The Jittery Confines

... or in other words: What? You thought all that lovely angst had disappeared forever?

Return with us now to the good old days on the north side of Chicago, where the Cubs aren't the Cubs anymore -- they're now exactly the spoiled rich kids Cubs Nation used to despise -- but haven't lost their taste for torturing their fan base. Who takes more delight in slooooowly removing the fingernails of their faithful than the former Lovable Losers? Who more enjoys saying "Ya know, we coulda beat the Brewers yesterday and given you folks a few days to normalize your heart rates, but, nah. What fun would that have been?"

Instead, the Cubs lost to the Brewers in Game 163, which means the Brewers filched the NL Central title at the last possible second and now are the No. 1 seed in the NL playoffs. And now the Cubs host the Rockies tonight in a win-or-go-home wild-card game, which means nine more innings of excruciating torture for the residents of Wrigley Field.

(Unless, of course, the Cubs jump all over Rockies starter Kyle Freeland and win 10-2 or something. But it's the Cubs, so who really believes that's going to happen? Letting their fans off the hook has never been a thing for them.)

Anyway, it's Jon Lester on the hill for the home team, and he's 4-1 with a 1.52 ERA in five September starts. On the flip side, the Cubs touched up Freeland for three runs and six hits in seven innings the only time they squared off this year.

Then again, that was in April.

Then again again, Freeland is 9-1 with a 2.48 ERA since the All-Star break.

And then again again ... again, he's going tonight on just three days' rest.

In other words: Who knows?

That, of course, is the whole problem right now for Cubs fans. Who are saying "Let's go Cubs!" right now, same as ever.

And also "Damn them, anyway!"