Game 3, inning by painful inning
After two rough games in the desert -- resulting in 2 losses to the Diamondbacks in the National League division series -- the Cubs are back on their newly sodded home turf for Game 3 on Saturday.
Ronnie Woo Woo is dancing outside of Wrigley Field before the game. Inside, Cubs manager Lou Piniella resists temptation to follow Woo Woo's lead during his pregame media session.
"I think everything is fine," Piniella said. "Everybody knows what we need to do. Everybody is relaxed. They need to go out and play a good game, that's all."
Do the Cubs follow Piniella's lead? Here's a look back, one inning at a time:
• First inning
With their backs up against it, the Cubs need to retire the D'backs quickly and get some momentum going. Chris Young has other ideas.
Cubs starter Rich Hill's first pitch is a high fastball, and Young blasts it into the left-field bleachers. Stephen Drew follows with a double to right, and he winds up scoring on Justin Upton's two-out single.
In the bottom of the first, the wrong man (Aramis Ramirez) is up with two on and two out. After getting ahead in the count 3-0, Ramirez takes three straight strikes from Arizona starter Livan Hernandez. Same old, same old.
• Second inning
Hill settles down, but the Cubs come up empty again after leadoff man Mark DeRosa reaches on an error and Jason Kendall singles with one out.
• Third inning
The good news? Conor Jackson smokes a leadoff double and doesn't move. The bad? Hill ends the inning with a total pitch count of 66.
The Cubs are up, and Derrek Lee singles with one out and Cliff Floyd walks. Here comes Ramirez, and frustrated home fans boo when he swings and misses at two pitches well off the plate. When Ramirez grounds into a double play, it's stunned silence.
• Fourth inning
After allowing a leadoff single and a walk, Hill takes a walk, to the showers. Michael Wuertz comes out of the bullpen and walks Young to load the bases, but he limits Arizona to 1 run.
The Cubs get a leadoff single from DeRosa, and Jacque Jones follows with a double. Surely, this is the big inning they've been waiting for, right? Nope. Kendall grounds out to score DeRosa, but that's it.
• Fifth inning
Carlos Marmol issues back-to-back walks with one out, but he works out of it.
The Cubs come back and threaten again, drawing three walks off the laboring Hernandez while loading the bases with one out. That brings DeRosa to the plate, but after getting ahead 3-1, he grounds into a double play. The Cubs are now 1-for-23 in the series with runners in scoring position.
• Sixth inning
Looking a lot like a team sensing the kill, the Diamondbacks get a solo home run from Eric Byrnes to make it 4-1.
Looking a lot like a team with one foot in the grave, the Cubs go down in order.
• Seventh inning
Arizona goes down quietly against reliever Bob Howry. As for the Cubs, Lee grounds into the fourth double play of the night to strangle yet another rally.
• Eighth inning
Nothing happening here, expect Ramirez gets booed one last time after grounding out. He is 0-for-12 with 5 strikeouts in the series while leaving 12 runners on base.
• Ninth inning
Stephen Drew's solo home off Kerry Wood is the final nail in the coffin. As for the Cubs' wretched offense, Alfonso Soriano also hears the boos after flying out. Soriano is 2-for-14 with 4 strikeouts in the NLDS. He stranded eight runners.
To review, the Cubs didn't look relaxed at all during the series. And they certainly didn't play good.
Rather, it was three games of dancing in the dark.