Cactus: The Cubs played well tonight...They may end up playing the Giants in the next round of the playoffs...;-)
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Wood carries Cubs to Game 1 win
chicago.cubs.mlb.com
By Carrie Muskat / MLB.com
09/30/2003 11:29 PM ET
ATLANTA -- Kerry Wood showed he can hit, he can run, he can pitch and he can pirouette. More important, he and the Chicago Cubs can win in the postseason.
Wood held the top-hitting team in the National League to two hits, fanned 11 and hit a two-run tiebreaking double to lead the Cubs to a 4-2 victory Tuesday night over the Atlanta Braves in the first game of the NL Division Series.
The Cubs lead the best-of-five series, 1-0, with Game 2 Wednesday when Carlos Zambrano (13-11, 3.11 ERA) will face Atlanta lefty Mike Hampton (14-8, 3.84 ERA). Expect even more Cubs fans at Turner Field.
The Major League strikeout leader with 266 Ks this year, Wood reached double-digits in strikeouts for the 12th time this season. He threw one bad pitch -- a flat sinker to Atlanta's Marcus Giles who drove it over the left field fence for his first Division Series home run. It was the only hit over six innings off the right-hander, who also gave up a single to Javy Lopez with one out in the seventh.
He departed with one out in the eighth after the Braves loaded the bases. Mike Remlinger, no stranger to the Tomahawk Chop, got Chipper Jones to hit a potential double play ball but the Cubs only got one out and a run scored.
Kyle Farnsworth walked Andruw Jones to load the bases again, but got Javy Lopez to ground out.
Wood (1-0) did make the defensive spin of the game to end the second when he stuck his arm out behind his back to field Vinny Castilla's ball, grabbed it, spun and threw him out at first. A definite web gem.
The East champion Braves have won 12 consecutive division titles. The Cubs are in the postseason for the first time since 1998, and have won two division titles since 1945. Maybe that's why the script for the pregame introductions listed them as the "NL Wild Card winners" and not the Central Division champs. Maybe it was just an old script.
These two teams did meet in 1998 when the Cubs did win the Wild Card. Wood was a rookie then and started Game 3, but he was outdueled by Greg Maddux and Atlanta completed the series sweep with a 6-2 win. It was payback time Tuesday.
Russ Ortiz (0-1) was Houdini-like. Cubs manager Dusty Baker knew Ortiz well. The Braves' 21-game winner had helped Baker and the San Francisco Giants reach the World Series last year.
But Baker's Cubs had not faced the right-hander this year and he fooled them until the sixth. The Cubs had two on and one out in the first, but Ortiz got a double play ball. Same scenario in the third -- two on, one out, and Ortiz struck out two, including Sammy Sosa. The Cubs loaded the bases in the fourth, but Ortiz escaped again.
Something clicked in the sixth. Chicago loaded the bases on consecutive singles by Moises Alou, Aramis Ramirez and Eric Karros. Ortiz struck out pinch-hitter Randall Simon, but Paul Bako hit a dribbler to first baseman Robert Fick, who overran the ball. Giles scooped it up and threw out Bako but a run scored to tie the game at 1-1.
Wood then doubled into the left center gap, giving the Cubs a 3-1 lead, and the pitcher tallied on Kenny Lofton's RBI single off Ray King. Ortiz was charged with four runs on eight hits.
It's been a September to remember for Wood who has allowed one run over 23 1/3 innings in his last three starts.
The Cubs snapped a six-game postseason losing streak, posting their first win since Game 2 of the 1989 NLCS and first postseason road win since Game 3 of the 1945 World Series in Detroit. It helped having a strong Chicago accent in the sellout crowd of 52,043, who mocked the Atlanta fans' chop in the eighth inning. |
