On Deck will be here all season to provide you with everything you need to know (and a few things you don't) about every playoff series during the 2015 season.
The Teams: The Mets have gotten the pitching they expected from their young horses, and the Cubs haven't, as they've been victimized by Daniel Murphy, of all people.
Past 2015 Meetings: Remarkably, the Cubs won the season series 7-0, but the teams hadn't played since the beginning of July, and the Mets made a couple of massive moves at the trade deadline. Now, the Mets have claimed a 2-0 lead in the series as they head to Wrigley.
Pitching Matchups: Tuesday — Jacob deGrom (14-8, 2.54 ERA) vs. Kyle Hendricks (8-7, 3.95); Wednesday — Steven Matz (4-0, 2.27) vs. TBD; *Thursday — TBD vs. TBD
*if necessary
What's Hot: There isn't a hotter baseball player on Earth right now than Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy, who's batting .357 in the postseason with five home runs and eight RBIs in seven games, and he has homers in each of the first two games of this series. Veteran outfielder Curtis Granderson is hitting .375 with seven RBIs in the seven games. deGrom is 2-0 in two postseason starts with 20 strikeouts in 13 innings.
Kyle Schwarber has been a man in the postseason, hitting four balls out of the yard in his seven games in the postseason. Rookie slugger Jorge Soler is hitting .455 with six walks and two homers in his five postseason games.
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What's Not: Matz has been the Mets' worst pitcher this postseason, and he allowed three runs in five innings of work — far from terrible. The Mets' corner infielders have struggled horribly, as David Wright has yet to find his groove with a 2-for-23 line in the postseason. First baseman Lucas Duda, who was a beast in the regular season is hitting just 2-for-21 in the postseason, and he has 13 strikeouts.
The Cubs' pitching hasn't matched the Mets', and it's shown as NL Cy Young favorite Jake Arrieta was lit up on Sunday night, suffering his first postseason loss, and Jon Lester got the same treatment in Game 1. The Cubs' bullpen has also been shaky all season, and nothing's changed in the postseason.
