The Chicago Cubs and New York Mets were involved in some fantastic pennant races as former NL East rivals, but the two storied franchises have never faced off in the postseason.
The Cubs, built around a young and powerful lineup, are trying to reach their first World Series in 70 years (and win their first title since 1908) while the Mets are back in the playoffs for the first time in nine years led by an arsenal of prized young arms and a new-look offence that rapidly improved in the final two months of the regular season.
The Mets will have home-field advantage in the series despite finishing with a lower win total than the Cubs, who finished 46-19 over their final 65 regular-season games.
Here’s what to watch for:
Previous results might not matter: The Cubs dominated the season series with New York, winning all seven matchups by a combined score of a 27-11. However, the past results might not be reflective of the current Mets squad, which rebuilt an anemic offence midway through the 2015 season. Since they last faced off in early July, the Mets added Yoenis Cespedes, Michael Conforto and Kelly Johnson while key hitters David Wright and Travis d’Arnaud returned from injuries. It’s a totally different ball club.
Battle of arms: This series is loaded with highly-touted starting pitchers. The Cubs will open up the series with Jon Lester, who is 2-0 with a 2.50 ERA in three career games against New York, while staff ace Jake Arrieta will handle the Game 2 assignment. The Cy Young candidate was borderline unhittable this season, registering Chicago’s first sub-2.00 ERA from a starter since 1920, and went 2-0 with a 1.13 ERA and 17 strikeouts in 16 innings against the Mets in 2015.
According to USA Today, Cubs pitchers set a National League record with 1,431 strikeouts, breaking the mark set by the 2003 Cubs (1,404).
The Mets hold up quite well in the pitching department. Mets starters Matt Harvey (Game 1) and Jacob deGrom both ranked in the top-six in ERA among NL qualified starters and should play significant roles in the series, while young fireballer Noah Syndergaard displayed fantastic stuff as both a starter and a reliever in their NLDS win. However, deGrom had some issues with Chicago this season, going 0-2 with a 6.10 ERA while allowing three home runs in 10.1 innings.
How will sluggers fare? For teams with great starting pitchers, the two are also loaded with power bats. The Cubs have 12 home runs in five playoff games and are the first team in MLB history to have four players under the age of 25 homer in one postseason. Cubs slugger Anthony Rizzo homered twice in the opening round — despite finishing the series 3-for-18 — and has homered five times in 25 career games against the Mets. In New York, Daniel Murphy homered three times in the NLDS — all three coming of Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke — while Mets fan favourite Cespedes homered twice and drove in four runs. It’ll be fun to see these lineups go head-to-head.
Key players missing down the middle: In a strange coincidence, both clubs saw their starting shortstops suffer severe injuries during the first round of the postseason. The Mets lost Ruben Tejada for the season after he broke his leg on a takeout slide by Chase Utley. In his absence, Wilmer Flores will handle the shortstop duties while Cubs infielder Addison Russell (strained hamstring) will be replaced by 22-year-old Javier Baez, who mashed a key three-run home run against the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLDS. He has ridiculous power but strikes out way too frequently.
