The Mets after their sweep of the Cubs in the National League Championship Series. Game 1 of the World Series is Tuesday. (Photo: Elsa/Getty Images)
The New York Mets swept the Pennant against Chicago Cubs in the National League Championship Series to advance to the World Series for the first time since 2000. The Mets topped the Cubs 8-3 at Wrigley Field, and will face either Kansas City Royals or the Toronto Blue Jays for Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday.
“This is a long time coming,” said David Wright, the team captain, who signed with the Mets at age 17, in 2001. “I’m glad that I got a chance to kind of experience some of the misery with them along this road, because that champagne tastes a lot sweeter having gone through that, let me tell you.”
The Mets came out the gate with four runs in the first inning against Jason Hammel. Lucas Duda had been struggling in the series prior, but smacked a two-out, three-run homer to give New York an early lead for the fourth straight game. Duda helped send the Mets to their first World Series at Citi Field, which opened in 2009, with 5 runs batted in (RBI).
Travis d’Arnaud followed with a solo home run, and Daniel Murphy continued to shine in the postseason. Murphy, who only hit 14 homers all season, homered for the sixth game in a row and set a new major league postseason record. He had four hits in Game 4 on Wednesday and smashed four home runs while batting .529 in the series.
However, Yoenis Cespedes, the star center fielder acquired by General Manager Sandy Alderson in a late-July trade, left in the second inning with a sore left shoulder.
“They didn’t think there was any damage,” Manager Terry Collins said. “They thought an injection would calm it down in a day.”
“We thought in spring training we’d have a chance to win, we really did,” Collins said. “But the injuries started to pile up, and Sandy went out and got us some help. I salute the job he did, the guys he brought in, and I salute ownership for buying into it, saying, ‘We’re close.’ We may never be close again, you don’t know. They went out and got us some help, and here’s the result of it.”
