The National League Championship Series is set: the Chicago Cubs v the Chicago Cubs of New York. The Lovable Losers agains the Losers Who Are Lovable This Year.
Both the Cubs and the Mets enter the NLCS on a wave of momentum, overcoming opponents previous editions of themselves would have been easily bested by. The Cubs put away the St Louis Cardinals, their longtime nemesis, in four games and did it in style. They won a game in St Louis to put the fear of God into (the already wholesome and God-fearing!) Cardinals fans, and then didn’t even let the series return to St Louis.
Game 3 saw Jake Arrieta, Chicago’s unstoppable destroyer of baseball worlds, get knocked around for four runs in 5 2/3 innings, but the Cubs didn’t get rattled. They just launched baseball’s into the night sky, with Dexter Fowler, Jorge Soler, Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Starlin Castro and Kyle Schwarber – the first six batters in the order – all going deep in an 8-6 win. The seven, eight, nine spots didn’t homer, sure, but they still went 4-for-11. That’s a good team effort.
Game 4 ripped the heart right out of the Cardinals and held it to their beaks. St Louis took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first and, with their playoff ace John Lackey on the mound, looked to be on the verge of tipping the series momentum in their favor and heading back to Busch. But then the Cubs put up four in the bottom of the second and, after St Louis tied the game 4-4 in the top of the sixth, Rizzo untied it with a home run in the bottom of the inning. Then, in the seventh, Schwarber annihilated a Kevin Siegrist pitch that put the game away. The blast didn’t include a Joey Bats-style bat flip for extra virality, but it was no less dramatic and the ball traveled at least as far as Bautista’s bat did. Schwarber’s shot came to rest on the Wrigley Field video board and will remain there, forever taunting the Cardinals and all those who said the Cubs could never overcome being the Cubs.
The Mets’ NLDS victory was no less perception-busting. New York’s lesser-loved baseball franchise was a nice story this season, but a team whose success felt as much a function of the NL East’s malfunction as it was their own talent at hitting, catching and throwing orbs.
When the Mets lost Game 4 at home to Clayton Kershaw, who finally pitched like Clayton Kershaw should pitch in the playoffs, there was a clear sense that the Mets were done. Playing on the road in a deciding Game 5. Facing Zack Greinke. It was over. The Mets had comported themselves well, but the season was to end in the NLDS. The Mets would lose, as the prophecies foretold.
And just like the Cubs did in Game 4, the Mets fell behind early. After scoring a run off of the long-haired Greinke in the top of the first, the Dodgers came right back with two runs off of the even longer-haired Jacob deGrom. You tried, Mets. You tried hard. But it wasn’t to be.
But then it be. DeGrom held the Dodgers in check through his final five innings and the Mets manufactured a run in the fourth to tie things up. They took the lead for good in the sixth when the suddenly homer-happy Daniel Murphy hit a 394ft laser shot down the right field line. The long-haired Noah Syndergaard came in to pitch in the seventh and shut the Dodgers down and was then replaced by Jeurys Familia for the final two frames. Familia didn’t allow a baserunner and, for extra Met fan glee, opened the ninth by retiring pinch hitter Chase Utley, who will now be effectively suspended until April. (Good luck with your appeal on Monday, Chase!)
So now we have Cubs-Mets for the National League championship. It’s a dream series for MLB. They get two big market teams, but neither one a perennial winner that fans have tired of. The players on both teams are fresh and young and they haven’t been overexposed yet to the point of us wanting to see someone new. They are the new. No one, outside of the towns in which they play, wanted to watch Cardinals-Dodgers in the NLCS. Fair or not, jealous or not, baseball fans are sick of watching the Cardinals. And rooting for the Dodgers is like hoping a massively over-budget Hollywood movie makes enough money at the box office to show a profit for the studio. No, thanks. Cubs-Mets will do quite nicely.
Yet with all the excitement of this NLCS matchup, there’s also a background feeling of impending doom that’s hard to shake. Both the Mets and Cubs are exciting teams stocked with youth. Both franchises haven’t exactly been blessed with loads of championships over their history. While Cardinals-Dodgers left the average fan no team to root for, it also offered one guaranteed positive outcome: the Cardinals or Dodgers would lose.
Now we’re forced to pick between the Cubs and Mets. It’s a hard choice. It’s like picking between two children. Two children who disappointed you for most of their lives, but suddenly got their acts together, found a purpose and have announced they want to move out of the basement finally and go to college. That’s great, kids, but mom and dad only saved up for one child to go to college. So head out there to the yard and fight to the death to see who gets the money. Please know that we love you both very much and will forever mourn the death of the loser. Now begin your death match. We can’t say we won’t be entertained to watch it.
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