The Ticket Chest

Cubs Choke Again…

Monday, October 6th, 2008 | Sports | No Comments

For the 2nd consecutive year, the Chicago Cubs were swept out of the playoffs with a 3 games to none disaster against the NL West representative – this time the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Dodgers Manager Joe Torre (ex- New York Yankees Manager and winner of 4 World Series titles) bested friend and Chicago Cubs Manager Lou Pinella in the short 3-game set.  After the Cubs fell behind 4-2 on James Loney’s Grand Slam off of Ryan Dempster in the 5th inning of NLDS Game 1, the 2 teams could have called it quits and saved a lot of time and money for players and fans traveling cross-country to Los Angeles.  The Cubs bumbled their way to a 10-3 loss at home in NLDS Game #2 (each Cubs infielder committed an error in the contest), and then showed no heart in the decisive 3-1 loss in Los Angeles on Saturday night.  The Cubs bats did not show up for a 2nd consecutive year – although the team had numerous opportunites to score in all 3 games, the Cubs only scored runs in 4 of the 27 innings played.  The Cubs hit only one home run all series, and productive stars Left Fielder Alfonso Soriano (1 for 14 just as he did against the Diamondbacks in 2007), Third Baseman Aramis Ramirez (2 for 11), Catcher Geovany Soto (2 for 11) Center Fielder Jim Edmonds (2 for 10), each had atrocious series.   With runners in scoring position, the Cubs got only 2 hits in 28 bats.  On the opposite side of the ball, Manny Ramirez had 5 hits in 10 at-bats, including 2 home runs, 5 runs scored and 3 RBI’s in the series.  The top 3 hitters in the Dodgers lineup (Rafael Furcal, Russell Martin and Ramirez) did all the damage in NLDS Game #3 – 4 for 9 with 3 weeks and all 3 runs scored – and for the series, hit a collective .371 with 11 runs scored and 10 RBI’s.   100 years has come and gone for the Chicago Cubs – will it be another 100 years before we see a Cubs World Series Championship?  Ask Cubs fans, and most will likely say … yes!

Tags: Chicago Cubs, Joe Torre, Los Angeles Dodgers, Lou Pinella, Manny Ramirez, MLB playoffs