Mets now 1 win from World Series

METS 5
CUBS 2
NYM lead series 3-0

The New York Mets are one win away. One win away from making all the losing of the past several seasons a distant memory; one win away from putting the memories of Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS far in the rear view mirror; one win away from forgetting about the chokes of 2007 and 2008.

The New York Mets are one win away from the World Series.

Let that sink in for a minute.

The Mets took a commanding 3-0 series lead on the Chicago Cubs with a solid 5-2 victory at the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field, shocking a legion of fans in Chicago that expected so much more out of their young heroes, the Cubs, while sending their own fan base to a level of ecstasy they haven’t felt in a long, long time.

Teams that take a 3-0 lead in an LCS more times than not find a way to win that series. Only one team has come back from a series deficit of 3-0, and that was the 2004 Boston Red Sox. Theo Epstein was the GM of the Red Sox back then, he's the GM of the Cubs now, but this Cubs team doesn't have the veteran leadership the Red Sox did that season.

Not to say this series is over, because anything can happen, but let's just say it's looking really, really good for the guys in the New York dugout right now.

On Tuesday, the Mets got contributions from just about everyone, especially David Wright, Yoenis Cespedes and Daniel Murphy.

With the game tied at one in the top of the third inning it was Murphy, once again, who played the catalyst. Murphy cracked his sixth home run of the playoffs, a new Mets record, into the bleachers in right-center field, giving New York a 2-1 lead.

The home run was one of two hits for Murphy on the night, extending his hitting streak to eight games, and raising his batting average to .364. The home run also tied former Met, Carlos Beltran for the most consecutive days with a home run in the postseason at five. Beltran hit a home run in five straight playoff games when he was a member of the Astros in 2004.

After the Cubs tied the game on a Jorge Soler solo home run in the bottom of the fourth, the Mets grabbed the lead right back in the sixth inning on a wild pitch from Trevor Cahill that allowed Yoenis Cespedes to score the go-ahead run to make it 3-2.

The Mets almost tacked onto that lead when Wilmur Flores lined a base hit over the head of Soler in right field that would have scored Conforto, but the baseball rolled into the ivy, forcing the umpires to call the hit a ground-rule double, preventing the run for scoring.

In that past that one run would haunt the Mets for the duration of the ball game; not tonight.

The Mets iced the game in the seventh inning when David Wright led off with a double to left field, and scored on a base hit by Cespedes to make it 4-2. Finally, Lucas Duda grounded out to first on a squeeze play, allowing Cespedes to score to push the lead to 5-2. 

While Jacob deGrom didn’t have his best stuff, he still gave the Mets seven quality innings in which he allowed only two runs on four hits, while striking out seven. deGrom gave way to the combo of Tyler Clippard and Jeurys Familia, both of whom made quick work of the Cubs in the eighth and ninth innings to seal the deal.

The Mets are now just one win away from the first trip to the World Series in 15 years, when the met the New York Yankees in the 2000 Subway World Series. Both the Mets and the Kansas City Royals looked poised to meet in this year's Fall Classic; Kansas City needs to win tomorrow as well in Toronto to clinch their ticket to the Series for the second straight year.