Remember how he used to confound us? Talent just oozed out of his pores, but at times it just seemed wasted. Kerry Wood just couldn’t throw the ball where he wanted to. But near the end of August it all fell into place. Down the stretch, he simply would not let the Cubs lose. He won his last six starts and had an ERA of less than 2.00. Last night in Atlanta, he converted the few doubters he had left.

Very few teams have a pitcher as good as Kerry Wood is, and even fewer have one as good as he’s becoming.

When you add Mark Prior, who might just be the best in the business already, the World Series doesn’t seem like a typical Cubbie fantasy.

It’s there for the taking. And if last night didn’t convince you. Well, stay tuned.

How dominant was Wood? He had as many hits as he gave up. The only earned run he gave up was on a good pitch, an inside fastball that Marcus Giles inexplicably hit into the stands in left field.

While the Cubs were wasting prime scoring opportunities, Kerry just kept putting zeroes on the board. In one key stretch, the Cubs loaded the bases against Russ Ortiz, made him throw a million pitches to get out of it, and Kerry zipped through the next half-inning on eight pitches. Ortiz scaled the mound like he needed a sherpa to get him there and the next time the Cubs were presented with a chance to score, they did not disappoint.

What great pitching like Kerry does for you is it allows you to blow a chance to score and get away with it. You don’t want to make it a habit, but when it happens, it doesn’t necessarily kill you.

The Fox broadcast was obsessed with Kerry’s hot wife, Sarah, and focused in on her as she agonized, and eventually celebrated his performance.

This summer I talked with a minor league pitcher who pitched at Arizona State when Mark Prior was at USC and he said that Prior’s girlfriend is, “a cow.” So let’s hope ESPN doesn’t find her in the stands on Friday night.

So many things were right about last night’s game. The Cubs come into the playoffs with a team nobody wants to play because of the right arms of Wood, Prior, tonight’s starter Carlos Zambrano and Matt Clement. Other teams also fear the quixotic genius of Dusty Baker. But the Cubs play some pretty good defense, too. They did last night.

The Braves did not. Nobody will confuse Marcus Giles with Ryne Sandberg in the field, though Giles is better than he was last year (a one-armed chimpanzee would be better in the field than Giles was last year). Bob Fick is a catcher trying to play first base. Rafael Furcal put the scatter in scatterarmed. Vinny Castilla’s mullet is still really good with the glove at third, but in this infield he’s the exception, not the rule. Oh, and Javy Lopez can’t catch.

When you take the Braves’ defensive liabilities into account, plus the fact that they won games this year by bashing mediocre pitching, the Cubs suddenly look like (gasp!) the better team.

Sure, Atlanta won 101 games and had a great season. But if the current Cubs roster had been around from day one, how many games would this team have won? Ninety-five? Ninety-eight?

No team was better in September than the Cubs. The calendar just flipped to October.

But something tells me, these Cubs don’t mind.

Conservative estimates indicate that between 10 to 12,000 Cubs fans were in the stands last night in Turner Field. We know this isn’t true because for the last ten years the Chicago media has reminded us on a daily basis that Cubs fans just go to games for the beer, the sun and the babes and don’t care about whether the team wins or not. Right?

The Cubs sent more fans to Atlanta than the White Sox can get for a Tuesday night game.

Muahahahahahahahahaha!

Tonight, Carlos Zambrano takes the mound. The pressure is off, because the Cubs got what they needed last night. They’ll leave Atlanta with a split. But Carlos isn’t happy with that. He’s the perfect guy to have in this spot. The Cubs will score some runs off of Mike Hampton (because he’s Mike Hampton and that’s what he does–give up runs). Carlos says his back feels fine, so the struggle won’t be with his body, but with his mind. He’ll be excited. He’ll be pumping his fist. He’ll be yelling at the sky. Hopefully he’ll be throwing strikes. Because if he does, and the Braves are pounding the ball into the Turner Field turf, the Cubs will come home and give the ball, and a chance to advance to The Franchise. He won’t lose.

Are you excited yet?

Thank you to all who stopped by and joined our GameCast last night. It was fun, and as you know the Cubs are still undefeated when we do this. We’ll be there tonight and unlike what I wrote at the end of last night’s GameCast, gametime is 6 p.m. Central tonight. You can check out last night’s, right here.

There is no award for Division Series Most Valuable Player, but if there was, the trophy would already have KER engraved in it.

Some day, the Cubs fans will be blase about first round playoff games. Until that time, we’ll go anywhere and pay anything to see our boys.

Carlos has a plan. He’s going to scream, “serenity now!” at odd intervals during tonight’s game.

Mike Downey says Kerry was locked in from the start.

Rick Morrissey wonders when the ivy will start to show on the Turner Field wall.

Four keys to last night’s game. On the wild pitch in the eighth (should have been a passed ball), Paul Bako looked like he was looking for his keys.

Mariotti puts down the dougnut to figure out that Kerry Wood is good.

Sleepin’ Cito Gaston and Ozzie Guillen are on Kenny Williams’ list. Hee hee.

The Bulls are talking playoffs, and they don’t mean the Cubs’ playoffs.

The Wizard of Roz wonders which team last night was the one with all of the playoff experience.

Mike Imrem thinks these Cubs have potential.

Jayson Stark and Doug Glanville sum up Kerry Wood’s big night. Really. Doug Glanville.

Intrepid reader and Spanish-yes.com baseball writer Jacob Luft on Kerry’s big night.

Atlanta is drooling the drool of regret today.

Naomi Watts and Heath Ledger are breaking up and I think I speak for us all when I say, “So what?”

Louie Anderson (who’s never really been funny) is in the hospital. I honestly thought he was already dead. Oops.

Ah-nuld is ahead in dee poles and is ready to be da next Gubernator of Cal-ee-four-nee-yah.

Another nominee for mother (and pet owner) of the year.

Ben Affleck’s hair shampoo commercial is a hit overseas (at least among those who think he’s gay) but won’t be shown here. Maybe we’ll get it on BBC America.

America’s finest news source with the story of a Georgia couple’s hilarious breakup.