CHICAGO (Ticker) -- After an improbable loss, the Chicago Cubs hope Kerry Wood can guide them into their first World Series in 58 years when they play Game Seven of the National League Championship Series against the Florida Marlins at Wrigley Field on Wednesday.
The Cubs, who held a three-games-to-one lead after an 8-3 win on Saturday, lost Game Five in Florida but returned home for Game Six on Tuesday with ace Mark Prior taking to the mound to guide them to their first pennant since 1945.
Prior was dominant for much of the contest, yielding three hits through seven innings as Chicago built a 3-0 lead, and opening the eighth by getting Mike Mordecai to fly out.
But the Marlins battered Prior and two relievers for eight runs in the rest of the inning to notch their fifth comeback win of the postseason, 8-3, and set up Wednesday's decisive seventh game.
On the 95th anniversary of Chicago's last World Series title, Mordecai provided the big blow, belting a three-run double off the left-center field wall against Kyle Farnsworth to give Florida a 7-3 lead.
But a fan interfering with a foul pop and an error by Cubs shortstop Alex Gonzalez allowed the Marlins to move within a win of becoming the second team to overcome a three-games-to-one deficit in NLCS history. The Atlanta Braves accomplished the feat against the St. Louis Cardinals in 1996.
Of the 17 postseason victories in franchise history, Florida has come back to win 13 times.
Wood (2-0, 2.45 ERA), who allowed three runs and seven hits in 6 2/3 innings of the Cubs' 5-4, 11-inning Game Three road win on Friday, was sharp in Chicago's decisive Game Five win in the Division Series at Atlanta on October 5, yielding one run and five hits in eight innings in a 5-1 triumph. Opponents are batting just .177 against him this postseason.
In five career games against the Marlins, the righthanded Wood is 4-0 with a 1.85 ERA.
"Tonight there's nothing you can do," Cubs manager Dusty Baker said after Game Six. "We have Kerry Wood going, and it's going to be tough to beat both those guys. And I still like our chances very much. We're at home tomorrow, Game Seven. I think they beat us two out of three here, and we beat them two out of three down there, so we're back to even. And we've just got to go out and play, and play better ball tomorrow."
Marlins lefthander Mark Redman (0-0, 2.84) was marginally more effective than Wood in Game Three, giving up two runs and eight hits in 6 2/3 innings. Opponents are hitting .306 against him in the playoffs.
Redman faced the Cubs once in the regular season, yielding four hits in seven scoreless innings in a 6-0 home triumph on July 18.
"We don't mind being the underdogs at all," Marlins manager Jack McKeon said. "I don't want to belittle the Cubs, because I think they're a heck of a ballclub, really. But some of you guys here wrote like we shouldn't have even showed up. Couldn't beat Prior, couldn't beat Wood, couldn't beat anybody. And we may not beat them. But we're going to battle them and give them their money's worth and make them earn it."
