The New York Mets booked a place in the World Series with an 8-3 victory on Wednesday that completed a 4-0 series sweep of Chicago, extending the Cubs’ extraordinary history of playoff futility.
Daniel Murphy hit a home run for the sixth straight playoff game to set a new major league record and help the Mets into the World Series for the first time in 15 years.
“I can’t explain it,” Murphy said. “It’s such a blessing to contribute to what we’ve been able to do.” The Mets will meet the winner of the American League Championship Series, which stands at 3-2 in favor of Kansas City after Toronto won 7-1 on Wednesday to stay alive and send the series back to Kansas City.
Photo: AFP
New York quickly silenced an expectant crowd at Wrigley Field when Lucas Duda hit a three-run homer in the first inning and a two-run double in the second.
The Cubs had some glimpses at a comeback — loading the bases with no outs in the fourth inning — but exited the post-season wondering when, if ever, the club can end their run of no World Series victories since 1908.
“They did not let us up for air at any point,” Chicago manager Joe Maddon said. “Their domination of the early part of the game and their pitching was impressive.”
By wrapping up the National League Championship Series so quickly, the Mets have no restriction on when to deploy their impressive starting pitching options in the World Series. Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard will all be fully rested for the opening three games.
Murphy had another superb game with four hits, but it looked as if his chance had gone to set a record for successive playoff games with homers. Then in the eighth inning he connected for a two-run drive over center field.
He has finished with four hits and batted .529 (nine for 17) in the series.
Duda doubled twice and Travis d’Arnaud also homered as the Mets won their fifth NL pennant. Bartolo Colon pitched 1-1/3 scoreless innings for his first playoff win since 2001, for Cleveland at Seattle. The 14 years, 12 days between post-season victories for the 42-year-old set a new major league record.
The Cubs had the fans on their feet when they loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth, but wound up scoring only one run. That could have been different had Starlin Castro’s bullet-like connection had got past David Wright instead of nestling in the third baseman’s glove for the first out.
In Toronto, Marco Estrada restricted Kansas City to one hit over the first seven innings to steer the Blue Jays to a 7-1 win against the Royals and keep alive their hopes of reaching the World Series.
“It’s the start that we needed,” shortstop Troy Tulowitzki said. “They’re a great team over there, we know that, but this guy kept them off balance and allowed the offense to settle in and get some runs.”
Tulowitzki provided three of those runs. He broke the game open with a bases-clearing double in the sixth, giving him seven RBIs in the series. Edwin Encarnacion had walked with the bases loaded against Kansas City starter Edinson Volquez, who seemed flustered by a couple of close calls.
Kansas City totaled 22 runs and 30 hits in the first two games in Toronto, but Estrada faced the minimum 20 batters before allowing a walk with two outs in the seventh. Closer Roberto Osuna was perfect in the ninth.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier