New York Mets offense conquering top pitchers in postseason run
By Tim Haberin
It doesn’t seem very long ago that we were wondering if the New York Mets‘ bats would have enough firepower to back their top-flight pitching staff. After all, they were just 28th in the league in runs scored at the All-Star break. Would their anemic hitting hobble their postseason chances in spite of the young stars in their rotation?
Of course, they turned things around in a big way at the trade deadline, acquiring Yoenis Cespedes from the Tigers to provide a much-needed spark to their lineup. He added that spark and then some, helping the Mets transform quickly into one of baseball’s more productive offenses. It wasn’t only Cespedes carrying the load either, and the team’s current playoff success is a great reminder of that.
With last night’s 4-1 win over the Chicago Cubs in Game 2 of the NLCS, the Mets now hold a 2-0 lead in the series, needing just two more wins to land their first World Series berth since their 2000 clash with the crosstown Yankees. It has been an exciting road through the postseason for the club thus far, and the offense has overcome some extremely daunting challenges to put them in their current enviable position.
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In their first two playoff series against the Dodgers and Cubs, the Mets could very well have faced the top three finishers in the NL Cy Young race in Zack Greinke, Clayton Kershaw and Jake Arrieta. To many teams that might spell an early exit from the postseason, but Terry Collins‘ men have come out of the crucible in impressive fashion.
The Mets were immediately tested in Game 1 of their NLDS match-up with the Dodgers, facing off against Clayton Kershaw, who went 10-1 with a sparkling 1.31 ERA in the second half of the regular season. New York nailed down a 3-1 victory thanks in no small part to a 13-strikeout performance from Jacob deGrom, but timely offense against the formidable Dodgers ace helped complete the job.
Daniel Murphy, who has turned into an overnight folk hero for the Mets, led off the fourth inning by hitting the first of his five postseason homers to give his team a 1-0 lead. After loading the bases in the seventh, Kershaw gave way to reliever Pedro Baez. David Wright promptly drove in two runs via a two-out single to widen the advantage to 3-0. Los Angeles pushed a run across in the eighth, but it was too little, too late.
The Mets fell to Zack Greinke (baseball’s ERA leader) in Game 2, but they did manage a pair of second-inning home runs against him off the bats of Cespedes and rookie outfielder Michael Conforto. They pummeled Brett Anderson and the Dodgers bullpen for 13 runs in Game 3 before facing Kershaw again. They were decidedly less successful the second time around, as Kershaw tossed seven frames of one-run ball to force Game 5.
In a rematch of the series’ opening game, the Mets hung on for a 3-2 win. They by no means feasted against Greinke, fanning nine times at his hands, but did just enough against him to advance. Murphy came through yet again, doubling in a run in the first inning to stake New York to an early 1-0 lead. He then belted a solo shot in the sixth to break a 2-2 tie, giving the Mets a lead they would not relinquish.
As the series shifted to the NLCS and the opponent changed to the Cubs, Murphy’s bat did not cool down. He hit another homer in the first inning of Game 1 off Jon Lester, once again staking the Mets out to an early lead that they would not surrender. Their lineup would score four runs off Lester, who knows a thing or two about postseason heroics, in 6.2 innings en route to 4-2 win.
As usual, another imposing pitching match-up awaited in Game 2 in the form of Jake Arrieta. The right-hander’s superhuman second half performance needs little introduction. He posted a miniscule 0.75 ERA in 15 starts after the All-Star break, finishing the year with a league-high 22 wins and vaulting him into the forefront of the 2015 awards picture.
The Mets offense made him look quite ordinary last night, however, handing him his first loss since July 25. As has become custom, they struck in the first inning, opening the scoring with an RBI double from David Wright. Murphy (who else?) followed that up with a two-run homer to push the lead to 3-0. The Mets would nab another run in the third, and Arrieta did not pitch past the fifth inning.
Many baseball fans will tell you that momentum is the key difference-maker in the postseason. The eventual champion is often the team that gets hot at the right time. Right now, the New York Mets are looking like they could be that kind of squad.
Their formula for success hasn’t changed much from the latter part of the regular season. They have routinely scored first, tacked onto their lead at crucial moments and closed out victories behind their usual great pitching. That’s a blueprint that tends to work in October.
In the Mets’ seven playoff games to date, they have faced Kershaw twice, Greinke twice, as well as Lester and Arrieta. That gauntlet would make many teams shake in their cleats, but the Mets have come out of it looking even stronger.