$300 million team gets nickel-and-dimed to death

It's all over but the pouting.

That's sure to go on for weeks, because this one was ugly, if not totally unexpected, even though the Cubs had no goat to blame, no curse to foil, no fan to hang in effigy.

No, the Cubs couldn't use a foul ball to help assuage their own guilt, only the failure of a roster built with fantasy stats and a fantastic checkbook.

And, no, they didn't choke.

They just got beat plain and simple by a plain team with a simple plan.

The Arizona Diamondbacks play baseball the old-fashioned way.

They burn it.

They play with fire in their eyes, heat on the bases, and smokescreens on the mound, where breaking balls baffle hitters who swing out of their shoes and have no plan of attack.

With a payroll half the size of the big-market Cubs, with a lineup that looks like a practical joke compared to the high-priced, star-studded Chicago roster, Arizona knocked out the big-city bashers in the minimum required three games, finishing them off with a 5-1 victory at Wrigley Field on Saturday night.

"We've got no excuse about anything," said Cubs manager Lou Piniella. "Give Arizona credit. They hit well and pitched well."

One thing the Cubs weren't was out-managed, despite much screaming to the contrary.

Rather than show his inability, what this sad series did was prove what a remarkable job Piniella did in 2007 with an extremely mediocre club that relied heavily on heavy hitters with heavy wallets.

And though Piniella fought through the roster shavings and made enough chicken salad to feed a run to a division title, the 3-run homer style of baseball doesn't generally work come October.

"This series," said Arizona manager Bob Melvin, "was all about pitching and defense."

So Piniella had to take chances, and he came up empty this week, but no one complained this season when he gambled and came up with a playoff berth.

"We made some nice strides this year," Piniella said. "This winter, we'll make some more strides."

But he won't be able to take one-dimensional players like Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez and turn them into postseason stars who play great defense, run the bases hard, move runners over and give themselves up for the team.

"We've played a particular way all summer and you're not going to be able to change what you've done all year in a short period of time," said Piniella, who knew his hitters' approach was flawed. "We've got a lot of aggressive swingers, and we've hit well at times, and at times we've had trouble scoring runs."

This was a bad time for it to happen because the D'backs, looking something like the 2005 White Sox, keep the games close and turn them over to their bullpen, which slams the door shut.

The Sox also didn't get much national attention heading into the playoffs, and then took it to everyone they played with a simple and effective style of defense, speed and pitching.

"Arizona plays hard," said Ryan Theriot, one Cub who can certainly make the same claim. "They have a lot of guys playing the right way and playing together."

And then you have the Cubs with Soriano, who played two outs into doubles in the series, and at the plate he finished with 2 singles in 14 at-bats, 4 strikeouts, 9 left on base and 4 in scoring position.

For his postseason career, Soriano is now a .225 hitter with 49 strikeouts in 41 games.

Clueless to the very end, it was at least fitting and perversely proper that with two outs in the ninth, the bases empty and down 4 runs, Soriano swung as hard as he could several times before flying out weakly to right to end the Cubs' season.

Aramis Ramirez, to his discredit, was even worse, going 0-for-12 with 5 strikeouts, 11 left on base and 4 in scoring position.

Both Soriano and Ramirez were booed repeatedly Saturday as they failed in dramatic fashion.

"We had numerous opportunities," said Piniella, who's club left 9 men on base in each game. "We didn't get the big hit when we needed it."

The Cubs, who led for a half-inning of the series, were outscored 16-6, hit just .194, and had a total of 4 extra basehits with 1 stolen base to 4 for Arizona, which hit .266 with 11 extra basehits.

"It's tough to score much," said Theriot, "when you're not on base much."

The D'backs scored as quickly as a team possibly can when Chris Young -- who out-homered the Cubs 2-1 in the series -- blasted Rich Hill's first pitch into the left-field bleachers.

Hill was gone before he could retire a batter in the fourth, while Arizona starter Livan Hernandez toyed with the Cubs, never giving in on hitter's counts, seemingly in trouble constantly, yet inducing 3 of a record-tying 4 double plays.

The biggest was a bases-loaded twin killing on a 3-1 count to Mark DeRosa with the score 3-1 in the bottom of the fifth.

"I've been in this situation before," said Hernandez, the 1997 World Series MVP who owns a 7-2 postseason record. "I've seen fans stand up before on a 3-1 count. That's not pressure. Pressure was living in Cuba and you got to get up in the morning and look for something to eat."

Cubs fans know a different kind of hunger, and next year, thanks to this playoff failure, the famine officially hits the century mark.

Assuming more of the same, few anniversaries will ever be unhappier.