Don't Panic. Yet.

Well, Cub fans, last night was a tough one. The Cubs lost to the Diamondbacks, 3-1, in Game 1 of the NLDS.There's already a lot of controversy swirling around Lou Piniella's decision to pull Carlos Zambrano after the 6th inning. His replacement, Carlos Marmol, almost immediately gave up the go-ahead home run, ultimately resulting in a loss.

So the question of the day is this: Should Lou have pulled Z when he did?
I can't say with certainty, but I tend to think I agree. Here's why.

1. Z was already up to 85 pitches or so. You want to have him rested up if the series goes to 4 or 5 games.
2. Marmol is hands-down the Cubs' best reliever. Coming into last night's game, he had 96Ks over 69.1 IP, plus a 1.43 ERA.

The other thing worth noting is that a two-run lead, even in late innings, shouldn't have been insurmountable. The bottom line is that the Cubs offense looked downright awful. When your 1-4 hitters collectively muster 1 hit, and your leadoff man goes 0-5, that's a problem. When the team's LOB = 9, that's a problem. Piniella made a reasonable decision, the offense just showed that they weren't up to the task.

All that being said, tonight's game is (and I hate to use this term) a must-win. I feel good OK about this one. Ted Lilly, who has been looking very good his last couple of starts, takes the mound tonight. This combined with some run support should (hopefully) equal a tied series going back to Chicago on Saturday. Onward. Go Cubs!