Cubs cursed again as Dodgers sweep NLDS

Los Angeles, CA (Sports Network) - The Dodgers broke a 20-year postseason spell with a shocking sweep, while extending the playoff futility for the Chicago Cubs to a century without a championship.

James Loney doubled in two runs in the first inning and Russell Martin had an RBI double in the fifth, backing the strong pitching of Hiroki Kuroda as Los Angeles moved to the National League Championship Series with a 3-1 victory over the Cubs.

The Dodgers swept the best-of-five Division Series against the team with the top record in the National League and will face either Milwaukee or Philadelphia in the NLCS. The Brewers staved off elimination in the other first-round series with a 4-1 win Saturday, forcing Game 4 Sunday.

Kuroda (1-0) allowed six hits, walked two and had four strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings, consistently dodging trouble as the Dodgers swept a postseason set for the first time since beating the New York Yankees in the 1963 World Series. This was also the Dodgers' first postseason series triumph since 1988 when they beat Oakland to win the Fall Classic.

Jonathan Broxton retired the side in order in the ninth inning to get the save, fanning Alfonso Soriano to end it and sending the Dodgers into celebratory mode on the field before their frenzied fans.

It was also a sweet moment for Manny Ramirez and Joe Torre. Ramirez, acquired in mid-season from Boston, walked twice, singled and scored on Saturday. Torre, in his first year as manager of the team, has the Dodgers roaring again.

Despite winning 97 games during the regular season, the Cubs couldn't carry that momentum into the playoffs. They were outscored 20-6 in the sweep and lost their ninth straight playoff game since an infamous collapse during the 2003 NLCS against the Florida Marlins. The Cubs haven't won the World Series since 1908.

Rich Harden (0-1), acquired by the Cubs this season from Oakland, gave up five hits and three runs before being lifted with one out in the fifth inning.

Derrek Lee had three hits and scored the lone run for the Cubs on a pinch-hit single by Daryle Ward in the eighth inning, but the Cubs left nine men on base and went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position. Soriano finished 1-for-14 in the series.

Dodger Playoff pics Round 1 games 1 & 2

Wretched at Wrigley (game 2)

CHICAGO – The morgue was empty, except for the two men smacking dirt off shoes.

They stood to the side, away from the Chicago Cubs lockers, and struck each pair with a steel brush, thwack-thwack, thwack-thwack, like a drumbeat to which the Cubs marched out.

First there was Jim Edmonds, in his 17th major-league season, and he said he was ashamed. And then came Rich Harden, the pitcher, who said he barely could watch the carnage. And finally the rest of them: Derrek Lee and Mark DeRosa and Ryan Theriot and Aramis Ramirez, the Cubs’ infield from right to left, all culprits in the messiest, ugliest, most harrowing defeat of the year, the one that reinforced the suffocating sense of doom that chokes Wrigley Field every time it’s graced with baseball in October.

This was no curse. Just a disaster.

The 10-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday night left the Cubs with an 0-2 deficit in the National League Division Series and the task of winning three consecutive games – including the next two at Dodger Stadium – to save their season. The overwhelming favorite in the NL – the 97-win juggernaut, the team upon which destiny was smiling, the one that would break the championship drought before it reached 100 years – self-destructed in spectacular fashion.

“It’s embarrassing,” outfielder Alfonso Soriano said. “Everybody’s upset. We had the best team in the regular season. Now we play like we don’t know how to play the game.”

The gaffes, the tragicomic sort patented by the Cubs, came with the fury of a god scorned. DeRosa botched a double-play ball at second base that would’ve allowed Carlos Zambrano to escape the second inning unscathed, and Lee followed with an uncharacteristic mangling of a ground ball at first base, and eventually a bases-clearing double from Russell Martin staked the Dodgers to a 5-0 advantage.

ADVERTISEMENT

Ramirez followed with an error in the fourth inning and Theriot with his own in the ninth, completing the trapezoid of ineptitude. Certainly no playoff team ever had seen all four of its infielders botch routine defensive plays in the same game.

History reserves some things for the Cubs.

“It’s like we might as well not have had gloves out there,” Lee said. “We just couldn’t catch the ball.”

So this is what becomes of the most promising Cubs season since, what, 1984? Maybe 1969? No. Probably 1945, a 98-win outfit managed by a man named Charlie Grimm, appropriately enough.

The city, panicking after a 7-2 loss to Los Angeles in Game 1, suffered through Thursday’s with the grace granted the familiar. They booed, sure, and each was deserved, whether for the errors or the clueless Kosuke Fukudome or even the comical moments when catcher Geovany Soto twice bounced throws back to Zambrano. One man braved the nippy weather and ran around bare-chested urging a nine-run rally in the ninth inning, only to see the Cubs manage two. The organist, bless his heart, tried to stir some action in the crowd of 42,136.

He might as well have been playing “Taps.”

“It wasn’t fun to watch,” Cubs manager Lou Piniella said, “I can tell you that.”

Piniella called Games 1 and 2 the two worst the Cubs had played all season, and it was tough to argue. The Cubs’ infield had been steady, if not spectacular, and to see it disappear like flash paper confused everybody.

“I’m not surprised,” Zambrano said. “I’m shocked.”

He was one of the first to leave, the unopened bottle of Champagne still in his locker. Irony a cruel witch, Zambrano, ever the live wire, actually was the most stable Cub in Game 2. He would recount his evening to friends and family via the Bluetooth headset in his ear, followed by Soriano and his 30-diamond necklace, Ramirez and his two suitcases and reliever Carlos Marmol and his black leather cap.

By that time, well past midnight, DeRosa was the only Cub still in uniform. The morgue was silent again. The six TVs in the room were off, the four ceiling fans whirring, wet towels all over the floor, Wrigley itself perhaps saying goodbye for the 93rd time in its 93 seasons without knowing the celebration of a World Series title.

On the back wall, a scrolling ticker, designed to keep the team abreast of that day’s top sports news, revealed its pixelated news. One item spooled through, taunting anyone who dare look:

Cubs have not won playoff game since Game 4 of NLCS in 2003, it read.

Underneath the ticker was a sign, spelled out in big, red capital letters, with an arrow pointing toward the door. It said EXIT.

NLDS breakdown: Dodgers vs. Cubs

Cubs at bat: This is the National League's best run-scoring lineup, and why not? Even without career years from some of its core people, there is tremendous lineup depth here, particularly with the emergence of catcher Geovany Soto. The Cubs have power, but they also can play small ball. This is the North Siders' most versatile, most effective lineup within recent memory. Or longer. One possible problem looms. The Cubs are predominantly right-handed, and they'll be going against at least three right-handed starters -- Derek Lowe, Chad Billingsley and Hiroki Kuroda -- each of whom has been pitching effectively. Lowe has been especially good, not losing a decision since August. His heavy sinker could seriously limit the production of any lineup, even this one.

Dodgers at bat: When the rest of the world thinks about the Dodgers at bat, over the past two months that has been Manny Ramirez. His performance has gone from Hall of Fame in waiting to otherworldly. But there is much more going on for the Dodgers. The development of Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, Russell Martin and James Loney as run producers has certainly been aided by Ramirez's presence in the L.A. lineup, but these are talented young players and they are making an impact. But they'll be facing a very strong Chicago rotation. Game 1 starter Ryan Dempster has been virtually unbeatable at Wrigley Field. Rich Harden, when he is healthy and on his game, is one of the best in the game. Lefty Ted Lilly has been brilliant late in the season, and he is just the fourth starter. The "X" factor may be the nominal ace, Carlos Zambrano. He threw a no-hitter against Houston, but then, he was roughed up in his next two starts.

Key late-game matchups:
1. It's a natural. Ramirez against Cubs closer Kerry Wood. Power against power. Wood has almost miraculously regained the mid-to-upper 90s velocity that seemed lost forever. He has not been unhittable this season, but he presents serious problems, between that velocity and a nasty slider. With Ramirez having two of the best months of his career -- or anybody's career -- and Wood back in the form that once made him a strikeout phenom, this would be a classic ninth-inning matchup, particularly in October.

2. On the other side, a similar matchup beckons, Alfonso Soriano against the Dodgers' flamethrower, Jonathan Broxton. Soriano was a target for abuse early in the season when he wasn't hitting, and his defensive shortcomings were magnified. But he hit his way back into the good graces of Cubs fans. He's a streaky hitter who is capable of being a game-changer for weeks at a time. The Cubs can only hope that one of those streaks occurs in October. Broxton, whose stuff parallels that of Wood, has also been less than impenetrable, but his stuff can be overpowering. A matchup between Broxton and Soriano with the game on the line would be another moment fully worthy of October baseball.

Secret weapon


Edmonds

Cubs center fielder Jim Edmonds. The veteran rejuvenated his career with the Cubs this summer. He's a candidate for secret weapon because he's been here before and because, with the right-handed nature of the most of the Chicago lineup, he's going to see a number of favorable pitching matchups. Kosuke Fukudome could fit in the same category, but his work in the second half does not encourage this outlook.

Achilles' heel
Many of the Dodgers' central performers are young, and they're inexperienced at this level. Maybe the pressure causes them to press, they swing at something other than strikes, the overall performance suffers. The reassuring and supremely experienced postseason presence of manager Joe Torre should help in this regard, but the phenomenon of young players struggling in the postseason is always a postseason possibility.

The Cubs will win if ... they simply play the way they've been playing all year. They have no dramatic weaknesses and they have numerous strengths. They were the best team in the NL's regular season by a substantial distance. They're supposed to win. And you know what? Maybe, at long last, it's their turn.

The Dodgers will win if ... their pitching staff delivers. In October, as the saying goes, good pitching beats good hitting. The underdog Dodgers will need their staff to deliver.