The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Mets take 3-0 NLCS lead
CHICAGO >> Maybe somebody can stop Daniel Murphy and solve these young New York Mets aces.
Sure hasn’t happened so far in the playoffs. Murphy homered in his record-tying fifth straight postseason game, Jacob deGrom pitched seven strong innings and the Mets beat the Chicago Cubs 5-2 Tuesday night for a 3- 0 lead in the NL Championship Series.
A cluster of New York fans gathered in the rain behind their team’s dugout after the final out and chanted “Let’s go, Mets!” And with a win Wednesday night at Wrigley Field, the Mets will be going to their first World Series in 15 years.
Rookie Steven Matz gets the start for the Mets in Game 4 while Jason Hammel goes for the Cubs.
“Being up 3- 0, we’re very, ver y for tunate, because the Cubs have played g reat ,” manager Terry Collins said. “We’ve got to come out tomorrow and Steven Matz has got to give us a game.”
After going 0-7 against the Cubs during the regular season, New York is over powering them with their arms and bats.
Yoenis Cespedes and David Wright each had three hits for the Mets. Cespedes scored the go-ahead run on a two- out wild pitch by Trevor Cahill on a strikeout of Michael Conforto in the sixth inning.
Murphy tied the mark set by Houston’s Carlos Beltran in 2004 with his drive off Kyle Hendricks in the third.
DeGrom followed up dominant starts by Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard in New York with one of his
own. The NL Rookie of the Year held the Cubs’ big bats to just t wo r uns and four hits. He str uck out seven, walked one and retired his final 11 batters.
The righty with the flowing hair improved to 3- 0 in his first postseason, with all of the wins coming on the road.
Kyle Schwarber had the t owel-waving crowd shaking 101-year old Wrigley Field to its foundation in the first inning with his club-record fif th homer of the postseason. Jorge Soler also had them roaring with his solo drive in the fourth. But manager Joe Maddon’s Cubs have just five runs in this series.
Barring an epic comeback, a World Series drought that dates to 1908 will continue. Only one other team has won a playoff series af ter dropping the first three games.
Theo Epstein’s Red Sox came back against the New York Yankees in the 2004 AL Championship Ser ie s and ultimately ended one long championship curse. Now, the team he constructed in Chicago, that stirred the imaginations of long- suffering fans, finds itself in a similar spot.