JAKE THE STAKE
deGrom’s chance to put 3rd nail in Cubs’ coffin
CHICAGO — Welcome to Citi Field, Midwest.
David Wright hasn’t played in the postseason at Wrigley Field, but certainly understands what it will be like based on what he saw and heard at his home ballpark the past two games.
“Their fans are starved for wins just like our fans are,” the Mets captain said after a workout Monday at the Friendly Confines.
The Mets plan to keep the opposition’s fan base begging for food. Up 2-0 in the NLCS, Wright and Co. enter Tuesday’s Game 3 knowing a victory will all but wrap up the pennant and turn attention to the Mets’ World Series opponent. But all it takes is one Cubs victory to make this feel like a series again.
All is great in the Mets’ uni- verse after beating the Cubs’ top two pitchers, Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta, in succession, leaving manager Terry Collins’ lineup to stare at solid, but hardly spectacular Kyle Hendricks and Jason Hammel the next two days.
Hendricks, who went 8-7 with a 3.95 ERA during the regular season, is scheduled to face Mets ace Jacob deGrom on Tuesday.
“I think we have a lot of confidence going into this game,” deGrom said. “We matched up against two great pitchers and we’ve got a chance to take a 3-0 lead. The guys are putting up runs for us and our job is just to keep it close and let them do what they’ve been doing.”
The Cubs can only hope a return to warmer weather and the charms of Wrigley will elevate their game. Otherwise, the franchise’s NL pennant drought that dates to 1945 will continue. The Cubs’ last World Series championship came in 1908.
Just for mood, the Cubs had the theme from “Rocky” playing in the visitor’s clubhouse at Citi Field following their 4-1 loss on Sunday.
“Sometimes it’s polka music, sometimes it’s Rocky,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “Listen, they beat us, but it’s not nearly over with, and we are really as good as our hashtag, ‘#wearegood.’ I have a lot of faith in our guys.”
But the Mets, within two victories of their first pennant since 2000, have the arms. Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard were electric in the first two games of the series and deGrom won his two starts against the Dodgers in the NLDS, the second of which was a grind.
In that performance at Dodger Stadium on Thursday, the righthander surrendered two runs early and was in constant trouble until his removal after six innings, but never folded.
“What makes this team very good is the depth of the starting pitching,” Wright said. “It seems like every game you have an AllStar type on the mound and a lot of teams just don’t have that.”
The Mets have lost seven straight games at Wrigley Field over the past two seasons, but this also was a team that went 0-7 against the Cubs in 2015 and has so far made that statistic irrelevant.
“We’ve come in here a lot of games and had very well-played games here at Wrigley Field and gotten beat,” Collins said. “We are certainly aware that we’ve got to continue to push forward. We’ve got to swing better here.
“This is a park [where] hitting is huge. You’ve got to hit to win games here. So we’ve got to get ourselves going offensively and not worry about anything except winning [Tuesday] night.”
Hendricks, who allowed three earned runs over 4 2/3 innings in his NLDS start against the Cardinals, said he thought the pressure is on the Cubs to win Tuesday.
“There’s always going to be some pressure, but you’ve got to let the pleasure exceed that,” he said. “I’m just going to go out and try to have fun. This is why you play the game. This is why you want the ball. So pressure in a way is sometimes a good thing.”