The price of tickets for Cubs home games in the NLCS have fallen dramatically, and it's likely because the team is now unable to clinch the National League pennant at Wrigley Field.
According to pricing data from SeatGeek, the average resale ticket prices for Games 3, 4, and 5 at the Friendly Confines have dropped by hundreds of dollars since the Cubs dropped the first two games of the series against the Mets.
Here's a chart showing the fall in prices:
With the Cubs advancing in the playoffs for the first time in 12 years and igniting hope that — at long last — a World Series title is in reach, the Friendly Confines are getting a rare moment on a big stage. The NL Championship Series shifts to Chicago for games 3 and 4 after the Mets grabbed the first two in New York over the weekend.
The Cubs had never clinched a playoff series at Wrigley Field until they knocked off St. Louis in the division series, and Tuesday's Game 3 is the latest the Cubs have ever played a game in the ballpark. They lost at home to Philadelphia on Oct. 23, 1910, giving the Athletics the World Series in five games. But back then, the Cubs played at the old West Side Park. And they were a mere two years removed from winning their last World Series.
Down 2-0 to the New York Mets in the NL Championship Series, the Chicago Cubs are sticking with what worked for them during a breakthrough season.
Chicago Baseball
"We'll come out tomorrow, we'll be ready to play," Maddon said Monday. "Our guys are always ready to play."
According to STATS, the winner of the first two games of a best-of-seven series in the baseball playoffs has advanced 83 percent (63 of 76) of the time, and the Mets have Jacob deGrom heading to the mound for Game 3 on Tuesday night. But Maddon is confident the team can once again overcome the odds.
"I prefer that we just stay with our normal patterns, and then we have to adjust sometimes during the course of the game. That's it,” he said. You just have to make adjustments, but you don't necessarily want to change.”
Bryant, who had two hits and drove in Chicago's only run in Game 2, said everyone on the Cubs just has to stick to their own approach.
"We've gotten pretty far just the way we've been going," Bryant said Monday. "I think it's a matter of, we've hit some balls hard and they haven't been falling. That's the way baseball goes sometimes."
