Strange as it sounds, getting away from Wrigley Field might be the best thing that could happen to the jittery Chicago Cubs.
Strange as it sounds, getting away from Wrigley Field might be the best thing that could happen to the jittery Chicago Cubs. Why? Because they can’t play much worse than they have at their cozy home ballpark in the first two games of the NL division series against the Dodgers. Not that the Dodgers haven’t had something to do with the back-to-back victories. Manny Ramirez has gone deep—really deep—with a pair of mammoth homers. And Chad Billingsley gave the Dodgers another strong start Thursday night in a 10-3 win. But the Cubs, looking for a championship 100 years after their last one in 1908, stumbled badly. They appear to be pressing and had four errors Thursday night, one from each of their infielders. "No one puts more pressure on us than we put on ourselves…All that other stuff is just background noise," said first baseman Derrek Lee, who had one of two key errors in the second when the Dodgers scored five runs. "We’ve got to find a way to settle in and play like we play," Lee added. The series switches to Dodger Stadium for Game 3 on Saturday night. Rich Harden will face Hiroki Kuroda, who pitched a four-hit shutout against the Cubs in Los Angeles on June 6. In the 7-2 loss to the Dodgers in Wednesday night’s opener, Chicago starter Ryan Dempster couldn’t find the plate, walking seven. Then Cubs fielders couldn’t pick up the ball one night later. "The last two days, that’s probably been the two worst games we’ve played all year," frustrated manager Lou Piniella said. "It wasn’t fun to watch, I’ll tell you that." Piniella is planning on making at least one change out west. He’s taking slumping right fielder Kosuke Fukdome out of the lineup and will either use Mark DeRosa in right and Mike Fontenot at second or Reed Johnson in right. Fukudome is 0-for-8 in the first two games and struck out three times Thursday night. "The kid is struggling, and there’s no sense sending him out there anymore," Piniella said. Chicago became the 23rd major league team to lose the first two games at home in a best-of-five playoff series, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Only one has come back to win — the 2001 New York Yankees against Oakland. Of course, that Yankees team was managed by Joe Torre, now in the Dodgers’ dugout. "We’re going to L.A. We need one more win. We’re not there yet," Ramirez said. "They’re the best team in the National League, and anything could happen." But unless the Cubs can show some semblance of the team that won 97 games this season, they’re headed to another disappointing finish. The Cubs must win two consecutive games in Los Angeles to get the series back to Wrigley, where they were 55-26 in the regular season. Billingsley shut down Chicago’s slumping lineup and Ramirez’s 26th postseason home run landed on the roof of the batter’s eye club in center, at least 450 feet away. Meanwhile, the four errors by Chicago tied a division series record. "When you give extra outs, chances are they’re going to be capitalized on, and that’s what we were able to do," Torre said. "This is a tough field. You’re probably not going to see as many mistakes at Dodger Stadium because the playing surface is so good," said Russell Martin, who capped the second-inning rally with three-run double. "The playing surface is the same for both teams. We just didn’t make as many mistakes as them." Billingsley, who allowed five hits and a run in 6 2-3 innings, was asked if the Cubs were pressing. "It kind of looks like they are, but we took advantage of some of their mistakes, and that’s really big for us to do, even last night," he said. Carlos Zambrano, the Cubs’ ace, worked 6 1-3 innings, giving up six hits and seven runs, but only three of them earned. "I’m not surprised, but I’m in shock," Zambrano said about his teammates’ wobbly defense. "We have a good fielding team." Consecutive errors by normally reliable second baseman DeRosa and three-time Gold Glove winner Lee led to the Dodgers’ five-run second. Andre Ethier hit a leadoff single and when he took off for second on a hit-and-run, Cubs shortstop Ryan Theriot, who was headed to the bag, couldn’t reach James Loney’s bouncer. The single went off Theriot’s bare hand and into left field, putting runners at the corners. With the crowd chanting "Let’s Go Z," Zambrano got a third strike past Matt Kemp for the first out. Blake DeWitt hit a hard grounder to second that was made for a double play, but DeRosa fumbled it — the error allowing Ethier to score and putting runners at first and second. Lee muffed Casey Blake’s grounder to first for another error, loading the bases before Billingsley struck out. But Rafael Furcal dragged a bunt past the pitcher’s mound toward second and beat DeRosa’s throw for an RBI single and a 2-0 lead. Martin followed with a three-run double, silencing a stunned crowd of 42,136. AP ______ Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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