The 3 greatest pitching performances in Cubs playoff history
Friday's Game 1 of the National League Division Series between the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants featured one of the better postseason pitching battles in recent memory, as Jon Lester and Johnny Cueto combined to allow just one run and eight hits through eight innings of work each.
The Cubs came out on the winning side thanks to an eighth-inning home run from Javier Baez, who took Cueto deep for the game's only run.
Lester's impressive outing was exactly what the Cubs needed to get the series off on the right foot as they moved one step closer to ending a 108-year-old curse. After his marvelous work, we look at three other incredible pitching performances in Cubs playoff history.
Mordecai Brown, Game 4, 1908 World Series
After the Cubs opted to use Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown as a reliever in Game 1 of the 1908 World Series against the Detroit Tigers, they gave him the chance to start Game 4, and he didn't disappoint.
In front of 12,907 Tigers fans on enemy turf at Bennett Park in Detroit, Brown allowed just four hits - all coming courtesy of Charley O'Leary and Sam Crawford - during a complete-game shutout in a 3-0 Cubs victory.
Chicago would ride Brown's impressive outing - and a similar performance from Orval Overall in Game 5 - to a World Series title, the franchise's last one since.
Claude Passeau, Game 3, 1945 World Series
With the 1945 World Series tied at one game apiece against the Tigers, the Cubs handed the ball to 17-game winner Claude Passeau, and boy did he throw a doozy.
Passeau allowed a lone hit to Tigers first baseman Rudy York, stymieing the Tigers over nine innings of work.
Passeau, who may also be remembered as the pitcher who surrendered a game-winning home run to Ted Williams in the 1941 All-Star Game, couldn't replicate the same success during his next start in Game 6 of the series. He walked six batters, allowed three runs, and was removed from the game after injuring his pitching hand.
Detroit would take three of the final four games from Chicago at Wrigley Field to keep the Cubs' World Series curse alive.
Jake Arrieta, NL Wild Card, 2015
Jake Arrieta, who had a historic second half for Chicago during the 2015 campaign, used the momentum from his spectacular regular season to help carry the Cubs past the Pittsburgh Pirates in the NL wild-card game.
The then-29-year-old struck out 11 Pirates on his way to a complete-game 4-0 shutout during a hotly contested affair that included a benches-clearing brawl after Arrieta was hit by Pittsburgh reliever Tony Watson.
To be fair, Arrieta beaned both Francisco Cervelli and Josh Harrison earlier in the game, and the tempers had been boiling between the two clubs after Jung Ho Kang's leg was broken on a Chris Coghlan slide three weeks prior.
Despite the ruckus, Arrieta's gem remains a highlight of the Cubs' postseason history, and one of their most dominant outings ever.
(Video courtesy: MLB.com)