And don’t ask which goat. “Look at tonight. We’re not expecting Jake to give up three in the first, you know?” And he just might be carrying the team to a World Series in the process.
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Cubs pitcher Jason Hammel, who went to Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario, Ore., started Game 4 on Tuesday. Furious, Sianis declared, “Them Cubs, they ain’t gonna win no more“.
They lost the first two games in the 1910 and 1929 World Series against the Philadelphia A’s, the 1932 and 1938 Series against the Yankees and the 1998, 2007 and 2008 division series against the Braves, Diamondbacks and Dodgers, respectively. And we repeat: The name of the goat was Murphy. The Cubs can only hope that clicking their cleats three times and saying, “There’s no place like home” will make a difference on their end before it’s too late.
Well, that’s certainly one theory.
The Cubs now find themselves in a massive hole. David Wright picked up his first hit of the series in Game 2, lashing an RBI double to center in the first inning, but went hitless in his next three trips to the plate and is 2 for 22 in the playoffs.
It was Arrieta’s second straight outing in which he surrendered four earned runs, the same number he allowed over his previous 13 starts spanning 971/3 innings, including his dominant complete-game shutout in the wild card game. He’s one away from matching Carlos Beltran’s record of homering in five straight playoff games.
New York- There’s no mistaking the fact that the Cubs took a punch after throwing both of their Aces-Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta-and coming up empty.
“Very rarely do you see somebody get this hot against average pitching”.
“I’m still going to talk to him about it. If we need to use him between now and then, you still may see him utilized, but we might have to do something differently”, Maddon said.
Murphy certainly would appreciate that bit of trivia, because Murphy soaks up everything about this sport. There are people in our game who do this because this is what they can do best. Whether they want to attend math class or history class to learn this lesson, neither paints a picture they’ll feel like hanging in the Art Institute of Chicago any time soon. “Dan Murphy is a baseball player”. The second part came true in 1993, when the Marlins joined the National League. Over the first two games of this series, the Cubs have struck out 20 times. To now have five in a week and a half?
Murphy took an Arrieta breaking ball over the wall in right field to extend the Mets’ lead to 3-0. The ball bounced on the warning track and one-hopped the wall as Granderson scored easily. From Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom to Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz and even injured Zack Wheeler, their rotation is the envy of all of baseball. Originally acquired as the centerpiece of the R.A. Dickey trade, Syndergaard’s blazing fastball and nasty off-speed pitches helped him rise quickly through the Mets’ farm system. The speed numbers flashing on the scoreboard -… He had not given up a first-inning run in 25 consecutive starts since May 29. They’ve hit into a few bad luck (we saw Castro hit a hard line drive right at David Wright in this one), but they just haven’t gotten the job done to this point.
Harvey shut down the power-hitting Cubs on four hits over 7-2/3 innings with nine strikeouts and was followed to the mound by closer Jeurys Familia, who registered the last four outs for the save. The Mets have held serve.
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“We’re having a whole lot of fun right now”, said Murphy, who seems to have a reserved star-of-the-game seat in the interview room.
