“I just go as hard as I can and I made it”. “This year, we do, and that’s why I think we’re sitting where we are”.
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Chicago hit several line drives that were turned into outs, including one that prompted Harvey to duck quickly out of the way and another that struck him near his pitching shoulder.
Harvey out away from eight complete innings when Kyle Schwarber homered on his final pitch of the night. He’d frustrated the fan base in September with talk of a firm innings limit in his first year back from Tommy John surgery, but he’s been let loose in the playoffs, and fans called his name throughout the night. He pitched a complete-game shutout in the wild-card win over Pittsburgh and gave up four runs in 5 2/3 innings without getting a decision against the Cardinals on Monday.
Turner had a pair of doubles, giving him a franchise playoff-record six in one series.
Lester was strong through for before the Mets got to him in the middle innings.
“The organization, since I’ve been here, has been through a lot”, Murphy said last night. I know he’s very confident.
Murphy doubled in the Mets’ first run in the first, but the Dodgers went ahead with four consecutive singles in the bottom half. The reason he probably isn’t a threat to crack the $200 million mark, as his rotation mate Clayton Kershaw did and Max Scherzer also did, is he’s seven years older than Kershaw was when he signed with the Dodgers before free agency and a couple years older than Scherzer was when he signed with the Nationals.
This is the first time the Mets are in the NLCS since 2006, while the Cubs are back for the first time since 2003, as reported by GottaBeMobile.
This bodes well for the Mets, who will be playing their first road winner-take-all game since a playoff tiebreaker against the Reds after the 1999 season.
Jon Lester’s $155 million contract is largely about nights such as Saturday. Video of Gibson’s dramatic two-out, pinch-hit winning home run against Oakland was shown on the video board before the game and Orel Hershiser, ace of the 1988 World Series title team, tossed out the ceremonial first pitch.
“I don’t think this is a phase for him”, general manager Sandy Alderson said. I thought he pitched really well for what he had today.
While the Mets’ Matt Harvey dominated, Lester fought without his best stuff and tried to keep his team in the game. An inning later, Travis d’Arnaud gave the Mets an insurance run with a long home run that skee-balled into the casing of the home run apple in straightaway centerfield. Juan Lagares stole third against Lester in the seventh and scored on Granderson’s sacrifice fly.
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His teammates had nothing but good things to say about the pitcher. We’ll know if Texas A&M has practically eliminated Alabama from championship contention or if the Aggies have joined the one-loss club.
