Cubs’ defense in a league of its own

CHICAGO — Word to the wise for the National League Wild Card champion: When you get a chance to score runs against the Cubs, you had better capitalize.

While the Cubs feature two NL MVP candidates in Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo, their accumulation of 103 victories was more about run prevention than scoring.

“Pitching, pitching and pitching,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said in September. “And as always, it all starts with the defense.”

Game Date Time Matchup TV Gm 1 Oct. 7 9 p.m WC @ CHC FS1 Gm 2 Oct. 8 8 p.m. WC @ CHC MLBN Gm 3 Oct. 10 TBD CHC @ WC FS1 / MLBN *Gm 4 Oct. 11 TBD CHC @ WC FS1 *Gm 5 Oct. 13 TBD WC @ CHC FS1 *- If necessary | All times listed ETShop for postseason gear: Cubs • Complete Postseason coverage

When Jon Lester or Kyle Hendricks happen to get in trouble, it’s just a rally waiting to be halted, often in spectacular fashion.

Rizzo has jumped onto the brick wall down the right-field line to make a catch. He has started a rare 3-5-4 double play on a first-and-second, no-out bunt. Javier Baez has charged from second base to pounce on a bunt and get an out at third base. Addison Russell and Jason Heyward, both strong NL Gold Glove candidates, like Rizzo, rob hits on such a regular basis you almost take it for granted.

Combine that eye-popping fielding with the effectiveness of the starting rotation — and the addition of Aroldis Chapman — and you’ve got a .212 opponents’ batting average. That’s the lowest mark since Luis Tiant, “Sudden Sam” McDowell and the Indians held a slow-to-integrate American League to a .206 average in 1968, when the league batted .230.

The NL average was .254 this season, and the Cubs undercut that mark by 42 points. Think about that.

Or how Hendricks, Lester and the Cubs’ other starters compiled a 2.96 ERA over 162 games while Toronto’s Aaron Sanchez captured the AL title with a 3.00 ERA.

Baseball Prospectus designed a metric to measure how often a team’s defense turns balls in play into outs. It’s called Defensive Efficiency, and the Cubs not only led the Major Leagues in that department but also did so by an astonishing margin.

The Cubs’ DE score was .745, the highest by any team since 1982. The Blue Jays were second this season at .717. That’s a gap of 28 percentage points, which is greater than the difference between the second-best Blue Jays and the Mets, who ranked 27th (.692). Think …

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