Syndergaard quiets Cubs, Mets up 2-0 in NLCS

The Mets beat the Cubs 4-1 at Citi Field on Sunday night, extending their NLCS lead to 2-0 as the teams move to Chicago for at least Games 3 and 4, starting Tuesday. New York is two victories away from its first World Series berth since the Subway Series back in 2000. The Cubs haven’t been to a Series since 1945, and haven’t won since going back-to-back in 1907-08.

Now that the Mets have held serve, let’s look at some key takeaways from Game 2:

‘Hey! We won again!’ (USATSI)

1. Daniel Murphy hit another home run against one of the top pitchers in the league.

With the Mets already ahead 1-0 in the first inning, Jake Arrieta threw a sharp curveball that would not have been called a strike if Murphy had let it go. Instead, he somehow turned on it and it reached the seats in right field for a two-run home run. Murphy’s homers in the postseason have come off Clayton Kershaw (twice), Zack Greinke, Jon Lester and Arrieta. That’s the three top Cy Young contenders and Lester, one of the toughest lefties (Murphy swings left-handed).

2. In terms of velocity, Murphy’s home run didn’t have much.

Got it done, though. Murphy has a 1.786 on-base plus slugging percentage in the playoffs. In the regular season, it was .770.

‘I actually forgot what this was like, Miggy, and I hate it!’ (USATSI)

3. Arrieta had gone 25 straight starts without allowing a run — any kind of run — in the first inning.

Arrieta has been on some kind of run, and more often than not he’s started off on the right foot. Curtis Granderson led off with a sharp single, David Wright followed with a double over the center fielder’s head and Murphy went deep before Arrieta could even record an out.

4. Arrieta had not allowed as many as three runs in the first inning of a start since July 31, 2010, when he was a rookie playing for the Orioles.

That was more than five years and at least one lifetime ago for Arrieta, who was a top 50-100 prospect with the Orioles but never fulfilled on his promise with Baltimore. He had a 5.46 ERA in 63 starts with the O’s before coming to the Cubs with Pedro Strop in July 2013 for Steve Clevenger and Scott Feldman.

5. After finishing the second half of the regular season with a record-breaking 0.75 ERA and throwing a shutout in the NL wild-card game against the Pirates, Arrieta has been struggling:

What is the matter? It’s possible that Arrieta, who is nearing 250 innings pitched for the season, just isn’t used to working this much. His career high until now was 156 2/3 innings in 2014. Arrieta knows his velocity is down, but doesn’t know why. It might be as simple as a tired arm.

6. History is with the Mets, now that they’ve gone up 2-0 in the series.

Some of that data comes from five-game series, which were the norm in the league championship series round until 1985. In terms of all best-of-seven series (including the World Series) with teams that have gone up 2-0, they’re 63-13 (83 percent).

“We’re looking for several one-game winning streaks,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said.

Our very own Dayn Perry has more on 0-2 deficits.

7. Curtis Granderson kept some points off Noah Syndergaard‘s ERA by making this home-run saving catch against Chris Coghlan in the third inning.

Granderson also scored twice and had two stolen bases.

8. David Wright got a hit!

He came in 1 for 19 in the postseason — even reportedly offering to take a seat in Game 2 because he’s been so bad — but his RBI double in the first put the Mets on the board.

9. The Cubs have struck out 20 times in two games.

But they also led the majors with 1,518 K’s in the regular season — 126 more than the next team, so they probably aren’t alarmed by it.

Well, no wonder. There were three Syndergaards. (USATSI)

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