Manager Lou Piniella’s strategies cost the Cubs a chance to win the NLDS series with the Arizona Diamondbacks. His two major mistakes will be detailed below, but I will first address the comments that have been made regarding the Cubs.
1. People say the Cubs were lucky to make the playoffs, as they are not a very good team and are in an easy division. While I agree the Cubs did not play to their potential this year, the facts are these. The Cubs had a horrible first two months, as Piniella was learning his personnel, Howry and Eyre couldn’t get anyone out, Zambrano was pitching badly, and they lost a large percentage of games by one run, giving many of them away. Here is why the Cubs did deserve to be in the playoffs:
- The last 4 months of the season, they had the best record in the National League.
- The Cub pitching staff was second in the National League, and everyone says pitching is the most important aspect of the game.
- The Cubs won 85 games, just 5 less than the Diamondbacks, who led the N.L. in wins with 90. If not for the disastrous first two months, the Cubs would easily have won at least 95 games.
2. Everyone says good pitching stops hitting, and that the Cubs ran into good pitching, which is why they lost. While I agree with the statement, I don’t agree the Cubs ran into great pitching in this series. The reasons for the Cubs not hitting will be detailed below, but I heard even Brandon Webb and Doug Davis, the Arizona starters in the first two games, admitted they did not have great stuff.
Now, to the reasons Lou Piniella took away the Cubs’ chance to win the series:
1. In Game 1, he took Carlos Zambrano, the Cubs’ ace, out after 6 innings in a 1-1 tie. Zambrano was in complete command and had thrown only 85 pitches. Piniella was trying to win Game 4 before Game 1 was won, and this has backfired many times in the past. Every game in a playoff series is crucial, even moreso in a 5-game series. You need to win Game 1 if at all possible, and by taking out Zambrano, Piniella significantly reduced the Cubs’ chances. The Diamondback players said after the game it gave them new life to have Zambrano out of the game. In 1998, Bruce Bochy of the San Diego Padres had his ace, Kevin Brown, going in Game 1 of the World Series and had the lead. He took Brown out in the 7th inning, the Yankees scored 7 runs in that inning to win 9-6, Game 1 was lost, and it affected the momentum of the series. This game was played at Yankee Stadium, so a first-game victory on the road would have been huge. Piniella knew Zambrano was on and in command, so you have to go with a sure thing as opposed to hoping your reliever is also on.
2. I said in the SECOND INNING of GAME 1 that the Cub batters were going into every at-bat looking fastball, and Webb was throwing breaking balls. This continued throughout Games 1 and 2. (I missed Game 3, but heard the Cubs had key strikeouts flailing at breaking balls in Game 3, also.) It is a manager’s job to set the strategy, and the failure to have the Cub hitters go up looking breaking ball when that’s what they continued to get was the reason the Cubs only scored 6 runs in the series. It wasn’t great pitching that stopped the Cubs, it was a ridiculous offensive gameplan. I understand the batters should be smart enough to realize this since it was obvious from the beginning of Game 1, but it is still the manager’s responsibility to ensure the players play the way he wants them to. The Cubs were flailing at breaking balls all series. It is amazing they had as many runners in scoring position as they did with this philosophy, and easily would have scored a lot more runs with more intelligent at-bats. The Cubs’ 0.194 batting average for the series was a direct result of batters looking for a fastball when the pitchers were constantly throwing breaking balls.