An inning by inning look at Game 2

For baseball nuts, there are far worse ways to kill an hour than to discover everything Baseball-Reference.com has to offer.

Among the site's terrific toys? Something called "Similarity Scores," which attempts to compare a player's statistics to every other player in history.

For example, who's the closest historical comp for precocious Florida Marlins slugger Miguel Cabrera? None other than Hank Aaron. Intriguing, no?

We bring this up because the B-R page for Ted Lilly, the Cubs' Game 2 starter, reveals this: Doug Davis, Arizona's Game 2 starter, represents Lilly's third-closest comparison in all of baseball history.

Only one 31-year-old left-hander (well, Davis turned 32 two weeks ago) came through under the Chase Field roof on Thursday night.

First inning: Among the many things Lilly and Davis have in common? It's easiest to get to them early.

Davis allowed 29 first-inning runs in his 33 regular-season starts, but the Cubs can't touch him in his first postseason inning.

Alfonso Soriano whiffs on a curve in the dirt, Derrek Lee jams himself with a fastball for a fielder's choice, and Aramis Ramirez whiffs on a curve low and outside.

Can you say overeager?

Lilly struggles with his control, but powers a 92-mph full-count fastball past Mark Reynolds to get out of a mess.

Second inning: It's amazing what patience can do against Davis, seeing as how he surrendered the fourth-most walks in the majors this year.

Matt Murton leads off with a lucky single as he chases a bad 0-2 curve but dribbles it where third baseman Reynolds can't pick it up.

It takes rookie Geovany Soto to show his teammates how to attack Davis. He watches four pitches, works into a 3-1 count, and then pummels a hanging slider into the left-field stands for a 2-0 Cubs lead.

Now, can Lilly hold it?

During the regular season, this was Lilly's worst inning as he allowed 20 runs in 33 outings. That included 9 home runs, which is strange because he allowed no more than 4 in any other inning.

Chris Snyder leads off with a single. Justin Upton walks. Augie Ojeda whiffs and Davis sacrifices the runners into scoring position.

Then, just as in the first, Lilly tries to end the inning by sneaking a straight 92-mph full-count fastball past the hitter.

Only Chris Young crushes this grooved pitch halfway to Sedona to give Arizona a 3-2 lead. Lilly ensures this homer will be replayed for approximately forever by slamming his glove to the ground.

Eric Byrnes nearly takes Lilly out of the park, too, but he settles for an RBI triple high off the left-center wall.

Arizona up 4-2.

Third inning: Great backhanded pickup by Ryan Theriot to start a 6-4-3 double play on catcher Chris Snyder. Will this calm down Lilly?

Fourth inning: Either the official scorer happens to be Jacque Jones' cousin or this guy doesn't embarrass easily.

Stephen Drew should've had that backhanded pick of Jones' hot grounder, plain and simple. Put an asterisk next to that single.

Fifteen minutes later, Drew shows the scorer and the world what a real hit looks like when he lines a 2-run triple into the right-field corner to bring Lilly's scattershot day to a close.

Bad time to have his worst outing in a Cubs uniform.

Fifth inning: Hard to guess how much Davis has left in the tank. Soriano and Theriot nearly go back-to-back (for an off-the-wall single and a flyout, respectively), but then Ramirez whiffs to end the inning.

That's Davis' eighth strikeout, by the way, which ties his season high.

Arizona adds 2 runs during a painful 28-minute bottom half that features 1 single, 2 walks, 2 pitching changes and one dumb decision by reliever Scott Eyre to try to field Augie Ojeda's line drive with his bare hand.

Sixth inning: Juan Cruz relieves Davis and immediately brings the Ex-Cub Factor into play. Daryle Ward smacks a grooved fastball off the center-field wall for a 2-run pinch double that makes it 8-4.

Seventh inning: Is now a good time to mention that, since the wild card came into being in 1995, no National League team has rallied from a 2-0 deficit to win a division series?

That's 14 teams with a 2-games-to-none leads and 14 teams advancing to the NLCS.

Eighth inning: Ryan Dempster's stuff looks nasty. Fans Tony Clark and Chris Young and neither had a chance.

Too bad it's not in a crucial situation.

Ninth inning: Why does everything come back to the Ex-Cub Factor? Second baseman Augie Ojeda extends the game when he tries to catch Drew's flip with his bare hand and drops it.

Instead of a game-ending 6-4-3 double play, the Cubs have two on, one out and Lee coming to the plate.

But Jose Valverde strikes out Lee, then Ramirez takes a big hack and whiffs for the third time with a runner or two on base.

It's 12:52 a.m. in Chicago. Time to turn out the lights in more ways than one.