I think this NLCS against the Marlins will be fun. Unlike the Braves, they can score without hitting the ball out of the park. They led the league in stolen bases, though they were only eighth in the league in runs (the Cubs were ninth). It’s a young team clearly coming off an exciting upset win over the Giants in the first round, and they will not make anything easy for the Cubs. The Cubs took four of six from the Marlins during the season.

While the Prior-Wood tandem has been tossed around all season as if they were a Schilling-Johnson-like dynamic duo, for most of the year Wood has been inconsistent. Even in the games where he pitched well and kept the other team in check, it took him so many pitches to get outs that he’d get pulled in the sixth or seventh inning. But it’s clear that, since late August, Wood is pitching at least as well as he ever has since the elbow injury. Without actually looking at the stats, I’d venture to say that with these two amazing performances against the Braves, he is pitching better than he ever has.

If Baker works the rotation the way I expect, Wood and Prior would pitch four times in a seven-game NLCS. Right off the bat, that’s four games where — at this point — you almost feel you can chalk up the victory as soon as they start throwing their warmup pitches. But let’s say the Cubs win only three of those, that means the Cubs would only need one breakout offensive game (which, for them, is five runs or more) or dominant pitching performance from Zambrano or Clement.

I like those odds. I also think the Cubs are lucky to have home-field advantage in the series, because Pro Player Stadium can be pretty unnerving when it’s full of bandwagoning South Floridians (though another Wrigley Field South is likely). That said, with the two-three-two format, a home split can be scary because it means having to win at least one in Miami.

In spite of my optimism about tonight’s game, I admit that I was more prepared for disappointment than for jubiliation. I’m just so used to it. I knew exactly how to talk away the pain, but how do I wipe the smile off my face?

It had been 95 years since the Cubs won a postseason series, which is kind of a dopey stat because back then — 1908 — the “postseason series” the Cubs won was the World Series. Still, it counts for something. It was step two. It has been 58 years since the Cubs won the National League pennant and earned the right to play in the World Series. That is definitely the more important streak, and hopefully one the Cubs will break.

I wanted very badly for the Cubs to win today not to avoid “tragedy,” but, simply, to keep the fun going. I would have been saddened not so much by the end of another year without a Cubs pennant, or a Cubs World Series championship, but by the end of the intense drama that develops when your team plays in October.

I didn’t expect this team to be this good this early, so it’s hard for me to wrap my mind around the notion that this might be the year. It’s hard for me to keep from thinking of how much better they’ll be next year when Corey Patterson’s back and another offseason of Jim Hendry moves has improved the team’s shaky bullpen and Swiss cheese lineup.

Perversely, I’m already waiting until next year and this one hasn’t even ended yet! Tonight bought me at least another week of this orgiastic feeling of belonging to the drama of the postseason. That is why I can’t wipe the smile off my face.

So the Red Sox did what they had to do, winning two in Fenway to even up their series 2-2 and take it back to the Bay.

And now they have a fully rested Pedro Martinez going tomorrow going against … who? It would have been a matchup of the game one starters and team aces Martinez and Hudson if A’s manager Ken Macha hadn’t made the idiotic decision to pitch Hudson today on short rest. He lasted one inning and went out with an injury.

So now who will match Pedro Martinez, one of the best big game pitchers of this era in baseball, pitch for pitch? Barry Zito on short rest? Good question, and there’s no answer. If the A’s lose this series, they have the manager to thank.

Those poor pathetic souls known in Chicago as White Sox fans have had enough of the Cubs fever supposedly sweeping the city.

Chicago Tribune columnist and lifelong Sox fan John Kass concluded a recent column with the words, “Go Cubs.” Here are some of the responses he received from outraged comrades.

They include one letter from 13-year-old Sox fan Tara Lucas:

We should be proud of the fact that one of our city’s teams made it to the playoffs. But the truth is, I’d rather no teams did than the Cubs making it and the Sox did not,” Miss Lucas wrote. “It is not out of jealousy, but out of … hatred.

I am assuming that you did not mean those two terrible words. Please tell me you did not mean them. (Signed) Tara.

They learn early, and most baseball fans in Chicago never forget. Apparently John Kass did. He had no adequate defense, of course, because there is none.

The only thing more despicable than the Chicago baseball fan who claims to root for both teams is the die-hard of one team who decides to cheer on the other team out of “civic pride” or some other fantastic notion come October. I give you: Da Mare.

Rooting interests are, of course, arbitrary, which is what makes them so much fun. When the team that you’ve arbitrarily decided to root for, usually for geographic reasons, finally wins it all it’s almost as if you earned that victory by your years or decades of partisanship. But to jump on the bandwagon … well, it’s about as satisfying as rooting for the best picture favorite on Oscar night.

It’s the sign of a confused soul, headed straight for sports purgatory.

In spite of yesterday’s loss, I am not crushed. I am not heartbroken. And the Cubs have not collapsed. Dusty wouldn’t allow them to be, and there’s no reason for Cubs fans to be demoralized considering the favorable matchup tonight.

Our club has a fully rested Kerry Wood going up against a short-rested Mike Hampton, who came very close to getting knocked out early in game two. But at this point, the talk of matchups is kind of futile. The Cubs must execute, period. Wood must pitch the game of his life, the bullpen (probably minus Farnsworth) has to pick him up, and the Cubs have to score enough runs.

Pretty simple. Yet so difficult to do, and perhaps even more nerve-wracking to observe. We shall see. Go Cubs!