HERE COMES TROUBLE
NL-best Cubs roll into Citi
WASHINGTON — The Mets are the defending NL champions, but that fact could easily go overlooked Thursday when the Cubs arrive at Citi Field to begin a four-game series.
These are hardly the same Cubs the Mets hammered in a four-game NLCS sweep last October to earn the franchise’s first World Series appearance since 2001.
A deeper rotation and lineup have carried the Cubs to the best record in the major leagues, and expectations on Chicago’s north side have seldom been higher.
“They have run with the success they had last year and obviously they are the best team in baseball right now,” Kelly Johnson said Wednesday before the Mets lost 4-2 to the Nationals. “I’m glad we’re going to be at home.”
The Cubs are 51-26 after Wednesday afternoon’s victory over Cincinnati and have a double-digit lead on the Pirates in the NL Central. Jake Arrieta, Jon Lester and Jason Hammel were responsible for carrying a rotation that was first in the NL with a 2.86 ERA. A lineup that included Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Ben Zobrist was second in the league with 403 runs scored.
Zobrist, whom the Mets heavily pursued last offseason — only to watch him join the Cubs on a fouryear contract worth $60 million — began play Wednesday fourth in the NL with a .406 on-base percentage.
But Zobrist was just one of the Cubs’ big additions: Jason Heyward and John Lackey are also important pieces that have arrived since last year’s NLCS.
The Cubs are “a lot” better than they were when they last faced the Mets, according to Terry Collins.
“I think the addition of Lackey was certainly a huge help, and their guys are playing good,” Collins said. “You look at what they have done. They are swinging the bats and [manager] Joe [Maddon] does a good job of getting those bench guys in there and they have played very well.”
Maddon has moved on from last season’s NLCS defeat.
“What does it mean? It just means we’re playing the Mets four games in New York right now, that’s it,” he told the Chicago Tribune. “Last year is last year. They beat us, they pitched really well, we had a great season, all of the above. But right now I know they’re struggling a bit, they’ve had some injuries among their pitching staff, too. I really don’t even think about connecting those dots.”
The Cubs’ disciplined plate ap- proach should test the Mets’ pitchers.
“They have a depth in their lineup of guys that see pitches, battle, fight pitches off, extend at-bats,” Johnson said. “When you have starting pitching like ours, that is what you’re hoping to avoid, because you want our guys to be in the game as long as possible.
“Obviously they have got some guys that swing for the fence, they have got some pop, but hopefully that is something our pitching can keep to a minimum, like they did last year.”
The Mets, minus Daniel Murphy, Lucas Duda, David Wright and Michael Conforto, certainly will look different to the Cubs. But Johnson, who was recently traded back to the Mets after spending the final two months with the club last year, would expect the Cubs to be seeking payback for the NLCS.
“I would think they would be looking forward to it a little bit,” Johnson said. “But it is a long season and as a player in the middle of the regular season you try to keep things pretty vanilla, pretty generic.
“Hopefully we can rise to the occasion, because we want to get on track. We need to get going and get some wins and start playing some pretty good baseball.”