The Mets can pull off the Impossible against Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw

In one of the surprises of this season, the New York Mets outsmarted their opponents and exceeded all expectations by winning the National League East. They are in line to face the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 of the division series.

The Mets are devoid of home advantage in this one, and to make things worse, they will have to face Clayton Kershaw at Dodger Stadium. While Kershaw’s start this season was a little slower than most people expected, he quickly got back to the level that saw him being awarded the CyYoung award as the most valuable pitcher last year.

He finished the year with 301 strikeouts joining the great Sandy Koufax as the only other Dodger to strike out 300 hitters in a season. If that wasn’t enough, a measure of his phenomenal performance was that he was the only player since Pedro Martinez in 2012 to throw 200 innings in a season, and while keeping his ERA under 2.15 and still get 300 strike outs.

The silver lining for New York is that Kershaw has been no where neat this pace in the post season where he has given up 29 runs in 51 innings. If the Mets are to beat him, they have to up their game because their current roster is batting at .200 against him with 32 strikeouts.

If this wasn’t enough of a test for National League East champions, they have another formidable pitcher to face in the form of Zack Greinke. Grienke went 19-3 this season coupled with an ERA of 1.60 and again this was the first time anyone had been able to have a winning percentage that high and an ERA at this level since the 2012.

Greinke’s armory is full, with sliders and fastballs almost being unhittable once they leave his palm. The Mets have a worse record against Greinke then they do against Kershaw. So winning the game won’t be that easy.

Yet, difficult doesn’t necessarily mean impossible. The Dodgers for all their might have lost consecutive starts by Greinke and Kershaw twice this season. This happened against the Cubs in June and the Houston Astros in August.

Those games may present the blueprint for any chance of victory that the New York Mets may have. The plan was simple in those games, each team weathered the storm by the Dodger aces and increasing their pitch counts and then feasting on bullpen.

As you get deeper into the pitch count, Kershaw starts to lose his effectiveness and the case is similar with Greinke who loses his impact as the pitch count rises.