Major League Baseball

LEADING OFF: Mets-Cubs at Wrigley in NLCS; KC-Jays in ALCS

Published Oct. 19, 2015 8:15 p.m. ET

foxsports

A look at what's happening around the major leagues today:

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WRIGGLING LOOSE

The Cubs try to close their 0-2 deficit in the best-of-seven NL Championship Series when they play the Mets at 8:07 p.m. EDT at Wrigley Field. Jacob deGrom pitches Game 3 for New York after winning both of his starts in the Division Series vs. the Dodgers. Kyle Hendricks goes for Chicago - he gave up three home runs in 4 2-3 innings of his playoff start against St. Louis.

BOOK IT

Royals righty Chris Young and Blue Jays knuckleballer R.A. Dickey are the starters in Game 4 of the AL Championship Series at 4:07 p.m. in Toronto. The Blue Jays will try to even the best-of-seven set. Young and Dickey were Texas teammates from 2003-04 and played together with the Mets from 2011-12. ''He's got a great mind. It's fun to be around guys like that who are well read and who you can have deeper conversations with,'' Dickey said of Young, who went to Princeton. ''But I'm not sure who's more well-read.'' Kidded Young: ''I mean, we've never sat down and compared reading lists or book-club lists.''

STATS

Daniel Murphy has homered in four straight playoff games for the Mets, connecting against aces Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, Jake Arrieta and Jon Lester. The record for consecutive games with a postseason home run is five by Carlos Beltran. ... According to STATS, the winner of the first two games of a best-of-seven series in the baseball postseason has won it 83 percent (63 of 76) of the time.