Wheels, wheels everywhere, but none on Chicago's wagon
First things first: Credit the Dodgers for all the things they did well Thursday night as they obliterated the Cubs 10-3 at Wrigley to take a dominating 2-0 lead in their best-of-five NLDS matchup. There was Chad Billingsley, who was outstanding in his maiden postseason start, tossing 6.2 innings of five hit, seven K, one run ball and displayed some particularly nasty action on his breaking pitches. Baseball porn, it was so filthy. There was Manny Ramirez, who hit his second homer in as many nights, this one a moon shot to dead center. Or Rafael Furcal, who had three hits, along with a pair of runs scored and RBIs, or Russell Martin, who had the hit of the night, a bases clearing double in the second inning.
Oh yeah, about that second inning...
At the risk of disagreeing with Bill Plaschke, for everything the Dodgers did well and for which they deserve congratulations, it was Chicago's performance in the top of half of the frame that defined Thursday's critical Dodgers win. Five runs scored for the visitors after the Cubs kicked the ball all over the infield, making two errors and missing a third opportunity for an out on a play scored a hit, but one that could have been made. Forget curses, it was an inning that would have made Abner Doubleday wish he'd just stuck to cricket. Or rounders. Whatever. You get the point. All of this from the team touted as the NL's best with the leather heading into the playoffs.
An annotated breakdown, courtesy of the cold, dispassionate Yahoo! box score play by play:
- A. Ethier singled to right
- J. Loney singled to left, A. Ethier to third
(Great call by Joe Torre to put on a hit and run, but Ryan Theriot's decision to try and bare hand the Loney grounder, rather than, oh, use his glove, likely cost the Cubs an out.)
- M. Kemp struck out looking
- B. DeWitt reached on fielder's choice, A. Ethier scored, J. Loney to second on second baseman M. DeRosa's fielding error
(The killer. Had DeRosa made the play, Chicago turns two and is out of the inning, no harm, no foul.)
- C. Blake safe at first on first baseman D. Lee's fielding error, J. Loney to third, B. DeWitt to second
(Insult to injury. It's possible Lee might have turned two here, but he surely would have had Blake at first for the second out, ahead of Billingsley.)
- C. Billingsley struck out swinging
(See why that mattered?)
- R. Furcal reached on bunt single to second, J. Loney scored, B. DeWitt to third, C. Blake to second
(Damn near genius from Raffy, here. The bunt, which wasn't down the line but rather pushed past Zambrano towards DeRosa at second, shocked everyone, from Zambrano to DeRosa to Torre.)
- R. Martin doubled to center, C. Blake, R. Furcal and B. DeWitt scored (Huge hit from Martin, but he never should have had the chance.)
- M. Ramirez struck out looking
5 runs, 4 hits, 2 errors
LA Dodgers 5, Chi Cubs 0
Call it Chicago's worst game of the season. Call it the most embarrassing loss in Cubs history, even, which is saying something. You likely won't get any argument, and it effectively ended the game two innings in. That the Cubs continued to suck as the game went on only made things worse. No wonder we ran out of stuff to talk about on the live blog.
The Cubs head out to LA looking at a wasted year, while the Dodgers are riding high and ready to send Hiroki Kuroda out to the mound for Game 3. In a move surely to disappoint Dodger fans, it seems Kosuke Fukodome will not be in Chicago's starting lineup for Saturday's game.
Should there be a game on Sunday, it'll start at 7:25 PST (thanks, Tony Jackson!).
Cubs fans have moved on to eulogies or little bear specific prayer. Not sure which this is.
This photo, however, via Big League Stew, pretty much sums things up:
Sons of Steve Garvey have killer inside footage of the Cubs' postgame press conference.
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All teams, even very good fielding teams, make errors. The Cubs are a very good fielding team that made errors in untimely situations last night.
Good teams take advantage of extra outs. Bad teams don't. The Dodgers proved themselves a good team last night by taking advantage of extra outs, and they won the game.
If you disagree with Plaschke, you're probably right. Although Plaschke disagrees with Plaschke half the time, so who can say.
What you can say is that the Cubs offense has been anemic. Lee, Soriano, and Ramriez look like they forgot to show up. Still, I'm sure Dodger fans won't rest easy until a third victory is wrapped up and in the can. These guys are playing as a team, however, and look like they will continue to do so.
Welcome back Rafael Furcal. He was the engine that made the team go in the first month of the season, and he looks to be about 90 percent of that guy in the last month of the season. I'll take 90 percent of Furcal any day. And I hope that he'll re-sign with the Dodgers for 2009, as long as he's willing to take less money, fewer years, or some kind of incentive-laden contract that doesn't kill the team if he is hurt yet again.
It has to be a pretty somber day in Chicago, what with their two baseball teams losing three times in the course of 27 hours.
Posted by: SaMo | October 03, 2008 at 10:13 AM
LOL That picture of the Dodger fan smiling is so hilarious. It's not like a full on laughing smile, but just a "I love how much this is killing you" smile. Priceless.
Posted by: puddle | October 03, 2008 at 10:24 AM
While the Cubs did screw the pooch with the horrible infield play in the second, you have to give props to the Dodgers for taking advantage of that. If something like that would have happened the first half of the season I'm not sure the Dodgers pull away like they did.
But with that said this is a new team, a better team and this is a whole new season and our boys are 2-0 when it counts the most....so lets bust out the brooms and the 101 chants at the Ravine tomorrow night!
GO BIG BLUE!
Posted by: The Infamous El Guapo | October 03, 2008 at 10:27 AM
Furcal's bunt was absolutely brilliant. It's good to have a true catalyst at the top of the order again.
Posted by: DBrim | October 03, 2008 at 10:53 AM
this is NOT the team that struggled to stay above .500 all season. If you sub in Manny's production for what many of us thought we'd be getting from FAJ when the year started, then this IS the team we thought we had in April. They are clicking. They are hot. They have everything working the way it should be. They are in the middle of a serious run, and this is effin' exciting.
And I still look at this as All Gravy, since I had made peace with this season long ago.
So glad I wasn't born a Cubbie right now.
Posted by: VA Blueblood | October 03, 2008 at 11:14 AM
Infamous, SaMo-
You guys are both absolutely right in that the Dodgers were given the opening, but had to take advantage of it. That's what good teams do. But given the time and place, Chicago's performance was absolutely abysmal. Give any Major League team, good or bad, as many chances to keep an inning alive as the Cubs did the Dodgers, and they'll get burned.
Great game to the Dodgers, but the Cubs wrapped it up in a nice box with paper and a big bow. All LA had to do was open it.
BK
Posted by: Brian Kamenetzky | October 03, 2008 at 11:34 AM
AK/BK nice jab with the baseball porn Bilz' stuff was so nasty.
Posted by: poppinfresh | October 03, 2008 at 11:39 AM
I think that real problem with those CUBBIES is that they never gave our BLUE CREW its proper respect........Just listen to Pinella's post-game comments and you will see that there is a sense of frustration and denial of how solid our team has looked the past two games and unfortunately for them "we've played the worst two games of the season".......That's too bad for them and it only cristalizes their 100 year misery.
We need to come home with the same winning and confident attitude and we'll be in very good shape.
RESPECT YOUR OPPONENT LOU !!!!!
GO BLUE
Posted by: JC Blue | October 03, 2008 at 11:53 AM
Many of the so-called "experts" around the country still seem to be dissing the Dodgers. If you read their Game 2 analysis, these writers would have you believe the Cubs basically 'gave' the game away to the Dodgers. Sure, the Cubbies committed errors all over the place, but it takes a GOOD team to take advantage of those opportunities. Los Angeles didn't mess around when the door was left ajar....they smashed that freaking door down!
So, if these clowns still want to INSULT the Dodgers by claiming that these two losses have been ALL about what Chicago didn't do and NOT about what the Dodgers did do.....they can keep crying in their beer mugs all winter long!
Besides, as the late GREAT Chick Hearn used to say, "...it's better to be Lucky than Good." I would gladly take "luck" over anything else any day. Combine "luck" with skill, talent, hard work, and determination, and that is a sure-fire recipe for success!
Whether it happens on Saturday or Sunday, these Cubs are heading back to Chicago alone. The Dodgers have a date with destiny in this year's World Series!
P & G R
Posted by: Purple & Gold Reign | October 03, 2008 at 12:48 PM
Forget what I said about Furcal. Torre's a genius and obviously I don't have a clue, lol.
I really thought the Cubs would be hitting the ball the way the Dodgers are. But I kept thinking before game one, if the Dodgers could hit some home runs, they could make it a tough series. Who would have thought the Cubs bats would go this quiet?
One more!
Posted by: Andy B | October 03, 2008 at 01:02 PM
went to a bar last night here in san diego w m dodgers cap on celebrating when some cubs fans walked in. i didn't say anything, just wore my hat. they saw it, they knew.
oh, i'm not a cubs fan. i'm not special. same with blasted red sox fans. people have forgotten who the dodgers are these last twenty years. time to reclaim the birthright. this team better beat the cubs.
and remind those chicago people that they are not LA!
Posted by: johnnie b. baker | October 03, 2008 at 01:36 PM
Fellow fans, now is no time to celebrate or gloat. The boys are looking great, but just remember how inconsistent they've been this season and how completely capable they are of not looking good. I'm rooting hard but holding my breath, which is a bit uncomfortable as you can imagine.
Posted by: Rufus Leaking | October 03, 2008 at 02:56 PM
Agreed. If the Cubs win game three, the pressure is on the Dodgers.
Posted by: Kentucky Dodger | October 03, 2008 at 04:52 PM
Not sure if this has gotten play yet... if so I'm sorry for not noticing, but it really is a good article.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=manny
Posted by: Benzo Jones | October 03, 2008 at 06:31 PM
No, the pressure is still on the Cubs, who would have to face D. Lowe at a time when he's been pitching brilliantly. If it goes back to Chicago, there will be pressure on the Dodgers but, on the other hand, they've played well there. The Dodgers should be confident and loose, but not over-confident (I cringed a little when I read that Matt Kemp told the clubhouse attendant "see you next year.").
Posted by: WBB | October 03, 2008 at 07:08 PM
This Line up is sick...(as in good) with Raffi leadin off...un-freakin-stopable!!!! just adds another demension to the line up!!! & the bench...with Nomar, Kent & Pierre....cant be BEAT!
Posted by: BlueBleeder | October 03, 2008 at 10:03 PM