I'm gunna trail you my man!Let's do this. Mets will have to sweep the Cubs to gain betting respect - but truthfully heads started turning back around All-Star break when they managed to be 1st place in the NL East while lugging the worst offense in the majors.
And I'll go a little further - regarding the alleged genius of Joe Maddon. Why the fack did he let Arrieta go 9 innings in the wild card game with a 4-run lead? He hasn't been the same since. And did he not see the scouting report on Cespedes' arm prior to challenging it in Game 2? While the Mets defense overall isn't much, Cespedes has among the strongest arms in the majors. That was a remarkably dumb thing to do, really hurt the Cubs.
Meanwhile Collins, who Met fans don't even like, has been putting an impressive post-season campaign together one game at a time. He's even managed to work in some quality relief innings for the bullpen instead of keeping all the pressure on starters and their lone closer. In doing so, we saw Clippard's best outing since August. If (still a big if) he has his stuff, Mets are that much stronger a bet.
Most compelling reasons Cubs backers can give is that it's warmer than in games 1&2, as if the Mets were playing in a different conditions than the Cubs or something.