Cubs playoff loss had a familiar feel

Look familiar? It should have.

By losing 7-2 to the Dodgers in Wednesday night's opener of the National League division series, the Cubs looked like they made a time-travel leap right from their 2007 sweep at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

They looked everything like that free-swinging bunch from '07 and nothing like the selective, plate-disciplined bunch that led the NL in all kinds of key offensive categories this year.

And the wild card was truly wild in a bad sense for the Cubs as their starting pitcher, Ryan Dempster, walked seven and lasted only 4 innings as the Dodgers came to Wrigley Field and stole the first game from the favored home team.

"We didn't play good, like we're supposed to play," said Cubs left fielder Alfonso Soriano, who went 0-for-5 with 2 strikeouts, dredging up memories of his 2-for-14 skein against the D'backs last year. "I hope we play better today and win tomorrow.

"Nothing to say because last October was last October. Today is 2008. Last year was 2007. Now, it's 2008, and we have a lot of confidence. We have a better team than last year. We didn't play good tonight, but that's not saying we're going to play the same tomorrow."

The Cubs are going to have to play like there is no tomorrow because they've never won a postseason series after dropping the first game, and with this being a best-of-five series, the pressure is on.

The Cubs looked loose in the early going against Dodgers starter Derek Lowe, with Mark DeRosa hitting a 2-run homer in the second after Jim Edmonds singled with one out.

But the warning signs were there, and they were ominous.

Dempster walked one batter in each of the first two innings. In the third, he threw 32 pitches, giving up 2 walks and a hit before striking out Andre Ethier to end the inning. It all came apart in the fifth, which Dempster didn't survive.

He walked Rafael Furcal with one out and got Russell Martin on a flyout. Dempster had Manny Ramirez 0-2 but walked him. He followed that with a walk to Either, bringing pitching coach Larry Rothschild to the mound. The Cubs couldn't seem to pinpoint anything, and James Loney hit a 1-2 pitch for a grand slam.

"No, I asked Larry a few times," said manager Lou Piniella. "He said that he was overthrowing, and he couldn't get a good rhythm out there. We talked about the importance of throwing strikes before the ballgame today. I thought that would be a big key. Their guys threw strikes, and ours didn't. It hurts."

And it pained Dempster.

"It's tough because we got out to a 2-0 lead against a good team and a really good pitcher who is throwing the ball as well as anybody right now, and unfortunately, it came down to my lack of execution that put is in a hole," he said. "I feel I really let the team down tonight."

From there, Lowe had the Cubs off-balance, as he gave up 2 runs and 7 hits in 6 innings. Just as the D'backs did last year, Lowe worked Cubs hitters with sliders out of the zone. Soriano, for one, was happy to bite on those pitches.

"It's very tough to hit that slider because you don't know if that slider is going away or coming inside," Soriano said. "Especially him, he hides the ball very good."

Dodgers manager Joe Torre agreed.

"Derek was great," Torre said. "I mean, again, he's got that preparation look in his eye, very focused early on."

Ramirez homered off Sean Marshall in the seventh, and Martin hit one off Jason Marquis in the ninth.

In addition to Soriano going 0-for-5, Kosuke Fukudome was 0-for-4, and Geovany Soto was 0-for-3.

As disappointed as they were, the Cubs didn't seem to be feeling any haunting déjà vu.

"I don't know," said first baseman Derrek Lee, who walked, singled and hit into a double play. "I never even thought about last year. We were pretty fired up. Today, we wanted to get that first one. It didn't happen. Turn the page and come back tomorrow."

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