And so it begins…

And so the post-season begins, for us tonight at (local time) 9:00.  Amazingly, a bunch of my fellow Chicagoeans have been endlessly bitching about this.  Well, boody-hoody-hoo.  Man, we’re not talking about games starting at midnight here.  And they could have been playing in the afternoons, when we are all at work.  (Although I will miss Saturday’s game because of the Cosby concert I’m going to.)

Our chances are pretty good this round.  The Diamondbacks have no offense, and while a lot of weight is being put on staff ace Carlos Zambrano for this game, unless he really sucks, our bats are what we should be relying on.  The fact is, this is a hell of a line-up:
LF Alfonso Soriano
SS Ryan Theriot
1B Derrek Lee
RF Cliff Floyd
3B Aramis Ramirez
2B Mark DeRosa
CF Jacque Jones
C Geovany Soto
P Carlos Zambrano

Even Zambrano is a hitting threat.  Unless I miss my guess, we hit better at *every single* position than Arizona.  However, the DBs have a genuine ace pitcher on the mound tonight, so we’ll see.  The good news is, if we can beat him, we’ve pretty much got the entire series in the bag.  The fall-off of Arizona’s pitching talent after him is fairly severe.

Having Soto in as catcher is a big plus.  He hits a *lot* better than Jason Kendall, the veteran journeyman we picked up a while ago, and is also hands down better than him defensively.  And you know the fetid ghosts of former manager and complete fraud Dusty Baker are exorcised when a talented kid plays over an obviously inferior veteran.  Were Baker still here, Kendall would be playing because, in a phrase we heard all too much for four dour years, “He’s earned it.”  Not ‘earned’ it as in having actually played better, but ‘earned’ it solely in terms of being a veteran.  None of that crap, thank goodness, under Sweet Lou Pinella. 

The big fear is wondering what Cubs teams shows up.  We’ve got two; one really bad, and one really good.  In one week we scored 30 runs to sweep a series, and then got swept by a really bad team immediately thereafter.  So who knows?  However, the Cubs (believe it or not) had the best record in the National League after June 23rd, and on paper have more talent than the Diamondbacks, and also finally have a pretty good manager.

And so, my beloved Cubs, hear my plea:  For the love of Pete, don’t fuck this up.

  • Food

    They won’t fuck it up. The Cubs will beat the D-Backs. Tonight is the only game that Cubs hitters might get handcuffed, and I don’t think even that will happen.

    Jason Kendall isn’t a bad bat to have in an advance-the-runner-over situation. He is eerily good at not striking out, and a very good bunter.

  • Which makes him a good choice for a pinch-hitter.

    I do agree that we can lose tonight and still take the series. I won’t be panicking unless we lose both games there.

  • Chris Magyar

    It all depends on whether or not Webb has his sinker. When it’s on, you could put Babe Ruth, Paul Bunyan, and Jesus Christ in your lineup and still only come away with one run. The good news is, his sinker comes and goes the later it gets in the year. Get past Webb, and the series is yours.

  • Ed Richardson

    I think what best sums it for those rooting for questionable teams is what you wrote Ken: So who knows?

    And I say that as a former Knicks and Giants fan.

    Yeah, we New Yorkers had glory w/ the Yankees but I don’t really care for baseball and the Knicks just gave you all sorts of heart attacks. They were great enough to see greatness, but in the end they were no different than the aptly named Dodgers, who dodged greatness and went out west.

    Good luck.

  • Food

    ‘Backs win, 3-1.

    Now the pressure is on the Cubs. But I think they’ll stick it to ’em tomorrow night. Brandon Webb was excellent, and I don’t expect Doug Davis to replicate that.

  • bt

    A lot of Cub fans are panicking, but the DBacks needed last nights game a lot more than the Cubs did. If we win tonight, we are fine. The Cubs SHOULD be able to knock Doug Davis around, but they do have problems with lefties, so we shall see.

    Of course they have to win now, because I was able to get 4 tickets to game 3 of the NLCS.

  • Yeah, I said I didn’t think that was a must win game, and I still don’t.

    If we lose again tonight, though, I think we’re screwed. But that’s only because we should win handily, with Lilly on the mound and a lesser pitcher going for Arizona. If we can’t win under those circumstances, then we shouldn’t move on anyway.

  • Food

    Oh dear, this is lookin’ bad.

    **shrug** Now we’ll see if Piniella knew what he was doing by yanking Zambrano to have him ready for Sunday.