CHICAGO -- The New York Mets are one victory away from booking a trip to Kansas City (or possibly Toronto) for their first World Series appearance in 15 years.
The Amazin’s took the lead during a crazy sequence in the sixth inning and ultimately beat the Chicago Cubs 5-2 in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series.
The Mets now hold a 3-0 series lead. And unless Cubs president Theo Epstein can preside over a second miracle as he did with the Boston Red Sox against the New York Yankees in 2004, the Mets will be ticketed for their fifth World Series trip (they also went in 1969, 1973, 1986 and 2000).
Teams that win the first three games of a best-of-seven series have won 33 of those 34 series, according to the Elias Sports Bureau research.
With Yoenis Cespedes on third base and two outs in the sixth, Michael Conforto struck out. However, Trevor Cahill's pitch went to the backstop, Conforto took first base, and Cespedes scampered home with the tiebreaking run on the wild pitch.
No. 8 hitter Wilmer Flores then sent what should have been a line-drive single to right field. Right fielder Jorge Soler decided to be too aggressive rather than keep the ball in front of him. The baseball went past Soler and all the way to the wall. Conforto raced around from first base to seemingly score for a 4-2 lead.
However, the baseball had become lodged in the ivy in the right-field wall. Although Conforto appeared as though he would have scored comfortably anyway, the umpiring crew sent him back to third base, ruling it a ground-rule double. (The umpires have no discretion to allow Conforto to score per Wrigley Field ground rules, an MLB official said.) An irate manager Terry Collins nonetheless argued to no avail.
It turned out that taking the run off the scoreboard did not matter. An inning later, third baseman Kris Bryant double-clutched on a ground ball, allowing Daniel Murphy to beat the throw to first base. Left fielder Kyle Schwarber then dropped Cespedes’ fly ball. Given two extra outs, the Mets expanded their lead to 5-2 with a two-run seventh.
Thumbs up: Jacob deGrom surrendered early solo homers to Schwarber and Jorge Soler. However, much like in Game 5 of the division series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, he overcame fastball control problems to gut through an effective outing. DeGrom retired the final 11 batters he faced after Soler’s homer in the fourth evened the score at 2-2. He limited the Cubs to two runs on four hits and a walk in a 100-pitch effort that spanned seven innings. DeGrom is now 3-0 this postseason.
DeGrom allowed the homer to Schwarber in a 29-pitch first inning. He went to a three-ball count to four of the first seven batters he faced.
Through three postseason starts, three of the four runs deGrom has surrendered came in the first inning. During the regular season, he had a 4.50 ERA in the first inning and 2.18 ERA afterward, according to Inside Edge tracking.
Meanwhile, Murphy actually is the GOAT (Twitter code for greatest of all time). Well, at least he shares that honor with Carlos Beltran. Murphy joined Beltran as the only two players in major league history to homer in five straight postseason games. Murphy’s solo shot against Kyle Hendricks in the third inning staked the Mets to a 2-1 lead. Beltran’s five straight games with a homer came during an eight-homer postseason with the Houston Astros in 2004. That winter, he signed a seven-year, $119 million deal with the Mets. Murphy now has six homers in eight postseason games.
What’s next: Steven Matz opposes right-hander Jason Hammel in Game 4 on Wednesday at 8:07 p.m. ET as the Mets look to sweep the NLCS.