In the last blog I was talking about the Cubs and what I thought would happen in the post-season. As seemed likely, they beat the Pirates and the Cardinals. That's as far as I forecast, since I didn't know who would be playing in the series after that. It turned out to be the Mets.
The Mets didn't have a great team this year and won only 90 games. The Cubs should have handled them easily. But they didn't. In the Cubs's series with the Cardinals, Rizzo, Bryant and Montero weren't hitting. They were in deep slumps. Montero's was self-inflicted. He swung for the fences like a maniac almost, but not quite, every at bat. At the same time, players who are usually average were on awesome hitting streaks. I thought for sure Rizzo and Bryant would snap out of it, since they had three days between series to rest and work on things. It didn't happen.
In the series between the Cubs and the Cardinals, the Cardinals won one game. It wasn't total humiliation. In the games they lost, they put up a fight. In the series between the Cubs and the Mets, the Cubs got swept four games. I don't think they had a lead the entire series. If they did, it was for half an inning. It's hard to lose four games in a row. The defeat and humiliation were total and complete. After a great series against the Cardinals, the Cubs collapsed.
Rizzo and Bryant never came out of their slumps. Montero continued to swing like a madman. The guys who were on hot streaks against the Cardinals went back to normal. It was awful. It was brutal. It was basically unwatchable. The only silver lining is that the Cubs had a lot of rookies this year and weren't expected to do anything of substance until 2016. By the end of next season, the rookies will have two full seasons under their belts and hopefully be ready for the post-season.
Speaking of defeat, I may as well talk about Georgia Tech's football season. On the other blog I mentioned last season's awesome win over Georgia. Tech went on to play Florida State in the ACC championship. Even though they lost, it didn't feel like a loss. They played hard and left it all on the field and ended the game down by just 3 points. There was nothing to be ashamed of. They moved on and won their bowl game 49-34. Things looked fantastic for this year. I was so excited.
However, Tech had some key players graduate or move on to the NFL between seasons while other players became injured. This year has been a train wreck. After winning the first two games against extremely weak schools, Tech's only won one game this year against real teams. That was Oct 24th against Florida State, who was ranked 9th in the country at the time. Tech has had gradual improvement as the season's gone on, and it seemed like they were finally on track. Not so much. They lost Saturday against Virginia. It was a game they probably should have won, but I said that about the Duke game. They really should've beaten Duke. Seriously.
Tech has three games left this year, including the all-important game against Georgia. I was dreading that one. However, Georgia lost a crucial player to injury for the rest of the year and aren't as high in the polls as they started out. In fact, they're no longer a top 25 team, just like Tech. Maybe, just maybe, Tech can beat them again this year. I'm not holding my breath, but I'm not dreading the game like I was. I have hope.
And the Mets? They lost the World Series 4 games to 1. Daniel Murphy, the unstoppable hero against the Cubs, made two memorable errors. One cost them game four. The second helped to lose game five to complete the defeat. Baseball's a game of streaks. Over the course of a season, it all evens out. In short series like the post-season, it gets magnified.
