D'back notes: After a tough season, Drew comes through

If there was a MVP for the Diamondbacks in their three-game sweep of the Cubs in the NLDS, it would have to be shortstop Stephen Drew.

Drew hit .500 in the series (7-for-14) with 2 home runs, 4 RBI and 16 total bases.

He homered in Saturday’s 5-1 clincher and also homered off Carlos Zambrano in Game 1 at Chase Field to give the D'backs a 1-0 lead.

In the entire 27-inning series, Arizona trailed for only a half-inning.

"He's been through a frustrating season, but what you saw in this series is the type of player Stephen Drew is, whether it's offensively, defensively or running the bases," said Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin. "This guy can do it all, and it showed up at the right time."

Drew, the younger brother of Boston Red Sox outfielder J.D. Drew, also sparkled in the field despite an error on Saturday.

"I take more pride in defense than offense," Drew said. "My main priority is to play good defense, and then the offense will come. The balls are just falling for me now. They picked me up all year, so it's nice to help the team. To do it in a series like this and help the team win, it's huge."

Melvin thinks Drew is going to be one of the best shortstops in baseball in the near future.

"He's going to be a star, I believe that," Melvin said.

Young guns: The Cubs had all the experience coming into the series, but it's the D'backs moving on to the NLCS.

"We have our veteran influence, but our young guys are taking us where we've gotten," Melvin said. "Our younger guys showed up big. You can see it's almost day to day with some of these guys, getting experience and growing and maturing as players in a short period of time."

If the D'backs look like a team that knows how to play together, it might be because many among the group won a Class AAA championship last season with Tucson.

"I think the fact that a group of them did win a championship in Triple-A last year, and did it in a decided fashion, probably goes a long way in that type of camaraderie that eases the transition coming into the big leagues as a group," said Melvin.

Let it go: Bob Melvin sidestepped a postgame question, asking what he thought of Cubs broadcaster Ron Santo calling D'backs closer Jose Valverde a hot dog for his antics on the mount.

"He's emotional. You see that out of a lot of closers," Melvin said. "That's probably the most emotional spot. He's not trying to show anybody up. He's just an emotional guy."

Comfort zone: Miguel Montero caught starter Livan Hernandez on Saturday instead of Chris Snyder, who worked the first two games of the series.

The left-handed hitting Montero has been Hernandez's regular catcher and played even though the Cubs started lefty Rich Hill.

"The fact that they worked together this long, to change it right now wouldn't be the right thing to do," Bob Melvin said.