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Go inside the numbers and matchups that will decide Saturday nights game, and then vote for which team will win at the bottom of the page.What we learned in the division seriesThat maybe using five relief pitchers in one inning isnt a good idea against these teams. The Dodgers won all three of their games by one run and the Cubs twice beat the Giants by one run. We have two managers who love to use their benches and arent afraid to empty their bullpens, so this series could be another late-inning chess match, at least until you get to closers Kenley Jansen and Aroldis Chapman. Note that the Cubs hit just .200/.247/.350 against the Giants, with pitchers driving in six of their 17 runs and seven of the runs coming against the San Francisco bullpen. The Cubs will not only have home-field advantage, but the advantage of lining up their rotation with plenty of rest while the Dodgers will be scrambling after Clayton Kershaw and Rich Hill both pitched in Game 5 on Thursday.?-- David SchoenfieldInside the pitching matchupWhen Kenta Maeda is on the mound: The 28-year-old rookie from Japan had a solid season, going 16-11 with a 3.48 ERA, although he was better in the first half (2.95 ERA) than the second (4.25). The Dodgers kept him on a tight leash down the stretch as he faced more than 24 batters just once in the second half and went five innings or fewer in seven of his final 10 starts. He followed that up by lasting just three innings in his start in the division series. He struggled out of the gate, throwing 28 pitches in the first inning.Maedas approach is that of a conventional U.S. pitcher, as he doesnt have a splitter like a lot of Japanese hurlers. He throws his fastball about 43 percent of the time, mostly a four-seamer, and adds a slider, curveball and changeup. The slider is his best wipeout pitch as batters hit just .176 against it, a key reason he had a large platoon split as left-handed batters had a .730 OPS versus .580 for righties. For some reason, he went to more fastballs against the Nationals, with right-handed batters Trea Turner, Jayson Werth and Anthony Rendon all getting hits off the fastball, including Rendon homering on a 2-2 pitch.The Cubs will be able to line up four left-handed hitters against Maeda, so hell need his changeup to be an effective pitch. He actually threw the curveball more on the season than the changeup, but it wasnt a good pitch for him (.398 average allowed). Given that Maeda hasnt been going deep into games, Dave Roberts will likely have to empty his bullpen in this game. -- SchoenfieldWhen Jon Lester is on the mound: Lesters late surge made him a strong Cy Young contender, as he went 9-1 with 1 .46 ERA over his final 12 starts, and then threw eight scoreless innings against the Giants, throwing an efficient 86 pitches. The Dodgers were the worst-hitting team in the majors against left-handed pitching, so its not a surprise that Lester faced the Dodgers twice and allowed just one run and seven hits in 15 innings.Lester has made a notable change in his approach, throwing his fastball more than ever. He threw it 60 percent of the time (and 69 percent against the Giatns), when he was under 50 percent two years ago. Lester has maintained his velocity pretty well throughout the years and at 32 still averaged 92.0 mph with his fastball, a tick above-average for a left-hander. The feeling was Lester had fallen in love too much with his cutter, although it has remained an effective pitch as batters hit just .212/.268/.302 against it. He still throws that about 20 percent of the time.His curveball has become a two-strike wipeout pitch, with a K rate above 50 percent and batters hit .092 against it in 96 plate appearances ending with the pitch. He doesnt throw it a lot -- about 10 per game -- but look for him to use it with two strikes against right-handers. Lester allowed 28 stolen bases (although runners were caught 13 times against him), but the Dodgers dont run much with just 45 steals (Howie Kendrick led the team with 10). -- SchoenfieldPlayer in the spotlightJustin Turner. The Dodgers third baseman had a monster division series, hitting .400/.591/.733. He actually had a huge reverse platoon this year, with a .919 OPS against righties and .640 against lefties (and had one last year as well).?-- SchoenfieldWhat will decide Saturday nights gameThe series could hinge on the Dodgers ability to capitalize when they get runners in scoring position. The Cubs sported the best OBP allowed in baseball with runners in scoring position, while the Dodgers batters ranked just 24th in OBP in similar situations. If the Dodgers cannot convert with runners in scoring position, theyll have to rely on their pitchers to hold down the third-best offense in baseball (5.0 runs per game) to keep them in the game.-- Daniel McCarthy, ESPN Stats & InfoDid You Know?Only one Japanese pitcher has recorded a win in Game 1 of a playoff series: Daisuke Matsuzaka won Game 1 of the 2008 ALCS against the Tampa Bay Rays, pitching seven innings of scoreless baseball in a 2-0 victory.-- Daniel McCarthy, ESPN Stats & InfoNLCS Betting GuideLos Angeles Dodgers (+190) vs. Chicago Cubs (-210)Joe Peta: For the second year in a row, Ive made it through both wild-card games and all four of the division series matchups with a perfect bracket. I got derailed last year in this very spot -- the NLCS -- and the Mets victory over the Cubs turned out to be the only blemish on the card. If the Cubs can get past their 71-year curse to win a pennant, I can get over my 365-day one as well. Lets look at why that will happen for both of us through the lens of one skill set, opponents contact rate.With a roughly 97 percent probability, the Cubs were three outs away from a scenario -- winner-take-all game against Johnny Cueto -- that would have caused enormous angst for the fan base. It nearly happened, because in the two games in San Francisco, the Giants put 67 balls into play in the largest normal-altitude field in the majors. The latter fact is relevant because, although its counterintuitive, the larger the field, the more defensive excellence is marginalized, and, of course, the Cubs had a historically great defense this year. The Giants struck out less than any team in the NL this year -- a whopping 2.1 percent less than the second-best club, the Miami Marlins. The Dodgers were 11th, and the Giants were so elite, Los Angeles was closer to Miamis strikeout rate than the Giants were.Click here for more.Choosing sides: Who will win?? Just like the last round, every run in the NLCS will be as precious as antimatter. That means homers might decide a few of these games, as tends to happen this time of year. Jon Lester hasnt been allowing homers and if he can work around Justin Turner, he should negate the Dodgers lefty power. I like the Cubs in Game 1. -- Brad Doolittle Jon Lester has thrown 15 innings against the Dodgers this year with just one runner crossing the plate. Theres no reason not to think that trend continues against a team that struggled all year long against left handed pitching. And Lester is no normal lefty. Hes on top of his game and will shut the Dodgers down again to propel the Cubs to a 1-0 series lead. -- Jesse RogersThe Dodgers will roll into the Windy City with momentum, but a rested Cubs team figures to be too much to handle. The Dodgers have a chance if Kenta Maeda can use his off-speed stuff to precision and take advantage of an aggressive Cubs offense, but rekindling the magic of Game 5 in the NLDS will prove difficult. -- Doug PadillaWhere the series standsGiven the Dodgers inability to hit lefties, on paper this game certainly favors the Cubs. If Maeda struggles, Roberts will have to decide whether to burn through the bullpen or sacrifice Maeda a bit to help keep the pen fresh for the rest of the series. Plus, you have the concern that Jansen threw 51 pitches on Thursday and will have limited availability. It would seem the Cubs best chance of winning this series is to win the two Lester starts while the Dodgers may have to sweep the Kershaw/Hill games.?--?Schoenfield Leon Draisaitl Jersey . The Oilers come in having lost five in a row (0-4-1) and 16 of their last 20 games, dropping a 2-1 decision to the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday. Jari Kurri Oilers Jersey . 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With the amount of money given to players by their clubs these days, it is a wonder that so many of those teams allow the sport to continue to take away many of their assets so they can play for a different team in the middle of their season.The Boston Bruins, spurned at the trade deadline, doubled back and found a bargain in a free agent veteran scoring winger. Numbers Game examines the Bruins addition of Jarome Iginla. The Bruins Get: RW Jarome Iginla. Iginla, 36, is coming off a season in which his goal (0.32 gpg) and point-scoring (0.75 ppg) rates were his lowest since 1997-1998 and 1998-199, respectively, but his decline in production wasnt necessarily so dramatic, as he still generated 3.05 shots per game, which ranked 34th in the league. His shooting percentage, 10.4%, just happened to be his lowest since 1997-1998. By no means should this be seen as an attempt to diminish the effects of age on Iginlas game. Hes not a 40 or 50-goal-scorer any more, but there is ample reason to believe that he can still be a productive scoring winger in the right situation. After arriving in Pittsburgh, despite frequently playing out of position on left wing, Iginla tallied nine goals and 23 points in 28 games (combined regular season and playoffs), while playing far less (17:40 ATOI in regular season, 15:45 ATOI in playoffs) than he did in Calgary, where he had averaged more than 20 minutes per game for 10 straight seasons prior to 2013.. Iginlas possession numbers havent been strong in recent seasons, but that would seem to be more an indication that he lacked teammates, most notably a bona fide number one centre, in Calgary to drive puck possession. At this stage of his career, Iginla isnt going to be the one dictating the pace of the game, but he can still be a productive scorer if paired with a capable playmaking centre. Enter his new home in Boston, which was probably a better fit for him at the trade deadline too, because the Bruins had playing time for him on right wing with a scoring line (that they subsequently ended up giving to Jaromir Jagr). Now, Iginla seems likely to end up replacing Nathan Horton at right wing with David&nbbsp;Krejci and Milan Lucic and as much as Iginlas production is down, hes not done yet and will effectively be taking over for a winger that scored 13 goals and 22 points in 43 games last season, a rate of production Iginla should almost surely exceed.dddddddddddd Both Horton and Iginla scored 21 even-strength points last season but, given Iginlas track record on the power play (371 of 1106 career points have come with the man advantage), he could help the Bruins power play, which converted 14.8% last season, good for 26th in the league. Pittsburgh, with salary cap concerns of their own, didnt have room for Iginla and will likely have Chris Kunitz, Pascal Dupuis, James Neal and, likely, Jussi Jokinen available to play as scoring wingers, so they can manage without Iginla. With lower demand for his services and a lot of money accumulated over a career as one of the games top scoring wingers -- 530 career goals ranks behind only Jagr and Teemu Selanne among active players -- Iginla could pick a spot that is a good fit and thats the case with the Bruins, a team that is built to win now with a need for a winger to pull the trigger alongside a playmaking centre of Krejcis calibre. What really makes this deal work for the Bruins, however, is the term. Signed for one year, Iginla has a base salary of $1.8-million, with $4.2-million more in bonuses, so whatever he achieves of those bonuses will count against the 2014-2015 cap. If Iginlas decline is more precipitous in Boston, the Bruins arent on the hook long-term. If he performs at a high level and the Bruins are successful, well, the Bruins would probably like to have the problem of trying to fit a future contract into their salary structure because the first year worked out so well. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. ' ' '