The two lovable losers of baseball will face off with a chance to go to the World Series as the New York Mets and Chicago Cubs battle in the National League Championship Series.
While both teams entered the year with promising young talent, few actually believed either would reach this stage so soon. But they both kept winning in the regular season and reached the playoffs, where they pulled off impressive upsets in the division series.
Many have come to expect some form of choking from both organizations, but one of them will have to advance in what should be an exciting series from start to finish.
NLCS Coverage Guide
Matchup: New York Mets (90-72) vs. Chicago Cubs (97-65)
Series Odds (via Oddschecker): Cubs (-140), Mets (+120)
TV Coverage: TBS
Live Stream: TBS.com
Preview
Early in the season, trade speculation swirled around the Cubs and Mets, as they were the perfect match for each other. Chicago had an abundance of young hitters, while New York had a seemingly endless supply of pitchers.
They never made a deal, though, which makes those two factors one of the big storylines of this series.
The Mets come into Game 1 with truly impressive depth in the rotation. Jacob deGrom stepped up as a true ace in the NLDS, putting up great numbers even when he didn't necessarily have his best stuff:
Of course, the most impressive part is the fact that he earned wins in games against Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke. As good as Jake Arrieta has been in the second half of the season, deGrom clearly won't fear the Cy Young contender this time around.
Beyond that, the Mets have Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz and Game 1 starter Matt Harvey, all of whom can throw in the upper 90s with deadly breaking stuff.
"They have power pitching across the board," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said of the Mets, via Jesse Rogers of ESPN.com.
Arrieta and Jon Lester form a nice 1-2 punch, but the ability to bring out a new ace-level starter every night gives the Mets an advantage in this area.
On the other hand, the battle of the lineups is a clear win for the Cubs. Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo deservedly got most of the publicity during the regular season, but other top players like Kyle Schwarber and Jorge Soler have come through with big-time performances in the postseason.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today described one major offensive explosion during the NLDS:
The Cubs have a lot of players who can change the game with one swing and it could lead to a stressful series for all of the Mets pitchers.
Daniel Murphy had an outstanding offensive series for New York, but a few other key hitters haven't exactly been carrying their weight in the 2015 postseason:
Chicago did win all seven games against the Mets this season, although even Maddon admits that was basically a different team, via Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times:
Of course, we had a good record against the Mets this year, but they’re a pretty different team than we had seen earlier. The Mets have a lot of power pitching across the board. ... On the field, I don’t know what the Mets look like right now. I know what they looked like a couple of months ago.
With Yoenis Cespedes and Michael Conforto added to the roster and David Wright and Travis d'Arnaud healthy, this is a much better lineup than Chicago saw before the All-Star break. At the same time, however, the Cubs have gotten big contributions from Schwarber, Javier Baez and others.
The early-season success doesn't mean much at this point, but it doesn't take away from what the Cubs lineup has done all year long. With Arrieta and Lester capable of matching if not exceeding the performances of the young Mets starters, Chicago should have the overall advantage in this series.
This will be a great battle to watch for both diehard and casual fans, and it could go the distance. But on paper, it seems like the Cubs will advance and get back to the World Series.
Prediction: Cubs win in six.
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