Weekly Mail Special Report 2015 NLCS

          Want to start off congratulating the Mets for their gutsy performance the other night. I really should have written this on Friday when the euphoria of beating the Dodgers was fresher than the anticipation of the battle ahead with the Cubs. Still....

          Thursday night was one of the most nerve racking nights I have ever spent watching professional sports, and this is coming from someone who lived through the 10th inning of the 1986 World Series, I never felt confident the whole game. Sure I can sit here and say that I knew they had it in the bag because I'm a good and loyal fan, but that wouldn't be honest.
   
           First of all, when Jacob deGrom gave up those two first inning runs, my mind went back to Game 7 of the 1988 NLCS, also at Dodger Stadium, The Dodgers scored three early runs and the Mets were never in it. This had all the makings of the same result. (Someone told me that Joe Beningo said the same thing on his WFAN radio show on Friday) But deGrom kept pitching into and out of trouble the whole game. And as the game went along and the score remained tight, I worried that the Dodgers, with last licks would win in walk off fashion, which would have been worse than getting blown out like they did in 1988.

            Daniel Murphy's swipe of third base, which led to their second run, served two purposes... 1) It made the Dodgers look like fools, and 2) it exposed a soft underbelly to that annoying defensive shift. There were some rumblings about having the higher-ups at MLB outlaw the shift. I wouldn't go that far, but the best way to eliminate it is to render it ineffective. Daniel Murphy took a step in that direction. The Dodgers broke one of Karl (The Ace) Ludwig's cardinal rules of baseball, "Make sure all the bases are covered (godammit)"

            I thought Terry Collins was crazy for bringing in Noah Syndergaard in the 7th inning to replace deGrom, and then taking him out after one inning. That was really the only second guess I had of Collins all night, Thank God he was right and I was wrong. I couldn't believe how easy Jeryus Familia made it look. Besides that deep fly that was hit by that lowlife Chase Utley, the rest of it was easy peasy. Hell, Howie Kendrick barely looked like he was trying in that last at bat.

           And speaking of Utley, having had a week to digest what he did to Reuben Tejada, I want to clarify a few things. Number one, I don't have a problem with someone sliding into second to break up a double play. That's part of the game. My issue is where did he start his slide. You can slide from a distance where you can disrupt the throw and still not break the shortstop's leg. IMHO, Utley failed to do this. He started his slide too close to a vulnerable Tejada. The other issue I have, (and I have yet to get a good explanation for this) was out could you rule Utley safe if he never touched the bag? If the explanation is since he was ruled out, he didn't have to touch the bag to be ruled safe, then the play shouldn't be reviewable.

          In any event, Utley and the rest of those bums are home, and now it's on to the NLCS for our boys. We are facing the Chicago Cubs, probably the best of the four teams still standing. The Cubs have one awesome pitcher, and a solid lineup, led by Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo. The Mets also lost all 7 games they played against the Cubs this year. Of course the caveat to that is those games were played before the Mets added Yoenis Cespides, Michael Confoto and Kelly Johnson. This is a far better team than the one that played the Cubs earlier this year.

         Still its a tall order. The Cardinals, who the Cubbies beat in the NLDS, was stacked. Hopefully the Cubs used all their magic in that series. Once again, I want to appraoch this as an unexpected gift from the baseball gods and that I should be grateful for whatever happens.

But as my cousin in law, Ryan O'Shea put it. The Mets were not supposed to be here, but since they are here.....why not stay here a little bit longer.

Indeed!