The 2016 National League Division Series were two best-of-five-game series on the National League side in Major League Baseball’s 2016 postseason to determine the participating teams in the 2016 National League Championship Series. The three divisional winners (seeded 1–3) and a fourth team—the winner of a one-game Wild Card playoff— played in two series. FS1 and MLB Network carried all the games in the United States.
These matchups were: (1) Chicago Cubs (Central Division champions) vs (5) San Francisco Giants (Wild Card Winner): Cubs win series 3–1. (2) Washington Nationals (East Division champions) vs (3) Los Angeles Dodgers (West Division champions): Dodgers win series 3–2.
The Dodgers defeated the Nationals in five games and reached the National League Championship Series for the first time since 2013.
The Cubs won the Division Series three games to one and advanced to the NLCS for the second consecutive year. This was the first and only playoff series loss of the Bruce Bochy-led Giants.
The Cubs went on to defeat the Dodgers in the NLCS, then win the 2016 World Series over the American League champion Cleveland Indians, their first World title since 1908.
Matchups
Chicago Cubs vs. San Francisco Giants
Washington Nationals vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
Chicago vs. San Francisco This was the second postseason meeting between the Cubs and Giants. Their last meeting was in the 1989 National League Championship Series, which the Giants won in five games. However, they did meet in a Wild Card tiebreaker in 1998 where the Cubs advanced, beating the Giants 5–3.
Game 1
The Cubs began postseason play with starter Jon Lester on the mound facing Johnny Cueto for the Wild Card Game-winning Giants. In the pitching duel, Lester scattered five hits in eight innings of work, shutting out the Giants. Cueto also blanked the Cubs allowing only two hits until the eighth inning, when Javier Baez's home run into the left-field basket put the Cubs up 1–0. Aroldis Chapman in the ninth gave up a double to Buster Posey, but earned the save as the Cubs took a 1–0 series lead.
Game 2
In Game 2, the host Cubs scored in the first inning on a Ben Zobrist single off former Cub Jeff Samardzija. Starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks had the key hit in the second inning, driving in two runs with a single up the middle. Kris Bryant drove in the Cubs' fourth run two batters later, ending Samardzija's day. In the top of the third, the Giants answered, scoring two runs on back-to-back doubles by Joe Panik and pinch-hitter Gregor Blanco and a sacrifice fly by Brandon Belt. Hendricks was hit in the arm by an Ángel Pagán line drive, forcing him to leave the game. Reliever Travis Wood ended the Giants' rally and, in the bottom half of the fourth, hit a home run to put the Cubs up 5–2. The homer was the first by a relief pitcher in a postseason game since 1924. The Cub bullpen of Carl Edwards Jr., Mike Montgomery, and Héctor Rondón shut down the Giants with Aroldis Chapman getting another save.
Game 3
The Cubs looked to sweep the series with Jake Arrieta facing the Giants' Madison Bumgarner. The host Giants were trying to extend a streak to 10–0 in their last 10 elimination games. Arrieta hit a three-run homer in the top of the second, putting the Cubs up 3–0. They threatened to chase Bumgarner in the third inning with singles by Ben Zobrist and Addison Russell, but failed to score. San Francisco scored in the third following a Denard Span double and again in the fifth after Span's triple. In the eighth, Travis Wood gave up a single and Héctor Rondón walked a batter. Closer Aroldis Chapman came in early to seek a six-out save, but gave up a two-run triple to Conor Gillaspie to give the Giants' their first lead of the series. Chapman was lifted after getting only one out. The Giants added a run on a single by Brandon Crawford. In the ninth, trailing 5–3, Dexter Fowler led off with a walk and Kris Bryant hit a two-run home run off Giants' closer Sergio Romo. Mike Montgomery took over in the ninth for the Cubs and held the Giants scoreless for four innings. In the 13th, the Giants' Crawford leadoff double was followed by a Joe Panik walk-off double to continue the series. Ty Blach earned the win for the Giants with two inning of scoreless relief.
Game 4
With the Giants looking to continue their streak of wins in elimination games to 11, the Cubs sent John Lackey to the mound against Matt Moore. Lackey allowed a leadoff double to Denard Span and a sacrifice fly by Buster Posey to give San Francisco an early 1–0 lead. David Ross answered for Chicago in the third with a home run, becoming the oldest catcher ever to homer in a postseason game. A run-scoring to single by Moore with the bases loaded and a force-out grounder by Span in the fourth put the Giants up 3–1. The Cubs bounced back with a run in the top of the fifth on a three-base throwing error by Brandon Crawford and a sacrifice fly by Ross. Justin Grimm relieved Lackey in the bottom of the fifth and surrendered a single to Posey and double by Crawford that just missed being a home run. Travis Wood entered and gave up a single to Conor Gillaspie and sacrifice fly to Joe Panik as the Giants went up 5–2. Moore cruised through the next three innings before being lifted to start the ninth, a Game 5 appearing inevitable. However, the Giants ended up using five pitchers in the inning. Kris Bryant singled, Anthony Rizzo walked, and Ben Zobrist doubled to make it 5–3. With runners on second and third, Cubs manager Joe Maddon decided to pinch-hit for Addison Russell (and his 95 RBIs) with Chris Coghlan. Giants manager Bruce Bochy countered with lefty reliever Will Smith and Maddon switched to rookie catcher Willson Contreras instead. Contreras promptly singled up the middle to tie the game at 5. Jason Heyward's attempted sacrifice bunt was too hard and Contreras was forced out at second, but Gold Glove winner Crawford's throw to first ended up in the dugout, allowing Heyward to reach second. Javier Baez singled up the middle to complete the Cub comeback for 6–5 lead. Aroldis Chapman struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth to end the game and series. His three saves and four save opportunities tied and set Division Series records, respectively. It marked the biggest comeback in postseason-clinching history and the first time a team had come back from a three-run deficit in the 9th inning to win a postseason series clincher since the New York Mets did so in Game 6 of the 1986 National League Championship Series. This was the Giants' first postseason series defeat at home since AT&T Park opened in 2000. This was Chicago's first ever playoff win on the West Coast. The Cubs had lost 10 straight games as the visiting team on the West Coast until beating the Giants in Game 4 (they had lost three games in 1984 NLCS, three games in the 1989 NLCS, two games in the 2007 NLDS, one game in the 2008 NLDS, and Game 3 of the 2016 NLDS).
Joe Maddon stated in the off-season, after the Cubs won the World Series and broke the Curse of the Billy Goat, that Game 4 rally in the ninth of the NLDS was the most significant moment of the Cubs championship run. Maddon theorized all the pressure would have been on the Cubs having to face an experienced Giants team and Johnny Cueto in a potential winner-take-all Game 5 at Wrigley Field.
The Giants were denied the chance to win a fourth World Series title in seven years, officially ending their dynasty.
Composite line score 2016 NLDS (3–1): Chicago Cubs beat San Francisco Giants
Washington vs. Los Angeles This was the second postseason meeting between the Dodgers and the Nationals franchise. Their most recent meeting was in the 1981 National League Championship Series, in which the Dodgers won the National League pennant over the then-Montreal Expos in five games.
Game 1
Plans called for retired pitcher Liván Hernández to throw out the ceremonial first pitch, but after Hurricane Matthew′s effects on Florida made it impossible for Hernández to fly to Washington, the host team surprised the fans at Nationals Park by having Nationals starting catcher Wilson Ramos, whose season had ended with a knee injury on September 26, throw it instead. The game provided an historic first: When Dusty Baker and Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts exchanged lineup cards before the game, it became the first postseason game in the Major League Baseball history in which two African-American managers faced one another in the postseason.
The game was billed as a marquee matchup between two of the best starting pitchers in Major League Baseball, Clayton Kershaw for the Dodgers and Max Scherzer for the Nationals, but neither was particularly sharp. With rookie catcher Pedro Severino behind the plate, Scherzer gave up a home run to the second batter, Dodgers rookie shortstop Corey Seager, on his sixth pitch of the game. In the third inning, after Dodgers second baseman Chase Utley drove in Andrew Toles with an RBI single, Scherzer gave up a two-run home run to Justin Turner, giving Los Angeles a 4–0 lead. The Dodgers did not score again; Scherzer allowed no more runs before leaving the game after six innings, and the Washington bullpen also held the visitors scoreless.
Kershaw pitched five innings and held onto the lead, but the Nationals repeatedly pushed him to the brink, while his frequent discussions on the mound with Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal incited boos from the crowd. In the second inning, after Daniel Murphy and Ryan Zimmerman singled and Anthony Rendon reached first on a fielder's choice, a Dodger error allowed Severino to reach safely and load the bases, but Scherzer popped out to end the inning. In the third, Rendon singled to drive in two runs as part of what promised to be a big inning, cutting the Dodgers′ lead to 4–2, but Danny Espinosa struck out to end the inning with two men on base. Severino doubled in the fourth and scored on a sacrifice fly by Trea Turner to bring Washington within 4–3, but in the fifth, with Jayson Werth and Rendon on base, Espinosa again struck out to end the inning. Although he provided his typically reliable defense, Espinosa's strikeouts left six men on base and brought three rallies to an end.
Kershaw left the game after five innings and 101 pitches, having given up three runs, all earned, on eight hits and a walk with seven strikeouts. Los Angeles's bullpen followed with four innings of shutout ball, but the Nationals had ample opportunities to tie the game. In the seventh inning, Murphy walked with one out, but then got a poor jump in an attempt to steal second and was thrown out. In the eighth, Clint Robinson doubled in the first postseason plate appearance of his career and speedy Michael A. Taylor pinch-ran, but Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen struck out pinch-hitter Chris Heisey on a called third strike to end the inning. It was the Nationals' last scoring threat; they had the tying run on base in four of the game's last five innings without being able to score a single run, and left nine men on base during the game. The Dodgers won 4–3 to take a 1–0 lead in the series.
Game 2
Originally scheduled to begin at 4:08 p.m. EDT on October 8, Game 2 was postponed due to rain from Hurricane Matthew and rescheduled for 1:08 p.m. EDT on October 9. Retired first baseman and former National Adam LaRoche threw out the ceremonial first pitch, tossing it to his son Drake, who spent a great deal of time with the Nationals during his father's years on the team.