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Drought ends—for the Dodgers, anyway
By JORDAN IKEDA and MIKEY HIRANO CULROSS
RAFU STAFF WRITERS
Saturday, Oct. 11, 2008
Kuroda delivers as L.A. wins its first postseason series in 20 years. For Cubs’ fans, it’s 101 years and counting.
MIKEY HIRANO CULROSS & MARIO G. REYES/Rafu Shimpo
Manny Ramirez, often criticized for a lack of hustle, motored all the way from first base on James Loney’s hit to score the Dodgers’ first run.
While Kuroda was getting his second beer shower in less than two weeks, other players celebrated their victory on the field.
Champagne and beer flowed freely Saturday night at Chavez Ravine. The smell alone could’ve given the 56,000 in attendance a serious buzz, but Dodgers fans were drunk with something else.
Success.
The Blue Crew sent the Chicago Cubs on a long flight home Saturday evening with a 3-1 victory completing a three-game National League Division Series dismantling of what had, not quite a week ago, been the league’s best regular season team.
The Dodgers dominated the series, outscoring Chicago 20-6. They flat-out outplayed, out-hustled and out-pitched them too. Sure, the Cubs committed an uncharacteristic six errors (four during Game 2), but the real death knell for them was their hitting.
With two outs and runners in scoring position, the Cubbies hit a pitiful .214. The Dodgers? .444. There is no curse, just clutch and unclutch and the Cubs were the latter.
“We just didn’t hit,” said Cubs manager Lou Piniella. “We had opportunities and you have to take advantage of them. This is six games I’ve managed now in the postseason and we have scored just 12 runs. That doesn’t get it done.”
In fact, all that does is reinforce the “Lovable Losers” moniker that will now haunt the Northsiders for one year past a century. And, in the minds of the many Cubs fans in attendance Saturday night, “lovable” could just as easily have been removed.
“You have to be kidding me,” said one sulking Cubs fan at Dodger Stadium, who declined to give his name.
“This was supposed to be the year. We had all the pieces.”
The headline on Sunday’s Chicago Tribune read, “It Ain’t Gonna Happen.” An entry on an online blog for Cubs fans stated simply, “Worst season ever.”
The Cubs–who haven’t tasted World Series champagne since 1908–led the National League in wins (97) and runs scored (855) during the regular season.
In the NLDS, however, they looked as flat as a Chicago pizza, especially after James Loney’s game-changing grand slam in Game 1.
Kosuke Fukudome, whom the Cubs signed to a $48 million, four-year deal in the offseason, was the Great Eastern Hope for the team, and paid early dividends. He electrified the Cubbies with timely hitting and stellar defense–until the All-Star break. He fell out of favor with the fans–who voted him into the mid-summer classic–by spiraling down to a .257 batting average in the second half. He managed but one hit in the postseason, a single off Kuroda in Game 3, after manager Lou Pinella yanked him from the starting lineup after two hitless games.
Hiroki Kuroda, the Dodgers 33-yearold rookie and major off-season signing (we’ll just pretend Andruw Jones never happened) scattered six hits and four strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings to garner his first playoff victory in his first opportunity of his entire career, including his 11 seasons with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp of the Japanese Central League.
“The stadium had a totally different atmosphere tonight,” Kuroda said. “I found myself being more nervous than usual. After the first inning, I was finally able to be myself and just pitch.”
The stadium was literally alive and crackling with life—something rare for what is usually a mostly laid back crowd, who, while always showing up in droves every season win or lose, rarely fills the stadium before the fourth inning.
Saturday, most of the seats were occupied for batting practice.
Obviously eager to see the Dodgers do something they haven’t in 20 years—win a playoff series—the Dodgers faithful created a swirling, flurry of white that filled the entire stadium as every fan was given white towels emblazoned with the Dodgers logo. After every positive play and before every third out, the fans kept the energy sky high through nine innings.
The last time the crowd was that raucous was during the Dodgers one and only postseason victory in the past two decades. “Lima Time,” as it is referred to in Los Angeles, saw Jose Lima electrify Dodgers Stadium by pitching a shutout against the St. Louis Cardinals in 2004.
Four years later, “Lima Time” has been replaced by “Manny Mania.” Left fielder, Manny Ramirez, acquired mid-season, helped turn a floundering club that had a losing record as late as September, into the NL West champs. Though limited to one hit, a run and two intentional walks Saturday night, Ramirez, for the series, hit a tidy .500 with two homers and an impossible 1.743 OPS.
But Manny wasn’t the only contributor. The Dodgers pitching staff, behind starters Kuroda, Derek Lowe and Chad Billingsly, for the series held the Cubbies to a combined 6 runs, an RBI total matched by Dodgers first baseman Loney, all by his lonesome.
Catcher Russell Martin, who had an RBI, a run and two hits Saturday night, posted a whopping 1.126 OPS for the series. Shortstop Rafael Furcal, activated from the disabled list two weeks ago, resumed his stellar play setting the table and shoring up a shaky infield defense as if the back surgery that sidelined him for the majority of the season had never happened.
Then there were those who didn’t get much playing time, but were integral to the Dodgers success nonetheless.
“We had a lot of people doubting us all year,” said manager Joe Torre who now has 79 postseason victories—the most in baseball history. “And I can’t thank the veterans on this club enough for stepping aside. You know Jeff [Kent], Nomar [Garciaparra], Juan [Pierre], they made my life a lot easier to write a lineup without their names on it.”
Torre did his part as well, carefully managing the bullpen, who were stellar in their own right. The pen, including surefire hall of famer, Greg Maddux, Takashi Saito, Corey Wade and Jonathon Broxton, in eight innings amassed seven strikeouts and surrendered only three runs, two from Saito in a blowout game two win.
Saturday night, after Broxton completed the game striking out Alfonso Soriano to earn the first postseason save of his career, the Blue Crew flooded the field in celebration as the crowd went to deafening levels.
“When the game ended, it felt like I was in a dream,” said Kuroda.
As the crowd cheered and celebrated, reliever Joe Beimel popped Moets in a Dodgers bathrobe, outfielder Matt Kemp poured bubbly down Kuroda’s mouth, and Torre was soaked to the bone in beer.
“Man, right now this is the place to be,” Ramirez said.
Leave it to Man Ram for the perfect sound bite. |
