Game 1: 3-1 D-Backs
I meant to blog this earlier in the week, but my take on the series is that man for man, the Cubs are the better team, but the most telling stats are:
- Arizona was 14th out of 16 teams in the NL in scoring runs - they actually got out-scored by their opponents on average - but still managed to pull off the best record in the NL.
- They led the league in 1-run wins. This almost necessarily follows from 1), but what they say together is that Arizona is opportunistic and good at ekeing out just enough runs to win.
Playoff games are usually close and are won by the team that doesn't make mistakes.
That's what happened today. What was the mistake? Pulling Zambrano after only 86 pitches. I'm currently listening to Lou Piniella rationalize it, saying he wanted to save Z to start him in game 4, the problem is the Cubs have to get to game 4 for that strategy to work. If the Cubs had been ahead at that point, I could see pulling Z, but with a tie game and Z dealing, Lou should have kept him in and penciled in Jason Marquis or planned on giving Z a short-start on Sunday.
Either way, it was a mistake. Arizona, a young, scrappy, opportunistic team, took advantage and were just good enough, as they've been all year long.
If we're going to win this, we can't make mistakes.
One more thing: I'm honestly not jumping to a conclusion from one performance, but I don't agree with putting Marmol in. Yes, he's been lights out all year, but he's still very young. That seemed to me to be the kind of high-pressure situation they were prepping Wood for the past few weeks. If Marmol were a pressure-pitcher, he'd have been made the Cubs' closer months ago.
On the positive side, it should only get easier for the Cubs' offense. I wouldn't mind seeing Dan Davis in Cubby blue some day, but look for Lilly to have no mercy tomorrow night.
GO CUBS!!!
