That's all, folks.

In case you didn't notice, the Cubs' season came to an end this past Saturday. Don't much know what to say about it. Rich Hill was pretty bad, giving up 6 hits and 3 runs in 3 complete innings. The offense was flat-out awful for the most part. Seven total hits and five walks somehow only added up to one lousy run. And that's not mentioning the four occurrences of those dreaded letters: GIDP. The good news is that the Cubs still managed to go from dead last in the NL Central to first in the course of a season. The bad news should be pretty obvious. Until April rolls around again, I guess I'll just quietly be rooting for the Red Sox to go the distance this year.

That being said, you'll see all the sports-related talk around these parts shift to the hometown favorites-the Tennessee Titans and the Nashville Predators. Both of those teams, by the way, had excellent weekends. The Titans' defense looked solid against the Atlanta Falcons, and the Preds looked dominant in their first two games of the season. Onward. Go Titans, and go Preds!

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!