs History: It was 1969 when the postseason turned into a multi-round playoff system, and it took until 1984 for the Chicago Cubs to make their first NLCS-era postseason appearance. Since 1984 the Cubs have made the postseason 10 times and have participated in 14 multi-game series. That number of postseason series doubled from 2015-2017. Keep in mind this does not count Wild Card games.

In those 14 series, the Cubs are 6-8 with four of those series wins coming in 2015-2016. How do all of these series stack up against each other? We will be ranking each of these 14 series from worst to best. Criteria for these rankings include performance and overall success in the series. So while some series ended in great heartbreak like the 2003 NLCS, it will be ranked higher than the likes of the 2015 NLCS, which saw the team get swept. (Mini spoiler alert)

This list is, of course, very arbitrary and up for much debate, but this is what we came up with. Here are the 14 Cubs postseason series ranked against each other.

Cubs History: This set of series saw some of them end in brutal heartbreak, but at least the Cubs had their moments before bowing out

#10: 1989 National League Championship Series:

“The Boys of Zimmer” were an incredible fluke that won the 1989 NL East title. Though, dreams of a World Series were extinguished pretty fast when the Giants beat them in five games. The Cubs performance in the 89′ NLCS was pretty forgettable outside Mark Grace hitting .647/.682/1.118 with three doubles and eight RBI. Greg Maddux and Andre Dawson really struggled in the series, which was a major factor in the Cubs downfall. Meanwhile, Will Clark terrorized Cubs pitching with 13 hits and two homers in the series.

At least they won game two at Wrigley Field 9-5 when they chased former Cubs ace Rick Reuschel for five earned runs in the first. Them evening the series at 1-1 after that win at least gave hope to the North Side faithful that they had a shot at winning the pennant.

#9: 2017 National League Championship Series:

While defending their 2016 World Series title, the Cubs were looking to repeat in 2017 as they advanced to the NLCS for the third-straight year. By the time they got to the NLCS to face the NL-best 104-win Los Angeles Dodgers, the Cubs were running on fumes. Like 1989 they lost in five games, but this time they got their lone win in game four while trailing 3-0 in the series.

The series was pretty much over after Justin Turner’s walk-off homer in game two despite some still holding out hope when the series went to Wrigley Field. After falling behind 3-0, it was certainly over, even with the game four win. Los Angeles was just too good, and the Cubs were out of gas. In the end, it was just good seeing a defending champion Cubs team make another postseason run with an excellent final performance from Jake Arrieta. That is why the 2017 NLCS was ranked higher than the 1989 NLCS.

#8: 1984 National League Championship Series:

1984 saw the first postseason appearance for the Cubs in the NLCS era and first legit shot at a World Series title since 1945. A trip to the Fall Classic for the Cubs would go through the 92-win San Diego Padres. Back then, the NLCS was a best-of-five series that had the first two games take place at Wrigley Field and the final three in San Diego.

The pennant seemed like a sure thing when the Cubs demolished the Padres in the first two games of the series. Game one of the NLCS was a 13-0 whitewash with Rick Sutcliffe pitching a gem, the Cubs first postseason win since October 8th, 1945, and game two was a 4-2 win to bring them within one win of the World Series. Everything then went south. Behind Steve Garvey’s clutch hitting and Leon Durham’s error in game five, the Padres rallied and won the pennant. No need to go into the details, it’s too painful.

It was a brutal way to lose, but the Cubs got very close and had a legit shot at a pennant.

#7: 2003 National League Championship Series:

From 1946-2015 the Cubs won zero pennants, but 2003 was the closest they were to winning one. In an unexpected run, the 2003 Cubs were five outs away from the World Series against the Florida Marlins. The eighth inning collapse in game six was followed up by getting destroyed in game seven, resulting in coming up short of an NL pennant yet again.

However, this series saw some pretty cool things. They won games two through four to take a 3-1 series lead. Those three games included a Mark Prior gem in a 12-3 blowout win in game two, a thrilling extra-inning win on the road in  (the Cubs first-ever road win in an NLCS), and a first-inning grand slam by Aramis Ramirez in game four. It was a pretty impressive run until game five when they lost the final three games of the series. Luckily it does not sting as much now as it did before 2016.

Cubs History: The franchise finally started winning postseason series at the turn of the century

#6: 2017 National League Division Series:

The last postseason series the Cubs have won was just a few years ago in 2017. Winning 92 games as the defending champions, the road to repeating began in Washington D.C. against the 97-win Nationals, who were managed by former Cubs manager Dusty Baker.

Cubs took game one behind another postseason gem by Kyle Hendricks and took the lead in the series in game three at home, thanks to Anthony Rizzo’s bloop RBI single in the eighth inning. It all came down to a winner-take-all game five after the Nationals blanked the Cubs in Game 4. Game five was a crazy five-hour theater of madness, misplays, and video reviews, which required the Cubs to erase an early 4-1 deficit in the fifth inning and hang on the rest of the way by the skin of their teeth. It all ended when Wade Davis struck out Bryce Harper to seal a 9-8 victory.

The 2017 NLDS was the fifth postseason series win for the Cubs in three years. They had one from 1909-2014.

#5: 2003 National League Division Series:

It took the Cubs 95 years, but they finally won their first postseason series since 1908 in 2003 when they defeated the 101-win Atlanta Braves in the NLDS. Who would have thought the Cinderella 88-win Cubs could take down Greg Maddux and the Big Bad Bravos? Well, they did.

Kerry Wood’s arm and bat lead the Cubs to a game one win while Mark Prior pitched a complete game to beat Maddux in game three to take a 2-1 series lead. A potential celebration was sunk in game four as Chipper Jones went off to help the Braves force a game five in Atlanta. A good 30,000 Cubs fans showed up to Turner Field to watch Wood throw an eight-inning, one run masterpiece to help their team cruise to a 5-1 victory. Joe Borowski closed it out by striking out Andruw Jones. Crowds gathered in Wrigleyville to celebrate their postseason series win and a trip to the NLCS.

That was far and away the best postseason memory for the Cubs before 2015.

#4: 2016 National League Division Series:

The 2016 October journey to a World Series title began against the Wild Card San Francisco Giants. It featured a nail-biting 1-0 win in game one behind Jon Lester and Javier Baez, the thrashing of old pal Jeff Samardzija in game two, and an epic comeback in game four.

Of all the stories often told by the Cubs fans, it seems like this series is talked about the least. It kind of makes sense considering it was round one, but it was a historical series. Erasing a 5-2 deficit in the ninth inning of game four and winning 6-5 was the biggest postseason-clinching comeback in history. Heck, the one-loss the Cubs suffered featured the Jake Arrieta three-run shot off Madison Bumgardner. Mix in the Travis Wood home run in game two and Baez go-ahead shot in game one, and you got plenty of historical moments to talk about from the series.

Cubs History: Cannot argue these three, but maybe the order for the top two

#3: 2016 National League Championship Series:

Seventy-one years without seeing a pennant ended on October 22nd, 2016, at Wrigley Field. That pennant-clinching 5-0 win in Game 6 of the NLCS over the Dodgers would not have happened without some heroics from Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez, Jon Lester and Miguel Montero in the first five games.

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The epic Montero grand slam off Joe Blanton in game one was followed by two Dodger wins, requiring the Cubs to rally from behind. A 10-2 blowout win in game four and 8-4 win behind great pitching from Lester in game five turned a 2-1 series deficit into a 3-2 series lead. Rizzo breaking his slump recording five hits in those two wins using Matt Szczur’s bat is still a great story.

All of this ending with the Kyle Hendricks gem and double play of Yasiel Puig’s bat, sealing a trip to the World Series. For sure, one of the best series in Cubs history.

#2: 2015 National League Division Series:

Really? A division series win ranked over winning a pennant? Well, it was against their oldest and most hated rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals. Beating them in a playoff series was a dream come true and marked the beginning of something great on the North Side.

Could the young Cubs beat the 100-win Cardinals, a team that always seems to find a way in October? The Cardinals had made four-straight NLCS appearances going into 2015. A 4-0 game one loss did not phase the Cubs one bit. Game three, the first postseason game at Wrigley since 2008, was a slugfest that saw home runs from Kyle Schwarber, Jorge Soler, Starling Castro, Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Dexter Fowler in an 8-6 win. That win set up the clinching 6-4 win at Wrigley, which included the famous Schwarber scoreboard home run in the seventh.

Sure the 2016 NLCS won the pennant, but man, this series against the Cardinals, felt just so dang good.

#1: 2016 World Series:

First championship since 1908 was clinched after erasing a 3-1 deficit and winning Game 7 in Cleveland by a score of 8-7 in 10 innings. Of course, this is number one. Not much else to say!

While having the World Series number one is not much of a debate; there is plenty of discussion for ranking the other series. This is all arbitrary, but that is what makes making lists fun.