CHICAGO _ Patrolled by police on horseback, the streets bordering Wrigley Field began to swell with people long before the first pitch of Game 6, the anticipation building so rapidly the neighborhood could barely contain it.
Maybe this really was a Cubs' team whose time finally had arrived, and the fans could sense it, knowing Saturday that the World Series was only one victory away. Standing between them and the first trip to the Fall Classic in 71 years was Clayton Kershaw, but it hardly seemed to matter.
When the Cubs won Game 6, 5-0, Saturday night to send themselves to the Series, the Dodgers' ace took on the role of a supporting player in a much bigger story, one that not even a three-time Cy Young winner could prevent from happening.
And if the mighty Kershaw was powerless to stop it, then who will?
"We're definitely on the verge of doing something wonderful, and they're absolutely engaged and involved," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said of his team's long-suffering fan base. "At the end of the day, let's just do this one thing at a time. Let's try to score first. Let's try to win some innings and just play our game. That's all we can do. That's what we can control."
The sight of Kershaw should have sent shudders through Wrigley, where he pitched seven scoreless innings to beat the Cubs a week earlier in Game 2. Only one other pitcher had ever beaten the Cubs 1-0 in a playoff game and that was Babe Ruth, in Game 1 of the 1918 World Series, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
That night, coming off his Game 5 save in the Division Series, was supposed to put an end to Kershaw's lousy playoff narrative, his previous failure to own October like he had the regular season.
Except for one thing: the Dodgers needed him to do it again, only this time facing elimination, and staring down history. Manager Dave Roberts decided to give him an extra day of rest and start him Game 6 rather than use him back at Chavez Ravine in Game 5. Still, Kershaw understood the challenges of facing a powerful Cubs' lineup twice in a short series.
"Pitchers definitely don't have an advantage," Kershaw said. "The more you see somebody, the more familiar you get with them. So I don't think there's anything that you do to counteract it. You maybe have less margin for error facing them the second time. But just be better, I guess."
Evidently, that was too much to ask. The Cubs weren't going to let him, and neither were the larger forces at work at Wrigley, a place that was nothing but friendly last night to its otherwise cursed tenant. Dexter Fowler set the tone when he led off the game with a bloop double that landed roughly two feet inside the right-field foul line.
Lucky? Sure. But when Kris Bryant followed with a scorching RBI single in the same direction, it was too healthy of a swing, too early, against Kershaw. Anthony Rizzo followed with a sinking liner that clanged off Andrew Toles' for a two-base error and Ben Zobrist's sacrifice fly put the Cubs up, 2-0. How huge was that quick lead? The Cubs were 3-0 in this series when scoring at least one run. And Kershaw continued to deteriorate from there.
Addison Russell's leadoff double in the second inning led to another run on Fowler's two-out single and Wilson Contreras opened the fourth by going deep into the left-field bleachers. By then, Kershaw was staggered, and Rizzo started the standing eight count by launching another home run to right in the fifth. Kershaw whiffed Ben Zobrist, his fourth strikeout, to end that inning, but he did not return for the sixth.
That was a bitter finish for Kershaw, who allowed seven hits and four earned runs over those five innings.
Of course, the Cubs had a mission. And Kershaw was little more than a speed bump in their way Saturday night.
