NEW YORK -- After the New York Mets failed to close out their National League Division Series in Game 4 and advance to face the Chicago Cubs, captain David Wright insisted the team’s confidence level has not wavered entering a winner-take-all finale.
Jacob deGrom will face Zack Greinke on Thursday at 8:07 p.m. ET as the series shifts back to Dodger Stadium. DeGrom tossed seven scoreless innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers as the Mets won the NLDS opener.
“We feel confident,” Wright said after the Mets’ 3-1 loss on Tuesday in Game 4 at Citi Field. “Jacob threw a great game out there last time. We knew going into this series that offensively it was going to be a challenge. And it’s been just that. When you’re facing [Clayton] Kershaw and Greinke in four out of the five games, you know that runs are going to be at a premium and at a minimum. And they’ve definitely been that with those two guys on the mound.”
Pitching on short rest with the Dodgers facing elimination, Kershaw limited the Mets to a solo homer by Daniel Murphy and no other damage in seven strong innings.
Wright said the difference between Kershaw’s outing Tuesday and in Game 2 was the ace’s ability to throw his curveball for a strike this time. On Saturday, the Mets were able to eliminate that pitch and concentrate on Kershaw’s fastballs and sliders. Those two pitches, on average, have only a 4 mph disparity (95 vs. 91 mph).
“What he did tonight a lot better than what he did out in L.A., which was still pretty good, was throwing all of his pitches for strikes,” Wright said. “He really could throw each pitch where he wanted to. To righties, he was pounding us in, working off that slider, and then throwing his curveball for strikes. In L.A. you could almost go up there and forget about the curveball because he was having a hard time commanding it. Tonight he was commanding all three and he was just flat-out unhittable.
“The goal today was to go out there and, especially with him working on short rest, try to get his pitch count up. And, unfortunately, we couldn’t do that because he was just throwing so many strikes.”
All three runs against rookie left-hander Steven Matz came in the third inning. Matz, pitching in a major league game for the first time in 19 days, regretted two pitches that inning: a hanging slider on which Kershaw singled, and a changeup in the strike zone to ex-Met Justin Turner. Turner delivered a two-run double for a 3-0 lead.
“I felt good right out of the gate,” said Matz, who had been slowed at the end of the regular season by back spasms. “It was just one bad inning, really, that got me. It’s frustrating, but I’ve got to make better pitches in those spots. Turner’s one of their hottest hitters right now, and I fell behind. It ended up costing me. … A couple of mistakes hurt me. Against a guy like Kershaw, you want to put up zeroes. And I wasn’t able to do that today.”
Said Wright: “I would definitely say that when you look at the r&Iecutesum&Iecute of Clayton Kershaw compared to Steven Matz, I’d probably give that edge to Clayton. But Steve went out there, started off the game well. He gave up a couple of -- I don’t want to say cheap ones -- but that were off the barrel a little bit. They just got to him that one inning, basically. He did a nice job of keeping his composure, keeping us in the ballgame. I don’t think anyone was going to outpitch Clayton Kershaw tonight.”
As for the upcoming deGrom-Greinke matchup, Wright said, “We’ve had big pitching matchups this whole series. You look at Kershaw-deGrom and Greinke-[Noah] Syndergaard and then going back out there for deGrom-Greinke, if you like pitching matchups, this is the series for you.”
The Mets’ last postseason series, back in 2006, went to a winner-take-all game, too. Yadier Molina homered against Aaron Heilman in Game 7 of the NLCS at Shea Stadium to send the St. Louis Cardinals to the World Series.
Asked what he remembered about the last winner-take-all game involving the Mets, Wright recalled the pleasant moment that preceded Molina’s homer.
“I remember Endy [Chavez]’s catch,” Wright said.
Wright then added that every play is so important in a five-game series, there actually is not that much extra pressure when the series goes the distance.
“When you understand in a five-game series that any play or any pitch or any at-bat can change the course of the series, it’s almost like you practiced the Game 5 before you even get there,” Wright said. “I don’t think that mindset is going to change at all going out to L.A.”
As for the Game 4 loss, Wright said, “I wish we could have won it here, obviously, so that we could prepare for the next round and do it in front of our fans. Like I said, Clayton Kershaw was just a beast tonight. It was going to be tough to beat him when he was on like he was. Hopefully we can take care of business in L.A.”
