Cubbies sweep Boys of Summer in 3 straight

GAME 1 - Wrigley Field
Don Sutton vs Ferguson Jenkins
Cubs 6, Dodgers 5
Chicago limped into the playoffs thanks the the Phillies out "swooning" them down the stretch.  They talk about needing momentum when the post season starts, but the Cubbies proved that to be a bunch of bunk.  After going down 4-1 to the Dodgers thanks to a 4 run top of the 4th supplied by a Reggie Smith Single and a Gil Hodges 3 run shot, the Cubs looked dead.  The North side would come back to life in the bottom of the inning when Billy Bucks hit a 2 out RBI triple and Ron Santo crushed a 2 run shot to tie the game at 4-4.  Ernie Banks' solo shot in the 5th gave Jenkins a 5-4 lead, his error at short in the 7th allowed Maury Wills to score and tie the game at 5-5.  Rick Monday would lead off the bottom of the 9th and work out a walk off of knuckleballing reliever Charlie Hough.  A passed ball, which could have easily been recorded as a wild pitch allowed Monday to move over to second.  After Buckner struck out looking Santo hit one that drove Hodges back to the ivy in left for out number 2.  Jose Cardenal was called on to pinch hit for catcher Randy Hundley and the man with the big "fro" delivered the game winning walk off RBI single to put Chicago up 1-0 in the series.

GAME 2 - Wrigley Field
Sandy Koufax vs Greg Maddux
Cubs 1, Dodgers 0
North side fans were treated to a HOF pitching matchup that did not disappoint.  Koufax was his usual dominant self fanning 10 and walking just 1.  Greg Maddux fanned 8, walked three, but his most important stat of the day was zero runs allowed.  The game remained hopelessly deadlocked in a scoreless tie until the bottom of the 9th when Koufax, who threw 131 pitches, looked to be tiring.  After getting Banks to pop out Ryne Sandberg singled sharply off of Koufax.  Hank Sauer hit a bullet to Pete Guerrero at third for out number two.  The Hawk, Andre Dawson singled with 2 outs to put runners on the corners and MVP candidate Rick Monday came through with an RBI walk off single to score Sandberg and put Chicago one game away from clinching the series.  Monday fanned the first 2 times he face Koufax.  Manager Walden showed confidence in his centerfielder by letting him stay in the lineup and face the toughest lefty on the planet.

GAME 3 - Ebbets Field
Rick Reuschel vs Fernando Valenzuela
Cubs 7, Dodgers 5
The series shifted venues, but the results remained quite the same.  The Cubbies, who were left for dead and buried by the media a week ago, continued their resurrection by outlasting a HOF laden Dodger lineup.  On a day where Valenzuela had nothing (10 hits / 7 runs) the Dodger bats were called on to overcome the lack of arms.  The Boys of Summer did an admirable job keeping it with in 1 run as late as the 7th where the Cubs scored 2 and went up by 3.  Hank Sauer, as he's done all year, supplied the power with a 2 run shot to make it 7-4.  Duke Snider's solo blast in the bottom of the inning made it a 2 run game, but closer Bruce Sutter would come on to pitch the final 2 perfect innings to punch Chicago's ticket to the NLCS.