Modest Murphy turned power-hitting monster for Mets

All in a day’s work for Granderson, who along with Daniel Murphy is carrying the Met offense this postseason.

Following Saturday’s 4-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs to take a 1-0 series lead in the NLCS, the New York Mets were looking to steal another win from Cy Young Award candidate Jake Arrieta before heading to the “Windy City” for the next three games.

The first four were of the no-doubt variety, with the third one being the biggest home run for the beleaguered Mets in many, many years. He has tied Mike Piazza for the club record overall. Murphy homered in a fourth consecutive playoff game, the first player to achieve the feat since Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria in 2008.

While the team’s pitching staff is New York’s greatest strength, Murphy’s success against the best pitchers in baseball is a big reason why the team is two wins away from reaching the World Series. Murphy tipped his helmet to the crowd as he stepped out of the dugout for a curtain call. David Wright then came through with an RBI double to snap an 0 for 16 skid and give the Mets a 1-0 lead.

New York opened the scoring quickly as first inning leadoff batter Granderson singled and scored on a David Wright double to the centerfield wall.

With his team trailing 4-0, Arrieta was pulled for a pinch-hitter to start the sixth. He hit a ball far out of the yard foul. When you’re going good, everything seems to smile upon you, and no one is going better than Daniel Murphy right now.

The playful bandage was visible during batting practice Sunday evening.

History may not matter to this young Cubs team, but that didn’t stop the Mets from shoving reminders down its throat anyway. During the delay a group of umpires (identity and number unknown) reviewed pictures of the play in New York and ruled that Tejada had not touched the base and therefore the Utley was safe.

Bobby Boswell headed home Fabian Espindola’s corner in the 67th minute, Espindola knocked in a left-footer with the benefit of defender Lovel Palmer’s deflection in the 71st, and Alvaro Saborio volleyed in a high-arching deflection from point-blank range in the 80th.

The old apple is now stationed near the home plate entrance of the new ballpark.

Noah Syndergaard pitched 5 2/3 special innings, striking out nine, while allowing the one run, and he was backed up by a host of Mets relievers, as the underside of the Mets’ pen looked better than it has in weeks. More than that, they hired him to handle moments like the one the Cubs are facing right now.

“They play great in Chicago”, said Mets manager Terry Collins.

The thing about this is that we’ve seen a few hot postseasons. The Chicago Cubs have a postseason ERA of 3.75 and have 77 strikeouts in seven games.

Lester, though not as dominant as he once was, sported a 3.34 ERA in 32 starts this season.

The NLCS isn’t over, not even close – a two-game deficit can turn into 2-1 and then an evened up 2-2 in a hurry – but while the Cubs have already turned to their top arms, the Mets are just getting to them. 167 this postseason while Kris Bryant “improved” to.185, finally breaking through on the road with two hits Sunday. “But just being able to throw the pitch at a certain time, make a mistake, and have my defense back me up was unbelievable”. All he talks about his baseball. Coghlan had homered off Syndergaard in the latter’s major-league debut at Wrigley Field last May.

With a right-hander on the mound for the Mets, the lefty-swinging Coghlan replaces right-handed-hitting Jorge Soler in right field.

If the first two playoff games of the 2015 postseason are any indication, you’re going to want to be there Tuesday night, Wednesday night, god willing, Thursday.

“Jorge will be back out there”, Maddon said. Only 12 percent of balls in play on these low swings resulted in a fly ball or a popup, and that’s 12 percent of the subset of swings that put the ball in play to begin with. “They are good. We know that”. He had not given up a first-inning run in 25 starts since May 29. We’re also very good. “We’re not going to give up”.

Young faced the Blue Jays once this year, on July 11, a 7-5 loss.