Mets’ Matt Harvey ready to face the Cubs in Game 1

His Cubs pick of Addison Russell doesn’t look as good but can’t get them all.

Harvey pitched into the eighth for the first time in more than two months, brushing aside all that hoopla last month about his innings limit. The manager is smart, his coaches are sharp, and the players are loose and confident. As long as they focus on their task at hand, defeating the New York Mets in the NLCS, they’ll be fine, just as they have been all season. And this is the first time they’ve ever met in the playoffs. Arrieta tossed a 4-hitter in yet another dominant start, and the Cubs won a playoff game for the first time since famously squandering a 3-1 lead in the 2003 NLCS against the Marlins.

The Cubs announced Thursday that Jon Lester would start Game 1 and Jake Arrieta in Game 2.

The Cubs swept the season series from the Mets 7-0 and have won 9 straight overall against New York, outscoring them 27-11 this year.

It’s been 12 years since the Cubs have been in the NLCS. If anything, it’s more intense. “It is harder to accumulate and acquire plus position players, and there is a better chance of them staying healthy and sustaining their performance”.

Ticket resale site TiqIQ.com (via Yahoo Sports) reports that the average secondary market ticket price for games 3 and 4 (and Game 5, if necessary) at Wrigley is now $1,357. Of course, the Chicago Cubs were right behind (354).

“I think there’s been a lot of ups and downs”, Harvey said of his at times tumultuous season. The team with the second-most walks in the majors during the regular season also had the second-most walks among the eight teams in the divisional round. If he’s still on, the Mets basically have no shot in either game he pitches. We’re so excited to be here, but everyone was so calm and collected tonight and we knew that we were going to win. That’s more impressive when considering the pressure after losing their first two games at home.

And no, he’s not thinking about taking the ball on a Stanley Cup-style pub crawl either. “I’m focused on the next series”.

Noah Syndergaard firing 100 miles per hour fastballs as Kyle Schwarber swings from his heels.

“I’ve been a Cubs fan since early on”. But here they are, all young and ignorant of history and, you know, just the way the world works in general.

Back in 2007-08, Piniella liked to say that Chicago got too high when the Cubs were good and too low when they were bad, and he was absolutely correct. “We had an opportunity maybe to get back home and do things differently, but they took advantage of the opportunities they had”, he said.

The Mets’ offense at this point is Curtis Granderson, Daniel Murphy with a little Yoenis Cespedes mixed in. They didn’t get hot until August and they haven’t cooled off yet.

The Cardinals, playing without catcher Yadier Molina (left thumb), failed to advance in the post-season after winning at least one series the previous four years. He also singled in a run with two out in the second before Baez connected against Lackey, the man the Cardinals were counting on to keep their season going, to make it 4-2. “That’s the currency with which we deal”, Alderson said. And when closer Hector Rondon struck out Stephen Piscotty on a ball in the dirt and catcher Miguel Montero made the tag to end it, the Cubs came streaming out of the dugout.

He’s only 22 with 288 big-league plate appearances, but Schwarber’s maturity is representative of his teammates, who vary between feigning ignorance of the playoff pressure and embracing it. The Mets will counter with Syndergaard, who lost his major league debut, 6-1, to Arrieta at Wrigley Field in May. That he’s aware of it is why Arrieta is a special pitcher.

“I freaked out when I caught it, and then you’ve got to make the throw”, Murphy said. “The playoff atmosphere can drain you of energy mentally and you spend lot of brainpower throughout the day contemplating things, thinking about different scenarios and it can be taxing”.