CHICAGO – This postseason has its own take on Murphy’s law: If something can go right for Daniel Murphy, it will.
Often, right over the outfield fence.
Murphy won NL Championship Series MVP on Wednesday night after homering for a postseason-record sixth straight game, leading the New York Mets over the Chicago Cubs 8-3 to complete a four-game sweep.
A contact hitter known for inconsistent fielding and occasional lapses on base, Murphy has been the driving force in the Mets’ push for their first pennant 15 years.
“I can’t explain why the ball keeps going out of the ballpark, but it does,” Murphy said. “And we keep winning ballgames.”
Murphy set the record with his latest blast in the eighth inning. He added a double and two singles and has hit safely in each of the Mets’ nine postseason games.
New York, meanwhile, advanced to the World Series for the first time since a bitter Subway Series loss to the Yankees in 2000. This time, the Mets will face Kansas City or Toronto as they try to win their first championship since the amazin’ bunch led by Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry won it all in 1986.
That Mets’ drought, of course, is nothing compared to that of the Cubs, who haven’t won it all since 1908 and won’t this year because of Murphy.
Sure, the Mets’ aces pitched in. The Cubs’ big bats failed to produce big results against starters Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz.
But Murphy’s Babe Ruth impersonation has fueled the Mets – and this after he’d homered in back-to-back games just once in his six-year career.
“I’ve not seen anything like this, I don’t think, ever,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said.