By David K.
It’s never a good sign when you switch from beer to whiskey in the second inning of a playoff game featuring your favorite team, but that’s exactly what I did during the Cubs 10-3 loss Thursday night. The situation got so depressing that I played the following songs on the jukebox of the bar I was at; “Beautiful Disaster†by 311, “Shattered†by O.A.R., “Wild World†by Cat Stevens, and “Say Goodbye†by Dave Matthews Band. Notice the theme?
Re-living the disastrous game two, all four Cub infielders made fielding blunders, three of them coming in the Dodgers five-run second inning that pretty much sucked the life out of every Cub fan. The bats continued their streak of un-clutch performances in the post-season, stranding runners on base and wasting lead-off hits.Â
Heading into the game, the biggest concern was the performance of Carlos Zambrano, but I thought Big Z came out throwing the ball pretty well. He made a couple mistakes, including the bases loaded double to Russell Martin in the dreadful second inning, but it should have never even reached that point if his infielders would have FIELDED THE DAMN BALL! I guess all you can do is take the lead of Los and try to laugh it off.
Game one saw Ryan Dempster walk a season-high seven batters and surrender a back-breaking grand slam to James Loney in a 7-2 loss. Consider that Dempster walked just seven in his five September starts, and you can’t help but buy into the whole “Cubs are cursed†thing just a little bit.
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This was supposed to be the year for a Cubs club that has all the intangibles to be a championship team. In October it comes down to execution, and Joe Torre’s boys in blue have worked Lou Piniella’s bunch over and again in the first two games. What is discouraging about the entire situation is that the Cubs haven’t just lost their first two games, they got it handed to them, were embarrassed, have taken it on the chin; pick a phrase!Â
Seven teams have come back from a 2-0 deficit in 54 opportunities in MLB playoff history. If the Cubs can finally get some timely hits, FIELD THE DAMN BALL, and get a solid pitching performance from Rich Harden Saturday night, they can climb back into this series. But I’ll have Kansas “Dust in the Wind†and Air Supply’s “All Out of Love†cued up on the jukebox and the bartender on Whiskey-alert just in case.
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