Joe Torre has been right where the Cubs are now, losing the first two in a five-game series at home.
But his 2001 Yankees came back to beat Lou Piniella’s Mariners and go on to the World Series, so Torre refuses to let the Dodgers get ahead of themselves even after Thursday night’s 10-3 victory.
“In 2001 we lost the first two games of the division series at home and then went on to win three in a row,” he said. “I don’t want to have to think about that again. It wasn’t easy, but we were able to do it. Momentum switches so quickly.”
Torre said he would almost prefer to be the visiting team rather than have the obvious pressure Piniella’s Cubs faced for the first two games.
“Thanks to my time with the Yankees, I’ve had a lot of experience to go either way with this thing,” Torre said. “We’ve started at home, we’ve started on the road. My feeling is that there’s more pressure on the home team. Based on the fact that you should win, it’s your home, you’ve done well, and I had gone through that with the Yankees.
“When you’re home and you’re a good team, which obviously the Cubs are, I felt a lot more pressure than starting on the road.”
And now the Cubs go on the road, playing the next one, and possibly two, at Dodger Stadium. The pressure on the Cubs is now to avoid elimination.
One of the decisions Torre might face is which starter to use for Sunday’s game. Derek Lowe, the Game 1 starter, would seem a natural, but Torre said veteran Greg Maddux is also in the mix.
“First of all, we don’t know if there’s going to be a Game 4,” Torre said. ” At least we hope there isn’t a Game 4. I’m still superstitious in that regard to name a Game 4 starter before I know if there is going to be one.
“We know [Lowe] is capable. I mean, with that type of pitcher with a sinker ball, you’d keep an eye on him as far as how many pitches and stuff like that, but I think he could do it.”
On Thursday, it was Chad Billingsley who did it, getting a 5-0 lead in the second inning and then cruising. But losing to the quiet, unknown Billingsley is no crime. His regular-season record after April was 15-6.
“Billingsley, he’s been tremendous, probably the most consistent pitcher for the whole year,” said catcher Russell Martin, who drove in three of the Dodgers’ second-inning runs.
The Dodgers have outscored the Cubs 17-3, outhit them 20-17 and outhomered them 4-1. The only department the Cubs have a “lead” is errors 5-1.
“It kind of looks like they are [pressing],” Billingsley said of the Cubs. “We took advantage of their mistakes, and it’s big to do that.”
But with a 2-0 lead, Manny Ramirez, who hit his second homers in two days, wasn’t ready to give victory speeches.
“Not yet,” he said. “We’ve still got one more left to play. We’ve got to still play hard. Until we get 27th out, we’re not there yet.”
As for the Cubs having holy water sprinkled around their dugout before Game 1, Torre was asked his thoughts.
“I think anytime you caught up in the fact that there are reasons that the other team isn’t winning, it better be because the team that they’re playing is beating them, as opposed to they’re losing it some other way,” Torre said.
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dvandyck@tribune.com
