Gloom and doom: Cubs fall into 0-2 hole
PHOENIX -- Things are pretty bleak for the Cubs.
The lid on their coffin is shutting.
(AP)
Any light at the end of the tunnel? Sorry, it's the headlight of a freight train zooming in on them.
The Cubs fell to 0-2 in the best-of-5 National League Division Series after being soundly whipped 8-4 by Arizona on Thursday night in front of a non-sellout Chase Field crowd of 48,575.
The series, which moves to Wrigley Field on Saturday, is starting to mirror the 1998 NLDS, when the North Siders were swept in three games by Atlanta.
(We interrupt this gloom-and-doom outlook for a sliver of hope. Seven teams in baseball history have overcome 0-2 deficits to win a best-of-5 affair. Some Cubs fans may remember one of those teams being San Diego over the North Siders in 1984. The last team to do it was Boston over Oakland in 2003. We now return you to the gloom and doom).
The Cubs lost Game 1 of the series 3-1 on Wednesday, but seemed like they had the right man for the job on the mound for a recovery on Thursday. Left-handed pitcher Ted Lilly was 9-1 with a 3.71 ERA in 17 starts after Cubs losses during the 2007 campaign.
Lilly danced in and out of trouble in a 25-pitch scoreless first inning, but gave up a three-run homer to ex-White Sox prospect Chris Young in the second, causing the normally stoic southpaw to hurl his mitt to the ground in a fit of rage. Lilly finished the night allowing six runs on seven hits in 31Ž3 innings.
What hurt about Lilly's off-night was the Cubs grabbed early momentum and their first lead of the series when rookie Geovany Soto homered off of Doug Davis in the top of the second.
It was just the second time in history that a Cubs rookie homered in the postseason. The first was Frank DeMaree in 1932 against the New York Yankees.
Rookie pitcher Kevin Hart, whose 0.82 ERA in eight September appearances impressed the Cubs brass to the point of putting him on the playoff roster, gave up a pair of runs in the fifth to put the Diamondbacks ahead by six.
Oh, and to potentially make matters worse, left-handed reliever Scott Eyre was struck in the pitching hand by an Augie Ojeda comebacker in the fifth and had to leave the game. Eyre is the lone left-handed reliever on the Cubs' 25-man roster for the series.
Davis earned the victory after allowing two runs in 52Ž3 innings.
If the Cubs hope to pull off a miracle finish and win the next three games, they are going to need some help from some of the big hitters who were powerhouses in September and helped the Cubs get this far.
Leadoff man Alfonso Soriano had just one hit in his first nine at-bats in the series -- a harmless single in the fifth inning Thursday.
Derrek Lee had two hits in his first seven at-bats. Aramis Ramirez had no hits in his first eight at-bats.
Now the Cubs will put the ball in the hands of Rich Hill to try to save the season.
Hill is 1-1 with a 4.13 ERA in four starts lifetime against the Diamondbacks. He has a no-decision against Arizona this season, giving up just one earned run in six innings in what turned out to be a 3-2 loss to the Diamondbacks at Wrigley Field on July 21.