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Saturday, October 06, 2007

NLDS Game 2: Diamondbacks 5, Cubs 1

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Top 1st: Rich Hill gives up a first-pitch homer to Chris Young, and a double to Stephen Drew. He strikes out the next two, but Justin Upton cashes in Young on an RBI single. Hill loads the bases by plunking Augie Ojeda; with his presence on the mound very tenuous, he gets the final out of the inning against catcher Miguel Montero, a bouncer to second. 2-0 Diamondbacks.

Bottom 1st: The Cubs waste a rare leadoff walk to Alfonso Soriano, who had 31 all year, when Ryan Theriot hits into a 5-4-3 double play. The Cubs get a couple baserunners on a Derrek Lee single and a Cliff Floyd hit-by-pitch (on the calf, ouch), but Hernandez gets out of the jam by striking out Aramis Ramirez; the first pitch Ramirez's sequence was, from what we could tell, very debatable.

Top 2nd: Hill settles down, allowing only a single to Drew, and a stolen base thanks to a bad throw from Jason Kendall. Kendall bounces it into the dirt, though the throw is on the first base side of the bag; nevertheless, the dropoff in defense between Kendall and Giovany Soto, the Cubs' rookie catcher, is remarkable. Considering Soto has an OPS+ of 175 in the regular season, and Kendall has a 84 OPS+, it's amazing that they're running Kendall out there at all.

Bottom 2nd: Mark DeRosa reaches on Stephen Drew's fielding error at third, but he's erased at second when Jacques Jones bounces to second on a tough play to Augie Ojeda. Kendall shows why he's in the lineup by getting a single off Hernandez, but Hill bunts close enough to Hernandez that the big Cuban gets Jones, who wasn't running hard and/or didn't have a good enough jump at second. Soriano taps out to second to end the frame; the Cubs are getting good swings on Hernandez, but they aren't able to push anything across the plate yet. 2-0 Diamondbacks.

Bottom 3rd: Hill gets out of the third unscathed. The Cubs then get a pair aboard on first and second for Aramis Ramirez, who takes two terrible hacks at pitches way out of the zone to go to an 0-2 count. He learns his lesson to get to 2-2, but bounces into a 6-4-3 double play to end the frame. Ramirez has yet to get a hit in this series, and it's obvious he's pressing. Still 2-0 Diamondbacks.

Top 4th: Hill surrenders a leadoff single to Montero, and a bloop single to right by Hernandez that a faster right fielder might have caught (i.e., anybody besides Cliff Floyd). That's it for Hill, who gets the hook so Michael Wuertz can face Young with nobody out and two on.

Wuertz walks Young by throwing four straight out of the zone after going 0-2 on him, but then strikes out Drew by going to the same split-fingered fastball. The Cubs narrowly miss getting out of the inning when Wuertz elicits a hard groundball from Eric Byrnes straight to Ramirez, starting a 5-4-3 double play — only, without the double play part, as Byrnes' speed keeps the inning alive. Conor Jackson flies out to center to end the damage, er, the inning. 3-0 Diamondbacks.

Bottom 4th: The Cubs waste a terrific opportunity as Jacque Jones gets a courtesy double on what should have been a single into centerfield. Instead of scoring when centerfielder Chris Young bobbles the pick, Jones is held up at third. It doesn't matter, as Kendall cashes in Jones on a bouncer to short. 3-1 Diamondbacks, and Piniella calls in Mike Fontenot to pinch-hit for Wuertz.

Fontenot and Soriano both make easy outs (on the ground and in the air, respectively). The Cubs get on the board, but they need more. 3-1 Diamondbacks.

Top 5th: Piniella calls in relief ace Carlos Marmol. After retiring leadoff batter Reynolds, Upton works a walk and then steals second with Ojeda at the plate. Marmol then (unintentionally) walks Ojeda to restore the double play. Marmol unjams himself by getting a popup from Montero, and strikes out Hernandez on a failed check swing attempt. 3-1 Diamondbacks.

Bottom 5th: Hernandez loads up the bases on a five-pitch walk to Aramis Ramirez with one out. Ramirez swung at some terrible pitches in his earlier at-bats, so this took some effort on his part. DeRosa works a 3-1 count and then taps into the Cubs' third double play of the night, 6-4-3. 3-1 Diamondbacks.

Top 6th: Marmol plants a fat one belt-high to Byrnes that ends up about ten rows back in the bleachers on the way to striking out the side. 4-1 Diamondbacks.

Bottom 7th: Lee taps into the Cubs' fourth double play to end the seventh. Not only have the Cubs failed to get a single hit with a runner in scoring position, they're now unable to advance the runner to second for the second straight inning.

The entire Cubs dugout is stunned. The silent audience seems to have its chin on its hands, unable to raise even much of a boo when Soriano struck out to lead off the frame.

Bottom 8th: Ramirez hits a one-out tapper to short, and the audience works up a tepid boo. The Cubs aren't getting any baserunners now, and the game is slinking away from them with hardly a fight.

Top 9th: The Cubs give Kerry Wood an auld lang syne turn on the mound, and he promptly surrenders a home run that ends up on Sheffield Ave. The game is out of hand, and Cubs fans start heading to the exits. 5-1 Diamondbacks.

Bottom 9th: The camera shows Livan Hernandez high-fiving a teammate in the dugout as closer Jose Valverde tackles Jason Kendall. Kendall strikes out looking on an inside fastball. Pinch-hitter Daryle Ward strikes out on three pitches, and radio broadcaster Pat Hughes barely interrupts Ron Santo to tell the audience Ward has been caught looking. Soriano quickly gets to an 0-2 count, and flies out to right amid a cascade of catcalls as the Cubs' season ends; the first team to clinch is also the first to be eliminated in the playoffs. 5-1 Diamondbacks, final.

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Comments:
this is the first week in about 11 months i have not missed Aramis Ramirez's presence in the Angels line-up.

Stephen Drew was just awesome this series as was Chris Young. Anyone who considered the D-Backs to even be at this point had to believe it would be Randy Johnson who'd lead them here. And you'd think they'd miss Orlando Hudson too.

The most amazing thing is ticket availability for the NLCS. As was the case for the NLDS, tickets are still there for retail for all four games.
 
Too bad I'm far away from either team.
 
Officially, Arizona was the first team in the NL to clinch a playoff spot. They beat the Cubs by about 10-20 minutes. The Cubs were the first team to clinch a division.
 

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