To get off to the good start we did in April was a direct reflection of being familiar with Lou and the staff and the guys in the clubhouse, and building real good team chemistry, and just knowing what Lou expects of us. He knows our strengths and weaknesses, and he's going to put us in positions to succeed.

From that standpoint, I'm sure everybody went to Spring Training relaxed and ready to go to work. We were also fired up about getting off to a hot start because we realized how hard a grind it was for us last year to win the division. I feel like it was so hard to win the divison that it kind of took something out of us in the postseason. We got outplayed and flat out beat three games in a row by Arizona, but I still felt that when we won the division, it was a huge sigh of relief instead of, "This is the first step on the way to winning a championship."

Those back-to-back losses to Milwaukee and St. Louis Thursday and Friday were tough. Every year, you have stretches like this of heart-breaking losses and stuff that you don't expect to happen happens. Every year, you know that coming in, and it still doesn't make it any easier. Everyone's frustrated, everyone wants to do more. From my standpoint, I started the first couple weeks really swinging the bat nice, and these last two or three weeks, it's really tailed off. I put a lot of pressure on myself in this lineup because I feel like you can't always expect Aramis and D-Lee and those guys to do it every day. I feel like if I can contribute -- Fukudome is always on base -- if I can find a way to hit the some balls in the gap, games might be different. I know every guy on the team goes back to their room at night wondering what they could've done to make a bigger impact in the game.

As far as those back to back losses, you put them behind you. We play so many games that it doesn't allow you to harp on the negatives or the positives for long. The game against Milwaukee was tough because it set up so perfect for us, and Friday could've been different. I think Soriano showed why he's got a flair for the dramatic and why so many people enjoy coming to watch him play. The guy's battling to get back out there after sustaining an injury, and he has a little trouble with a few fly balls, and next thing you know, he pops the ball out of the yard, and that's Sori, that's him. He's just got a flair for playing the game.

I think from his standpoint, he wants to help us so much. He feels like he's gotten off to a slow start, and he's been out of the lineup. I think sometimes players lose sight of the fact of how much respect and how appreciated they are by their teammates. You don't sit there and talk about it. I remember last year, we ran into that early on. Guys were scuffling and the lineups were shuffling, and rightfully so. I think players need to remember at the end of the day, their teammates know what they're about. We're around them so much. Sori's going to have a great year. This was just a blip on the radar screen for him.

Thanks for joining me here, and any suggestions for a permanent title for my blog are welcomed.

The one at-bat I need to come through, I didn't get it done. That's what you take from it -- period, the end. I didn't get it done. I don't worry about my teammates. I trust in my teammates. You never point fingers. You look at yourself if you're a man. You look at yourself. I didn't get it done.

In that at-bat in the fifth, it was deafening at one point. When I took the 2-1 pitch inside, I had a lot of confidence. You wait for those moments. I loved -- loved -- the fact I was up. I would've liked to see Aramis hit a three-run dinger -- but I loved that he walked and I had all the confidence in the world. I had a good plan against Livan. The at-bat before, same exact pitch, I lace up the middle. It's frustrating, because I'll replay that pitch in my head for a long time.

Now you have to wait all the way until Spring Training to get another opportunity to get after it. That's what is so frustrating is to play 162, win the division, and everyone is excited, and you come into the postseason and even though the stats will say I swung the bat well this series, or somewhat well, the one time I needed to come through for my team -- my team was reeling, and needed one guy to get them over the hump and I didn't get it done. That's something that will stick with me.

I don't buy into that "curse" and all that garbage that goes along with this team. We felt we had the pieces to get it done. We weathered the storm in the regular season and went through a tough April and May and were still able to find a way to meet the expectations that were placed on us in Spring Training to win a division. We were able to do that, and to catch Milwaukee, which was the hottest team in baseball. There are a lot of good things that happened. It doesn't matter right now. Stuff goes out the window for awhile, and it's going to take me a long time to look at the positives, even though there were quite a few.

To the fans, stay with us. We're just starting. For a lot of guys, it's our first year here. We were able to get this thing going in the right direction and I credit the front office with going out and bringing quality individuals here this offseason. I want to give a lot of credit to the guys who were already here. There was a lot of talent when I walked in for Spring Training; it wasn't just the guys they signed. It's the guys who were already here in D-Lee, and Ramy and pitchers.

You almost want to apologize to the fans, because I think they expected more and we expected more, and that's the frustrating part.

You've got to be realistic and take it one game at a time. We can't worry about getting this thing back to Arizona. We have to take care of business on Saturday, and just worry about winning one ballgame and get our confidence going. Hopefully, our bats come to life and we can take a little bit of the heat off the pitching staff.

We're more than capable of taking three games from anyone in baseball. We still have a pulse.

Geo hitting a home run, getting us on the board, you've got to feel confident when we had the lead there and having Teddy on the mound, but it just didn't work out. You've got to face reality. We're down 0-2, and we've got a tough hole to dig out of. This team has faced adversity many times throughout the course of the year. Our fans have stuck by us, and our team has stuck together and believed in each other and we're more than capable of getting this done.

We don't need a pep talk. This isn't high school football where you need a rah-rah pep talk. Baseball is one of those games where it's a game of failure and mentally frustrating at times. You've just got to find a way to get it done. Statistics go out the window, ERA's go out the window.

It's just about waving that white flag with the blue "W" and finding a way to get it done. It's nice to go back to Wrigley Field. I wish we could go back on better terms, but it is what it is.

Cub fans were definitely present at this ballpark, and we appreciate that. It's going to be nice to go back to Wrigley, and nice to go back home and sleep in our own beds, and take a day to let it sink in and probably get away from it for a day and come back raring to go.

You put the magnitude of what this series means to the people of Chicago, and what it means to us, and you've worked so hard to get to this point, you can't help but be a little nervous. But once I saw Brandon Webb's first pitch, the nerves went away. I don't want to say it goes back to being simple, because this game is far from that. You have to make it just baseball and not get caught up in everything that's going on in the crowd, in the dugout, all the hype that's part of the postseason.
All the credit goes to their starter. Brandon Webb won the Cy Young last year. He won 18 games this year. Webb has one of the best sinkers in the history of the game. He's nasty. I don't think TV does him justice.

I felt good at the plate, and I saw the ball well off him. My game plan was to take pitches and make him work and not try to get myself out. I think I was successful; I was on base three times. He's a tough guy to put a rally together, hit after hit, because he continues to throw that power sinker and continues to get guys to put the ball on the ground. It's tough for the ball to find holes on a consistent basis.

You come into the game with him on the mound, and you're hoping somebody can pop one in a big situation and get you three runs on the board. The way he was throwing the ball, you knew it would come down to one swing.

I'd give the ball to Carlos Marmol tomorrow. It's the playoffs -- stuff that you don't think will happen, happens. Baseball's a funny game. Carlos has been, I think, our team MVP all year. No one doubts his ability to get hitters out after tonight. He's a very confident guy.

You go through 162 games and dominate the way Carlos Marmol has dominated, I don't think you let one pitch determine who you are and how your teammates are supposed to feel about you. He knows we believe in him, and I think he believes in himself.

It's definitely nice to get out here and put the uniform back on after what seems like four or five days off. After we clinched, there was time for the mind and body to shut down a little bit, and it's good to break a sweat and get revved back up again.

Craig Monroe and I were talking, and I told him that after playing the Tigers last year, I felt they were going to win the World Series. They were far and away the best team in baseball last year, and it didn't work out for them and St. Louis won the World Series. He felt they had too much of a layoff. They had about a week off after sweeping Oakland, and were able to wait out.

The wait is usually viewed as a good thing, but in baseball, if you're not seeing live pitching and you're not out there going through the everyday play of the game, it's tough. It's not like you can do simulated games in between, because you don't want to risk injury. You have to sit and wait to see what's decided in the other league, and he felt that put them at a disadvantage early.

It remains to be seen what happens this year, but those Colorado and Phillies series coming down to the last games, I think you're going to see a good series from those two teams.

We clinched first. Isn't that funny? Who would've thought after April and May that we would clinch first? We got a nice laugh about that.

It's definitely exciting to be in Arizona. The roof is open -- I don't know if they'll keep it open. They'll probably want to close it and turn the heaters on. Their fans will be here in droves. I'm sure we'll have plenty of Cubs fans here to cheer us on.

I'm not nervous now. I will be. I get more nervous for pregame introductions than I will for the actual game. Once you get that first ground ball hit to you, or that first pitch thrown to you, I think it all goes away and you start playing baseball again. I think it's only human for you to be nervous. If anyone says they're not, I think they're lying. Nerves are a good thing. You don't let them affect you. It's one thing to let them affect your play. It's only human to be a little jittery and realize what you're playing for.

I'll be wearing my regular road pants. They've been sewn up [after getting ripped in the seat] and they'll be worn tomorrow and throughout the course of the postseason. The only real superstition I go with is if I take an 0-fer, then I'll change my batting gloves and my bat. Besides that, I've been pretty good on trying not to let superstitions run my life. I'm the type of person that if I really bought into it, it would be mentally defeating for me.

I've been on playoff teams before, and we've either been real offensive or had an unbelievable bullpen or good starting pitching. You always felt like you were missing an ingredient. That's not knocking the players -- I was on the bench for those teams. I'm not knocking anybody. I just felt like we always ran into a buzz saw.

In '03, I was with the Braves and we ran into Kerry and Zambrano and Prior. The '03 Braves had one of the best lineups ever assembled and we got beat. Every year, we were running into something.

This is different. I feel we bring that as a team. In the playoffs, with our starting pitching, you run into Zambrano, a monster who can shut you down. You need to have that.

With our bullpen, and Lilly, we're solid. Plus, our offense is capable of scoring runs in a hurry with the home run ball. I know we didn't hit a ton during the season but it doesn't matter. You have Soriano and Ramirez and Lee in the lineup, and the ball is capable of leaving the yard in a hurry. I just feel we bring everything to the table. That's what you need in the postseason.

Lou deserves a lot of credit. The man came out of retirement to take a team that was in last place last year and win a division with it. A lot of credit goes to the front office and a lot goes to the Tribune Co. for getting Soriano and Lilly and Marquis. There were already players here who are very talented. You already had Aramis, who I came up with in the Minor Leagues and knew was a star. I think Lou deserves a lot of the credit, I really do.

Some think when you spend $300 million you should win. And we did. I think that's why the celebration was so emotional. We were so relieved. There were all the expectations put on us, and then what we went through in April and May, guys were frustrated. We were frustrated, and Milwaukee started the year 24-8 or something, and everyone said they were going to run away with it. People said we were dead. We found a way.

It was a gratifying moment for the team. Everybody played a part in it. It was nice.

We've got that Cubby swagger Lou talks about. The fans won't let us not have it.