CHICAGO -- He wins the game, enhancing his reputation as a big-game pitcher and setting himself up for a big contract as a free agent, and the first thing out of Derek Lowe's mouth: "I want a statue like Lima.
"Lowe & Lima," he said, "the 'L boys,' " and if that's the case, throw in Loney.
The Dodgers have won a playoff game, the first since Jose Lima in 2004, only the team's second in the last 20 years, and as Manager Joe Torre put it afterward, "If I think about it, I'll get all choked up."
There's a reason why they call this place the "Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field," most everyone winning here over the last 100 years except the Cubs.
"How do I feel?" Torre said. "I've got Greg Maddux going out in the ninth inning. What a start -- it was so big winning this game."
And it starts with the starter, the argument here for the last week that Lowe would give the Dodgers the best chance to beat the Cubs, getting the start in Games 1 and 4.
"I talked to Maddux during the game and I told him, 'This is so tiring; I can't even remember what inning it is,' " Lowe said. "I didn't have an easy inning, but when we got down 2-0, I knew I had to do everything I could to keep us in there and give us a chance to win."
Lowe and Chicago starter Ryan Dempster teamed up to take the excited crowd out of the game, Dempster walking seven Dodgers and putting the crowd to sleep.
"I'm just sitting there, we're down 2-0 and James Loney is at the plate with the bases loaded and I think he's struck out," Lowe said. "I'm standing up ready to go out and pitch, and Greg grabs my jersey. 'I think he fouled it off,' he said.
"And then, bam, we're up 4-2."
Lowe took the mound in the fifth inning with the momentum, and refused to give it back. An error gave the Cubs a baserunner, but Chicago's best hitter, Derrek Lee, hit into an inning-ending double play.
In the sixth Aramis Ramirez opened with a double and Lowe threw a pair of balls to Geovany Soto, prompting pitching coach Rick Honeycutt to go to the mound.
"I know what he's doing; he's buying time for the bullpen," Lowe said. "He asked me what I wanted to throw, and I know 99% of the time when a pitching coach comes out, the next pitch is a fastball, so I wanted to throw a curve."
He did, and for a strike. The next two for strikes as well, and "that was the biggest out of the game for me," Lowe said.
