Back injury sidelines Dodgers' Seager vs. Chicago Cubs
LOS ANGELES - Although it's early in the National League championship series, one game-changer in the Chicago Cubs' favor could be the absence of Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager.
The Dodgers did not place Seager on the NLCS roster because of a back injury. During the season, Seager had a line of .295/.375/.479 with 22 home runs and 77 RBI. A left-handed batter, he hit .325 vs. left-handed pitchers compared with 281 against righties.
The Cubs started left-hander Jose Quintana in Saturday's Game 1. In Game 2 Sunday, they'll go with lefty Jon Lester.
"Obviously, he hits both righties and lefties, but he is left-handed," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. "That little sandwich with him and (Cody) Bellinger and (Justin) Turner in the middle is kind of a difficult slot. But Seager's really good. They're definitely going to miss him."
Seager will stay in L.A. to take treatment when the series shifts to Wrigley Field this coming week.
"It had been gradually getting better every day, and we were optimistic all the way up until (Friday), and basically that's kind of when we decided," Seager said. "Yeah, this (stinks), to be honest. Obviously, you try to be the best team that you can right now, try not to be a distraction."
Take all the time you need:
Joe Maddon said he was unaware the Game 5 victory at Washington took 4 hours, 37 minutes to play.
With all the talk about pace of play and time of games, Maddon was asked how fans should have reacted to that game.
"Glued," he said. "I don't think the pace of the game was impacted at all. I thought the pace of the game was extremely interesting.
"So if you want to argue against pace of the game, that game could not have been more quickly paced than any game you've possibly ever seen. You can either talk about pace of the game or time of the game. I think there's two different issues completely.
"So the time of the game is not amenable to some people. Pace of the game, if you're a baseball fan, you could not have asked for a better pace, outside of fastpitch softball.
"That was not boring. For me, pace and intrigue are probably synonymous words, and I think there was pace and intrigue involved in that game. That was outstanding. It's good for baseball. That game had to be good for baseball."
The human element:
The Cubs' team plane was diverted and delayed five hours in Albuquerque on the way from Washington to Los Angeles after Thursday night's victory.
It turns out the wife of Saturday's starting pitcher Jose Quintana became ill on the plane. Joe Maddon says she is fine now.
"We did the right thing," Maddon said. "Everybody's well right now. The players handled it great. The doctor handled it great. Everybody did the right thing.
"It was a human moment. We're playing a game. When you're dealing with human beings, people, take priority, I think. So I was really pleased with the way our group handled the situation, and I really respect Q's word. He said he's ready to rock 'n' roll, so we believe him."
What are you, nuts?
Super agent Scott Boras was on hand at Dodger Stadium, as he usually is. Boras also allows reporters to find him. Among his clients are Cubs Jake Arrieta, Addison Russell and Kris Bryant.
Arrieta is a free agent this off-season, and Boras talked up Arrieta's overall resume.
"He's a squirrel with a lot of nuts in his tree," Boras said.
• Twitter: @BruceMiles2112