October 07, 2007
Contrarians
The Diamondbacks love that they continue to beat the odds.
The win also allowed the Diamondbacks to again partake in their new favorite pastime: basking in their ability to disprove others. They dispatched a Cubs team that, despite having five fewer regular-season wins and playing in a far weaker division, was viewed widely as the favorites.
"Everyone questioned us going into this postseason, and I don't really blame them," outfielder Eric Byrnes said. "But there are 25 guys in here who never questioned themselves. This is how we've been winning baseball games all year - different guys on different nights."
They do not have big-name stars, but they produce new stars for every game, and on this night there were many, from Chris Young to Byrnes to Stephen Drew, all of whom homered. But none bigger than starter Livan Hernandez, whose round, shaved head was doused in alcohol by his teammates time and again in the lively postgame clubhouse.
I'm certainly one of the doubters, having picked the Cubs in four. I wasn't surprised Doug Davis pitched poorly, but I was surprised Ted Lilly pitched worse. I liked that the Cubs took the right approach with Livan Hernandez (waiting for him to throw strikes), but couldn't understand why they abandoned it just as he got wild. If indeed, "Luck is the residue of design," then Josh Byrnes and Bob Melvin get lots of credit for being great designers.
I love the fact that no NL teams outside of the NL West will win a postseason game this year.