COLD REALITY
Cubs ace Arrieta and young bats facing uphill climb
The Cubs can’t blame Steve Bartman for this one. The Mets have earned this success.
And the Cubs, to a man, know it.
The Cubs haven’t won a World Series since 1908. Unless they stage an incredible comeback, it will be another season with no world championship flag flying at Wrigley Field.
The Curse of the Billy Goat is still going strong, despite all of the Cubs young talent.
Chicago is quickly finding out this Mets pitching staff is not the Cardinals decimated staff.
And the Cubs finally saw that Jake Arrieta is human in a 41 loss to the Mets Sunday night that gave them the first two games at Citi Field.
The Mets own a 20 lead in the NLCS and now the Cubs must win four of the five remaining games in the series to survive. The next three games will be at Wrigley, unless the Mets manage to pull off the sweep.
Arrieta was done in by Daniel Murphy, the hottest hitter on the planet, when Murphy lifted a curveball off the ground for a tworun home run in the Mets’ threerun first.
“It definitely wasn’t what I would have liked,’’ Arrieta said of his fiveinning performance.
But Arrieta said this is not the end and promised he will get another shot at the Mets in this series.
“The ball will be in my hand again,’’ Arrieta said. “I feel like Jon [Lester], and I will get our opportunity and that’s all we can ask. We are going to come out ready to go [Tuesday night at Wrigley for Game 3]. We get to go play at home, which will give us some energy.’’
The Mets scored their first run on David Wright’s laser double to center off an elevated fastball.
Arrieta showed signs of fatigue in his previous outing against the Cardinals, and the Mets treated him like he was the Orioles version of Jake Arrieta in that first inning.
Sunday night Arrieta gave up three runs before he recorded an out.
Before the game, the Mets were confident they could get to Arrieta.
“His command hasn’t been nearly as good as it has been,’’ one Mets official told The Post. “He may be a little fatigued.’’ That’s understandable. The righthander is up to 248²/₃ innings this season, a tremendous workload.
“I know I didn’t have the really good life [on his pitches],’’ the straightshooting Arrieta said. “Physically I feel great. There is no soreness.’’
The Cubs have said repeatedly there is no panic in their clubhouse this postseason, but it might be time to push the button.
Now manager Joe Maddon is into his secondline starting pitching with Kyle Hendricks going Tuesday in Game 3 against Mets’ ace Jacob deGrom.
First it was the Dark Knight, Matt Harvey who took care of the Cubs hitters on Saturday night in the Mets 42 win. On Sunday night it was Thor, rookie Noah Syndergaard who dominated the Cubs over his 5 ²/₃ innings after coming on in relief to help save the Game 5 win over the Dodgers.
Syndergaard struck out rookie Kyle Schwarber three times, the rookie lefty had been the Cubs’ best hitter.
The Mets have not been feeding Schwarber fastballs, and he said it’s time for an adjustment.
“Baseball is a crazy game,’’ Schwarber said. “I remember the Red Sox winning [in 2004]. We’re not in that position. We’re not down 30, but we’re not going to panic.’’
Maddon finally decided to intentionally walk Murphy in the third with a runner on second, but that backfired when Yoenis Cespedes singled to short to score Curtis Granderson, who stole third base during the atbat. That put the Mets up, 40. “These were two hardfought games,’’ Schwarber said. “We are never going to quit. Going back to the home crowd is definitely going to help us. They still have to beat us two more times.’’
Maddon noted, “They are good, we know that. We’re looking for several onegame winning streaks. That would be kind of nice.’’
The Cubs need a hero, not a billy goat or a scapegoat.