Mets keep rolling, right into World Series, by sweeping aside Cubs
|
Version 0 of 1. CHICAGO — They took the field to a grunge song that’s nearly a quarter-century old, and when the chorus of Pearl Jam’s “Alive” rang from foul pole to foul pole and beyond, Wrigley Field filled with hope, evidence be damned. It was loud. The unseasonably warm night air made it feel like summer. The Cubs, they were still alive. This feeling lasted all of 20 minutes. As alive as the Cubs may have felt with winter closing in, the New York Mets are in full suffocation mode, extinguishing hope with a fire hose. There is nothing, right now, the Mets can’t do. They are a five-tool machine, led by the otherworldly Daniel Murphy. When a team has a player who homers in six straight postseason games — Murphy’s record-setter came in the eighth inning Wednesday — they must be blessed. But at this point, it’s not just Murphy. Spread it around. That’s how juggernauts act. That’s how pennants are won. “You just look at all the guys, thinking, ‘How’d they do it?’ ” Mets Manager Terry Collins said. “How did we stay together?” They didn’t just stay together. The Mets swept the Chicago Cubs right out of this National League Championship Series on Wednesday night with a resounding 8-3 victory in Game 4 that was over practically before Eddie Vedder sang the bridge. There are intricate little parts that make up the whole, led by Murphy and Lucas Duda. The former provides a lesson in how October legends are cast. The latter appears to be proof that players wearing Mets uniforms are forbidden from struggle; he entered Wednesday with one run batted in over eight postseason games, and by the second inning he had driven in five with a homer and a double. “I can’t explain it,” Murphy said for perhaps the sixth consecutive game. “It’s such a blessing to be able to contribute to what we’ve been able to do. I really can’t explain it.” Murphy (career-high homers in a season: 14) is a huge piece. But it is the totality of what the Mets are doing right now — as they roll into their first World Series since 2000 against either Kansas City or Toronto — that makes them absolutely frightening. They never, not for an inning or an out, trailed in the four games against Chicago. “Their domination of every part of the game was impressive,” Cubs Manager Joe Maddon said. [Thomas Boswell: Mets, Cubs both might have long runs] The four Mets starters in this series, the four who will face the Blue Jays or Royals next week — Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz, who allowed one run in 4 2/3 innings Wednesday — combined to post a 2.16 ERA with 29 strikeouts and five walks against the Cubs. Even on a night when the Mets hit homers and stole bases and played flawless defense, that rotation is the foundation — for next week and next year. Still, in the midst of what seems like domination, baseball has a way of providing the tiniest of moments that lead to the most impactful outcomes. This was no different. When Duda came to bat in the first, Cubs starter Jason Hammel had allowed a single and a walk, sure, but he had also struck out David Wright and gotten Murphy to pop out. He needed only to retire Duda, who entered the at-bat 3 for 24 in the playoffs. “Sometimes,” Collins said, “you have to show them you believe in ’em.” Duda worked the count full, and Hammel came at him with a 94-mph fastball. Miss it, hit it into the ground, pop it up — and the inning’s over. Wrigley rocks still. Duda, though, fouled it back. So Hammel had to come at him again. Again, he offered a fastball. Again, it sailed in at 94 mph. But this time, Duda laid into it, sending it to center. The two Mets on the base paths glanced as it whizzed by, but there was no doubt. It sailed over the ivy, and the Mets led 3-0. Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud immediately followed with a solo shot. If the Cubs were still alive, well, it was barely, and they hadn’t even batted yet. By the time Duda came up in the second, Cubs rookie Kyle Schwarber — listed as a “left fielder” but really a “guy who stands in left and hopes the ball is hit elsewhere” — had misplayed one ball off his wrist, a single for eternity but an error in reality. Duda again fouled off one 3-2 pitch, this one from Cubs reliever Travis Wood. He again laid into the next offering, a two-run double. So a 6-0 game in the midst of a sweep couldn’t have more key plays, could it? Well, take two. The first was Starlin Castro’s absolutely smoked liner with the bases loaded and nobody out in the fourth. Need more evidence that October is coming up Mets? Look at Wright, the third baseman, reaching behind him to snare it, a double turned into an out instantly. The next came in the fifth, when Collins replaced Matz with 42-year-old Bartolo Colon with two on and two out. What Colon lacks in velocity he makes up for in equal parts girth and guile, and his little two-strike, 88-mph sinker to the dangerous Kris Bryant dove out of the zone just as Bryant swung through it. Wrigley settled down again. By the middle innings, after Schwarber misplayed yet another ball into a triple, the Wrigley organist quietly sent the notes of Bill Withers’s “Lean on Me” through the speakers. That’s what the Cubs needed, not just Wednesday but throughout the series, somebody to lean on. The Mets? They just prop themselves up. Murphy’s eighth-inning shot was just a ridiculous capper. Against Cubs reliever Fernando Rodney, he was looking for a change-up. Yet he’s so locked in he caught up to a fastball. His slugging percentage in the postseason: 1.026. “I’ve not seen anything like this,” Maddon said. “I mean ever.” Even as the outcome became inevitable, Wrigley’s denizens hung in, chanting “Let’s go Cubbies! Let’s go Cubbies!” with two out and none on in the ninth. When Mets closer Jeurys Familia struck out Dexter Fowler to end it, there was the inevitable dogpile in the center of the diamond, hats and jerseys and hugs flying everywhere. When the Mets had finally cleared off, the Cubs reemerged from their clubhouse, and the city of Chicago had what amounted to a group hug, the team thanking the fans and vice versa. It was sweet. The Mets, though, are ruthless, their performance here complete. The message, to whichever team they might play: Watch out. |