Dodgers 2-0
POTG: the crowd. For all that’s been said about the game 1 fans and the reasons they were as quiet as they were, the people who showed up for this game decided things were going to change. They were going to cheer, they were going to cheer more, and they were going to start a Go Cubs Go chant on top of that. They gave a standing ovation to a pitcher coming out down 6-0! They stayed and cheered in the bottom of the ninth, treating a 9 run lead like it was 1. Yea, there was moments of mock cheering and booing (like every Fukudome at bat), but these fans were far more into the game than you’d expect from any crowd in this situation. If the difference between winning and losing was coming down cheering, the Cubs were not going to lose.
Unfortunately, the different was about eight million times bigger than that.
(Far away from where anyone could hear me, I got up after the bottom of the 8th and left to go home. I couldn’t take it a minute more and have no idea how I’ll cope with hearing about it all tommorow except going in to total shut down mode. It’s fun to care about a baseball team!)
(and I did flip the radio about 30 minutes later, just to be sure, and in time to hear Pie get his walk. It went downhill from there.)
I was talking about this before the game – in isolation of any other factors, I think the Cubs are favorites in a Harden/Kuroda matchup, and I think the Cubs are favorites in a Lilly/Maddux matchup. (Not sure we’re getting it, with Maddux warming up in the pen again today, but that’s the idea.) The problem is this is far from isolation from outside factors.
The best thing is the Cubs getting the heck out of Chicago. They ought to fly out right this moment, and not stay here a day longer. The sun will rise tommorow, and it’ll shine on a very angry, bitter city and it won’t help them to get caught up in that.
I hope, one month from now, we’re still talking about what crazy thing the Cubs did to stop being so tight, sparking a humongous turnaround. Hope’s all I’ve got left