After being swept by the Dodgers in the NLDS, Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun-Times writes that this is the worst Cubs postseason collapse to date.

The Cubs are now 9-22 in postseason play since 1984. They’re 0-6 the last two years. They’re 18-50 since they last won a World Series in 1908.

In this final game of 2008, starting pitcher Rich Harden was average, and everybody else … aw, the whole team simply stunk.

This is the thing about Cubs players and managers. They always say they don’t believe in curses, they don’t believe in any of that nonsense, they only play ‘em one game at a time.

This may all be true. Indeed, there are times when I believe Soriano is not sure what planet he is on, let alone what century.

But the fans, the people who live in Chicago, the ones who aren’t on free-agent contracts but who throw in with the Cubs year after year, without fail, from childhood ’til senility — those are the people who get wounded again and again, without let up, without relief.
One hundred years are over, and now we start on another century.

To trust in the Cubs is to expect — and get — the worst.

Cubs fans deserve better. There seems to be the belief that Cubs fans almost want the club to lose so that they can remain everybody’s “lovable losers.” But not true Cub fans – they’re dying right now with each excruciating loss. When a team wins 97 games and runs away with their division, one would think they could produce one postseason victory.

Maybe curses are real.

The Dodgers lost 14 more regular season games, won their division by a significantly less margin, and finished with a team batting average 14 points lower. And yet it’s the Cubs that are one more loss away from playoff elimination, and not the boys in blue.

You hear players and coaches say how the regular season truly doesn’t matter when the playoffs start. But the Dodgers-Cubs series is actual proof. L.A. is making Chicago look like a completely different team. Granted the Cubs have a large hand in that, but Joe Torre’s bunch is beating their opponent in every phase of the game and their dominance was once again on display in a 10-3 rout in Game 2 Thursday night.

The NL West was largely a laughing stock this year. Not only did the division champion Dodgers finish with only 84 wins, but only two clubs (L.A. and Arizona) finished above .500. Meanwhile, the NL Central had four teams finish above .500 (Chicago, Milwaukee, Houston, St. Louis), and yet two of those clubs are about to get swept right out of their respective divisional series.

The Cubs are proving that a league-best record in the regular season means nothing in October. A team’s level of play has to rise in the playoffs and clearly Chicago’s hasn’t. In fact, the Cubs’ production has once again dipped below even respectability. And unless they have a miracle up their sleeves, the Dodgers are moving on to the NLCS.