On paper, Clayton Kershaw versus Jon Lester was the premier matchup of this series. Because baseball is weird, though, both aces had their two worst starts of the season. Fortunately for Kershaw, his team backed him up with nine runs coming on four home runs.
The Cubs were aggressive against Kershaw to start, with Javier Báez and Kris Bryant each swinging at the first pitch, and each reaching on bloop singles. Kershaw managed to escape that inning unscathed on a total of 16 pitches, but the less-than-clean inning was a sign of things to come.