(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 Mets take 2-0 NLCS-lead with them to Chicago
Nederlands
 QUEENS, New York City, New York (USA) -
The New York Mets won Game 2 of the best-of-seven National League Championship Series on Sunday-evening (October 18) vs. Chicago Cubs on another cool evening in New York, as it was only 45 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Mets won 4-2 behind good pitching and again big contributions by Curtis Granderson and Daniel Murphy to take a 2-0 lead in the series.
Game Three will be played on Tuesday in Chicago.
Before the start of the series on Saturday, New York was 0-7 this season against Chicago, including three losses at home.
The American League Championship Series continues on Monday in Toronto.
The Kansas City Royals have a 2-0 lead in that series against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Starting pitchers tonight were righthander Noah Syndergaard for the Mets and righthander Jake Arrieta for the Cubs.
Noah Syndergaard was 9-7 this season with a 3.68 ERA.
This season, Syndergaard was 0-1 against the Cubs.
He started Game 2 of the NLDS vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers and then was the losing pitcher.
He struckout nine batters in 6 1/3 inning.
Syndergaard pitched in relief in Game 5 of the NLDS, which was his first-ever relief-appearance in his career.
Jake Arrieta was 22-6 this season with a 2.45 ERA.
This season, he was 2-0 against the Mets and is 2-1 in his career.
Arrieta started Game 3 of the NLDS against the St. Louis Cardinals and then was the winning pitcher, striking out nine batters in 5 2/3 inning.
The Mets struck early with three runs in the bottom of the first inning off of Jake Arrieta.
Curtis Granderson led off with a single and scored on a following double by David Wright.
Hereafter, Daniel Murphy homered again to give the Mets a 3-0 lead.
With that, only the triple was missing for a cycle by a team in one inning, but that didn't happen.
Arrieta retired the next three batters, including two strikeouts.
...Curtis Granderson scored twice,...
...stole 2 bases and made a great catch...
...On the photo, Granderson talks witg...
...Grand Slam-webmaster Marco Stoovelaar...
...during the European Big League...
...Tour 2013 in Rotterdam (Netherlands)...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
On Saturday, in the first game, Daniel Murphy homered in his third consecutive postseason-game and with that became only the second Mets-player to accomplish that.
The only other Mets-player to hit homeruns in three postseason-games in a row was Donn Clendenon, who accomplished the feat in the 1969 World Series.
But now, he had set a club-record with a homerun in four consecutive games.
With his five homeruns so far in this postseason, Murphy is now tied for first place in team history, as Mike Piazza also hit five, while playing for the Mets in 1999 and 2000.
For the Cubs, Kyle Schwarber also homered in his third consecutive game in the first game on Saturday, which also was his fourth in this postseason.
With his four homeruns in the postseason, Schwarber tied a club-record, which was set by Alex Gonzalez and Aramis Ramirez in 2003.
Gonzalez also homered in three games in a row.
Mets-starter Noah Syndergaard gave up a 2-out single to Kris Bryant in the first inning, then retired the side in the second at bat.
In the third, he struckout three batters, while walking one.
After giving up the three runs in the first inning, Jake Arrieta got three outs, then also retired the side in the second inning.
But in the third, the righthander walked lead-off hitter Curtis Granderson, who manufactured the next run with good baserunning.
While next batter David Wright struckout, Granderson stole second base.
Hereafter, hot-hitting Daniel Murphy was walked intentionally.
Moments later, Granderson also stole third base, then scored the fourth run for the Mets when Yoenis Cespedes (who celebrated his 30th birthday) singled.
In the second inning, Granderson also had made a great catch just above the fence on a drive by Chris Coghlan.
Syndergaard kept on dominating, as he also retired the side in the fourth and fifth inning, while increasing his strikeout-total to eight.
But things changed in the top of the sixth inning.
After having retired seven batters in a row, Syndergaard gave up an one-out single to Dexter Fowler, which was the first basehit by the Cubs since the first inning.
Moments later, the Cubs got their first runner in scoring position when Fowler moved on a wild pitch.
Syndergaard then struckout powerhitter Kyle Schwarber, but Kris Bryant followed with a double off the wall in leftfield that gave Chicago its first run.
That marked the end for Syndergaard, who was relieved by Jon Niese, who got a pop-fly to end the inning.
Relievers Addison Reed (Mets) and Travis Wood both retired the side in the seventh.
Wood struckout three batters.
In the bottom of the eighth, Daniel Murphy reached base again, this with a 2-out single off of reliever Clayton Richard, who then was replaced by Pedro Strop.
A flyout ended the inning.
Mets-closer Jeurys Familia took over in the top of the ninth.
With one out, he gave up an infield-hit to Anthony Rizzo, but then returned the next two batters to earn his fourh save in this postseason.
(October 18)
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