Here we go again!!

One would expect me to rant and rave about the Cubs loss tonight. One might even expect me to predict doom and gloom for the remainder of the playoffs. One could go as far as saying that I've finally drank the last glass of Kool-Aid being handed out at Clark & Addison.

But I really think this club can pull off 3 out of the next 4 and continue on to the next level of the series. The Dodgers aren't all that they are cracked up to be and in fact, if Dempster had had ANY of his stuff tonight (and he wasn't even close), quite possibly we'd be talking different right now. Sure that's easy to say, but we need to be serious here, he looked like crap and we actually didn't do that bad at the plate.

The fear in most Cub fans hearts at this moment is which Carlos shows up tomorrow night? El Bueno Zambrano or El Diablo Zambrano. He's had a very rough go of it over the last couple of weeks since his no-hitter. But I think he's had enough time on the pine to realize that he has to stay focused and pitch how he knows how to.

Watching the entire pitching staff tonight just brought to mind the famous Crash Davis to Nuke LaLoosh line, "Don't think meat, just throw the damn ball". There were so many balls in the dirt that I thought the Cubs were playing Cricket tonight. Geo Soto was half the way to China he was digging so deep.

Other observations:

• Alfonso Soriano. You're now 2 for 19 in 4 post-season games with the Cubs...HELLO!!! Even my WIFE knows you can't hit a low-outide ball...stop swinging at them you moron. Everytime you do that, every Cub fan sees Sammy Sosa in a bad acid flashback.
• I don't know about you, but did Lou Piniella watch the same Kosuke Fukudome that I did this season? He's batting 2nd and Theriot is batting 8th? Seriously? I mean seriously??? I'm not questioning the man who has brought us to back-to-back playoffs, but I'm just askin'.
• Mark DeRosa continues to be this generation's Mark Grace. He just shows up, asks "Where am I playing tonight?" which can be any of 4-5 positions, and goes out and just does his damn job and WELL!!
• Samardzija: I love this kid, but they've really pushed him up way too fast. He's supposed to be one of our Ace starters in another year or two. He was not that great in Class AA ball and they pushed him quickly through Iowa and then brought him up when Rich Hill went to Hell. I just hope we're not ruining him for the future, cuz he's going to be one of the great ones with the dirty stuff he throws at batters.
• Greg Maddux closes out the game against us. Ouch that hurts. Man, how many times can he come back to remind us that we've let him go TWICE? He's MY age and he's still got nasty stuff. God Bless him, but I wish he was able to be in OUR bullpen over Howry, Cotts and Marquis.

So, I'll be at the Friendly Confines tomorrow night. Game time temp is supposed to be 51 degrees. I'll be bundled and probably tired since the start time is 8:30pm!!! Stupid TV. I'll likely be posting FROM the game (lots of short posts, but hopefully "spirit of the moment" ones)