San Francisco Chronicle

Cubs beat Kershaw, L.A. for 1st pennant in 71 years

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CHICAGO — Cursed by a billy goat, bedeviled by Bartman and crushed by decades of disappoint­ment, the Chicago Cubs are at long last headed back to the World Series.

Kyle Hendricks outpitched Clayton Kershaw, and Anthony Rizzo and Willson Contreras homered early to give the Cubs their first pennant since 1945 as they beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-0 Saturday night in Game 6 of the NL Championsh­ip Series.

The drought ended when closer Aroldis Chapman got Yasiel Puig to ground into a double play, setting off a wild celebratio­n inside Wrigley Field and all over the city.

The World Series opens Tuesday night in Cleveland. The Indians haven’t won it all since 1948, the Cubs since 1908, the two longest title waits in the majors.

“This city deserves it so much,” Rizzo said. “We got

four more big ones to go, but we’re going to enjoy this. We’re going to the World Series. I can’t even believe that.”

Kershaw, dominant in a Game 2 shutout, gave up five runs and seven hits in five innings.

Hendricks pitched two-hit ball for 71⁄3 innings, and Chapman closed it out with hitless relief, then threw both arms in the air as he was mobbed by teammates and coaches. The crowd joined in, chanting and serenading their team.

The Cubs overcame a 2-1 series deficit against the Dodgers, shaking off back-toback shutout losses to pound the Dodgers for 23 runs to win the final three games.

The eternal “wait till next year” is over.

“We’re too young. We don’t care about it,” star slugger Kris Bryant said. “We don’t look into it. This is a new team, this is a completely different time of our lives. We’re enjoying it, and our work’s just getting started.”

Javier Baez, who hit .318, drove in five runs and made several sharp plays at second over the course of the series, and Jon Lester, who was 1-0 with a 1.38 ERA in two starts, shared the NLCS MVP award.

In 1945, the Billy Goat Curse supposedly began when a tavern owner wasn’t allowed to bring his goat into Wrigley for a World Series game. In 2003, the Cubs lost the final three games of the NLCS, punctuated by a Game 6 defeat when fan Steve Bartman deflected a foul ball.

This time, no such ill luck.

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