CHICAGO — Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella says he doesn't really believe in The Curse, that he, as does everyone else, "likes to have fun with it." But someone thought enough of it to invite some sort of cleric to sprinkle holy water around the Chicago clubhouse before the start of this series, which means one of two things:

God likes to have fun with The Curse, too, or ... the cleric wasn't much of a holy man.

Because for two games in their National League Division Series with the Dodgers, the Cubs have played as if black cats were placed down their pants. Wednesday night, the usually controlled and calm Ryan Dempster pitched like a late-season call-up and Jim Edmonds, the Gold Glove centerfielder, played as if it were his first time there. The Cubs lost, 7-2.

Thursday night, the Cubs' infield mishandled three ground balls in a five-run second inning, negating the high-speed effort of their volatile starter, Carlos Zambrano, and losing, 10-3, in the second game of their best-of-five series.

Games 3 and 4 are in Los Angeles, Saturday and Sunday.

"I don't think you can win 97 ballgames playing that way," Piniella said. "It wasn't good baseball. In fact, the last two days probably been the worst two games played all year. It wasn't fun to watch, I can tell you that."

It says volumes that Zambrano, who has fought with teammates, thrown tantrums on the mound and destroyed a lifetime's supply of baseball equipment, was the least culpable of the inning, his only bad pitch a 3-1 fastball that Russell Martin belted into the left-centerfield gap to clear the bases and stake Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley to a 5-0 lead.

The inning started with a flare to rightfield by Andre Ethier. Then, covering a hit-and-run, Cubs shortstop Ryan Theriot reached back and tried to barehand James Loney's bouncer and instead deflected it into leftfield. After Matt Kemp struck out, Blake DeWitt skidded a ball to Cubs second baseman Mark DeRosa, who bobbled it first, then threw wide of the bag. Casey Blake banged a grounder that bounced off the usually surehanded Derrek Lee, scoring Los Angeles' first run.

Billingsley struck out and it seemed that maybe, just maybe, Zambrano would emerge from the inning the way Brett Myers escaped the first inning in Philadelphia. But Myers doesn't have the specter of cats, ticked-off goat owners or interfering fans, and the Phillies are trying to make it to the World Series for the first time in 15 years, not 63.

Rafael Furcal punched a bunt to the right side of the infield and a second run scored. Zambrano, now visibly upset, ran the count to 3-1 and Martin spanked a fastball to the ivy in left to push the Dodgers lead to 5-0.

There were plenty of other oddities after that. In the fourth, Aramis Ramirez booted a ball at third for the third official error of the infield. (If you count Theriot's ill-advised barehand try, each member of the infield had an, um, hand in the proceedings.) Theriot added a ninth-inning throwing error to make it a clean kill. In an unclean way.

"If you play the way we played, it doesn't matter who youre opposition is," Piniella said. "We talked about being a good defensive team, and tonight we weren't."

Even Cubs catcher Geovany Soto seemed possessed at times, burying one throwback to Zambrano into the home-plate dirt one time, skidding it past a visibly disgusted Zambrano with two on in the sixth inning.

Lee later injured his left hand when he put it in the path of a doubleplay relay.

By the middle innings, disgusted Cubs fans cheered even the most routine of infield outs.

"Cursed? I don't believe that stuff," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said when the subject of the Cubs' championship drought first came up this week. "You're dealing with a former Yankee manager who had a 3-0 lead against the Red Sox ... Sorry."

Well guess what, Joe? You have another one of those kind of leads, over a team with a lot in common with those 2004 Red Sox. The Cubs won 97 games this season, more than any other National League team, 13 more than the Dodgers. But the Dodgers won 19 games in September, a September that Chicago, with a big lead, coasted into.

"I hope I never have to go through that again," Piniella had said on the eve of these playoffs.

He had no idea. Rather than depart after Thursday night's game, the Cubs will head to Los Angeles Friday. Some sort of sleep doctor advised it, said it would allow the proper amount of sleep, allow their legs to recover quicker.

Legs, though, would seem the least of their problems. Start with their hands and work up, you might be better off. Then again, this whole thing might very well be bigger than legs, hands, or heads. No team has ever come back from an 0-2 deficit in the NLDS, and they will have to start their improbable comeback on the road, where they won only three more games than they lost this season.

Silver lining? The cleric has not been asked to bless the visitor's clubhouse at Dodger Stadium. And there's that Torre factor.

"You have a chance to help end both droughts," someone teased Torre at this series onset.

"That's true, that's true," he said. "Be a part of history in a very dubious way."