For therapeutic reasons, a column about last night's Chicago Cubs-Los Angles Dodgers playoff game must be written.
As a self-professed Cubs fan, this is going to be slanted toward the Chicago perspective, so sorry Dodgers fans or Cubs haters. You got a win last night, so I get to complain today. It's a Cubs tradition.At this point, I'm not completely freaked out, but a Game 2 loss may result in the panic button getting pushed. In fact, that button may actually get slammed with a Gallagher-sized sledgehammer.
For now, the Cubbies have lost Game 1, and that's O.K. It's actually not completely O.K., but it's the kind of O.K. you tell your friends after their kids spill their drinks on your carpet.
When Ryan Dempster was named the Game 1 starter, I thought, "All right. He was a 17-game winner, 14-3 at Wrigley Field during the regular season." My only hestitation was rather or not the No. 3 starter could handle an ace's role.
Question answered.
Through 4-2/3 innings, Dempster successfully walked seven Dodgers, three of which came directly in front of a James Loney home run in the fifth inning. The grand slam turned a nervous 2-0 Cubs lead into a depressingly anticipated 4-2 deficit.
Directly before Loney's home run, which was following the three-straight walks, I could be heard saying/screaming, "Take him out!!"
While I was being my normal frustrated self, a calmer fan let it be known that he believed all was O.K. "He's going to get him out," my unnamed friend said about the Loney at-bat. "They're going to reverse the curse."
Following the home run, I'd like to think my gut feeling was the correct one.
Facing sinker-ball pitcher Derek Lowe, the Cubs didn't have a chance for a comeback.
Outside of Mark DeRosa's two-run dinger in the second inning, the Cubs managed just six other hits against Lowe, and none against L.A.'s bullpen.
The production out of the Cubs' big three hitters, Alfonso Soriano, Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez, was surpassed by the Dodgers' Blake DeWitt, who went 2 for 4 with a run. On the night, Chicago's "big dogs" combined to go 2 for 12 with a run.
On a positive note, the three did outperform the great DeWitt in one category - double plays. Oh wait, that's not a really a positive thing, unless of course you're living in Bizzaro World.
After DP D-Lee hit into an inning-ending double play in the third, something he's led the National League in this year with 27, Ramirez was quick to not let his teammate outdo him, ending the fifth with a double-play of his own, his 13th of the year.
While the offensive futility couldn't have been completely predicted for Soriano, Lee and Ramirez, it could with the team's No. 2 hitter - Kosuke Fukudome.
Hitting just .207 since July 1, and having his starting position ripped from him in the process, there was Fukudome's name slated at No. 2. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it on the TBS screen.
My response?
"Why is Fukudome batting second?!" Response from accompanying watchers of the game, "I don't know."
I don't know, indeed.
It's no doubt that our Japanese import was in the lineup for his defensive prowess, showcasing it with a nice catch while running over the bullpen pitching mound at one point. However, if not for DeRosa's sore calf muscle, he would have been in right field, with Mike Fontenot playing second base.
As it was, DeRosa was put at second, while Fukudome went to right field, enabling him to go 0 for 4 at the plate.
In short, the game was a bust from my vantage point, punctuated with a ninth-inning appearance from former Cubbie Greg Maddux.
In Game 2, Carlos Zambrano takes the mound for Chicago, looking to keep his emotions in check, while at the same time keeping his team out of an 0-2 hole.
My comfort level with Big Z used to be much higher than it is now, but I still have faith.
Carrying a 14-6 record going into the game, he has sputtered in the second half of the season with a 3-2 record and a 6.22 ERA. Since defeating Cincinnati Aug. 21, Z's gone 1-4, with that one win being a no-hitter against the Houston Astros. Following that no-hitter, he gave up eight earned runs in 1-2/3 innings against the St. Louis Cardinals and five in 4-2/3 innings at the New York Mets in his last outing.
The numbers are kind of depressing, but I can believe he can get a win against the Dodgers tonight at 9:30 p.m.
He's going to realize his team, and more importantly me, need him big time. Only four of 28 National League teams have come back from an 0-1 deficit, and I don't even wanna think about an 0-2 situation.
So, Zambrano, we need a good game from you, and hitters, simply put, hit the ball.
