On a cold autumn night in Chicago on Wednesday, the New York Mets beat the Chicago Cubs 8-3 en route to their fifth NL Pennant.

The Mets led the best of seven series 2-0 when they went to Wrigley Field Tuesday night with All-Star righty Jacob deGrom on the mound against relatively unknown Chicago starter Kyle Hendricks.  The matchup produced the expected results, with New York prevailing 5-2.  Daniel Murphy tied a major league record with his 5th straight playoff game with a home run. With deGrom throwing seven strong innings and Jeurys Familia locking up another save, the Mets were sitting pretty with a 3-0 series lead heading into Wednesday.

On the evening of the 21st, the Mets sent rookie lefty Steven Matz to face Chicago.  Before Matz ever took the mound, the Mets had jumped out to a 4-0 lead thanks to home runs from Lucas Duda and Travis d’Arnaud.

The Cubs went down fighting, with Kris Bryant hitting a home run to pull the Cubs closer, but Daniel Murphy, who would eventually be named NLCS MVP, hit a two run home run late in the game to put the game to bed, as the Mets won 8-3 and secured their fifth trip to the Fall Classic.

The Mets opponent will be the Kansas City Royals, who defeated the Toronto Blue Jays in six games.  Last week, we discussed Blue Jays lefty David Price and his struggles on the mound during his playoff career.  Price took the mound in Game 6 of the ALCS, trying to help the Blue Jays live to see a seventh game.

The game did not get off that Price had envisioned, as he surrendered a first inning home run to his former teammate, Royals’ second baseman Ben Zobrist.  The Royals would add another run on a home run by Mike Moustakas, but Toronto evened the score thanks to two home runs by RF Jose Bautista.  

With the game tied in the bottom of the eighth inning, the Royals got leadoff man Lorenzo Cain on first base thanks to a single.  Then, clutch hitting first baseman Eric Hosmer came to the plate and drove a ball into the right field corner. Cain made a mad dash toward the plate and scored to pull the Royals ahead.

In the ninth inning, the Royals brought in their fantastic closer Wade Davis.  Davis slammed the door on the Blue Jays rally, stranding runners on second and third and propelling Kansas City to a second consecutive World Series appearance.

The World Series will begin on Tuesday night at 8:00PM EST in Kansas City.  The Mets will send Matt Harvey to the mound against the Royals, who will counter with Johnny Cueto.  The series will return to New York on Friday, and for all those looking for tickets: good luck, the average ticket price is  $1,667.82.