Diamondbacks gain sweep; Cubs’ drought grows to 99

Arizona is headed to the NL championship series for only the second time.

CHICAGO (AP) — A sweet sweep for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Another cry of ‘Wait Til Next Year’ from the crestfallen Chicago Cubs.

Chris Young homered on the game’s first pitch, Livan Hernandez wriggled out of several serious jams and Arizona beat the Cubs 5-1 Saturday night to complete a three-game sweep of their first-round playoff series.

Short on stars and attention — but not pitching and defense — the young Diamondbacks are headed to the NL championship series for the second time in the franchise’s 10-year history. The previous time they made it this far they went all the way, beating the New York Yankees in the 2001 World Series.

“Probably shocked a lot of people, but this team’s been doing it all year,” Eric Byrnes said.

Now, the Diamondbacks get four days to rest before hosting the winner of the Rockies-Phillies series in Game 1 of the NLCS on Thursday. Colorado entered Saturday night with a 2-0 lead over Philadelphia in the best-of-five playoff.

As for the Cubs, they’re still searching for their first World Series title since 1908. Even a return to Wrigley Field and its raucous fans couldn’t get Chicago’s bats out of a series-long slumber.

“We knew that we’d have to try to take them out of it and take the momentum away, and Chris Young’s home run in the first inning went a long way with that,” Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. “Just a great place to play baseball.”

Call it curses or bad luck or whatever, but on this sultry October night the Diamondbacks showed what was obvious since the series began — they were the better team, even though they had only four players on the first-round roster with postseason experience.

“These guys are as talented a young group as I’ve ever seen,” Byrnes said. “It’s been fun to watch the maturation and watch them grow up.”

Chicago’s best chance might have come in the opener, when manager Lou Piniella made a move that will be questioned for years. He pulled Carlos Zambrano after six innings and only 85 pitches with the score 1-all because he planned to bring his ace back on three days’ rest in Game 4.

The Cubs never got that far.

Chicago went from worst-to-first in Piniella’s first season as manager, and the team’s long-suffering fans were ecstatic after a late surge to the NL Central crown. But just when they began to get excited about ending the championship drought, the Cubs went down in a first-round sweep.

“This is just a start, fellas. We’re going to get better with this,” Piniella said.

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ARIZONACHICAGO

abrhbiabrhbi

CBYng cf4111ASrano lf4000

Drew ss5231Theriot ss3010

Byrnes lf5122DeLee 1b4020

CJcksn 1b4010CFloyd rf1000

TClark 1b1000ARmrz 3b3000

Rynlds 3b4000DeRosa 2b4120

Upton rf3021JJones cf4010

Pena p0000Kendall c4011

Lyon p0000RHill p1000

Cirillo ph1000Wuertz p0000

Vlverde p0000Fontnt ph1000

Ojeda 2b2000Mrml p0000

Mntero c2100Pie ph1000

Salazar rf1000Howry p0000

LHrndz p3010Wood p0000

CSnydr c1000Ward ph1000

Totals365105Totals31171

Arizona200101001—5

Chicago000100000—1

E—Drew (1). DP—Arizona 4, Chicago 1. LOB—Arizona 10, Chicago 9. 2B—Drew (1), CJackson (1), JJones (1). HR—CBYoung (2), Drew (2), Byrnes (1). SB—Drew (1), Byrnes (1), Upton (1), Theriot (1).

IPHRERBBSO

Arizona

LHrndz W,1-0651152

Pena110000

Lyon110000

Valverde100002

Chicago

RHill L,0-1363323

Wuertz100011

Marmol211124

Howry210004

Wood121101

RHill pitched to 2 batters in the 4th. HBP—by LHernandez (CFloyd), by RHill (Ojeda). Umpires—Home, Greg Gibson; First, Mike Everitt; Second, Mike Reilly; Third, Mark Carlson; Left, Ed Montague; Right, Sam Holbrook. T—3:22. A—42,157.