LA Dodgers Sweep the favored Chicago Cubs in National League Division Series “Game 3 in LA” (10/08)
National League Championship Series:
The LA Dodgers completed an incredible sweep of the Chicago Cubs, who led the league in victories. This was a huge surprise as the Cubs were favored to finally go to the World Series. The Dodgers looked and played very relaxed. They took advantage of walks; sloppy errors and poor play by the Cubs the first 2 games of the series in the Windy City to go up 2-0. Game 3 at Dodger Stadium was electric with fans waving their white towels while the Dodgers snuffed out the win 3-1 to finish off the Cubbies. Chicago looked tight and pressed throughout the series.
Lou Piniella stated the obvious and seemed dumbfounded as his team was never in it. The ironic part of the series was that the full team looked out of whack. Except for Derrick Lee (pictured below)
and Mark DeRosa who both hit well, the rest of the team was horrible. Even third base coach Mike Quade seemed clueless. With the Cubs trailing in Game 3 in the 7th inning 3-0, pinch hitter Darryl Ward looped a single to centerfield with 2 outs and Derrick Lee on second base. So with 2 outs, Lee took off for home and with my own eyes saw Coach Quade put his hands up to stop Lee not knowing how many outs there were. Thanks to Lee as he ignored Quade and ran home. It didn’t cost them but how in the world can a coach do that unless he was not mentally in the game. The interesting thing is that even if there were less than 2 outs, Lee was already at third base so Quade should have sent him home no matter what. If the ball were caught, Lee would have been doubled up anyways. The point being was not only did he forget the number of outs but also he was wrong in trying to stop Lee from running. While Quade and many of the players (Dempster, Soriano, Ramirez, Soto, Fukudome to name a few) looked mentally out of it and pressing, the Dodgers looked the opposite.
Perhaps having Joe Torre as Manager and Manny Ramirez added to the problems for the Cubs. The full team played together and they got great pitching from Derrick Lowe, Chad Billingsley and Hiroki Kuroda. Kuroda (pictured below) pitched flawlessly and had the Cubs off balance the whole night. James Loney had a key 2 run double in the first after Russell Martin nearly got thrown out at third base on a single by Manny Ramirez. Replays showed that he was out.
The offense got clutch hitting from a grand slam by Loney (pictured above) in game one, Martin adding a homerun and 3 run double, table setting Rafael Furcal making a late season comeback and batting .333 in the series. But the key was having Manny Ramirez in the middle of the lineup. Besides batting .500 in the series with 2 crushing homeruns, his presence in the clubhouse and in the lineup pumps up his team and terrorizes the opponents. Next up for the Dodgers are the tough Philadelphia Phillies in the League Championship Series. It is not who has the best team during the regular season or on paper, it is who is playing best as a team at this time of the year so the Dodgers could be the team to beat. Having the other team play terrible, nervous and getting some luck doesn’t hurt.
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