New York Heading To The World Series

It has been fifteen years. Fifteen very long years of waiting and frustration. After all the heartache and headache, it has finally happened. The New York Mets are champions of the National League, having their ticket punched to the World Series. If you had told me back in April, at the start of the season, that the Mets would be the National League Champions and playing in a World Series, I would have looked at you and laughed right in your face. But now here we sit in late October, a week away from the start of the Series, and the Mets are the Champions of the National League.

Both the Mets and the Chicago Cubs had come into the series with a bit of a hot streak. They had taken out their opponents in four games (Mets beating the Dodgers, Cubs taking out the Cardinals). Now they get set to face each other in a series of teams looking to break slumps. Chicago hasn't seen a World Series since 1945, the Mets since 2000. The Mets power really took off in this series. Daniel Murphy had four dingers, we'll touch on him in a little while, Travis D'Arnaud hit a pair (Solo shots in game one and game four) and Lucas Duda hitting the three run shot in game four. Of the regulars in the Mets lineup for the series, everybody had at least two hits in the series (Lagares finished the series going 2 for 6). IF you want to get nit picky, the only guy in the Mets lineup who was held off the basepaths was Copnforto, who was held hitless in the series. Granderson had three hits in the series, and every other starter had at least four hist in the series.

That was a huge difference in this series. I'll admit some of the Cubs showed promise. Jorge Soler (.417 average) and Dexter Fowler (.250 average) were really the only consistent hitters in the Chicago Lineup in the series. Yes Kris Bryant had a decent series, with a homer and three driven in and Kyle Schwarber went deep twice in the series. But those two home runs were the only hits that Schwarber had in the entire series. You also know its going to be a rough go for Cubs hitters if Anthony Rizzo was held without a home run, without an RBI and finished the series hitting just .214. For a team that has a lot of potential, the Cubs came out flat in the series which was a bit of a surprise. What did it was how much better the Mets pitching was in this series.

The Mets pitchers have an ERA under 3.00 (the only pitcher with a high ERA was Tyler Clippard who finished the series with an ERA of 6.00). Familia, Colon, Niese and Reed were all perfect out of the bullpen. Matz was the only one not to get a win out of the starters in this series (Colon got the win in game four for his relief appearance). Everything was just clicking right for the team in this series. The pitching staff was on point and held the hot Cubs hitters at bay. The offense was balanced and came up with the big hit when it was needed. And then there was Daniel Murphy.

You could not get any hotter of a hitter on all of planet earth right now than Daniel Murphy. Its no surprise to anybody whit the way he played in this series that he won the NLCS MVP, only the 2nd Mets player ever to win the MVP in the NLCS (Mike Hampton won it in 2000). During this series, Murphy finished with a .529 batting average (now hitting .421 for the entire playoffs), he hit 4 home runs, 6 runs batted in, 9 hits in the series and set a Major league record for hitting home runs in 6 consecutive playoff games (he went deep in the final two games of the divisional round and ever game of the league championship series). His slugging percentage for the four games was a gaudy 1.294, a truly mind boggling number over four games.. Murphy had a .424 lifetime slugging percentage heading into the series. and a .755 OPS coming into the postseason. That's talking other worldly numbers for the 2nd baseman who many would consider to be the Mets most consistent hitter. It wasn't just the timely hitting, but the clutch fielding as well. Twice in the ninth inning, games two and three to be specific, he made fantastic plays at 2nd base to get the last out of both of those baseball games. You really couldn't get more locked in during this series than Murphy was. This was something that was truly amazing to watch over the four games. It truly was incredible to watch over the span of the four games.


Everything really started to click for the Mets right after the trade deadline. Powerful and dominant pitching have been a staple of the Mets since the beginning of the year. Then the trade deadline brought in the offense that could really give support to that pitching staff. This really is a bit of a strange feeling. Its late October, fans gearing up for the World Series. The New York Mets will be playing in said series. It might feel strange, but this state of Mets euphoria is very real. The New York Mets are in the World Series. Its party time in Queens right now, but Tuesday night its time to get back to business once again.