The Chicago Cubs were defeated for the second consecutive night by the Los Angeles Dodgers at Wrigley Field on Thursday night. Four errors, one by each infielder, cost the Cubs dearly, as the Torre-led Dodgers crushed the North Siders, 10-3, in front of a disappointed crowd at the Friendly Confines.
I can take losing. Hell, I'm a fan of this team, and we've had the title of "lovable losers" for about as long as I can remember. The team has never been what I consider to be surefire contenders on a regular basis, and for the life of me, I can never remember a time when expectations were riding so high as the Cubs entered a postseason.
What I cannot take is an offensive attack that looks like the Bad News Bears, woeful pitching that is less accurate than a Rex Grossman Hail Mary, and a defense so full of miscues it's almost like a bankrupted billiards company warehouse.
They have been outscored in this series 17-5. They tied an LDS record by committing four errors in a single game. They have allowed the Dodgers to get within one win of their first postseason series victory since 1988. They have made Derek Lowe and Chad Billingsley look like the second coming of Sandy Koufax and Orel Hershiser.
Manny Ramirez has hit two HRs to add to his already illustrious postseason career. James Loney and Andre Ethier have shown that they are two of the best up-and-coming players in the game today. Russell Martin has also shown that there is only one true superstar backstop in the N.L., and his name is not Geovany Soto.
With all of that being said, however, there are four reasons why I still think that the Cubs can still win this series and continue their postseason run.
1. Joe Torre is the manager of this ballclub.
Now, I know what you're thinking. Joe Torre has been to 13 consecutive postseasons, has more postseason wins than any manager in the history of the game, and he has four World Series rings stashed in his home jewelry box.
But this is also the same Joe Torre whose Yankee teams lost in the first round in three consecutive postseasons, leading to his unceremonious ouster as skipper. His Yankees also are the only team in postseason history to blow a 3-0 lead in a series, when they did so in 2004. They had the Red Sox three outs from elimination, and they couldn't seal the deal.
This is not to say that Torre is a bad postseason manager by any stretch, but his recent past in the postseason is not anything to hang your hat on.
2. Four teams have won their Division Series after being down 0-2.
Are the odds in the Cubs' favor when it comes to advancing to the next round? Of course they're not. But four teams have gone down 0-2 in the Division Series and come back to win the series. Granted, the odds are only one in thirteen historically that the Cubs can come back and win the series, but it's certainly better odds than the number of teams who have gone down 0-3 in postseason history (one in an unknown large number).
3. The Cubs' pitching rotation is still solid one through four.
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