Mets sweep away Cubs' season

If Chicago Cubs fans want to take any consolation in the "wait till next year" refrain, it's that next year could be worth the wait.

This year's playoff run, which began with a bang in Pittsburgh, ended with a whimper Wednesday night at Wrigley Field as the New York Mets swept the Cubs out of the National League championship series with an 8-3 victory.

The four-game sweep ended a postseason run that saw the Cubs beat the Pirates in an emotionally charged wild-card game before defeating their Gateway Arch rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, three games to one in the division series.

"Everyone in this clubhouse, everyone in this organization, should be proud of what we did this year," said first baseman Anthony Rizzo. "It's hard to say that because we want to be celebrating right now."

After the Mets stormed the field to celebrate their upcoming World Series appearance, the Cubs took a final curtain call before what remained of the 42,227 fans who attended the game.

"We went out there at the end, just tipping our hats to them," Rizzo said. "They were behind us from Day 1."

Manager Joe Maddon, who guided the Cubs to 97 regular-season wins in his first year with the club, addressed his players after the game.

"I was saying I want them to understand and embrace all that they have done well this year," Maddon said. "Just don't look at these last couple games and focus on that at all. See how far we've come within a very short period of time, understand the personal growth and the team growth that occurred, and also understand we go to spring training next year, we can really just jump right on it. We know what we want to do and how we want to do it. Off-season to stay in touch, that kind of stuff.

"But listen, man, I could not be more thrilled with the group. One thing I mentioned, as of this morning, there were only four teams playing in the big leagues and we were one of them. That's pretty solid."

The Cubs barely gave themselves a chance Tuesday night, even as the crowd exhorted them on.

But the Mets took the starch out of the crowd by jumping on Cubs starting pitcher Jason Hammel with 4 runs in the first inning, when Hammel threw 38 pitches.

Lucas Duda hit a 3-run homer off Hammel, who lasted just 1⅓ innings. Duda brought 2 more home with a double in the second.

The Cubs came into this series flying high after knocking out the teams with the two best records in baseball. But they were shut down by a good Mets pitching staff.

Before this season started, most fans would have accepted any kind of winning record from the Cubs, who finished last year 73-89. At the end of last season, Rizzo stated the team's goal to win the NL Central, a theme he sounded repeatedly over the winter.

Before the game, Maddon said this year's playoff experience will benefit the Cubs next year and beyond because their young players now know what's expected of them in the postseason. Barring injury, a young and talented Cubs team should be in position to contend for the next several years.

"It benefits the whole organization," Maddon said. "It validates the scouting and development. It validates what we did in spring training this year just to get to this point to win over 100 games this year.

"Come on. Everything said and done, we've won over 100 baseball games this year during a regular season and postseason. That's not easy to do. I think everything that's occurred this year validates all that's been put in place prior to this year."

As far as the NLCS goes, the Cubs were set up for success in the beginning, but they couldn't press their advantage of having their top pitchers ready while the Mets were forced to the limit by the Dodgers in their division series.

Cubs starters Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta dropped decisions to Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard, respectively, in the first two games at New York. Kyle Hendricks started for the Cubs in Game 3 and lasted 4 innings in a 5-2 defeat at Wrigley Field.

Maddon was pressed several times on whether he'd come back with Lester on short rest for Game 4, and each time he said no.

The Mets took a 6-1 lead into the top of the eighth inning. Cubs reliever Fernando Rodney struck out the first two batters he faced before waling David Wright. Daniel Murphy came up and blasted a 2-run homer to center field for his seventh postseason home run. He has homered in a major-league-record sixth straight postseason games.

Kris Bryant brought the crowd back to some life in the bottom of the inning with a 2-run homer, a high drive to the bleachers in left-center.