Mets go Hollywood as push for World Series begins
LOS ANGELES — Roll cameras for Mets postseason 2015, take one.
In this Hollywood production, Clayton Kershaw is the untouchable gunslinger who owns the West and isn’t about to be outdone by a band of Eastern rogues.
But the Mets did not win 90 games and the NL East title this year without facing adversity, and Kershaw — the starter in Friday’s Game 1 of the NLDS — and his Dodgers rotation-mate, Zack Greinke, represent the highest order of resistance in a short series.
So does that make the Mets underdogs?
“We’re not betting it — at least I hope we’re not — so it doesn’t matter one way or not,” David Wright said Thursday after the Mets finished a workout at Dodger Stadium.
“If people want to anoint one team the underdog and one team the favorite, that is fine. I like our chances. We’ve got a very good team and we’re going against a very good team, so it should be a nice series.”
The Mets crawled to the finish line in the final week, losing five of six games to the Phillies and Nationals and squandered a chance for home-field advantage in this series, but refuse to view that as relevant information.
Instead, they would like to believe they are starting a new season, which will culminate in the franchise’s first World Series championship since 1986.
“Last week I don’t even remember what our record was, so I don’t think that is something that carries over,” Michael Cuddyer said, but conceded it would have been better if the Mets could have avoided a 2,500-mile flight on Wednesday.
Kershaw, who has won two straight NL Cy Young awards and three overall, might be the most recognizable pitcher in the game, but the Mets like their own guy, Jacob de Grom, who is set for the Game 1 start.
“He was the Rookie of the Year [in 2014], he punched out three batters on 10 pitches in the All-Star Game and for a good chunk of the season he was in the Cy Young talk, so it’s only fitting he’s taking the mound for us,” Wright said of deGrom.
After 11 seasons as a major league manager, Terry Collins is finally getting to direct a team in a playoff game. Collins has a rich history with the Dodgers, for whom he spent 15 seasons as a minor-league player, coach and manager before returning to the organization as the field coordinator and farm director in the early 2000s.
Kershaw, A.J. Ellis and Kenley Jansen are among the Dodgers who arrived to the organization during Collins’ most recent tenure.
“I’ve had great history here,” Collins said. “It’s pretty cool for me, because I wouldn’t be sitting here if it wasn’t for the Dodgers.”
Kershaw has struggled the last two Octobers — he was 0-2 with a 7.82 ERA in two starts against the Cardinals in last year’s NLDS — but insists it’s a new season and he isn’t motivated by past failures.
“I don’t need to be fueled by too much,” he said. “I definitely remember, but it’s a new team, new season and hopefully for me a new outcome.”
Wright, who has waited nine years for a return to the playoffs, leads a core of Mets veterans with postseason experience that includes Cuddyer, Yoenis Cespedes, Curtis Granderson, Bartolo Colon, Tyler Clippard and Kelly Johnson. But the Mets also have a young nucleus, particularly in the rotation, that will be facing an intense spotlight for the first time.
“This is how you become household names, you have success in the postseason,” Wright said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if [our] guys become household names shortly.”