but if he had been 6'3 I'd be hating him right now. Even from 50 yards away I knew he had misplayed that line drive and by the time he finally started heading in the right direction my heart was in my throat.  Then he reached up to his full height and pulled down the line drive that put the nail in the Cubs coffin.  It was the play of the night and it added just the right amount of drama to a great game.

I guess on TV the crowd didn't sound loud but at the stadium I thought it was rocking. It wasn't Lima game loud, but then again it didn't have Lima orchestrating the crowd. For most of the game we were on our feet. Not a big fan of white towels. If you are going to have towels shouldn't they be blue? and  when people are waving them, they aren't clapping which is maybe why the crowd didn't sound so loud on TV.

Just a suggestion to the Dodger Brass, leave the towels in the basement, we need noise and that is what your hands are for.

Headed to NLCS, as a Dodger fan I"m hoping for a game 5 between Hamels/CC so that whoever wins has to waste their best bullets before they play us. As a baseball fan I'd like to beat the best they can throw at us.

We swept the Cubs and our clean up hitter did nothing. We swept the Cubs and our Center Fielder did nothing. Rafy, Martin, Manny and a Sweet Baby James hit now and then and  that was all the offense we needed with the pitching we threw at them.

Watch the pundits now. The talking ESPN heads that had 9/10 picking the Cubs will now jump on our pitching bandwagaon faster then Lasorda can pick out an open mike.

Thanks to some really bad defense and some great timely hitting the Dodgers destroyed the hopes of the Cub fans in attendance that they were going to see a comeback after the game one debacle. The hope that the 100 year drought was going to end on the 100th year anniversary is fading fast. The only thing a Cub fan can hang their hat on is the fact that Joe Torre was the Yankee skipper when the Bosox came from 3 games down, and shocked the world on their way to their 1st World Championship in a gazillion years.

It all started with a well called hit & run  as Loney bounced a ground ball to the vacated SS area, Theriot could have made the play but decide to use his bare hand to catch a ball with plenty of spin from the left handed Loney, not surprisingly it  bounced off his hand and that was the beginning of the end. It wasn't an error but it should have been. DeWitt then obliged by scorching a double play ball to DeRosa who completely misplayed it twice and got nothing out of it. Not to be outdone D Lee took a harmless ground ball from Casey Blake and decided he would pull a Leon Durham move on the ball.  Furcal took a look at the self destructive infield and decided to push the envelope with a perfect bunt to DeRosa who did everything right but when the dust settled the bases were loaded the Dodgers had two runs and Russ Martin was up. He ended the game right then and there with a bases clearing double .

The only thing left was for Billingsley to show the baseball world why he was the 2nd best pitcher this side of the Mississipi even though no one seems to know who he is. Our ace pitched like our ace and while  other things happened in the game it was effectively over once Chad showed he had brough his A game. The same game that he brought most of the time.  Manny hit another home run, ho hum. I was more impressed with the catch he made with Ivy draped over his head. We knew he could hit home runs who knew he could go into the Ivy and catch a fly ball?

As we move to game three I've been lucky enough to call games one and two. I've missed on the Dodger scores as I didn't expect them to give us so many runs but i've only missed on the Cub combined score by one run after two games. Game three will not be easy so I'm going to stop while I'm a head.

Amazing bias toward our local teams. If you click on the story you can see the whole grid.

The game had a long way to go but as each Dodger rally failed to bring a run the sinking feeling in my stomach only grew bigger. Ryan Dempster was proving unhittable with men on base and due to his wildness we had men on base every time I looked up. When Ethier swung wildly at ball four with the bases loaded I could already see the headlines about how the kids just weren't ready. Chance after chance was squandered through the first 4 innings.

As the fifth inning wore on my expectations grew with each each walk. Something felt different with the Manny and Ethier at bats. I was at the edge of my seat by the time that Ethier had forced a walk to load the bases. Up stepped James Loney and just like that the feeling in the pit of my stomach came back in force.  My optimism started to evaporate and with each feeble swing it evaporated until with the count 1-2 I had zero expecations. The electricity had been shut down.  I had two thoughts at that point. One was that we would be seeing Jeff Kent playing 1^st base tomorrow given how pathetic James had looked after only four innings. The second was that now would be a great time for Dempster to throw one in the dirt and maybe we could steal a run on a wild pitch. With these expectations so low I sat back in my chair and relaxed, and was just about to put my feet back up on the ottoman when I saw James make contact. It looked like he had hit it off the end of the bat so I expected to see Jim Edmunds making a catch about 20 feet from the wall.

Nothing is better then seeing your expectations shattered by something truly awesome. Jim Edmunds wasn't gliding to make a simple catch to end the inning, he was in full retreat to the wall and as the ball floated over the center field fence Big Game James Loney was now part of Dodger playoff lore.

For this new generation of Dodger fans that only had the Jose Lima game to remind them that Dodgers come up big in the post season they finally had their own hero. Someone who could stand up with Rick Monday, Vic Davillio, Ron Cey, Dusty Baker, Steve Garvey, Bill Russel, Manny Mota,  and the countless other Dodgers of my generation who sparked us into the world series  4 times from 74-81. Postseason offensive heroics have been lost on this generation and they have every right to be cynical bastards as the Dodgers have meekly bowed out of playoff series after playoff series over the last 20 years.

Not last night, not this year.

The prediction business got off to a good start. I said we'd win 3 - 2 with Lowe getting the victory. We did win and we did only give up two runs. Didn't expect to see the Dempster of 2008 but I sure didn't expect to see Nook Laloosh on the mound. Our Ace gets the call today. Big Z is going for the Cubs. I think Big Z is hurt; I'm calling this at 6-4 our way.

Now that the World Series contenders are set in stone it is time to start the 2nd annual True Blue World Championship Pool. The prize this year:

1.  NL Western Division Large T-Shirt

2.  Iron Man DVD Two Disc Set (none Dodger fans)

The Deadline is 05:00 PCT. I know the 1st game will be done by then but who isn't expecting the Phillies to win the 1st game?

Make your picks like so

Red Sox  over Angels / 5 Games
White Sox over Rays/ 5 Games
Red Sox over White Sox/7 Games

Dodgers over Cubs/5 Games
Phillies over Brewers/4 Games
Dodgers over Phillies/6 Games

Dodgers over RedSox / 6 Games

The Tie Breaker will be how many games will the Dodgers win in the Post Season

TieBreaker -11 Games

Each correct series win is worth 5 points, Each correct choice of the number of games is worth 1 point.

Put your choices in the comment. I'd like you to register for this contest but if you don't want to you can email your picks molokai at yahoo dot com. Be sure to put True Blue Postseason contest into the subject.

Good Luck

Catchers (2): Russell Martin, Danny Ardoin
Infielders (8): James Loney, Blake DeWitt, Angel Berroa, Casey Blake, Nomar Garciaparra, Pablo Ozuna, Jeff Kent, Rafael Furcal
Outfielders (4): Manny Ramirez, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Juan Pierre
Pitchers (11): Derek Lowe, Chad Billingsley, Hiroki Kuroda, Clayton Kershaw, Jonathan Broxton, Takashi Saito, Joe Beimel, Cory Wade, Chan Ho Park, Ramon Troncoso, Greg Maddux

Lineup for Game One:

Furcal, SS
Martin, C
Ramirez, LF
Ethier, RF
Loney, 1B
Kemp, CF
DeWitt, 2B
Blake, 3B
Lowe, P

I expected Ozuna to be playing LF but other then that this is the lineup I'd hoped for. Blake batting 8th. Nice

As far as the roster goes I'm in shock that Troncoso is on the team and Proctor isn't. Proctor was very good in Sept, I bet he's in shock himself. I'm not going to get worked up over Ozuna being the 25th man. If we need him, it will be as a pinch runner.

Thank God we are back to the 25 man roster and real baseball begins again after taking the month of Sept off.

Mike Scoscia Tragic Illness breaks down the positional matchups and pretty much nails it.  Hard to believe coming into the season that Sota/Edmunds would get the nod over Martin/Kemp but they deserve it. However I think  Martin will step up and show us the Martin we expected to see all year instead of only for two months.

How about that 1012 - 1012 career win/loss record between the two clubs. I've heard that is no big deal but it seemed amazing to me when I read it.  The Cubs can hit but can they hit enough against the likes of Lowe/Chad/Kuroda? A week from now we will know the answer.

Game 1: October 1st on TBS 3:30 p.m.
Los Angeles Dodgers at Chicago Cubs
Derek Lowe vs. Ryan Dempster

The Cubs are throwing their most consistent starter at us in game one thus making sure he will get two starts at Wrigley if the series goes 5 games.  Dempster is not however the Cubs best pitcher as that honor belongs to Rich Harden. Dempster does have a sterling ERA+ of 152 as he had his career season at age 31. The starter turned closer turned starter shocked the analyst world with his exemplary season. The expectation was that he would eventually come down to earth after only posting a K/9 of 5.4 in April with an expected ERA of 4.66 but as the season wore on his peripherals got stronger. When the final bell tolled he had put together an excellent season. His dominance went from 5.4 in April to 8.1 in Sept and even hit some high points of 9.9 in August. This is a good pitcher but he's not a sub 3.00 pitcher. He's had some good luck with his BABIP and his expected ERA is 3.80 almost a full point higher then the 2.96 he posted. Dempster has just about zero experience in the postseason throwing one inning in the playoffs last season. At home where he will be pitching at least once and possibly twice he is a bit better with a 2.86 ERA. I like the fact he's hit 7 batters at home but zero on the road.

The Dodgers are countering with D Lowe. D Lowe is probably one of the greatest pitching free agents deals in history, as he was just as good if not better in the last year of his four year deal as he was during the first year. In 2008 he posted another sterling year and while he is not the Dodger Ace he is the hottest pitcher at the moment with his 0.59 ERA in Sept. Before we get giddy over that ERA remember he has been not just lucky, but extremely lucky in Sept. His expected ERA based upon his BABIP (.20) is really 3.33. He is still an extreme ground ball pitcher and was helped in Sept by having DeWitt at 2nd instead of Kent. Headed into the playoffs he could either have a keystone of Furcal/DeWitt, Furcal/Kent, Berroa/DeWitt, or even God forbid Berroa/Kent. I would hope that Torre goes with Furcal/DeWitt with Lowe on the mound.  What Lowe bring is his long experience in the post season but it didn't help much against the Mets in 2006. I'd like to point to his 2004 postseason heroics as a reason to predict success but the fact is, that was 4 years ago and probably has little relevance now.

The problem with facing the Cubs is that they don't have the soft underbelly in the bullpen that the other playoff teams have. The Dodgers will need to score some runs against Dempster to win this game as they can' t count on destroying the middle relief of the Cubs. They may score on the likes of  Samardzija, Marmol, Wuertz, and Wood but the runs will be hard fought. The same is true for the Cubs. Even though the Dodgers have lost Kuo they have gained back Saito. Not quite a wash given how dominant Kuo was but a pen of Wade/Beimel/Broxton/Saito is alot better then what the Cubs have been facing in the Central this year. They may not have heard of Corey Wade but he has been every bit as effective as Carlos Marmol. On the other hand I don't know how Beimel pitches so well. He's not very good but he gets the job done. Hopefully his luck will hold over the postseason.

Prediction - Dodger win game one as Lowe/Dempster keep the score low but the Dodgers score the winning off of  Samardzija  and Broxton/Saito shut them down in the 8th/9th. Final Score 3 - 2.

Game 2: October 2nd on TBS 6:30 p.m.
Los Angeles Dodgers at Chicago Cubs
(Chad Billingsley vs. Carlos Zambrano)

Game 3: October 4th on TBS 7:00 p.m.
Chicago Cubs at Los Angeles Dodgers
(Rich Harden vs. Hiroki Kuroda)

in our Russel Martin Bobblehead Contest.

XEIFRANK from Dodger Sims was the only member to guess 84 wins. I assume he used his simulator so maybe we should pay closer attention. He also put down some money on the 150 - 1 Dodger Rays to win the World Series so if the Dodgers bow out early I know who I'm rooting for.

Honorable mention to Marty/ Joseph/Klsnow for 83 wins and El Lay Dave/Relhalofan for 85 wins.

looking for some information on the 2008 Dodgers should just click here as Jon Weisman has already done most of the heavy lifting.

Tim Lincecum's dominance over us was just a sidenote as the big interest was in where we would playing on Wednesday. So while his 13 k's didn't mean anything this season he gives notice that he has joined and maybe even surpassed Peavy/Webb as Cy Young capable pitchers in our division. You just have to wonder what our chances would be in this post-season if our rotation was Lincecum/Lowe/Billingsley/Kuroda.

Kershaw will be great but dang, that Lincecum is something super special right now. Other then Tampa Bay there are 8 teams beating themselves up for not picking him in the 2006 draft.

CC pitched the Brewers into the playoffs and basically did for the Brewer rotation what Manny did for our offense. Andrew was supposed to do a study on mid-season pickups and I think he found that CC and Manny were the two best pickups in history. Hopefully he'll expand that study and publish it so we can read it. The Mets could have forced a playoff game but the bullpen failed to deliver and the offense couldn't come up with a big game against the worse Marlin pitcher. The Marlins have got a serious rotation headed into 2009 with Josh Johnson, Rickey Nolasco, Volstad, Andrew Miller, and Anibal Sanchez. Scott Olsen can't even make that 2009 rotation but yet he shut down the Met offense and closed Shea stadium to silence.

So we are headed for Chicago and hopefully Andrew will be doing a statistical breakdown of how these teams match up before Wednesday but at first blush it is hard to be optimistic against this well balanced team from top to bottom. They have gotten above average performances from just about everyone on their team on both the offensive and defensive ends.

We can match up in the pitching department but even with Manny, Blake, and possibly Rafy we look to be on the short end of the offensive stick, but these are the Cubs so anything can happen.

The great numbers of the staff don't look so tough if you look through the right colored blinders. Zambrano has been awful since his no hitter and his quest for personal glory may have blown his chance for post-season success. RIch Harden is just a twinge away from shutting himself down and Ted Lilly is carrying a 6.61 ERA into these playoffs after folding under the pressure in 2002/2007. We will ignore the success he had in 2003 and consider it an outlier. I don't know what to say about Ryan Dempster. He was a long shot to have this kind of season at age 31 but he did. 

By Wednesday all the numbers will be broken down and none of it will probably mean anything as someone as nationally obscure as Blake DeWitt may end up deciding the outcome. What we know for certain is that there will be heros and goats in every game and some careers right or wrong will be defined by how they perform during the next 30 days.

I just plan on enjoying it, we don't get to play in October very often these days and we've never had someone like Manny on our side when we have gotten there.