Mets Playoff History: Sweeping the Cubs in the 2015 NLCS

Before heading to the 2015 World Series, the New York Mets took on the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS. The result ended with broomsticks.

The 2015 New York Mets brought a new generation of fans some fond memories. After a hard-fought battle versus the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS, the Mets went on to face the Chicago Cubs for the right to play in the World Series.

In what should have been a much closer result, the Mets took down the Cubs in four straight games. Let’s look back at how they did it.

In each of the first three games, the Mets starting pitcher took home the win. Only in Game Four would a reliever earn the W. Because Steven Matz ran into some trouble in the fifth inning, Terry Collins implemented a common playoff strategy. He yanked Matz before he could complete five innings and put the big guy, Bartolo Colon, on the mound. Colon struck out Kris Bryant to end the inning, setting him up for the eventual win.

Before Colon’s win, we saw Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, and Jacob deGrom all win. Closer Jeurys Familia tossed 4.1 shutout innings and completed the series with three saves. The bullpen was practically immaculate in this series in their limited innings. The lone reliever who gave up anything was Tyler Clippard.

Mets pitchers held every Cubs batter except for Jorge Soler to an average of .250 or below. It was a major reason why they were able to clobber the Cubbies.

On the offensive side of things, the star at the plate in this series was Daniel Murphy. The left-handed-hitting second baseman hit 4 home runs and drove in 6. He finished the series with an astonishing .529/.556/1.294 slash line. He also got help from Lucas Duda who hit .400/.455/.900 and several other Mets. This includes Travis d’Arnaud who hit a pair of home runs in the series.

The 2015 NLCS couldn’t have been scripted better. Thanks to some early runs and elite-level starting pitching, the team didn’t trail for a single moment in the four games.

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NLCS Series often got lost in history because of the impact of the following best of seven to follow. Though the ultimate ending to the 2015 campaign wasn’t so wonderful for New York, we at least got to enjoy a little bit of October baseball.