Brewers 3, Cubs 1; Bring on the Dodgers

Filed: September 28th, 2008

Loathing Bob Howry has gone from a Cubbie Nation pastime to a true national endeavor. Ryan Braun hit him for a two-run home run in the eighth Sunday, to propel the Milwaukee Brewers to a 3-1 victory. Coupled with the Mets 4-2 loss to the Marlins, the Brewers are officially the NL Wildcard winner, and will be making their first playoff appearance since 1982.

Bring on the Dodgers. With the field now officially set, pretty much all things playoffs have been resolved The Cubs will open a best-of-five series against the Dodgers Wednesday at Wrigley Field, with the time still to be determined. Also left to be resolved is the NLDS playoff roster itself. With the announcement that Jason Marquis will be on the playoff roster, and the announcement of the starting rotation, one speculates that you should expect something along the lines of:

Starting rotation:

Ryan Dempster/Carlos Zambrano/Rich Harden/Ted Lilly

Starting lineup:

Alfonso Soriano/Ryan Theriot/Derrek Lee/Arams Ramirez/Jim Edmonds/ Geovany Soto/Mark DeRosa/Kosuke Fukudome

Bench

Reed Johnson/Henry Blanco/Ronny Cedeno/Daryle Ward/Mike Fontenot/Felix Pie

Relievers:

Kerry Wood/Carlos Marmol/Jason Marquis/Sean Marshall/Neal Cotts/Jeff Samardzija/Bob Howry

Definitive? No, as the Cubs likely won't announce the roster until Tuesday. But as Lou put it when asked:

""I think for the most part, pitching-wise, we've made all the decisions we need to make. Unless there was an injury, I think we're pretty well decided.""

Sigh. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

And hats off to both the Brewers and the Chicago White Sox. One day after watching Johan Santana deliver an amazing performance with a complete game victory on three days' rest, CC matched him today, baffling the Iowa Chicago Cubs for most of the game. It was interesting to watch this "pitching duel", with CC against basically the entire Cubs pitching staff -- Angel Guzman started in place of Carlos Zambrano, and left after two innings as part of Lou's starter by committee approach today --  but the the end performance was still one for the ages.

And to the White Sox, who forced the completion of their makeup game with the Tigers tomorrow by beating the Cleveland Indians this afternoon. If they win, they'll force a one-game playoff with the Twins. Lose and go home. Welcome to October.