Last night at Dodgers Stadium was almost something unthinkable, unexplainable and also unkind to every Mets fan's blood pressure that was watching nervously everywhere around the world.
These are the moments that sports fans crave when we have a passion for a particular team. Playoffs are not a guarantee in sports. Especially not in baseball where only a third of the teams make the playoffs. Game 5 on the road and the Mets were the slight underdog as they were on the road and facing the likely Cy Young award winner in Zack Greinke.
But this is why we love sports. After blowing a chance to send the Dodgers packing in Game 4, the Mets were able to regroup and ride the arm of Jacob deGrom who gutted out an amazing 6 innings. On the offensive side, the bat, brain and legs of Daniel Murphy almost single-handedly led the Mets to a Game 5 victory.
Yesterday I had a status on Facebook (Feel free to add me) that wrote "Game 5 tonight at Dodger Stadium. These are the moments as a sports fan you dream for. Something in this game is going to happen that we are going to remember for the rest of our lives. Go Mets." As my status illustrates, what happened was bang on. Every die-hard Mets fan is going to remember something in that game for their rest of your life from Daniel Murphy's brilliance to go from first to third on a walk. I don't know who was supposed to cover third but no one covered to from Familia's unheard of these days, six out save and not only was it a six out save, he had to bat in the in the ninth with runners in scoring position. Every inning last night felt like it was the eighth or ninth just because of what was at stake.
The Mets reward, is to face the Chicago Cubs who are aiming for their first World Series since 1945. It is a matchup of two teams in baseball through out the years have had some of the worst luck a sports team could ever imagine. In that way these teams are kinda symetical. Cubs haven't won the World Series since 1908 while the Mets might have still been titleless still if it weren't for the Mets taking advantage of the Curse of the Billy Goat in 1969 and the curse of Babe Ruth in the Mets 1986 World Series victory.
Also interesting to note, in 2003 the last time the Cubs were in the NLCS, they held home field advantage despite the Florida Marlins having a better record. Things will be reversed in the 2015 NLCS as the Mets will have home advantage and the Cubs not only have the better record, but they also swept the Mets in the season series 7-0.
All things considered, I think we are in for a classic NLCS with quite a few twists and turns.
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