The Cubs: Postseason Woes Are Deja Vu—All Over Again!

For the Cubs, it is déjà vu all over again, as Yogi Berra would say. After being swept out of the postseason last year, they are on the brink of being swept again. This would only add to the years of heartbreak already under their belts.

After waiting the whole summer for the Cubs to stumble and break our hearts, they never did, because they were in first place the entire summer. Perhaps Zambrano's missed time, due to a sore shoulder, may have been the catalyst to their downward spiral. But, Zambrano came back to throw a no hitter, which definitely raised my spirits.

The whole summer I had faith in the Cubs. I truly thought that after a summer without heartbreak, this could be the year to, if not win a World Series, at least make it to the World Series.

From the starting lineups of game one, I was screaming at the television, "WHAT IN THE HELL IS KOSUKE FUKUDOME DOING BATTING SECOND AND RYAN THERIOT BATTING EIGHTH?"

This made no sense. Kosuke was batting around .150 for the last two months, striking out and grounding into double plays left and right. Theriot was batting above .300 the whole season, and leading the team in stolen bases. Theriot should be batting first, followed by Alfonso Soriano.

No matter how much the Cubs are paying Kosuke, he should only play if it is late in the game—for defensive purposes.

Normally, I do not agree with back seat driving, but I will make an exception. Mark DeRosa should have been in right and Mike Fontenot at second. Despite his size, he gets hits. Ryan Dempster's season-high walks were certainly unexpected. I think it was the right choice for him to start game one, and despite his inaccuracy, the Cubs simply didn’t score enough runs.

For game two, I didn’t start screaming until after the first hit.

The Cubs desperately needed to get on the board first to build confidence for the players and fans. With Soriano standing on second base with no one out, I would have loved Ryan Theriot to have bunted him over to third, especially with Lee and Ramirez coming up next. But then, Theriot and Lee struck out, killing any scoring opportunity.

Another thing I would have loved to see last night was Ted Lilly in the bullpen to come in when Zambrano fell apart—the errors didn’t help either. He always seems to unravel during every start since his no hitter. Lilly has been the best pitcher over the last few weeks for the Cubs, and now he might not even get a chance to pitch in the postseason.

Now the Cubs are stuck in a deep hole, and it will take a miracle to come back to win this series—especially the World Series. But let's not concede the World Series just yet: the Red Sox came back down 0-3 against the Yankees to end their World Series drought.

So if the Cubs do come back, it would be a miracle and, quite frankly, a déjà vu all over again.