Mets Take Game 3 of NLCS; 1 Win Away from World Series
The Mets are now just one win away from the World Series after beating the Cubs in Game 3 of the NLCS Tuesday night in Chicago.
Once again the Mets jumped out on top early. Curtis Granderson led off the game by reaching on an error. He was thrown out trying to steal second. Too bad because David Wright singled. Yoenis Cespedes brought him home with a double for a 1-0 lead.
But the Cubs got the run back in the bottom of the inning on a Kyle Schwarber homer. The Cubs would get runners to first and second but Jacob deGrom got out of it.
The Mets got runners to first and second with no outs in the second but failed to score.
In the third it was the amazing Daniel Murphy again, homering to give the Mets a 2-1 lead. It was the fifth straight game in which he has homered, tying a post-season record (Carlos Beltran in 2004). He now has six home runs in the playoffs.
The Cubs used the long ball to tie the game in the fourth — Jorge Soler with the solo shot.
Cespedes led off the sixth with a single. He moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Lucas Duda (he was actually bunting for a base hit against the shift). Cespedes stole third and with two outs, Michael Conforto struck out. But the ball got past the catcher and Cespedes scored to make it 3-2. Then the Cubs caught a huge break. Wilmer Flores hit a sinking liner to right that skipped past the diving Soler. It went all the way to the wall, easily scoring Conforto. However, the ball rolled into the Wrigley Field ivy, which is an automatic ground rule double, so Conforto had to go back to third. Terry Collins argued to no avail. DeGrom flied out to end the inning.
Wright doubled with one out in the seventh and moved to third on an infield single by Murphy. Cespedes then hit a hard liner to left. Schwarber misjudged it and tried for an over the shoulder catch, but it hit off his glove. Wright scored to make it 4-2. With runners on second and third, Duda grounded out to first. Anthony Rizzo tried to throw home to turn the double play but the throw was late and Murphy scored to make it 5-2.
deGrom was excellent once again, going seven innings, allowing two runs on four hits. He struck out seven Cubs and walked just one batter. He is now 3-0 in the post-season.
Jeurys Familia came on for the ninth and collected his fifth save of the playoffs.
Mets win 5-2 and have a three-games to none lead in the NLCS. They go for the clincher Wednesday night. Just unbelievable.