Cubs drop Game 1 to Mets, but Maddon's not worried
NEW YORK — To hear Joe Maddon tell it, the Cubs weren't at all awed by bright lights of Broadway or star struck. The were simply struck down by a star pitcher.
Matt Harvey took center stage for the New York Mets Saturday night and starred in a 4-2 victory over the Cubs in Game 1 of the National League championship series at Citi Field.
Leading up to the game on the big stage in this biggest of cities, manager Maddon kept citing his team's poise. Even though Saturday's game turned on some little things, Maddon said his troops handled the situation well.
“Beautifully,” he said. “If Harvey wasn't pitching, it would have looked a lot better. He was outstanding tonight. Give him credit because he had about as good of command as you can possibly can of all his pitches. His stuff is always good, but the command was outrageous tonight.
“Therein lies the game, because Jon pitched well, too.”
Maddon was referring to Cubs pitcher Jon Lester, who started and lost his second game of the postseason.
While Lester was just OK, Harvey was really good, going 7⅔ innings and giving up 4 hits and 2 runs. He exited only after Cubs rookie Kyle Schwarber hit his fourth home run of the postseason, extending his record of home runs in the postseason by a Cubs rookie.
Lester, on the other hand, ground out 6⅔ innings, as he gave up 8 hits and 4 runs. Included was a first-inning home run by Daniel Murphy and a shot to center field in the sixth by Travis d'Arnaud, who hit the big apple tucked away in the center-field batter's eye.
“Both just caught too much of the plate,” Lester said. “That's what these guys do when you get too much of the plate.”
Now about those little things. They jumped up to bite the Cubs in a big way.
The Cubs tied the game 1-1 in the fifth inning, but they might have had more. Anthony Rizzo led off and was hit by a pitch. Starlin Castro then lined the ball over the head of Mets center fielder Juan Lagares, who appeared to get a bad read on the ball.
Jorge Soler came up and was unable to move Castro, as he grounded out to third. That was one of the little things of the inning.
Javier Baez then singled to left field. Third-base coach Gary Jones sent Castro, who was thrown out at the plate by a strong throw by Yoenis Cespedes.
“That guy has a cannon, but I think we have to take a chance there,” Castro said of Cespedes. “The first step, I had to go back (toward second base) because there were less than two outs. I didn't want to be caught in a rundown there. I had to see the ball pass and run hard and see if I can score.”
Maddon backed Jones, but left it open to interpretation.
“Cespedes can throw,” he said. “He made a great throw on that particular play. You could say possibly not send the runner, but we did, and it was just a good baseball play on their part. Rossy (catcher David Ross) coming up, there's different things you could possibly do, but Jonesie has been aggressive all year. He's been a great third-base coach all year, and I never second-guess him.”
After the Mets scored single runs in each of the fifth and sixth, they made it 4-1 in the seventh on another small thing that drew its fair share of questions.
With Lagares on third base, Curtis Granderson lofted a flyball to short- to medium-deep left. Ssachwarber came up throwing, but catcher Miguel Montero (who replaced Ross), played back on the ball, and Lagares scored.
“I kind of waited and looked for the good hop,” Montero said. “Looking for a good hop, and it's going to be behind the plate. Lagares has got good legs; he's pretty fast. It was a tough one, really, not much I could do there except may stay on the plate and maybe be lucky to catch a short hop, which was going to be really tough.”
Schwarber gave the Cubs a glimmer of hope with his rocket to right-center field.
The encouragement for the Cubs comes in the knowledge that they lost Game 1 of the division series and came back to beat the Cardinals three games to one. They'll also have ace pitcher Jake Arrieta going in Game 2 of the NLCS Sunday night.
“It's a seven-game series,” Schwarber said, speaking like a veteran. “We've got time. We don't' have to panic. They went out and they won. They beat us today. We've just got to look forward, go out with a good attitude and good energy and play our game. (Arrieta) is a great pitcher. He's been consistent for us all year.”