Cubs stay cool despite shutout loss to Dodgers in NLCS Game 2
CHICAGO – Music played softly in the Chicago Cubs’ clubhouse after Sunday night’s 1-0 skunking at the hands of Clayton Kershaw and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Players patiently answered questions from news reporters, betraying no annoyance, not even the slumping Anthony Rizzo.
If the defeat that robbed the Cubs of home-field advantage and evened the National League Championship Series at 1-1 produced any panic, it wasn’t getting packaged for the trip to L.A.
Such a calm approach to a deadlocked series would be the norm for most clubs, but nobody else carries the weight of more than a century without a championship the way the Cubs do, or the expectation that this is without a doubt their year.
So it was refreshing that, amid the serene comments, Chicago’s best player of the postseason made a powerful if matter-of-fact statement, a bit of a reminder that the Cubs won a major league-high 103 games for a reason.
“We know we’re the best. I mean, we’ve got the best team out there,’’ said second baseman Javier Baez, who once again was a central figure in a playoff game. “We just have to play our game.’’
That game typically involves a fair amount of offense, considering Chicago finished second in the league in runs scored. Just a couple would have been enough to give them a comfortable margin in the series, but there were none to be had against a brilliant Kershaw and closer Kenley Jansen, who retired all six batters he faced to prevent even the hint of a late insurgency.
The Cubs left a mere three runners on base and had just one reach second, their biggest threat of the game dying in the glove of center fielder Joc Pederson as Baez’s seventh-inning drive with a runner on first got only as far as the warning track.
The middle of Chicago’s batting order – Rizzo, cleanup hitter Ben Zobrist and Addison Russell – has gone a combined 1-for-16 in the series, with Rizzo’s struggles extending these last two games. The slugging first baseman, who finished second on the team in home runs (32) and first in RBI (109) during the season, is now 1-for-23 for the playoffs.
On Sunday he made the final out of the game, a little humpback liner into the hands of second baseman Chase Utley.
“Today I felt a lot better,’’ said Rizzo, who walked leading off the seventh. “Just missed pitches, but felt like I was there. One pitch, one at-bat kind of locks you in. That’s how I felt tonight. I just didn’t get the results.’’
Nobody in a Cubs uniform did on a night when Kershaw not only pitched like a three-time Cy Young Award winner, but looked capable of throwing a perfect game. He cruised through the first four innings on 40 pitches and did not allow a baserunner until Baez’s line single to center with two outs in the fifth.
Kershaw was more efficient than dominant, striking out six and walking one in completing seven innings in just 84 pitches, but the Cubs hardly mounted a threat.
Now, as they head to Dodger Stadium for the next three games, they would appear to have an edge with reigning Cy Young Award winner Jake Arrieta returning for the first time to the site of his Aug. 30, 2015 no-hitter. He will be followed in Game 4 by John Lackey.
They figure to oppose curveball specialist Rich Hill and fellow lefty Julio Urias, a 20-year-old rookie. Best of all for the Cubs, no sight of Kershaw until Game 5 at the earliest.
“It may seem like a relief knowing you don’t have to face Kershaw in the next three days, but there’s no small enemy,’’ said Game 1 hero Miguel Montero, who struck out as a pinch-hitter in the eighth. “Any of their pitchers could have a great night and shut you down in a hurry. We can’t take them lightly. At this level they’re all good.’’
True. But even after losing a 1-0 game for the first time ever in the postseason, the Cubs are keenly aware they have a number of factors in their favor. For one, they can guarantee themselves of at least bringing the series back to Chicago with just one win in L.A. They also have the reservoir of fortitude displayed during their epic Game 4 comeback in the first round against the San Francisco Giants, and the knowledge of what it takes to win in October from their experience the last two postseasons.
“It’s not going to just be a cakewalk,’’ Rizzo said. “It doesn’t matter who we’re facing. We could be facing a Double-A team, it’s not going to be a cakewalk this time of the year.’’
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