New team, same Murph
A pain to Mets in any uniform
CHICAGO — It doesn’t really matter what team Daniel Murphy is playing for, he’ll just keep killing the Mets.
Murphy notched two hits, walked and scored a run as the Cubs piled on the Mets at Wrigley Field in a 7-4 victory Monday night, even getting some offensive help from their pitcher.
Jon Lester pitched six innings, drove in two runs with a timely single off Noah Syndergaard and made two nice plays in the field.
Murphy, who began his career with the Mets, is batting .407 (11 for 27) in six games since he was acquired in a trade with Washington.
Lester was in line for his 15th win before Kevin Plawecki hit a solo homer off Steve Cishek (4-1) in the seventh, tying it at 4 on a warm and windy night at Wrigley Field. But the Cubs went ahead to stay with two runs in the bottom half, including Ben Zobrist’s tiebreaking double off Jerry Blevins (1-2).
The Mets loaded the bases in the ninth before Jesse Chavez struck out Amed Rosario and Austin Jackson for his third save of the season, helping the Cubs (77-53) increase their NL Central lead to 4 1/2 games over idle St. Louis.
Michael Conforto also hit a towering 472-foot home run for the Mets, who had won four of six.
Syndergaard allowed four runs and nine hits, struck out six and walked three in six innings, still not looking right since returning from the disabled list.
“I saw a lot of balls kind of up and over the middle of the plate,” Mickey Callaway said. “He usually does a good job keeping the ball down. This was more mistakes than I usually see in the middle of the plate, and they made him pay for it.”
Lester was hit hard early on, including Conforto’s massive leadoff drive in the second — which reached the bleachers above the batter’s eye in center field. Rosario then made it 3-1 with a two-out RBI single, but the Mets lost out on a chance for more when Wilmer Flores popped up with the bases loaded.
The Cubs responded with three runs in the third, capped by Lester’s two-run single into left-center.