“There’s a lot of pent up angst and emotion in this city and really all over this nation, Cubs fans that have been loyal over the years,” left fielder Ben Zobrist said. “We know that, but the bottom line is you have to execute at the right time and stay here in 2016. These guys have done it all year long with all the expectations on our backs.”

The Cubs rolled to the best regular-season record in the major leagues, winning 103 games and clinching a division title with more than two weeks to play, but they have had to prove their mettle in the playoffs.

In their division series, they rallied from three runs down in the ninth inning to finish off battle-tested San Francisco, which had won a record 10 consecutive elimination games. And in the National League Championship Series, after being shut out in back-to-back games, the Cubs bounced back from a two-games-to-one deficit.

The pivot point for the turnaround was a fittingly simple play: Zobrist’s bunt, which was their first hit of Game 4. It started a four-run rally in the fourth inning, and the Cubs scored 23 runs in winning the final three games.

“That’s the butterfly effect right there,” Maddon said. “It was a bunt this year.”

Although the Cubs were home on Saturday, with a loud, insistent Wrigley Field crowd urging them on, they knew it would not be easy to beat Kershaw, who had shut them out in Game 2 at Wrigley Field, allowing just two hits in seven innings.

They would also have to beat back history. The last time the Cubs had been in this position — playing a Game 6 at home in 2003, needing one victory to capture the National League pennant — they had unraveled, blowing a 3-0 lead to the Florida Marlins after a fan named Steve Bartman interfered with a foul ball.