L.A. pushes Cubs to brink
CHICAGO — A defending World Series champion getting beaten in the playoffs is one thing. Getting embarrassed is quite another. But in this National League Championship Series, that’s Cub. And that’s about all, folks. The Dodgers made their NL pennant celebration a matter of when, not if, after a 6-1 victory Tuesday night over the Cubs in Game 3 of the NLCS that carried the feeling of finality. A chorus among the Cubs will keep telling us that they were down 2-1 to the Dodgers in the NLCS last year and trailed the Indians 3-1 in the World Series and still rode in a championship parade down Michigan Avenue. But nothing about this NLCS feels like 2016. This felt more like 2015, when the Mets swept the Cubs.
Eternal optimists will point out Tuesday marked the 13th anniversary of Dodgers manager Dave Roberts stealing second base for the Red Sox against the Yankees, which sparked a comeback from a 3-0 deficit in the ALCS and led to a World Series title. But the Cubs have given us no reason in this series to expect a baseball miracle. You know what would qualify as miraculous for the Cubs, at this point? A rally against the Dodgers bullpen.
This was not an elimination game for the Cubs. It only seemed that way. This was one of the quietest sellout crowds never heard at Wrigley Field.
This was all about Yu, as in Darvish. The Dodgers starter confused Cubs hitters through 61/3 innings, mixing speeds and snapping sharp breaking balls that made their knees buckle. The right-hander gave up only six hits, struck out seven and walked only one. On a night when the flags indicated the wind was blowing straight out, Darvish forced the Cubs into manufacturing runs — and that assembly line has been broken since the postseason began. Darvish committed one mistake, in the first inning, and Kyle Schwarber made him pay in memorable fashion.
When Dodgers slugger Yasiel Puig flips his bat after a home run, Cubs fans grumble about the hot dog whose flamboyance represents everything wrong with the game and rubs so many of them the wrong way. But when Schwarber made a similar gesture after going deep, his right hand releasing the knob with a flourish, Wrigleyville waxed poetic about baseball artistry and wondered if the homer symbolized something greater.
It didn’t but, for a fleeting moment, 41,871 experienced fun again.
Schwarber got all of Darvish’s cut fastball and deposited it 408 feet into the left-center-field bleachers, opposite-field power manager Joe Maddon loves to see from his left-handed slugger. For a brief second, Schwarber admired his first postseason home run since the 2016 World Series, and who could blame him? Two batters into the game, the Cubs had a 1-0 lead and hope had returned to Clark and Addison. But the Dodgers promptly showed it the door, the way they typically respond. In all three NLCS losses, the Cubs scored first.
The most desperate of Cubs fans kept looking hard for signs. An Addison Russell dribbler down the line that hit third base could have been interpreted as a good omen. Same for Kris Bryant’s foul popup that catcher Austin Barnes dropped, giving the reigning National League MVP an extra strike. Alas, Bryant flied out to left. Nothing meant anything, and now everything is about fixing the Cubs’ problems during what promises to be an eventful offseason.
In an attempt to stimulate a sleepy offense, Maddon mixed up his batting order and inserted five lefthanded hitters against Darvish. Nothing worked.
dhaugh@chicagotribune.com