Cubs swept out of playoffs. Did they really have a chance?
I'm not surprised that the Cubs got swept. Mediocre teams often get swept in the playoffs. The Diamondbacks are nothing special, to be sure, but the Cubs loss isn't exactly a shocker. Let's just say we're not talking about the '27 Yankees here. I mean, is it a shock that a team that won only 85 games was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs?
It turns out Lou had nothing to worry about after he pulled Zambrano in game one. That was really the only bad decision he made all series, and even that one was debatable. Marmol was unbelievable this year, and on paper the move should have worked. I guess you can say that about the whole series. On paper, they should have won. But they didn't. They lost a tight game one before getting blown out in the next two. And that's all she wrote.
Really, the blame falls on multiple players. Aramis Ramirez was awful, just awful. He had as many hits as I did. Soriano did practically nothing. Only Geovanny Soto managed a clutch hit the entire series. One hit, that's all they got as a team when it counted most. Horribly pathetic. Then there's the pitching.
Lilly and Hill couldn't go four innings in their respective starts. You can't have two starters pull that crap in a five-game series. You'll never win with that unless you've got Schilling and Johnson like the 2001 version of the Diamondbacks. The bullpen let the opposition tack on a few more, but really with the Cubs offense hacking away like it did the games were over before the bullpen was even summoned.
I really thought they had a chance in game three. Livan Hernandez was throwing absolute garbage. Every inning the Cubs put at least two men on, by walk or by hit. They just needed one hit to break it open, and they had chances in every inning. Let me tell you what it's like to be a Cubs fan.
For the first few innings, I had a strong feeling they were going to lose the game. I was just watching them fail, again and again. Every time they had a chance to score, they didn't. Then, in the top of the fifth, there was a virtual replay of the Bartman incident. Now, before I go any further, let me share my thoughts on Bartman.
Real Cubs fans don't even think of Bartman. They don't blame him. Real Cubs fans, the ones that watch every game from day-to-day, don't even give him a thought. Bandwagon Cubs fans, the types that don't watch any games until the Cubs are in contention in late September, think of Bartman. The local beat writers don't write about Bartman. The national media and local columnists talk about him all the time. When local editors need fluffy content for bandwagon fans, they'll dig up Bartman. But other than that, he's a non-issue. At most, real Cubs fans refer to Game Six of the 2003 NLCS as "The Bartman Game." I'm guilty of this myself. But I only refer to this as a shorthand way of saying "the game where Alou lost a foul ball to a fan, threw a hissy fit, Prior melted down, Alex Gonzalez botched a double-play ball, and Dusty Baker sat on his butt while the Marlins scored 8 runs in one inning, killing our season in the process." You know, "Bartman" sort of rolls off the tongue better. Anyways...
In the top of the fifth, in game three, Marmol put two runners on base. There was a pop foul to left in almost the exact same spot as the Bartman incident. I shit you not. The circumstances were different, but the Cubs were pretty much in a do-or-die spot if they had any chance of salvaging this series. So Soriano jumps up, misses the ball (it was one row deep into the stands)...and then nothing. He looks to the infield, and that was that. TBS showed a Bartman flashback. Then, miraculously, Marmol then proceeded to strike out the batter on the next pitch. At this point, I seriously thought the Cubs were going to make a historic comeback. It was like a weight off my shoulders. "Bartman," the black cloud hanging over the Cubs -- not the person, has been vindicated.
So the Cubs lead off the bottom of the fifth with a walk. Lee grounded out badly before Livan Hernandez walks the bases loaded (including Aramis, who made his first appearance on the basepaths all series.) All they needed was a solid single and the game would be tied. Mark DeRosa worked the count hard before grounding into a double play, crushing Cubs fans spirits in the process. Game, set, match. This series is over.
They barely did squat after that, as Arizona's bullpen dominated. The series was truly over in that fifth inning. Ninth inning rolls around, and it's time for Arizona to celebrate.
So the Cubs lose, and it was ugly. As ugly as 2003? Hell no. As ugly as 1984? Hell no. It was probably uglier than the 1998 sweep at the hands of the Braves, if only because they were close in all three games of that series. This series was literally nothing. They did nothing.
On one hand, I'm not that upset by it. The team wasn't that good, so my expectations were low. On the other, I'm very upset by it. What are they going to be able to do to get better? Which pitchers can reasonably expect to be better next year? Hill and Zambrano? Maybe a little. Any improvement from them will be offset by Lilly and Marquis getting worse. Same goes for the hitters. You might get marginal improvements from Ramirez, Soriano, and Lee. But only at the catcher slot should they see any real improvement, by way of having Soto in for a full year and not messing around with Cancer Barrett and the awful hitting of the scrub fill-ins. So 90 wins is what you get, if things go right next season. Will that be good enough? Good enough for the playoffs, probably, but good enough that you can reasonably expect them to end the draught? I don't think so.
So that's that. Cubs lose, 99 years, wait till next year. All that crap. See you in 2008.