3 AND... OH, NO!
Darvish, Dodgers push defending champs to brink by taking 3- 0edge
Embarrassment used to be the Cubs’ constant companion, back when they couldn’t win for trying, when black cats were on a first- name basis with rosters covering parts of two centuries and when things went wrong for the same reason that fish swim and flowers bloom.
But embarrassment was a stranger to these Cubs, the defendingWorld Series champions, the team that was making its third straight appearance in the National League Championship Series. Then Tuesday night arrived. The Dodgers brought out Curtis Granderson to pitch- hit for Yu Darvish in the sixth inning of Game 3 of the NLCS. The bases were loaded, there were two outs, these were the playoffs and— this can’t be overstated— Darvish is a pitcher who had a .059 batting average this season.
But then, for reasons that seem as clear as mud, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called Granderson back into the dugout and had Darvish bat.
Cubs reliever Carl Edwards Jr. proceeded to walk Darvish on four pitches, bringing in a run and giving the Dodgers a 4- 1 lead. Dumb, meet dumber. It was beyond one of those I- can’t- believe- what- I’m- seeing sequences. It harked back to a dark time, when the earth was covered with ice and the Cubs lost baseball games in ways that seemed to defy rational explanation. It was a question followed by an answer.
He just walked the pitcher with the bases loaded?
He just walked the pitcher with the bases loaded.
Edwards struck out the next batter, Chris Taylor, an actual hitter, to end the inning. The crowd booed Edwards all the way to the dugout, and you had the deep suspicion that it would have booed him all the way to Iowa, given the chance.
“I thought C. J. was the right man,’’ manager JoeMaddon said.
The Darvish walk was followed by an error, a wild pitch and a dropped third strike. It was as if the ghosts of 1969 and 2003 had taken over an early Halloween party and then eggedWrigley. The final score was 6- 1, but if there was ever a time when a score missed the point, this was it.
The Dodgers are the better team. They have better hitters than the Cubs. They have a far