MET GAMEDAY

GAME 56: June 2, 2018 Where: Citi Field

JACOB DEGROM extended his recent string of dominance, yielding no more than one run for the eighth consecutive start, while twice escaping bases-loaded situations with minimal damage. But come on, you know the rest by now. The Mets somehow fell to 5-7 in games started by the National League leader in ERA, as Buddy Baumann and Gerson Bautista coughed up six runs in the 14th inning to send Mickey Callaway’s crashing team to yet another crushing defeat, 7-1, to the Cubs on Saturday night at Citi Field. DeGrom permitted one run on seven hits, while striking out a career-high tying 13, over seven innings (seasonhigh 116 pitches) to trim his ERA to an NL-best 1.49. He still departed in a 1-1 tie because Cubs lefty Mike Montgomery was reached for just a solo homer by Michael Conforto through six excellent frames.

After Conforto’s seventh of the season had knotted the score in the sixth for the Mets (27-29), Robert Gsellman and Jeurys Familia combined to notch five more strikeouts through the ninth.

Jerry Blevins’ whiff of Ian Happ with the bases loaded to end the 10th marked the 20th of the night overall for Mets pitchers, tying the franchise record for a single game (8/1/99 vs. the Cubs). Hansel Robles then established the team mark with a punch-out of Cubs reliever Luke Farrell one inning later, before the total was extended to 24 when Tim Peterson fanned Kris Bryant to end the 13th.

The Cubs strung together three straight one-out hits against Baumann in the 14th, including a two-run double to right-center by Albert Almora Jr. to snap the tie. Ben Zobrist then ripped another two-run double and Javier Baez clocked a two-run homer to left against Bautista for a 7-1 game.