The Cubs have their proverbial backs to the wall, trailing Arizona 2-0 going into Saturday’s Game 3 of their best-of-five National League Division Series.
But in starter Rich Hill’s mind, the Cubs will be in “good position” at Wrigley Field, where the crowd can be an integral factor, with a home game Saturday and potentially another Sunday,
“It’s going to be very exciting,” Hill said. “Especially with the position we’re in right now. We’re in a good position. This isn’t something to look negatively upon. I know it sounds difficult to think that way, but we’ve been digging ourselves out of holes all season long.
“We were chasing the Brewers, we get the lead in the division [and] we end up winning the division. And come-from-behind games, we’ve had many of them this year. I know it sounds a little funny to think of it that way, but you have to look at it as a positive.”
Here are five things the Cubs must do to accomplish the unthinkable and win this series.
1. Start hitting
This is the easiest thing to change because the Cubs know how to hit. The problem is they just haven’t done it in the first two games, batting a collective .179 with only four hits and no RBIs from Aramis Ramirez, Derrek Lee and Alfonso Soriano.
“We’re not doing the job right now,” said Soriano, who is 2-for-10 with four strikeouts and no runs scored. “So I hope Saturday we step up and do a better job.”
It all starts with him, the leadoff man.
2. Have Hill dominate early
If the D’backs shell Hill in the first few innings, it will take the crowd out of the game and conjure up notions of Game 7 of the 2003 NLCS, when the Cubs went out ignominiously after Kerry Wood and Moises Alou hit home runs that amped up the crowd. Hill can be very good or very bad, but he has a 0.96 earned-run average in four starts after six or more days of rest.
In his last start Saturday at Cincinnati, he carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning and finished with six shutout innings.
“All of a sudden, I’m not going to become Sandy Koufax, and Nolan Ryan is not going to show up and start pitching the game for me,” Hill said.
“It’s going to be the same guy who has been going out there all season long.”
Actually, the Cubs would prefer the Hill of April (3-1, 1.77 ERA) to the Hill of September (3-1, 5.08 ERA).
3. Show some emotion
The Cubs’ dugout looked like a funeral parlor during the late innings of Game 2. Carlos Zambrano put his head down while leaning on the railing, Ramirez put a towel on his head and Ted Lilly looked bored with his head resting on the palm of his hand.
D’backs announcer Mark Grace said they were “looking at their toes instead of being on their toes,” though Lee disputed the idea the Cubs had displayed “bad body language.”
“I didn’t see that,” Lee said. “It always seems when you don’t score runs, people say you’re dead or whatever. But we were in it. We were very in it. We never stopped trying. It just didn’t work out.”
4. Less gambling
Taking out Zambrano in Game 1 was debatable, but manager Lou Piniella has used Carlos Marmol in the seventh inning all year, so it wasn’t really a move that came out of the blue. But letting Lilly bat for himself with a man on first and two outs in the fourth when the Cubs trailed 4-2 suggested Piniella thought Lilly’s second-inning meltdown was just a blip and he deserved to stay in the game.
It wasn’t, and Lilly did not finish the fourth. With an eight-man bullpen, Piniella could have pinch-hit for Lilly and used everyone in the pen, if necessary, to give the Cubs a fighting chance. Jason Marquis should not be on the roster if Piniella is afraid or reluctant to use him in long relief.
5. Pretend it’s June
Maybe if Piniella just comes out of the dugout and kicks some dirt and Zambrano playfully punches one of his catchers in the nose, lightning can strike twice for the 2007 Cubs.
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psullivan@tribune.com
