Mets-Dodgers get big ratings. Mets-Cubs could be historic

In an NL Championship Series teeming with top young talent, it’s a classic baseball confrontation: the New York Mets and their power pitching versus the Chicago Cubs and those potent sluggers. “They’re playing well. You got to tip your hat”. Kansas City overcame multiple-run deficits in all three of their wins.

When Randazzo visits Wrigley Field for Game 3 Tuesday it will be his first Cubs playoff game since he attended the famed “Bartman Game” as a 19-year-old fan in the 2003 NLCS.

But Chicago, with sluggers including 23-year-old Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo (26), Jorge Soler (23) and Kyle Schwarber (22), have shown they are ready for the biggest stage, blasting a postseason record six homers in one game against Division Series victims St. Louis.

This is the distinction between this team and others and how they have avoided the huge weight of a 107 year losing streak. The team that wins four games advances to the World Series. In the 4th inning, now trailing 2-1, he singled. “What makes him even tougher is he can cover both sides of the plate at any given time, so it’s not like you have him set up for a location later in the at-bat”.

As the music blared and the strobe lights flashed in the clubhouse, Cubs players and coaches soaked each other.

To win the best-of-5 series, the Mets had to at least split against reigning MVP Clayton Kershaw and possible 2015 Cy Young victor Zack Greinke-twice. The Mets’ young pitchers have been their calling card, while the Cubs’ young lineup has beaten and banged up opposing hurlers. The two teams put up almost identical numbers this season, and it’s essentially a toss-up, on paper. In their final 73 games, New York scored 55 percent of their runs and hit 58 percent of their home runs, leading the NL comfortably in both categories. First baseman Lucas Duda was 2-for-18 with 11 strikeouts while starting all five games in the NLDS against Los Angeles.

New York is the value bet in the series because of the inflated price – which in reality should be Chicago minus-120 – but a better approach is probably to wager on individual games and consider adjusted series prices after each game. Certainly the Rangers (up 2-0 with Games 3 and 4 at home), Astros (up 2-1, Game 4 at home), Cardinals (1-0 lead with home field advantage), and Dodgers (lost Game 5 at home) are feeling the pain of a short series. So it goes. The Royals and Blue Jays were the two best teams in the AL this season.

The first of those arms that the Cubs will be facing off against will be Matt Harvey. 289 with one homer and four RBIs in 28 regular-season games. New York has a very scary rotation, but the Cubs are confident that their pitchers can get the job done. For all the fanfare about the midseason acquisitions of Yoenis Cespedes, Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson and the returns of David Wright and Travis d’Arnaud, it was the guy whose been there just about all season who was the difference.