Mets' Dismantling of Cubs Makes Them Clear World Series Favorites

For the perfect postseason run, each team has its necessary list of ingredients. Compiling a lineup fit for the postseason is an ongoing process—one in which each team tries to find the right concoction.

With four teams left in the Major League Baseball playoffs, it seems no other team has found a more ideal mix of pitching, hitting and baserunning than the New York Mets.

The Mets beat the Chicago Cubs 5-2 on Tuesday and now hold a commanding 3-0 lead in the National League Championship Series. They have a chance Wednesday to sweep, which isn't why they should be favored to win this year's World Series.

They should be favored because of how they're winning. This isn't a series distinguished by curses or another run of bad Cubs luck. Instead, it's the Mets who have taken advantage of every opportunity this series has offered.

The umpires are calling low strikes. But they are consistently low strikes—called the same way with both teams at bat. The Mets have recognized that.

Baseball's best rotation—which features a trio of powerful right-handers in Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard and Tuesday's winner, Jacob deGrom—has effortlessly taken advantage of the series' Buick-size strike zone.

Seth Wenig/Associated Press

Their command has left Cubs hitters off balance for the entire series. The Cubs' middle-of-the-order hitters, Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant, have swung at far too many balls in the dirt, as they are left puzzled by the outstanding stuff of a pitching staff they thought could only beat them with overwhelming power.

At the start of the series, the narrative was about the epic battle of the Cubs' young hitters versus the Mets' young pitchers.

Even a novice baseball mind, when forced to choose, would err on the side of pitching. But this kind of dominance could not have been forecasted: a combined 2.21 ERA, 25 strikeouts and just four walks in the aforementioned trio's NLCS starts.

If it had been, the Mets would have been the sexy World Series pick long before Tuesday night.

But that pitching needs to be paired with some offense too—the lot of which second baseman Daniel Murphy has provided. In the third inning Tuesday, Murphy homered, extending his postseason home run streak to five games.

Pitching to Murphy is as impossible, right now, as hitting the Mets pitchers. It seems the only arms that could cool him down are the teammates he'll never be asked to face.

Simply put, there isn't a hotter hitter left in the postseason—or a better staff. While Murphy's rendered almost everyone speechless, David Wright had some advice for him, courtesy of Peter Botte of the New York Daily News:

"

David Wright called Murphy binge "ridiculous," said being in Chicago he should've done "the shoulder shrug like Jordan" after latest homer.

— Peter Botte (@PeterBotte) October 21, 2015"

The Mets seem to also have the same opportunistic persona that vaulted the Kansas City Royals to last year's World Series.

In the decisive Game 5 of a National League Division Series against the Dodgers in Los Angeles, with a shift still on after first baseman Lucas Duda walked, Murphy stole an uncovered third base. As a result, he scored the game-tying run.

In Game 2 of the National League Championship Series on Sunday, battle-tested veteran Curtis Granderson—right now about the most unwelcome of Chicago natives—stole third base in the third inning. He scored on Yoenis Cespedes' infield single that otherwise would not have netted a run.

In the sixth inning Tuesday, Cespedes also stole third and scored the game's go-ahead run on a dropped third strike.

Such baserunning is putting unwelcome pressure on teams. Want to beat the Mets? Don't make mistakes. And that's nearly impossible over a seven-game series.

Elsa/Getty Images

Whether this formula adds up to a World Series win can't be questioned. History has proved it works. The only question is whether or not the Mets can keep playing at this sky-high level.

Murphy will not extend his home run streak through the duration of the playoffs. Pitching, no matter how good, is prone to slipping up at some point—as we saw with Cubs ace Jake Arrieta in a surprising Game 2 dud.

The scary thought is the Mets do not need to lean on one elite arm like the Cubs have with Arrieta. There is no respite for opponents, and that makes the idea of a performance regression far less likely.

There is also still room to grow offensively, as slugger Duda (3-for-24 with zero home runs) has yet to find his footing and captain Wright (3-for-4 on Tuesday) finally appears ready to make an impact after a brutal beginning to the postseason.

The Mets' looming American League opponent—either the Royals or Toronto Blue Jays—might find itself asking just how much better can this team play?

Chances are, we'll have that answer at a ticker-tape parade in New York.

Seth Gruen recently spent four years at the Chicago Sun-Times covering a variety of sports, including baseball. Before that, he served as the Northwest Herald's Cubs and White Sox beat writer.

Feel free to follow and talk sports with Seth on Twitter @SethGruen.