If you were a neutral fan coming into the postseason this year, this is the matchup you wanted. Both of these franchises have had so much go wrong in the past decade and finally, they are back, but maybe a little ahead of schedule.
The Chicago Cubs and the New York Mets for a spot in the World Series on the line. It's the Midwest versus East Coast. Two upstart franchises that are surprising the baseball world with their young talent.
The hard work behind the scenes of a long rebuild by Sandy Alderson for the Mets and Theo Epstein for the Cubs is paying off in a form not many expected this early and of course, it's pitting them up against each other.
The Cubs are riding their young guns on this historical run that few have predicted, (except for Back to the Future). The first year of the Joe Maddon era has them off and running with all of their stars that just broke into the big leagues.
As for the Mets, they are a little bit more experienced bunch, but have ridden their pitching from their young aces (yes, there are multiple) into this NLCS where they hope something can finally go right again.
Lately, this is unchartered territory for these franchises. The Mets haven't been here since 2006 while the Cubs are making their first appearance since 2003.
The Cubs are coming off of a big series win over their rival the St. Louis Cardinals in a series they swung the bat extremely well in. In game three they hit a record six home runs from six different players which may seem incredible for other teams, but for this squad, it seems just like another day at the office.
Throughout the entire Chicago lineup presents a threat and that is why it will be so fun to watch the likes of Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, and Kyle Schwarber go up against the fierce pitching staff of the Mets in Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz and Matt Harvey.
The Mets pitching has been on some kind of run through this postseason in their series with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The four starters have combined for 42 strikeouts in 30.1 innings and that isn't mentioning Jeurys Familia who has thrown 5.1 perfect innings.
These two teams play different types of games as the Mets will ride their pitching while the Cubs will need their bats to show up.
How could we talk about all of those pitchers and not mention arguably the best one in Jake Arrieta. If the Cubs want to have much success, it is imperative that they get good outings from guys like Arrieta and Jon Lester. When you go up against power arms like the ones mentioned above, you may not have the same production that you normally would at the plate.
The Cubs, however, have had their fair share of success against the Mets in 2015 sweeping the seven games they played against each other. That will all have to change come Saturday night when the series gets underway from Citi Field in Flushing, NY at 8:07 EST on TBS.
Will it be the upstart Mets trying to get back to the World Series for the first time since 2000, or will it be the Cubs trying to reverse the curse?
Prediction: Pitching at this time of year is always very important and with the Mets having a rotation like they do, it will be too much for the young Cubs to handle. Mets in 7
Game 1 probables: Jon Lester vs. Matt Harvey