Mets beat Cubs for 2-0 edge in Major League Baseball playoffs

Daniel Murphy belted a home run and Curtis Granderson scored twice, powering the New York Mets over the Chicago Cubs 4-1 in their Major League Baseball playoff series.

The Mets seized a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven National League Championship Series, which shifts to Chicago for game three on Tuesday.

"It's great, but we can't take anything for granted," said Granderson, a Chicago native. "Their fans are going to be enthusiastic and energetic. It's going to be a great atmosphere."

The Cubs seek their first World Series title since 1908 and their first World Series appearance in 70 years, while the Mets have not won the crown since 1986 and have not played in the World Series in 15 years.

Either the Mets or Cubs will face the American League champion, the Kansas City Royals or Toronto Blue Jays, in the World Series starting October 27.

Teams taking a 2-0 lead in a best-of-seven Major League Baseball playoff series have eventually advanced 78 percent of the time.

Murphy smacked his fifth homer in seven playoff games this year, matching a club record for a playoff run set by Mike Piazza.

"The coolest part of that is we're winning baseball games and we're up 2-0 so far," Murphy said.

- Mets punish ace Arrieta -

The Mets defeated Cubs star right-handed pitcher Jake Arrieta, who had not lost since July 25 in compiling a 22-6 season record, and delivered the victory for rookie right-hander Noah Syndergaard on a chilly night.

New York opened the scoring quickly as first inning leadoff batter Granderson singled and scored on a David Wright double to the centerfield wall.

Murphy followed with a two-run homer that just stayed inside fair territory down the right field line to give the Mets a 3-0 lead, New York fans standing and screaming his name until he came back out of the dugout and took a Broadway curtain call.

"That was a lot of fun," Murphy said. "It was more fun to have the 3-0 lead in the first but that was definitely fun."

It marked the first time since 2010 that Arrieta had surrendered three runs in the opening inning. He had not suffered a road defeat since May.

Granderson also had stellar moves with his glove. The right-fielder made a high-leaping catch to deny Chicago's Chris Coghlan a homer in the second inning.

"Happened to be deep. Didn't have to go too far. Just made the leap and it was right there," Granderson said.

And Granderson scored when he returned to bat in the third inning. He walked and stole second and third bases. The Cubs intentionally walked Murphy to bring Yoenis Cespedes to the plate and the Cuban-born Mets outfielder chopped a hard-hit ball to shortstop that could not be cleanly fielded, allowing Granderson to score and boost New York's edge to 4-0.

The Cubs have never won a playoff game in which they trailed by four runs, but Chicago rallied in the sixth as Dexter Fowler singled to rightfield, took second on a wild pitch by Syndergaard and scored on a two-out double off the left-field wall by Kris Bryant.

New York then pulled Syndergaard in favor of relief pitcher Jonathan Niese, who struck out Anthony Rizzo to end the inning.

Mets relievers Addison Reed and Tyler Clippard retired the Cubs in the seventh and eighth innings.

In the ninth, Rizzo chopped a one-out infield single off Cubs reliever Jeurys Familia, only the second hit Familia allowed in 22 batters, and advanced to second on a fielder's choice. But Coghlan ground out to Familia covering first base to end the game.

"It was nice to see the bullpen come in and get a piece of it," Murphy said.
Source: AFP