October 19, President Theo Epstein got more air time during Game 4 of the National League Division Series than some of his players.

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1 October 19, 2016 Chicago Tribune Despite Game 3 setback, Cubs insist they are up to challenge in NLCS By Paul Sullivan President Theo Epstein got more air time during Game 4 of the National League Division Series than some of his players. The Fox TV cameras kept showing Epstein in the stands at AT&T Park, watching the Cubs' offense struggle against Giants starter Matt Moore. "I didn't know for most of the game, but then I got a few texts from buddies saying 'Smile, you look like you're about to end it all,'" Epstein said Tuesday afternoon at Dodger Stadium. The Cubs rallied in the ninth to beat the Giants and move on to the National League Championship Series, and Epstein was back in the stands again for the first road game of the National League Championship Series. He admitted before Game 3 he does get nervous during games "when things are hairy." Things were plenty hairy for the Cubs Tuesday night in a 6-0 loss to the Dodgers, leaving them trailing 2-1 in the best-of-seven series with Clayton Kershaw looming in Game 6, or even possibly in Game 5. Since the championship series became a best-of-seven affair, the team that won Game 3 after splitting the first two games was Jake Arrieta struggled in a five-inning start and the Cubs continued their offensive funk, getting shut out for the second straight game by Rich Hill and the Dodgers bullpen. Epstein said he puts his game face on during the playoffs and is locked in "pitch-to-pitch. He doesn't like to talk during games, except with his wife and fellow front office executives. "But we had some Giants fan that was talking all the time (during Game 4) and he's trying to show me silly pictures on his phone," Epstein said. "Finally I just grabbed his phone and handed it to him, 'Sir, this is our living. Would you please leave me alone?' He thought I was a huge (jerk). But it was good. He didn't talk to me the rest of the game." Undeterred, Epstein, general manager Jed Hoyer and their wives were surrounded by Dodgers fans in the stands on Tuesday. A woman sitting behind Epstein frantically waved a rally towel after Justin Turner's leadoff home run in the sixth inning gave her team a commanding 4-0 lead. Epstein was well aware that many Cubs fans were nervous going into Game 3. "A little bit, but if you think about it, taking a step back, we're 4-2 in the postseason and we haven't really started hitting yet as a team," he said. "Our two losses are (in starts by) Madison Bumgarner and Clayton Kershaw, and they were by one run. So I think, big picture, I still feel really good about things." But the Cubs still couldn't produce in Game 3. Anthony Rizzo went 1-for-3 with a broken bat infield hit in the ninth, and is 2-for-26 in the postseason. Rizzo was unavailable for comment afterward.

2 "Everyone is patting him on the backside," Epstein said. "It's going to be one swing that locks him in. Everyone trusts him so much. Everybody. It's just happening at a bad time for him. It'll be fine." Small picture-wise, the Cubs were facing what manager Joe Maddon called "stringent adversity" for the first time since trailing the Mets 2-0 in last year's NLCS. "I felt like last year the pitching just beat us," Kris Bryant said. "And I feel like right now we've had some chances. We're only down 2-1. It's not like last year at this time, we were down 3-0. And that's always a tough hole to climb out of. We feel fine." Everyone was in good spirits before the game. "Good Morning America" was trying to line up player interviews for possible World Series shows in Chicago, and "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez was asking Cubs players wacky questions for a segment on the late-night show. "People say that you hit like you have two broken arms," Rodriguez said to Rizzo. "Me? That's a good thing," Rizzo said, playing along. Rizzo walked and stole a base in the second, but the Cubs stranded runners on second and third with one out. That was the beginning of the end. After being two-hit by Kershaw and Kenley Jansen in Game 2, the Cubs managed only two singles over the first seven innings, both from Bryant, one of the few offensive bright spots. Now the pressure is on the Cubs to avoid going down 3-1 and possibly facing Kershaw in a clincher. "Joe always says that any time you have that pressure attached to things, it means there is something good at the end of it," Bryant said. "We're having fun with it. We're embracing it." Chicago Tribune No panic from Cubs after another rough night By Paul Sullivan After being shut out in back-to-back games by Dodgers pitching, the Cubs face a moment of truth in Game 4 on Wednesday. Or maybe not. We have a very good pitcher pitching (in Game 4), manager Joe Maddon said of John Lackey. We re able to win that game (Wednesday) and the narrative is going to change entirely, so I can t get so dramatic about it. If the Cubs win Game 4, at the very least they ll be able to come back to Wrigley Field for Game 6, even if Clayton Kershaw goes in Game 5 and does his best pitcher on the planet routine. All they need is some hitting, any kind of hitting, to tie the series up. I don t think it s panic, to be honest, Miguel Montero said. I think we feel pretty good still. Obviously you don t want to be down 2-1, but we feel pretty good where we re at. We want to be 2-1 ahead, but we ve been worse before. It s something we shouldn't be panicking about it. Actually this particular Cubs team has not been down after three games in a postseason series except for last year s NLCS, when they were swept by the Mets. The biggest hit for the Dodgers came in fourth after the Cubs thought Arrieta had struck out Yasmani Grandal with Josh Reddick on third and two outs. But Arrieta didn t get the call, and Grandal wound up hitting a two-run home run to make it 3-0.

3 That pitch to Grandal probably looked decent on the monitor, Maddon said. Whatever. And of course, Grandal s not been hitting the ball well, but then he grabs one right there. To the point, I thought Jake was throwing the ball well, I really did. That kind of surprised him and us as well at that particular juncture. Maddon said that if Arrieta had walked Grandal to put runners on the corners, he would ve walked Andrew Toles to load the bases and face Rich Hill. So I was really anticipating even a walk, and that was going to be okay, he said. I did not see that home run coming right there. The Cubs are hitting.161 in the NLCS and have been held scoreless in 54 of 66 innings in the postseason. Last year they hit.164 in the sweep by the Mets. It s the playoffs, man, Javier Baez said. Everybody who is on the mound is going to be good. They re making their adjustments to get us out. We have a team that hits and plays defense. We haven t done it, but it s coming. Chicago Tribune Forget Cubs embracing the target; how about hitting a curveball? By David Haugh Stoic as ever, Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta walked toward the dugout after giving up his second home run of Game 3 Tuesday at Dodger Stadium with a look that said he knew this wasn't his night. Anemic as ever, Cubs hitters looked bad enough for the second straight National League Championship Series game for Chicago to start wondering if this really is the Cubs' year. Will the best team in baseball finally stand up? Forget embracing the target, Cubbies. How about hitting a curveball? Arrieta wasn't Arrieta giving up two long balls in five innings and Cubs hitters continued to resemble postseason impostors by getting shut out again. At the scene of Arrieta's first no-hitter, he received no support as the Dodgers gave their home crowd of 54,269 ample reason to start dreaming of a Hollywood ending in a 6-0 victory. Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal drilled an Arrieta pitch 398 feet for a two-run homer to right-center, a shot celebrated with such gusto the press box shook. The Grandal slam rattled Arrieta and the Cubs, whose offensive woes made a 3-0 hole seem much deeper. When Justin Turner knocked Arrieta out in the sixth with a 408-foot homer to left, the pit started to settle in the stomach of Cubs fans everywhere. At scenic Chavez Ravine, the Hill worth beholding most was inside the stadium. Journeyman lefty Rich Hill, a former Cub, tormented the team that selected him in the 2002 draft with a Clayton Kershaw-like performance, giving up only two hits in six innings. Rich. Hill. "It's the biggest game of my career,'' Hill said. The Cubs' body language said, "We are confused and can't hit offspeed pitches." It shouted, "We have lost confidence and can't beat this crafty lefty despite winning 103 regular-season games." It screamed, "Mommy, make it stop." "We're not hitting the ball hard,'' Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. "I have no solid explanation. There's really no excuse.''

4 Imagine what Cubs President Theo Epstein must have been thinking sitting next to general manager Jed Hoyer 14 rows behind home plate. Both still are calmer than you are, Mr. and Mrs. True Blue Cub Fan. The Cubs still can win this series repeat, for emphasis: The Cubs still can win this series but they must start hitting more like the team that rallied for four runs against the Giants and less like the one that got swept in four games by the Mets in the 2015 NLCS. What happens to Cubs hitters in mid-october? Now would be an ideal time for the Cubs to live by the words on their T-shirts and try not to suck. "We played well the first night and then Kershaw happened,'' Maddon summed up. "You've got to be able to push back mentally now more than anything.'' With that in mind, Maddon reached into his baseball toolbox before Game 3 and took out a wrench. After "rearranging the chairs'' in the batting order, as Maddon put it, the only two Cubs hitting in the same spots were Dexter Fowler and Kris Bryant at the top of the order. "It is a little bit concerning because we kind of got stuck there last year (and) got to this particular point and ran into a hot pitching staff with the Mets (in the NLCS),'' Maddon said. So Maddon put Rizzo in the cleanup spot, moving Ben Zobrist to third. Javier Baez moved up to fifth. Jorge Soler replaced all-field, no-hit right fielder Jason Heyward and batted sixth with struggling Addison Russell dropped to seventh. Nothing worked. The result: Four hits. Russell feebly struck out swinging with two on and later left so Heyward, of all people, could pinch hit. Even "Bryzzo" let Maddon down in the sixth when Anthony Rizzo struck out swinging and stranded Bryant, who had the only two hits off Hill. The offensive juggling nearly had defensive repercussions. In the second, Soler called for Josh Reddick's fly ball into right-center, but Fowler, the center fielder, shouted for the ball. Soler never budged, colliding with Fowler and falling down awkwardly. Fowler meant well, but no way he would have called off Heyward, a Gold Glove right fielder. Unlike Maddon's recent maneuvers with the bullpen, nobody could accuse him of overmanaging in his futile search for offense. This was a manager simply hoping to avoid bad becoming worse. Yet the scorelessness continues, at 18 innings and counting. Maddon's pregame response to a question about Game 4 starter Julio Urias' pickoff move sounded just as choreographed. Like an NBA coach working the refs in the playoffs, Maddon publicly introduced agenda item No. 1 in Wednesday's pregame umpires meeting. Reporter: "Julio Arias has displayed a pretty effective pick-off move. Some have said it's very close to a balk." Maddon: "Close?" He smiled, having planted the seed. And Maddon wasn't finished, holding nothing back in referring to Urias' move as "Balking 101.'' Maddon might as well have announced: Attention, Game 4 umpires. "When you get to see it on TV, it's not even close,'' Maddon said. "I'm certain that the umpiring crew has been made aware of it.'' Maddon tried using daring language to influence Game 4 and a different lineup to affect Game 3. Desperate times call for desperate measures and, suddenly, desperation is standing in the Cubs on-deck circle. But you're up first, Best Team in Baseball. Act like it.

5 Chicago Tribune After Rich Hill's gem, Cubs must win to avoid ultimate pressure By Mark Gonzales A lineup shake-up didn't help, nor did Jake Arrieta returning to the site of his first no-hitter against a Dodgers team he once dominated. And for the first time in an otherwise giddy season, the Cubs have approached the vicinity of must-win status. That's because their offensive funk spread from the middle of their lineup and left Arrieta no margin for error Tuesday night in a 6-0 loss to the Dodgers in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series. "We couldn't barrel any balls," Miguel Montero said. "We're a pretty young team, but we have experience. We have to learn. That's not an excuse. "A lot of guys have been in the game for at least two full years. We have to grow. We have to get better. You cannot carry over 'We're a young team, so we're going to get better.' No. We do have to get better, but we have to start now." Montero's grand slam right before a Dexter Fowler homer in Game 1 represents the Cubs' last runs as their scoreless streak has stretched to 18 innings. Left-hander Rich Hill continued his renaissance with an array of off-speed pitches and arm angles that confused Cubs hitters for six innings of two-hit ball. And his success came after Anthony Rizzo was dropped from third to fourth in the order and Javier Baez was elevated to fifth. Making matters more difficult for the Cubs is that they failed to solve their second consecutive left-handed opposing starter, with rookie lefty Julio Urias scheduled to face them in Game 4 and the Dodgers up 2-1 in the best-of-seven series. "It is different, but I feel like we had the right scouting report on both of them," Kris Bryant said of Game 2 winner Clayton Kershaw and Hill. "We knew how they got us out. They stuck with their game plan, and it worked." The Cubs' frustration reached a zenith during a 30-pitch second inning in which Hill walked two of the first three batters. But then Addison Russell struck out on a 74-mph curve and Montero grounded to second. Russell, who was lifted for pinch hitter Jason Heyward in the seventh, is 1-for-24 in the postseason. Rizzo collected a broken-bat single in the eighth, but he's 2-for-26. Manager Joe Maddon was reluctant to move Baez up but had no other choice because of the lack of hitting in the middle of the order. Jorge Soler also was inserted in an attempt to take advantage of his past success against lefthanded pitchers. In Maddon's perfect world, Soler would have helped the Cubs surge to an early lead as he started in right field, and then Heyward could have taken over in right for defense. But it never got to that point. First Corey Seager's two-out single scored Andrew Toles in the third to break Arrieta's streak of 18 scoreless innings against the Dodgers. Then the most demoralizing development came in the fourth when Arrieta barely missed on a 2-2 pitch to Yasmani Grandal, who smacked the next offering for a two-run two-out homer to snap a 2-for-20 rut. Arrieta and Montero said after the game that the 2-2 pitch could have been called a strike, but they weren't upset with plate umpire Gary Cederstrom. "Grandal did a nice job of getting to the next pitch and putting a nice swing on the next one," Arrieta said.

6 "They fouled off a lot of great pitches in two-strike counts to get to the next pitch." Chicago Tribune Cubs' offense stuck in sand By Mark Gonzales After his Cubs fell behind 2-1 to the Los Angeles Dodgers in this best-of-seven National League Championship Series, manager Joe Maddon wasn t about to say Tuesday night his team reached a moment of truth. I m so bad at drawing kinds of lines in the sand, Maddon said after the Cubs scoreless streak stretched to 18 innings in a 6-0 loss to crafty left-hander Rich Hill and the Los Angeles Dodgers. It s about putting this one in the wastebasket, come back and play. A lineup shakeup produced only four hits, and two came after the Dodgers held a 4-0 lead. One of those hits came in the ninth on a broken bat single by Anthony Rizzo following a 1-for-25 postseason performance. Javier Baez, who moved up to the fifth spot, went hitless for the first time in seven postseason games. The Cubs made history by becoming the first team to suffer consecutive shutouts in the same postseason since the 2012 Detroit Tigers in Games 2 and 3 of the 2012 World Series against San Francisco Giants. The only two hits off Hill were provided by Kris Bryant, who was persistent in his belief the Cubs would snap out of their rut that has seen them bat.161 in the first three games of this season while looking baffled against lefthanders Clayton Kershaw and Hill. We ll figure it out, said Bryant, who is batting.357 in the postseason. We re very confident here. The peaks and valleys of this game sometimes make you go crazy, but we got more games to play. But Bryant did admit that the current offensive malaise is surprising, based on the Cubs production during the regular season. It s happened at the wrong time, Bryant said. We got more games to play, more times to get that confidence back and figure things out. I m sure we will. We ve done it all year. We re here for a reason. So belief is very powerful, and we all have that here. Bryant believes the Cubs have had accurate scouting reports on Kershaw and Hill. They ve been around for a while. They knew how they get us out and stuck with their game plan, and it worked, Bryant said. We got to take advantage when we got runners in scoring position. We ll figure it out. And Miguel Montero, who provided the last runs scored by the Cubs when he hit a grand slam in the eighth inning of Game 1 Saturday night, believes the Cubs merely need to relax. I think we re trying to do too much, Montero said. I think we re all trying to be heroes here. Just take what they give you. If they give you a ground ball to second where you can move the runner over, take it. But the Cubs have had few scoring opportunities in the past two games. They put a runner in scoring position in only the second and eighth innings, and Dexter Fowler s double in the eighth came with two outs but he was left stranded when Kenley Jansen struck out Bryant on a 94 mph fastball.

7 We re doing the same kind of routines, the work is the same, the batting practice is the same, or the lack of it is the same, Maddon said. We re just not getting the results right now. There is really no excuse. We just have to pick it up quickly. The Cubs are 0-5 when trailing a best-of-seven postseason series 2-1. Chicago Tribune Rich Hill masterful against Cubs in biggest game of his career By Colleen Kane Rich Hill pumped his fist and let out a scream after Anthony Rizzo struck out swinging to end the top of the sixth inning Tuesday night in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium. Hill then composed himself and walked off the field with a straight face, content with his performance in a 6-0 Dodgers victory against the Cubs, his former team. Hill said the performance of ace Clayton Kershaw and closer Kenley Jansen in Game 2 was "100 percent inspiring." Hill looked inspired on the mound as he pitched six scoreless innings, allowing two hits with two walks and six strikeouts to help the Dodgers take a 2-1 series lead. The 12-year veteran earned his first career postseason victory and said afterward it was the biggest game of his career. "It's all about staying in the moment and executing when you're in that moment, and that's all you can think about," Hill said. "That's all you can control is that pitch. Looking back and getting to this point, it's just putting in the work, putting in the time, having a routine and persevering." The Dodgers posted back-to-back postseason shutouts for the first time in team history with Joe Blanton, Grant Dayton and Kenley Jansen finishing what Hill started. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Hill put together the performance without his best stuff. "Curveball command wasn't as I know he would like it, but that just shows that he goes out there and competes," Roberts said. "He still has a very good chance to get guys out, but I think that his preparedness, his guts really kept those guys at bay." Hill's biggest trouble came in the second when Rizzo and Jorge Soler walked and reached second and third on a passed ball. But Hill prompted Miguel Montero to ground out to strand them. Rizzo's strikeout in the sixth on a full count stranded another runner on base. "He's had some abbreviated starts lately, so I really wanted to give him the opportunity to work through (the second inning)," Roberts said. "I really didn't feel comfortable pulling the plug on him." The Dodgers offense hit two homers to stake Hill to a lead in his fourth postseason start. Hill, who spent his first four seasons with the Cubs, had taken the loss after pitching three innings in the Cubs' 2007 division series against the Diamondbacks. He also had a loss in two starts in this year's division series against the Nationals. Yasmani Grandal hit a two-run homer in the fourth, and Justin Turner added a solo shot in the sixth off Cubs righthander Jake Arrieta to help boost the Dodgers to a 4-0 lead. The victory puts the Dodgers in a good spot with two more games at Dodger Stadium, but Grandal said they wouldn't get ahead of themselves.

8 "These guys have won 100-some games," Grandal said. "They've got the talent, so you can't think ahead. If you think ahead, that's when bad things happen." An opposing fan: Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager entered Tuesday night hitting.133 in the postseason with two homers and three RBIs. He went 3-for-4 in Game 3 and gave the Dodgers their first run of the game with an RBI single off Arrieta. Seager also has one fan in the opposing dugout. "I'm a huge fan," Cubs shortstop Addison Russell said. "He's obviously a five-tool guy. He has a great glove and I believe an even better bat." Early return? Roberts said Kershaw is "prepared for anything that we have for him" when it comes to when he will next pitch after his Game 2 victory Sunday. Dodgers rookie Julio Urias is scheduled for Game 4, and Kenta Maeda could be in line for Game 5 on Thursday in LA. But Roberts said the Dodgers' situation could dictate if Kershaw will pitch in Game 5 or 6. "Honestly, we haven't gotten that far yet," Roberts said. "It's just hard to have things scripted because it seems like it never plays out that way, and that's the way it's been throughout this postseason." Chicago Tribune John Lackey's playoff experience perfect fit for Cubs' playoff run By Mark Gonzales John Lackey's "big-boy games" comment three months ago might have triggered some snickers, but his knack for performing at his best in significant games might be as important as any postseason factor for the Cubs. "A lot of people don't realize who John Lackey is and has been over the past few years," said Giants right-hander Jake Peavy, who watched his former teammate pitch the sixth and clinching game of 2013 World Series for the Red Sox. "John Lackey was St. Louis' No. 1 guy (in 2015), the guy they leaned on. We would have been down 2-1 (in the 2013 American League Championship Series), but that same John Lackey beat Justin Verlander in Detroit. You know what those Detroit teams were made of. And you've done something to beat them 1-0 on the road." Lackey will start Wednesday's Game 4 of the National League Championship Series against the Dodgers in Los Angeles. Lackey, 37, has been accustomed to the big stage, dating to his rookie year with the Angels when he pitched five innings of one-run ball to beat the Giants in Game 7 of the 2002 World Series and give Joe Maddon then an Angels coach a bonus large enough to help pay for his daughter's wedding. Lackey's no-nonsense demeanor surfaced well before his World Series debut. But he has acknowledged how fortunate he has been to pitch on contending teams and how precious those moments are. "I was one of only a few rookies when I came up," Lackey said. "It's different now. The expectation level is high, which I've been used to for my whole career. Luckily, I've been on a lot of good teams. "It's something we've embraced and have played very well." The 6-foot-6, 235-pound Lackey is in better shape now than he was during his first four seasons with the Angels, Maddon said.

9 "He's the same good friend with the same kind of intensity and edginess," the Cubs manager said. "His velocity came back post-surgery (in 2012). I see mph on the breaking ball. I think it was 82 when I had him in His fastball cut more back then, but it's almost identical to now." It's not uncommon for Lackey to show emotion on the mound, as he did when rookie center fielder Albert Almora Jr. didn't hit the cutoff man in a June game and Christian Bethancourt admired a home run he hit off Lackey in a 1-0 loss to the Padres in May. "He's your best teammate ever," Maddon said. "He's just got an edge when he plays. And if you all know that and accept that, then you can co-habitat with him well. "When he gets upset out there, it's nothing negative. It's just the emotion of the moment. If you took that away from him, he might not be as good as he actually is. " Said catcher David Ross: "Some people can play this game emotionless. I don't think he's one of those guys. He expects perfection from himself and greatness out of himself and his teammates." Yet there's a friendly, team-oriented side to Lackey that some don't see. When infielder Munenori Kawasaki was promoted from Triple-A Iowa to join the team in Pittsburgh last July, Lackey went out of his way to greet him in the visitor's clubhouse. "One of my top five teammates of all time, especially with the way he goes about his business," Ross said. "He works. He's on the bench supporting and high-fiving his teammates and talking the game, the whole package. "He's all about whatever the team is about. If we're going to a team dinner, he's in. If he needs to buy, he'll buy. He's one of those guys you can count on the whole year, and those guys are hard to find." Chicago Tribune For Cubs catcher David Ross, it's all about family By Paul Skrbina David Ross watched, helpless and hopeful. The Cubs' retiring 39-year-old catcher was about to become a father for the third time on Aug. 26, But he wasn't sure whether his wife, Hyla, was going to survive. He wasn't sure his daughter, Harper Lynn Ross, would either. Hyla remembers seeing her husband, her high school sweetheart, through the door of the intensive care unit of a hospital in Tallahassee, Fla. She had been rushed there for an emergency cesarean section two months ahead of her scheduled due date after she suffered a partial abruption (when the placenta separates from the uterus). "I see him putting on his scrubs and his shoes," said Hyla, a licensed pediatric nurse who has worked in her share of ICUs. "David came in, he was already crying before it started." Because of the abruption, Hyla could have bled to death, which could have deprived Harper of oxygen and necessary nutrients. "You're in there and they're cutting on your wife," Ross said. "She's scared; I'm scared. "When things have gone pretty good for you in your life, you really don't think about all the negative things that are possible a child getting a disease or a newborn dying."

10 The C-section was a success. Harper was 3 pounds, 11 ounces and 17 inches long, screaming right away. "She's so little," Ross said. "Her butt went all the way to her hamstrings. You're happy, but you're worried." For a month she was in the neonatal intensive care unit, initially hooked to tubes to help her breathe. Now she's almost 14 months and healthy, "wailing around and driving us crazy," Ross said. "She's a hoot." 'Family First' The Cubs were watching out for Ross. The 15-year veteran was teary as he stood in front of his locker talking about Harper late last week. He stressed that baseball is a job he loves but it's hardly tops on the priority list. "Family first," he said. It's a philosophy Ross said the Cubs share. He pointed out phone calls he received from team President Theo Epstein and manager Joe Maddon after Harper was born. Both expressed sympathy and encouraged Ross to take as much time away as he needed. "See how we can take care of him and reassure him that every guy in the clubhouse and all of us wanted him to be there for his family and we'd be there waiting for him when he came back," Epstein said. "Simple stuff." It's something of a cultural shift from the days when it was common for players to miss the birth of their children and other important moments. "There's a lot more sympathy to those things," Ross said. "Joe kept saying to me, 'We need David Ross back, not a piece of David Ross back. Make sure things are fine at home before you come back to us.' "When your manager tells you that, and Theo Epstein calls you and checks on you, and the organization sends $500 worth of food to your house so your family doesn't have to cook, you just feel like you owe them so much. It goes a long way." Farewell tour David Ross watches out for his teammates. And they watch out for him. Right fielder Jason Heyward thinks so highly of the catcher, with whom he played in Atlanta, that for Ross' preretirement gift, he paid for a suite big enough for Ross' family on all road trips this season. The farewell tour began in earnest in spring training, when "Grandpa Rossy" was born. The team gag-gifted him a front-row parking spot at the team's spring-training facility in Mesa, Ariz. They also gave him a scooter and a robotic trailer that held bats and automatically followed the scooter. Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant started an Instagram account, Grandparossy_3, to preserve special moments throughout the season. "We wanted to make him feel really special, that we really care about him and are gonna miss him," Bryant said. Bryant said the team initially felt bad calling Ross "Grandpa." Ross, however, embraced it. He also played along with a series of videos produced by the Cubs in which he encouraged people to vote for various Cubs for the All-Star game.

11 Ross himself never has been an All-Star, at least by traditional measures. He's a career backup with a.229 average who only twice in his career has surpassed 200 at-bats in a season. He has 106 career home runs and three career stolen bases. His.316 on-base percentage and.739 OPS hardly opens eyes. "He's not undervalued here," said Cubs radio broadcaster Ron Coomer, who played with the Dodgers during Ross' rookie season and was his locker neighbor. "When he says things, people listen. He's a 39-year-old guy whose been in the league almost 20 years. That carries some weight, and it should." Ross also caught the only inning former White Sox manager Robin Ventura, whom he called "the mentor of all mentors," pitched in the big leagues when both were with the Dodgers. Now, fate has insisted Ross, on his final lap, go through the Dodgers, the team with which he began his career, in pursuit of his second World Series championship and the Cubs' first since Despite this being his 15th season in the big leagues, Ross still can be overcome by the moment, by the emotion. After he hit a home run in the division series, he returned to the dugout and did all he could to stop himself from being sick. "I wanted to throw up," he said. "But I knew I couldn't." Arrieta's no-hitter David Ross couldn't watch. And he wasn't sure he should. Five days after Harper was born, Ross paced the floor in that intensive care unit. More than 2,000 miles away, Jake Arrieta was in the midst of pitching a no-hitter against the Dodgers in Los Angeles. "I pick up my phone and I see 2-0 and I'm like, 'Oh, sweet, and it's the eighth (inning)." Then Ross noticed that Arrieta hadn't given up a hit. It was 12:30 in the morning and the room was silent. "'Do I watch on my phone? Do I not watch on my phone?'" he wondered to himself. "'Is it good luck? Is it bad luck?'" So he turned it off. The minutes imitated hours. When he told Hyla about the goings-on, she encouraged him to check. "'What if I turn it on and he's given up a hit?'" Ross said. So he waited a half-hour, turned it on, saw there were two outs in the ninth and turned it back off. Five minutes later he had seen Arrieta had finished the job. "All the emotions of dealing with a preemie, if all that wasn't enough, Jake's throwing a no-hitter," Ross said. "I was like, 'Man, I missed it. Wait, I can't be there.'" That's because he had to be with his family. Just like a few weeks earlier when he left the team for a few days after his grandmother died. Warning sign Ross learned he had to watch out for himself. Ross says he 99.9 percent sure he's retiring, unless, of course, the Cubs make a silly offer.

12 And 100 percent of the reason has to do with his family and his health. In 2013, he missed two months of the season after suffering a concussion thanks to consecutive foul balls to the head. Sure, he caught the last out of his only World Series title so far. But it scared him. And his family. So this year, he said, is it. "I'm just tired of getting hit in the head," Ross said. "That's a really bad feeling. Unless you've gone through something like that, it's hard to put into words." He said he was uneducated about it, didn't put much stock into it until it happened to him. It also factored into his decision to retire this season. It changed who he was. Who he is. Now he's involved in a charity to raise awareness for the condition. "You get hit in the head and you got that feeling and it doesn't go away," Ross said. "You're annoyed. You're not the same person. It's nothing you can fake. You're not a good dad. I'm short with my kids, my wife. You get seasick riding in a car. You can't be in public places. It's a nightmare." Hyla recalled a rare moment when Ross began cursing out a fellow driver. That was a warning sign. "I had never seen him get this angry," Hyla said. "The kids were in the car. I had to grab his shirt. The veins were popping out of his head. "I looked at him and said, 'If you don't tell them, I'm going to them to tell them.'" Ross saw a head doctor that day. He realized, again, there was more to life than baseball. Something he's going to find out sooner or later. Depending on how far the Cubs advance in the postseason. Chicago Tribune Ben Zobrist is Cubs' Mr. Versatile in the field and in the lineup By Paul Skrbina Ben Zobrist's stop at shortstop was short after he was traded to the Rays from the Astros in He played 51 games there his rookie year for rookie manager Joe Maddon, and 28 more the next. After that, Maddon decided Zobrist should expand his defensive resume. So he played him everywhere except first base, pitcher and catcher. "He's a nice shortstop; he was fine," Maddon said. But he wasn't extraordinary in terms of range or tools. Because Zobrist is a switch-hitter, Maddon was intent on finding ways to get him into games. "We just thought by giving him multiple positions, that was his best avenue to get to the major leagues," Maddon said. "Of course the player has to concede and say, 'I'm on board. I like this. I can do this,' and he did."

13 And he continues to do for the Cubs whether in the field or in the batting order after coming to the team after winning the World Series with the Royals last season. The Eureka, Ill., native has played every position in his career except pitcher and catcher. He has spent the most time at second base, with 707 regular-season games there. Right field is his second-most familiar position with 327 appearances. He also has batted in every spot in the order. Maddon said a stint in the minor leagues early in Zobrist's career resulted in a changed left-handed batting stance, which resulted in more power. Zobrist was in the third spot Tuesday night during Game 3 of the National League Championship Series against the Dodgers, a move Maddon made to try to shake up a sleepy middle of the order. It didn't work as Zobrist went 0-for-4 in a 6-0 loss. The Cubs managed just four hits, two off starter Rich Hill. "I just thought rearranging the chairs a little bit might help," Maddon said. "Zobrist, again, you're talking about a defensive utility; offensively, too. You could put him anywhere and he's good. And he has been getting better with age. That began four or five years ago, Cubs President Theo Epstein said. Zobrist, a three-time All-Star, has seen his walks go up and his strikeouts go down during that span. He hit.272 with 18 home runs and 76 RBIs to go with an.831 OPS this season. "It's pretty amazing to see a guy turning 35 continuing to get better doing it the right way," Epstein said earlier this season. "He's everything we asked for in terms of really consistent professional at-bats, playing the game hard, being a great teammate, helping us win in so many different ways. He has been phenomenal." Zobrist avidly studies his at-bats and constantly makes subtle adjustments. He has that part of his game down to a science, so to speak. "There have been nights I've stayed up late thinking about, 'What's wrong with my swing? What do I need to fix?'" he said. "I've watched a ridiculous amount of video on myself to see what I was doing. "Hitting is not an exact science. We're all trying to get our bodies to do the same thing, but mentally you might have the opposite keys that make your body do the same thing." Even if he's doing it in different places. Chicago Tribune Jake Arrieta still living in penthouse of starting pitchers, agent says By Mark Gonzales Jske Arrieta didn't earn the most victories among his fellow Cubs starters, and a rough final start pushed his ERA above the 3.00 mark. But Arrieta still managed to win 18 games and post a respectable 3.10 ERA following his 2015 Cy Young Awardwinning season. His past two seasons put Arrieta in a distinct level, according to agent Scott Boras.

14 "I think every extraordinary performer, you can be an MVP or win the Cy Young (Award) one year," Boras said Tuesday before Arrieta's start against the Doders in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series. "And the idea of coming back and having an extraordinary year, a top-five year, obviously, you're always looking to excellence. And I would say he had an excellent season. "I would say the only problem Jake Arrieta has is excellent levels. It's the old story. Most people have a penthouse. He happens to have two or three floors. That's where Jake is. Any one of the floors, we're fine with." Boras also endorsed the Cubs' handling of Arrieta, who fell 2 2/3 innings short of reaching the 200-inning mark for the second consecutive season. "I remember when Greg Maddux was with Atlanta," Boras recalled. "We had long discussions about keeping innings down during the season. When you're getting around 220 to 230 or 240, you can see the ERAs really rise. "And these guys have a better chance of being effective when you can come into the playoffs and have about 195 to 200 innings. If you can get into the postseason without having to stretch your top-level starters, it really shows benefit to their performance in the postseason." Blood brothers: Left-hander Mike Montgomery wasn't totally surprised that Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer tried to pitch with a bloody right pinkie on his pitching hand in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series. "He's definitely a very tough competitor," said Montgomery, a teammate of Bauer at Hart High School in Newhall, about 30 minutes from Dodger Stadium. "He does some things that sometimes you shake your head at. But you have to respect him because he's good at what he does. "Back in high school, we'd compete with each other, throwing balls into a bucket. I'm not surprised he wanted to be out there. It's unfortunate because his finger looked pretty bad." Soler's health: Manager Joe Maddon admitted Jorge Soler's injuries have prevented him from starting him more. "I can't deny that," Maddon said. "But then you watch him in certain games and when he does his work, watch (batting practice), and it's pretty darn good. "For him, it might be getting used to the grind of the day. For right now, I think he looks good so I wanted to keep him out there." Chicago Sun-Times Hollywood scuffle: Cubs shut out again by Dodgers, trail in NLCS By Gordon Wittenmyer LOS ANGELES The Cubs saw some of this coming in August. To be clear, nobody in the Cubs clubhouse saw Tuesday night s 6-0 loss to reinvented ex-cub Rich Hill and the Dodgers in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series. But the Cubs saw a tough playoff rematch looming when they left Dodger Stadium in August after struggling for three games against the Dodgers pitching without having faced Clayton Kershaw all year. We would have our hands full because of all the lefties they have, Ben Zobrist said at the conclusion of that series.

15 By the time one of those lefties, Hill, was through six scoreless innings Tuesday, Zobrist had never looked like a swami. And by the time Kenley Jansen retired Chris Coghlan on a liner to third for the final out, the Cubs lineup looked lost. They haven t scored since Miguel Montero and Dexter Fowler s back-to-back homers in the eighth inning of Saturday s Game 1, and they face hard-throwing rookie left-hander Julio Urias on Wednesday, trailing 2-1 in the best-of-seven series. There s no panic in here, Kris Bryant said. Easy for him to say. He had both hits against Hill, and he s been the best-hitting Cub in the postseason (10-for-28). Montero called the lack of production very surprising, said he thinks some of the hitters are, pressing, trying to be heroes, and it s putting more pressure on the pitchers and catchers to try to be perfect. And no wonder. This is uncharted 2016 territory for the Cubs: The first time this year they ve been shut out in back-to-back games first time since August they ve been shut out at all. The part that s not uncharted is this: That last team to shut them out was the Dodgers. In fact, the Dodgers have four of the eight shutouts pitched against the Cubs this year. And while the Game 4 Dodger starter didn t shut them out, Urias beat them with a dominant performance the last time he faced them, Aug. 27 in the same ballpark. We may be a little unhappy about how the game transpired, said Cubs starter Jake Arrieta, who gave up a pair of costly home runs but otherwise pitched well into the sixth inning. But guys will get back to their families at the hotel and decompress and prepare for tomorrow. Either way, they re going to have to try to find a way to beat a Dodgers lefty at least once in the next two days to assure a return to Wrigley Field for a Game 6. Kershaw s in the wings for Game 5 if the Dodgers decide they need him on short rest. Zobrist and teammates have known for nearly two months how tough that was going to be. At first glance, Zobrist s August concerns seem counter-intuitive, given the Cubs better hitting, on-base and power numbers against left-handers overall this season. But the Dodgers lefties, he said, present especially tough matchups for the Cubs and not just best-pitcher-onthe-planet Kershaw. They pitch up with their heater in the zone, and they ve been pretty solid staying in the strike zone with those, and just above the strike zone, he said during Monday s workout day. And they have big slow curves or, like Urias, the changeup. His changeup vs. his heater, what we saw the last game [was tough]. Said Bryant: They just keep running out pitcher after pitcher, and they re pretty good. But I think we re going into this game [4] very confident. Hill with his slow curve kept the Cubs at bay with little in the way of a scoring chance helping beat the Cubs in the playoffs for the second time in his career. He lasted just three innings in a 2007 Division Series loss to the Diamondbacks. Hill, who was pitching for the independent Long Island Ducks barely a year ago, had a runner in scoring position against him only once, in the second after a pair of walks. Beyond that he gave up a two-out single to Kris Bryant in the third and a one-out single to Bryant in the sixth.

16 I think there s some things that they do well and they try to do well that maybe they do better than some other teams, Zobrist said of the Dodger lefties. They try to keep it up here [high in zone], and we like to hit homers, so that pitch looks really good. But if they just have enough revolutions on that thing, enough spin rate, it s a foul ball instead of a home run. That s what s tough about some of these guys. Chicago Sun-Times Cubs had better get bats out of cold storage or this is over By Rick Morrissey LOS ANGELES The Cubs tried not to suck. They did anyway. They find themselves down 2-1 in the best-of-seven National League Championship Series because they ve forgotten how to hit, or as they call it, the act by which the baseball avoids the strange wooden things in our hands. Manager Joe Maddon s cute Try Not to Suck T-shirts feel like hair shirts after a 6-0 loss to the Dodgers on Tuesday night. What has happened in the postseason can no longer be considered a small sample size, and it no longer can be dismissed with a shrug as baseball being baseball, all weirdness and statistical flukiness. The Cubs don t remember how to hit. Anthony Rizzo doesn t. Ben Zobrist doesn t. Dexter Fowler doesn t. And Addison Russell might as well be staring down at a grocery list at home plate for all the production he has offered. When the Cubs brought in massively struggling Jason Heyward to hit for epically struggling Russell in the seventh inning Tuesday night, some natural law was broken. We humans may never be the same again. Heyward struck out to end the inning, and all that was left was a crater near the plate. The Cubs are in trouble, serious trouble. Clayton Kershaw-on-the-horizon trouble. The loss to the Dodgers has turned this series and maybe this season upside down for the Cubs. Their kingdom for a hitter. I have no solid explanation, Maddon said. It s happening at the wrong time obviously, said third baseman Kris Bryant, one of the few Cubs who is hitting in the postseason. We ve got more games to play, more time to get that confidence back and figure things out. I m sure we will. We ve done it all year. We re here for a reason. Belief is very powerful, and I think we all have that here. Maddon tweaked his lineup Tuesday, hoping it would shake things up. It didn t. Rizzo batted in the fourth spot, instead of third, and all that meant was that he led off the second and fourth innings. You d prefer to have your power hitter at the plate with runners on base. You d prefer more than four hits from the team in the biggest game of the year to date. The Cubs are hitting.185 in the postseason. I think we re trying to do too much, catcher Miguel Montero said. I think we re all trying to be heroes here. The Cubs needed starter Jake Arrieta to be better than Rich Hill, and he wasn t. They needed more from the reigning NL Cy Young winner, but he wasn t why they lost Tuesday. Even if had duplicated his no-hitter of Aug. 30, 2015, at Dodger Stadium, the last time he pitched here, it might not have been enough. He wouldn t criticize the Cubs hitting.

17 It can happen in the postseason in these sort of games, he said. These things are possible at any moment, in any game. Our guys are prepared, our guys are ready, our guys are doing everything they can to prepare for the ballgame. When a guy makes good pitches like Rich did along with their bullpen, it s going to be tough on us. Let s not turn Hill into Sandy Koufax. The former Cub pitcher is good and he throws a nice curveball, but a team that led the NL in on-base percentage shouldn t be struggling this much. Hill gave up two hits in six innings, and both of those hits were by Bryant. The Cubs hadn t seen Hill this season, but that doesn t explain them getting only two more hits after he departed. Bryant (.357) and Javy Baez (.333) are the only position players hitting above.179 in the playoffs. You re not going to win anything that way. You re not going to impress anyone at the neighborhood batting cage either. What gives the Cubs hope is that they ve hit most of the year. They tore through NL pitching this season. I ve seen it before, Fowler said. You go in ruts and you snap back out of them and then score five or six runs. The Cubs will face 20-year-old Julio Urias in Game 4. And at some point, they ll again have to face Kershaw, who shut them down in Game 2. Whether that s Game 5 or 6 isn t known yet. But they had better get their act together at the plate or else their season is going to end sooner and more painfully than they ever could have imagined. Maybe Maddon should try a more positive T-Shirt: Try to Hit. We ll figure it out, Bryant said. We re all very confident here. Peaks and valleys of this game will sometimes make you go crazy, but we ve got more games to play. How many more depends on their hitting. Chicago Sun-Times If lethargic Cubs don t wake soon, nightmare will become reality By Rick Telander LOS ANGELES The Cubs? Where are they at, folks? Remember when they were the best team in baseball, with three pitchers contending for the Cy Young Award and two sluggers contending for the MVP? At the end of the regular season, they played spring training, with manager Joe Maddon putting bench guys all over the field and doing other fun stuff. On to the World Series! Now there s this: A 6-0 defeat Tuesday at Dodger Stadium put them in a 2-1 hole in the National League Championship Series, and they have lost anything resembling momentum or good cheer in the process. Every goat and black cat in America should be trembling with fear of retribution. The Cubs have scored no runs in their two losses to the Dodgers, and if they once had great hitting, it has drifted into the San Gabriel Mountains like smog from a Pasadena bus. We have to just mentally hang in there, man, Maddon said afterward. His attempt at getting something going offensively by moving guys around in the order was as effective as a dud grenade. It almost seemed as though the real Cubs had had their brains and souls removed and gotten them replaced with cotton wadding and air.