Have a seat, Neifi

When looking at both clubs (MIL and CHC), I'd put their respective playoff odds at a roughly equal probability to this year Things that could help the Cubs increase on their 85 wins- 1) Typical HR years from Ramirez and Lee 2) Soriano not missing 20 games 3) Full years of Soto and/or Murton 4) Less early season 'experimenting' with lineups or bullpen roles that we experienced with a first year manager That that could make the Cubs worse- 1) Aging of primary players (Lee and Soriano, mainly Lee IMHO) 2) Regression of starting pitchers who pitched above expectations this year- mainly thinking Marquis, to a lesser extent Lilly 3) Marmol coming back down to earth, partially due to overuse this season Things that could make the Brewers improve on their 83 wins- 1) Full seasons from Gallardo and Braun 2) Bounce back season from Weeks, which looks likely given what he did the last few weeks of the season 3) Full year of Linebrink in the bullpen (not sure this is a good thing, but theoretically it probably is) 4) Typical year from Capuano 5) Full season of the 'good' Villaneuva who seemed to be coming on later in the year Things that could make them worse- 1) How much better could Braun and Fielder really be? Don't see them upping last year's production in all probability 2) Not getting career years from Hart and Hardy And the big variable is, of course, what happens over the winter. But barring injury, I really don't see the balance between these two clubs swinging demonstrably either way. I could see the Brewers taking a few more games, but the Cubs were also basically a 90 win team after the first few months of Lou figuring the roster out. So really...who knows. But I don't see either team winning 95+ games or totally tanking, either.

Is Glavine still the player rep for the players' union? I think that might preclude him from taking too drastic a 'discount' even if he wanted to (like when he signed with the Mets over the Phillies, I believe).

When's the last time Jones hit a ball in the air?

And the false hope that we're still in this stays alive for one more inning...

Another Kendall bouncer.

And there's your makeup call.

It's amazing that considering how much he's worn down after all these years (read: Jim Leyland) he's still just 32.

There were several bad calls in that AB, but strike 3 was not one of them. You simply HAVE to swing at that with 2 strikes on you.

how do you watch that one go by without swinging

This is comical.

Go Bears, beat the Packers.

It's sad that we're in this hole, because we're in such a great spot re: the next two games. Livan Hernandez and Micah Owings? In Wrigley vs. Rich Hill and Z? Those are mismatches in our favor. All we needed was one of the first 2 and we'd be in fine shape. It's just so frustrating that we blew it like we did.

To be fair, I don't think we wound up dead last in walks this year. Or maybe we did. I'm not looking it up, but I think it was 14th or 15th, or something. Yea, we were 15th, ahead of only the Pirates.

I would actually consider throwing Marquis for Game 3, Hill for Game 4, and Z for Game 5. Livan is the worst SP for the D'Backs, and he's pitching tomorrow. And either way we have to win 3 games with three different SPs anyway.

Great. De facto double.

First pitch swinging. Like many others have said (and said last night in the game thread), Webb's first pitch often was the highest pitch of the entire AB, starting above the letters and 'sinking' right over the heart of the plate. If there was anything resembling a meatball from Webb in a given at-bat, it was going to be the first pitch or not at all.

Webb didn't get as many groundballs because he was too busy striking everyone out. While I'm sure he could be better, he was hardly 'off' last night IMO.

Soriano's always been a lousy postseason hitter, and no, that's not just a sample size thing. His propensity to swing at utter garbage nowhere near the plate needs to end, fast.

That ball was thrown right now the middle of the plate (they showed it on PitchTrax or whatever it is right after the HR). Fastball was the rigth call there, but even get-me-over pitches are supposed to be near the corners. That was a total meatball.

Interesting that we're now playing the inexperienced angle after losing to a bunch of 24-year olds.

At least Webb's out of the game. Oh wait, but their bullpen is outstanding. Well this is sweet.

Plus their closer is tough as nails. This is really really bad.

Not good.

Please Dick, enough with the Carlos Marm-OL pronunciation.

Gotta send Z out for the 7th with 85 pitches and the 5-6-7 hitters due up, IMO.