Sports

LOS ANGELES - All the talk of goats, curses and 100 years of World Series futility had the spotlight squarely on the Chicago Cubs in the NL Division Series. Now, it's the team from the weakest division in baseball that's on the verge of closing out the bumbling Cubs.

"I put the Cubs and Tampa and the Angels in the same boat. They dominated all year long," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said Friday. "They were the only clubs that really went wire-to-wire."

The Dodgers, meanwhile, had a losing record as recently as a month ago. But with Manny Ramirez leading the way, they rebounded from an eight-game losing streak and won their first NL West title in four years.

With a victory over the Cubs in Game 3 tonight, the Dodgers would clinch their first playoff series win in 20 years.

"When you play at home, there's a lot of pressure on you to play well and win," Torre said. "You're supposed to win. I think we have that on us right now, especially winning the last two games."

Getting away from Wrigley Field and their fans' lofty expectations might be just what the Cubs need.

They bumbled their way to consecutive losses at Wrigley, getting outscored 17-5 and tying a division record with four errors in Thursday's 10-3 loss.

"Everybody had such high expectations and expecting us to just walk away with it the way we were playing," said Rich Harden, who will start tonight against the Dodgers' Hiroki Kuroda. "You could kind of feel the energy a little bit after that first game around Chicago come down a little bit. But it's tough losing that second one. We can come here, kind of start fresh."