Nightengale: Daniel Murphy casts mighty spell on Cubs in NLCS
NEW YORK - There was the ornery goat in 1945.
That black cat in 1969
Steve Bartman in 2003.
Today, that Chicago Cubs curse just happens to be New York Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy, who’s personally trying to extend their torturous history.
The Mets, 4-1 winners behind Murphy’s latest heroics, are now two victories away from shattering the Cubs’ dream season, taking a 2-0 lead in the National League Championship Series.
The Cubs have gone 70 years since winning the pennant, 107 years since winning the World Series title, and now themselves facing yet another historical obstacle.
Just once since the NLCS went to a best-of-seven format has a team overcome a 2-0 deficit - 1985, when the St. Louis Cardinals won four consecutive games against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The series resumes Tuesday at Wrigley Field, and for the Cubs to reach the World Series, they’ll now have to beat the Mets four times in five games, with Jacob deGrom lined up for Game 3, Steven Matz for Game 4 and, if it goes that far, Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard yet again.
Good luck, fellas.
The Cubs can curse the Mets’ young stable of starting pitchers all they want, but there’s no man more responsible for their predicament than Murphy, who shares the same name of that goat who was banned from Wrigley during the 1945 World Series, if you’re looking for irony.
Come on, you wouldn’t expect anything less, would you?
Murphy is turning this postseason into a free-agent showcase, hitting a first-inning home run that virtually iced the game before the crowd could buy their first hot chocolate, in a game that started with a 45-degree temperature, and dropped into the 30s.
Murphy, who hit three homers with five RBI and scored five runs in the Mets’ NL Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, isn’t cooling off.
He homered for the fifth time in seven playoff games, most in a single postseason in franchise history.
"He looks,’’ Cubs catcher Miguel Montero said, “like he’s the best hitter on the planet."
How stunning is Murphy’s power supply?
He has never hit five home runs in a single month during his entire career, and finished with a career-high of 14 this season.
You want more strange-but-true fun facts?
Four of his five homers all were hit off the three pitchers who will finish 1-2-3 in this year’s National League Cy Young balloting: Two off Clayton Kershaw and one off Zack Greinke of the Dodgers, and Chicago Cubs ace Jake Arrieta, who had the greatest second half in major league history.
Murphy is the first player in history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, to hit at least three postseason homers off pitchers with at least 15 victories and a sub-2.50 ERA during the regular season.
Please, don’t ask Murphy to explain it; he’s as much a loss for words as anyone who has been watching him throughout his season.
“If I knew what I was doing,’’ Murphy said, “I would have hit more homers during the regular season.”
His teammates have no explanation, either, but are jumping on Murphy’s back, enjoying the ride that could soon lead them to their first World Series since 2000.
“That’s the crazy thing about baseball,’’ Mets veteran first baseman/outfielder Michael Cuddyer said. “He’s locked in right now. He’s seeing the ball well. Every pitch: Fastball, changeup, curveball, slider. It doesn’t matter.
“He’s getting his pitch, and he’s not missing, and hitting them off the best of the best.’’
Perhaps no one watching the latest proceedings was more stunned than Arrieta, who was 12-0 with a 1.18 ERA in his last 16 starts on the road.
This is a guy had given up only two homers and six runs in the first inning of his 33 regular-season starts this year, and hadn’t even given up a first-inning run since May 29.
Arrieta hasn’t given up three runs in the first inning since July 30, 2010, spanning 123 starts.
Yet, the Mets treated him as if they were facing a September call-up, with the Mets’ first three batters producing a homer and three runs.
Murphy was the third.
Arrieta, realizing he was facing the hottest hitter on the planet, threw a first-pitch 95-mph fastball past Murphy in the first. Arrieta came back with an 88-mph slider, and held his breath, when Murphy hit the ball into the right-field upper deck.
Foul.
Arrieta just missed on an 0-and-2 slider, and came back with an 80-mph curveball. He whipped his head just in fast enough to watch Murphy hit a soaring shot into the right-field upper deck.
This time? Fair.
“It wasn’t that bad of a pitch,’’ Arrieta said. “He’s just swinging the bat tremendously right now.’’
It was the third lowest pitch hit for a home run this year, and just like that, the Mets had a 3-0 lead, and the game was all but over for the final lines in the box score, with Syndergaard refusing to give the Cubs any crazy thoughts of a comeback.
“That was the game right there,’’ Cubs manager Joe Maddon conceded. “It was really hard to recover from that. The ambush got us.’’
Syndergaard, pitching on just two days’ rest after pitching in relief in Game 5 of the NL Division Series, showed little signs of fatigue.
He overpowered the Cubs with his 99-mph fastball, and leaving them flailing away with his changeup and curveball. Syndergaard permitted just one hit and two baserunners through the first five innings, before finally running out of gas with two outs in the sixth, and turning the game over to the bullpen.
The Mets managed only one hit after the first inning, with the Cubs’ staff retiring 17 consecutive batters until Murphy’s two-out single in the eight, but the damage was done.
“He’s hitting the ball to the opposite field for some base hits,’’ Arrieta said, “and he’s turning on some stuff inside for some slug and power. Really, we just have to pick our spots to attack him, and when we’re in big situations, we have to try and minimize mistakes.’’
The Cubs showed how much respect for Murphy they have for him in the third inning. When Granderson led off with a walk, and stole second with one out, Collins ordered an intentional walk, even with marquee power hitter Yoenis Cespedes on deck.,
“Ces hit 35 bombs this year,’’ Murphy said. “I was surprised. I definitely am seeing the ball well right now, so that's nice.’’
Said Maddon: “I don’t know so much that was a lack of Jake’s ability, as much as it was a pretty hot hitter. That’s why I walked him as early in the game as we did.’’
Maddon, who has worked his magic all year with these young Cubs, now will have to pull off his best trick yet, convincing them that they’re still the better team.
They didn’t win 97 games by accident, and, who knows, with Bartman vowing to stay away, and security keeping black cats from entering the field, and the only Billy Goat being the neighborhood bar, maybe the Cubs can still pull this out.
If they can just find some way to end the curse of Mr. Daniel Murphy.
“Very rarely do you see somebody get this hot against average pitching,’’ Mets captain David Wright said. “Then you throw in that it's Kershaw, Greinke twice each, Lester, Arrieta, I mean, that's impressive.
“He's about as locked in as I've seen a hitter.’’
And, unless someone puts a spell on him, the mother of all curses for these Cubs.
GALLERY: Mets, Cubs clash in NLCS