The overriding theme of this year’s NLDS is age and the passage of time. That calendar dynamic is two-fold, and it pertains solely to the team advancing to the NLCS. The Chicago Cubs are a talented kiddie corps. The Chicago Cubs haven’t won the World Series since 1908.

If baseball’s lovable losers (or, to some, not-so-lovable losers) extend their goat-exorcizing quest even further, overkill is inevitable. You’re excused if you think we’ve reached that point already. Far more electronic ink has been spilled on the Cubs than on the team that finished with the best record in either league. St. Louis is good again. St. Louis is back in the postseason. Ho-hum.

It’s not fair, really. But it is understandable. Fresh faces that teem with talent is a good storyline, and truth be told, 107 years is a long time.

Jason Hammel started for the home team, and predictably it wasn’t pretty. The journeyman right-hander had a 5.37 ERA over his last 13 outings, and according to catcher Miguel Montero, “in the second half, he kind of started elevating his fastball a little bit more; obviously you don’t want him to do that.”

The wind – as it was last night when eight balls left the yard – was blowing out.

Two batters into the game, Stephen Piscotty got a ball in the air, and it didn’t come back until it was 2-0 St. Louis. As a fan heaved the horsehide onto the green expanse, 42,000-plus couldn’t help but wonder if maybe this wasn’t the home team’s day.

It was.

Hammel – a career .134 hitter — halved the lead with a two-out, run-scoring single in the second. What followed was emblematic of the team’s late-season surge. Javier Baez, in the lineup only because Addison Russell tweaked a hammy last night, bombed a three-run shot and suddenly it was 4-2 Cubs.

Wrigley was euphoric.

Post-game quotes from Game 3 epitomize Chicago’s every-night-a-new-hero depth. Chris Coghlan told me, “The talent Joe (Maddon) has to play with is a joke. We’re so talented that it doesn’t matter who he throws out there; we just find a way to win.” Trevor Cahill, who was assigned to Triple-A after being acquired in August, described the talent level this way:

“I was playing with guys like Baez, and was like, ‘Why isn’t this guy in the big leagues?’ Then I came up here and it was, ‘Oh, everybody is really good; there were just no spots.”

Both managers were in a tough spot in regard to their starters. John Lackey was working on three day’s rest, and he wasn’t around for long; Mike Matheny lifted the irascible righty for a pinch-hitter in the fourth. Maddon’s patience with Hammel didn’t go beyond a lead-off walk in that same inning. It became a bullpen game for both teams.

Chicago’s pen blinked first.

Tony Cruz (!) lined an opposite-field double to make it 4-3 in the sixth, and Brandon Moss followed with a pinch single to tie things up. A strong throw by right fielder Jorge Soler cut down Cruz at the plate, and ended the inning.

Anthony Rizzo – reminding everyone that he led all players in WPA this year – proceeded to break the deadlock. His bottom-half liner cleared the right-field ivy and restored bedlam. An inning later, Kyle Schwarber turned bedlam in madness by walloping a pitch over the right field scoreboard. High-and-far barely begins to describe the drive’s majesty.

There are words to describe the atmosphere at Wrigley Field when Hector Rondon shut down the Cardinals in the ninth inning. If you’re a Cardinals fan, they’re probably unprintable. If you’re a Cubs fan, there’s no need for me to tell you what they are. You’ve been shouting them since the third out was recorded. You might still be shouting.

Regardless of your rooting interests, you’ll read and hear plenty more in the days – perhaps weeks – to come. Call it overkill. Call it what you want. On the heels of a 6-4 win, the Cubs are heading to the NLCS.