2015 pennantThe New York Mets are the champions of the National League.

On a night when Daniel Murphy hit another ho-hum homer, on a night when Steven Matz showed what he could do on a national stage, on a night David Wright has waited for since he was a raw rookie in 2004, the star was Lucas Duda. The Mets hung six runs on the board before the second inning was done, thanks to a Duda smash over the left-centerfield fence with Curtis Granderson and Yoenis Cespedes aboard. Travis d’Arnaud backed him up immediately, with a right field shot of his own. They scratched out another deuce in the second on a walk to Wright, a single by Murphy and a double by Duda. That’s five of the six runs driven in by Duda, if you’re scoring at home.

With that much breathing room, we could all settle in for six innings of anti-climax. Matz held the Cubs mostly in check. He was removed in favor of Bartolo Colon in the fifth. Manager Terry Collins, then went to his more-or-less “regular” bullpen configuration of Addison Reed in the seventh, Tyler Clippard in the eighth and Jeurys Familiar closing — and in the center of the dogpile. On the Cubs’ side, manager Joe Maddon apparently had decided early that he was going to use his pitchers as if it were spring training. So starter Jason Hammel quickly gave way to Travis Wood, who passed the ball to Clayton Richard, who was succeeded by Trevor Cahill, who was backed up by Pedro Strop, who yielded to Fernando Rodney, who was replaced by Hector Rondon. The Mets could do nothing against most of these guys, until Murphy’s requisite blast in the eighth inning with Wright on base. Gallant to the last, the Cubs answered with a smash of their own from Kris Bryant — who will be a pain in the butt for years to come. One area of concern is that Cespedes had to leave the game with what’s being termed “shoulder soreness.” Luckily, he’ll have until next Tuesday to heal.

That’s when the World Series begins.

7 comments on “Gut Reaction: Mets 8 Cubs 3 (NLCS Game #4, 10/21/15)

  • Chris F

    Let’s Go Mets!
    Let’s Go Mets!
    Let’s Go Mets!

  • Eraff

    Let’s Go Mets!!!!!!!!

  • Julian

    Couldn’t of pictured it any better!

  • Matty Mets

    LGM!!! We’re goin to the World Series!

  • Metsense

    The Mets never trailed in the series. The Cubs got a real beating at the woodshed.
    Lucas Duda had a break out game so the unlike the Dodgers, the Cubs did not pitch him perfectly. (Rogan)
    Daniel Murphy was shocking. I could not believe that he gave us a thrill with the “almost” double only to hit the record breaking home run in the next at bat. It was a legendary series.(Smith)
    The team with the most homers win.(Joura)
    The Mets out pitched the Cubs.( Albanesius) and Syndergaard is more than a God of Thunder (Groveman) summed up the dominant pitching. How close can someone predict the length of start? (Kolton).
    Met fans can now pick their poison, Blue Jays or Royals (McCarthy) as long as the Mets 2015 card of the week says World Champions (Parker)
    There is a reason this site is the best in baseball. Accurate, informative and knowledgeable writers. Thanks guys for taking us through the NLCS.
    On to the World Series ! Let’s Go Mets !!!!!!

  • Brian Joura

    The Mets as a team had an .833 OPS this series. Only one player – Jorge Soler – on the Cubs had a better mark.

    The Cubs batted just .164 and struck out 37 times in 128 ABs.

    If you told a Cubs fan before the series started that Cahill, Grimm, Richard, Rodney, Rondon and Strop would combine for a 2.08 ERA and that they would be swept — they wouldn’t believe you.

    I now consider 1984 to be avenged.

  • TexasGusCC

    Still hasn’t sunk in, but the reality of the Mets accomplishment speaks volumes to how “going for it” at the trading deadline could just be the difference between contenders and pretenders. In mid-July, we spoke of a team that was so feeble offensively that we considered two runs an accomplishment and four runs a bonanza. How could we have possibly considered this?

    Congratulations to all those players that truly deserve this and here’s to winning it all! They’ve earned it.

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