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| With their season on the line in the day they were supposed to be the champs according to "Back to the Future", how will the Chicago Cubs respond? David Phillip/AP |
By Ivan Saldajeno
I RARELY report baseball articles either here on DPH or even on my own blog, but I made this special Game Analysis post in celebration of the "arrival" of Marty and Doc Brown, i.e., the setting of "Back to the Future 2".
If you recall, the holographic news bulletin in one scene of the movie said that the Chicago Cubs won the MLB's top prize, the World Series trophy. Although it was not really a forecast (you should know that flying cars still don't exist to this day and that the MLB Finals won't happen until next week thanks to some expansions), it seemed like the Cubs wanted to make the BTTF's version of 2015 happen by barging to the NLCS.
Many thought the Cubs will easily manhandle the New York Mets as per their season series. The Mets, however, entered the mound with some spoiler alerts.
Instead of the "movie-suggested" headline, the latest sports news are headlined like, "Mets on verge of sweeping Cubs in NLCS". So, how did the so-called "other New York team" has been getting the better of the Windy City's "It Squad" (of course, the Cubs have a more colorful history than the White Sox)?
Let's first take a look at the heroics of Daniel Murphy. He has homered in each of the three games in the NLCS, extending his postseason home run streak to five, a franchise-best and tied for the league record.
Curiously, Murphy somewhat struggled at bat in two of the three games, and so does Yoenis Cespedes, who is known for his lightning speed long throws. Despite all of these, the Mets lead the Cubs, 3-0.
It seems like the problem stems from the Cubs' starting pitchers.
The starting pitcher in Game 1, Jon Lester, conceded all the four runs by the Mets and was relieved in the seventh inning with a 5.4 ERA.
A day later, the Cubs went with Jake Arrieta for the starter spot, but even he also gave up all the Mets runs and was subbed off after the fifth inning with an even notorious 7.2 ERA.
In Game 3, the Cubs started Kyle Hendricks, but four innings and two runs later (although the last run broke a 1-1 tie), he was replaced. In fact, the Cubs used seven different pitchers in the game thanks to the Mets' hitting accuracy.
Trevor Cahill was credited with the loss after Cespedes took advantage of a wild pitch and scored what would be the game-winning run in the sixth inning.
The Cubs' hopes of fulfilling the movie scripts now rely on Jason Hammel, who curiously struggled in his last start in Game 4 of the NLDS.
The Cubs are now on a very difficult task of sweeping the last four games of the MLB semis to keep their hopes of ending a 108-year-old title drought alive.
But if you think it is impossible like how the NBA Playoffs "teach" us, remember that the last time a team came back from 0-3 down was also in the MLB Postseason, when the Boston Red Sox made happen what was never meant to happen, stealing the 2004 league semis from the Yankees of, guess where, New York!
Boston would win the World Series that year, ending the so-called "Curse of the Bambino" and eventually becoming the team of the 2000's.
Yes, the Back to the Future trilogy is not really foretelling the future, but the Cubs can still dictate their fates. The Cubs' comeback bid, however, should start now.
(Disclaimer: The opinions of the writer does not necessarily reflect those of Dugout Philippines.)
Follow the writer on Twitter: @IvanSaldajeno
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