In what pretty much amounted to a replica of the previous night’s game, the Chicago Cubs pretty easily defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates last night, 4-0, to advance into the NLDS. They’ll play the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night.

Jake Arrieta was as unstoppable as ever. His game score (90) was his 3rd highest score of 2015, a year in which he has the lowest 2nd half ERA of all time.

PITCHERS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Arrieta	9.0	4	0	0	0	11	0	0.00

His ERA since the All-Star break, including last night’s game, is now 0.70.

Kyle Schwarber and Dexter Fowler did all the necessary offensive damage. Fowler singled and stole second in the first before Schwarber singled him home. 1-0.

Fowler singled again in the 3rd, and Schwarber took Gerrit Cole out of the park to put the Cubs up 3-0 early.

And finally, Fowler hit a solo shot in his next at-bat in the 5th inning.

The Bucs only really made some noise against Arrieta in the bottom of the 6th. A leadoff single, a hit batsman, and an error by Addison Russell loaded the bases with 1 out. But Arrieta got Starling Marte to ground into a double play (started by Russell) to end the inning and the only Pittsburgh scoring threat of the game.

With 2 outs in the top of the 7th, Tony Watson plunked Arrieta on the butt with his first pitch to the Cubs starter. It was apparently in retaliation for Arrieta’s two hit batsmen earlier in the game (and perhaps for Chris Coghlan’s September slide into Jung Ho Kang at second base, ending Kang’s season). Watson pretty much owned up to it being intentional after the game. Anyway, tempers flared, as tempers do.

Sean Rodriguez took out his frustration on a Gatorade cooler in the dugout after getting into it with former Red Sox great and self-appointed Jon Lester mentor David Ross.

And that was pretty much it.

Red Sox spin: Apart from David Ross getting Rodriguez all riled up, former Red Sox stiff Mark Melancon continued to be one of the most reliable relievers in baseball with a 1-2-3 inning for the Pirates. Technically the last out was a hit by Russell, who got caught stretching for second, but whatever.

Jon Lester will take the mound against the Cardinals’ John Lackey in Game 1 on Friday night.

Today:

Texas Rangers (88-74) at Toronto Blue Jays (93-69) – 3:37 ET, Fox Sports One: Yovani Gallardo vs. David Price. Advantage, Toronto.

Houston Astros (86-76) at Kansas City Royals (95-67) – 7:37 ET, Fox Sports One: Collin McHugh vs. Yordano Ventura. I’m going with the Astros.

The Red Sox scored their final run of the season in the top of the 1st on Sunday afternoon. With two outs, Xander Bogaerts hit a double down the right field line. It was his 196th and last hit of the season. Five pitches later, David Ortiz collected his 108th RBI of the year with a double of his own to give Boston and Rick Porcello an early 1-0 lead. Papi’s hit was an absolute laser off the wall in left-center.

The side was retired in hilarious fashion when Ortiz optimistically attempted to steal third base.

I mean, I guess it could have worked if the third baseman just didn’t notice. Jerry Remy suggested that he was trying to speed up the pace of the game, or that maybe he just wanted to add a stolen base to his 2015 stat sheet. Either way, the fact that the MLB.com video description says that it was a delayed steal is great, because he was absolutely off with the pitch. Never change, Papi.

For the second time in three starts, Porcello gave us the “Platonic Ideal of a Rick Porcello” start, as coined by Righty. Seriously, today’s performance was only statistically different from his September 23rd start by the barest of margins.

PITCHERS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Porcello (L, 9-15)	7.0	10	3	2	1	7	0	4.92

Even though he took home the loss, he got his ERA under 5.00 for the first time since May 16th, so bully for you, Rick.

The game-tying run came quickly. In the bottom of the 2nd inning, Porcello gave up a full count, 2-out double to Roberto Pérez. He’d come around from second base a moment later on a single to center by Giovanny Urshela.

The game-winning runs, unfortunately, also came quickly. In the bottom of the third, with men on the corners and 1 out, Porcello threw the ball away while trying to hold the runner,  Lonnie Chisenhall, on at first. Michael Martínez scored without incident from third to make the score 2-1, Cleveland. Chisenhall advanced to third himself on a groundout and scored on a single to make it 3-1 before Porcello struck out Abraham Almonte to get out of the inning.

After the 1st inning, the Red Sox had a runner on second base with 1 out or less in 4 out of the 8 remaining innings, but got no farther. In the meantime, Rusney Castillo made sure that the deficit remained only 2 runs with an outstanding scoop and throw to home plate in the 5th inning. But the Boston offense failed to plate any runners of its own.

So the Red Sox lost their final game of the season, finishing 78-84. After a brief flirtation with a positive run differential, a four-game losing streak to end the season put them at a -5 mark on the year.

But this day was about Don Orsillo, the Red Sox play-by-play man for the majority of my lifetime. There’s not much more I can add to stuff like this:

Barstool Sports put together an incredible montage collection of most of the best Don Orsillo moments from tonight’s game, including the presentation that was shown at Orsillo’s last home game at Fenway. It’s a must-watch, and it includes most of the material I’ve included below. Enjoy: http://www.barstoolsports.com/boston/an-emotional-don-orsillo-bids-farewell-to-red-sox-nation

Don and Jerry remember how Don got ripped for his call of Hideo Nomo’s no-hitter in his first game working for the Red Sox: http://m.redsox.mlb.com/bos/video/v518870283/?game_pk=416066

Goddammit.

Notes:

Thank you all for reading Lefty and Righty’s valiant attempts at sportswriting from April to October. Stay tuned for a season wrap-up podcast and some other final thoughts, and keep an eye out for blogs on the Patriots, Celtics, and Bruins over the next 6 months.