San Francisco and Florida took the field at ProPlayer Stadium in front of a packed house on Friday. 2B-S Ray Durham opened his third straight playoff game with a hit. However, LHP Mark Redman prevented the Giants from moving him forward on the bases, choosing to pitch to OF-L Barry Bonds, who in turn grounded out to second.

In the bottom of the first, Florida once again took an early lead. Rather than employing their little ball strategies as before, the Marlins moved ahead with a two run homer off the bat of C-R Ivan Rodriguez. Both teams left runners on base over the next four innings, but no one crossed the plate again until the top of the sixth when the Giants took advantage of some defensive deficiencies on the part of the Marlins and put together several hits to tie the game at two.

Every half inning ended with the go ahead runner stranded on the bases, the game went into extra innings, and the teams reached deeper into their bullpens. A walk, an error, and a single, allowed the Giants to take a one run lead in the top of the 11th.

However, the Marlins were quickly back in the game when OF-S Juan Cruz made a little league mistake on a routine fly ball, not using both hands to keep the ball from rolling out the bottom of his glove, allowing 1B-R Jeff Conine to safely reach first. SS-R Alex Gonzalez walked and then 3B-R Miguel Cabrera advanced the runners one base each on a sacrifice bunt to the pitcher. The Giants loaded the bases with an intentional walk to OF-L Juan Pierre, evidently hoping for a double play opportunity. The tying run almost scored when 2B-S Luis Castillo hit a soft ground ball back to the mound, but RHP Tim Worrell executed an impressive defensive play, dropping down to stop the ball and winging it to the plate for the force out at home. San Francisco lost the game when IRod hit a single into right field, scoring Gonzalez and Pierre.

The extra inning tie made for an exciting game, but both clubs had ample opportunities to end the game well in advance of the 11th inning. San Francisco set a new record for players left on base in an NLDS game, stranding 18, while 12 Florida runners were left on base, as pitchers would find themselves in trouble and then work out of it.

Game 3 of the Cubs/Braves series started a half an hour late due to a rain delay. RHP Mark Prior has comported himself like a pitcher well beyond his 23 years from the moment he joined the Cubs, so we were quite surprised when he displayed overt signs of nervousness in his first post-season start. Even before he gave up back-to-back walks to OF-R Gary Sheffield and OF-S Chipper Jones, he clearly wasn't comfortable on the mound and we were quite relieved when he escaped the inning without giving up a run.

Luckily, the Cubs' offense was able to generate two runs off RHP Greg Maddux in the bottom half of the inning. The early rain came into play in the inning. 1B-L Robert Fick slipped on the infield grass when fielding 2B-R Mark Grudzielanek's intended sacrifice bunt, allowing Grudzielanek to reach first safely. Later, C-R Javy Lopez slipped while retrieving a wild pitch that allowed OF-L Kenny Lofton and Grudzielanek to advance a base each. Lofton started to head home, but he slipped on the basepath and almost didn't get back to third before Lopez's throw. However, ESPN flashed a graphic indicating that 31% of Maddux's runs allowed this season scored in the first inning, so Prior likely wasn't going to receive much more run support.

Players continued to have problems with the slippery ground periodically throughout the game and there were some non-field related defensive miscues, though none led to additional runs scoring. Prior almost always looks serious on the mound, however there was a tenseness about him all evening that typically isn't there. Meanwhile, Maddux and Lopez, who have worked together very rarely, suffered through communication problems. Nevertheless, the pitchers settled into a somewhat uneasy rhythm, working themselves into and out of tough situations. In the sixth inning, a pitch got away from Prior, hitting Sheffield in the back of the hand. Sheffield hopped away clutching his hand in obvious pain. A herd of people came out to check on the hand, but Sheffield did not leave the game to go have X-rays despite the substantial possibility of a break.

Maddux isn't a pitcher who normally racks up high pitch counts and after the game the Braves revealed he was battling a sore calf, so with Maddux at 90 pitches, Atlanta sent reliever RHP Jaret Wright to the mound after the seventh inning stretch. Wright kept the Cubs off the board and Prior returned to the mound for the eighth inning. Pinch-hitting for Wright, 2B-R Mark DeRosa fouled off the first pitch he received and then sent the second into centerfield for a double. SS-S Rafael Furcal advanced DeRosa to third with a grounder to Grudzielanek. DeRosa then scored when 2B-R Marcus Giles hit a sac fly into center. Sheffield looked better than expected in his first at-bat after the HBP, but he fouled out on the first pitch Prior delivered, ending the inning with Cubs still in the lead by one.

Chicago manufactured a run in the bottom of the eighth, re-establishing their two run lead. Despite the fact that he'd given up a run in the last inning and was now at 114 pitches, Baker sent Prior back out to the mound to pitch the ninth. Consequently, I remained nervous up until Grudzielanek caught the pop up that ended the game. Even while obviously troubled by the pressure of the playoffs, Prior compiled a 7:4 K:BB with only 2 hits and 1 run allowed in a complete game.