Rozner: Cubs face real adversity for first time

Up until now, the Cubs have been playing with house money.

It has been a free ride - in this season that wasn't supposed to be - with no pressure and few worries.

Joe Maddon made certain of that.

What will be fascinating is to see how the Cubs react to a big deficit. They've been resilient and relentless with their approach, but they haven't faced real adversity until now.

With their ace on the mound, the Cubs lost to the Mets 4-1 at Citi Field Sunday night, and are staring at an 0-2 hole in the NLCS with Jacob deGrom going for New York Tuesday night at Wrigley Field.

This was the game the Cubs couldn't lose, not with Jake Arrieta getting an extra day of rest after looking tired in the NLDS against St. Louis, but they lost both games in New York with their top two starters on the mound.

So now what?

It was very cold in New York - only 41 degrees at game time Sunday - and facing hard throwers the Cubs couldn't find their long ball attack, but with the weather better at Wrigley Field this week, the Cubs think their bats will warm up.

Of course, the Cubs will still be facing fireballers, and it won't get any easier working through the Mets' rotation.

"We feel good with everyone we send to the mound," said Mets manager Terry Collins. "Our guys may be young, but we like all of them. We don't think there's any easy days against our guys."

It hasn't been easy facing Arrieta the last four months as he posted a second half better than anyone in major league history, but there were cracks in the armor against Pittsburgh and then a mediocre start against the Cardinals in the NLDS that had many questioning whether Arrieta was tired and had finally hit the wall.

Fatigue would make sense after 243 innings, or nearly 100 more than he has ever thrown, and again Sunday night his velocity was down and his command nowhere near as sharp as it had been during a historical second half that found him so often unhittable.

"If the gun is right, he might be down an mph or two on occasion," Maddon said. "The reaction of the hitter is a little different. They're on him a little bit more than you normally see."

The Mets jumped on Arrieta in the bottom of the first when Curtis Granderson led with a hard-hit single to right and David Wright doubled over the head of center fielder Dexter Fowler, who was playing too shallow, to score the first run.

Daniel Murphy then continued his postseason tear with another home run to Murphy's Bleachers in right and the Cubs were down 3-0 after three New York batters. Murphy's 5 postseason blasts have come against Clayton Kershaw (2), Zach Greinke, Jon Lester and Arrieta, three of whom will finish 1-2-3 in the Cy Young voting.

"No one said it would be easy in the postseason," Lester said. "It's not supposed to be easy and we didn't expect it to be."

It was the first time in 25 starts that Arrieta allowed a run in the first inning, and the first time he trailed 3-0 since Cole Hamels tossed a no-hitter at Wrigley Field on July 25.

Meanwhile, the Mets went with Noah Syndergaard after he threw in relief Thursday in the clincher against the Dodgers and also warmed up three times, throwing another 60 pitches in the bullpen.

Syndergaard pitched into the sixth before the Cubs cut it to 4-1 on an RBI double from Kris Bryant, but four Mets relievers slammed the door on the Cubs' chances of a comeback and made certain they returned to Chicago with some doubt in their minds.

Holding hands and skipping rocks is a pleasant way to go through a long baseball season, and the Cubs have taken the nation by storm with their young-and-dumb program, but this is the NLCS and there was no misunderstanding the stakes Sunday night.

The Cubs could not fall into an 0-2 hole against a team that pitches like the Mets, especially burning their top two starters in the first pair of games without bringing a victory back to Chicago.

Having to win four of the next five against a dominant pitching staff is a lot to overcome and a lot to ask of any team, even one with the experience of returning from such a deficit.

The Cubs don't have that, but they also haven't displayed any signs of cracking this season.

It's up to them now to show they're not yet broken.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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