Murphy, Duda lead Mets to sweep of Cubs, World Series berth

Daniel Murphy is swinging a hot bat at the right time.

The Mets topped the Cubs 8-3 to finish a four-game sweep of the National League Championship Series in which they never trailed once in a game.

New York will face the eventual American League champion, either the Kansas City Royals or Toronto Blue Jays.

Right when it looked as if his streak was coming to an end, Murphy connected for a two-run drive to center against Fernando Rodney in the eighth inning. Murphy also joined Lou Gehrig as the only players with seven straight postseason games with a hit, a run and an RBI.

With big-market, high-profile teams like the New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals in the playoffs, ratings ran at record levels for Turner.

“I can’t explain why the ball keeps going out of the ballpark, but it does”, Murphy said.

Mets fans gave the team a heroes welcome as the team arrived home Thursday after sweeping the Cubs in the NL Championship Series and reaching the World Series. We’ve been through Septembers where you’re just playing out the schedule, and that’s no fun. But if you look at the series as a whole, one thing became abundantly clear: the Cubs simply were not ready.

“I’m standing there in the dugout in the ninth inning”, manager Terry Collins said late Wednesday night, “and I’m looking around the field and looking down in the dugout”.

Throughout the season, manager Joe Maddon fearlessly moved players to other positions, and the different alignments rarely hurt the Cubs because of the athleticism of players such as Bryant, who also made starts at all three outfield positions and first base. “That was a pretty impressive four games they played against us”. Mets captain David Wright offered a Windy City basketball reference to sum up Murphy’s performance. While up double digits from comparable nights previous year, last night’s game was down 16% from what the record hitting Game 3 in the NLCS pulled in on October 20. “Murphy!” from Mets fans. “I think a lot of people didn’t really expect us to be here”. Yoenis Cespedes and Travis d’Arnaud have provided a few pop. Having five days off between games could affect the Mets’ momentum, but if it doesn’t, they will certainly be a force to be reckoned with in the World Series.

They then served notice through the regular season and the postseason that they are a team to be reckoned with for the long run.

Rookie starter Steven Matz held the Cubs without a hit through three innings but faced threats in the fourth and fifth innings and yielded a run before giving way to 42-year-old Bartolo Colon.