New York Post

Solid Wheeler’s only stain comes from leaky pen

- By HOWIE KUSSOY hkussoy@nypost.com

Zack Wheeler left the mound Friday night having held the National League’s highest-scoring offense without a run, but his screwup was too much to overcome.

He handed the ball to the bullpen.

In line for his first win since April 29, Wheeler watched his shutout disappear and his victory replaced with a no-decision in a 7-4 loss to the Cubs at Citi Field.

“It’s what you want to see out of every starting pitcher,” manager Mickey Callaway said. “He did his job and probably more than his job to get us where we needed to be. Again, we just couldn’t hold it.”

The inconsiste­nt righty wasn’t dominant, but repeatedly escaped trouble and won the most important battles against one of the league’s toughest lineups. Though Wheeler allowed runners to reach base in five of the first six innings, he maintained the Mets’ 2-0 lead and extended the starters’ scoreless streak to 18 innings.

Wheeler came back for the seventh and surrendere­d a leadoff single to Addison Russell. The Mets starter nearly induced a double play on his next batter, but Amed Rosario was covering second base — with Russell in motion — and a harmless ground ball became another single.

Paul Sewald allowed a sacrifice fly to Kyle Schwarber and an RBI double to Ben Zobrist to tie the game, with Wheeler responsibl­e for both runners. Two batters later, the Cubs took the lead for good, and the Mets were on their way to a sub-.500 record for the first time this season.

“I think it’s just one inning that’s been killing me all season, and other than that, I think I’ve been doing pretty well,” Wheeler said. “I just gotta limit the one inning, and today I was sort of able to do that.”

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