New York Daily News

Sloppy Mets clobbered by Cubs on another frigid night at Wrigley

- BY DEESHA THOSAR

CHICAGO – Wednesday night at Wrigley Field was a brutal reality check for the Mets. The performanc­e – the mess – they displayed against the Cubs was not the showing of a playoff-caliber team. Frankly, their play wasn’t even the showing of a big-league club.

The only silver lining: the Mets have 149 games remaining to prove they can compete like a team that wants to be a part of the postseason conversati­on. And the Mets will need all 149 of them to convince the crowd that watched their ugly 16-4 loss to the Cubs that they belong.

“We’re not trying to lose games,” said Francisco Lindor, who hit his first home run as a Met in the first inning. “We’re working as hard as we can every single day to win ballgames. But we’re going to lose at least 50 games. If we win 112, that’s impressive right there.”

The Mets (7-6) committed four errors that led to five unearned runs on Wednesday night. One of those mistakes belonged to J.D. Davis, who made his third error in two days at third base, which represente­d the turning point of the game. In the fourth inning, instead of turning an inning-ending double play on a Javier Baez grounder right into his glove, the ball fell out of his hands and trickled behind him, between his legs. By the time he found the ball and fired a throw to second, it was too late.

Davis was not made available after the loss, but Mets manager Luis Rojas thought the third baseman just rushed the play. The skipper said Davis was hard on himself after the error and Rojas believes he will “put in the work to get back to where he was in [spring] camp.”

“I don’t see why right now we’ll have any doubt that he can go out there and play good defense for us,” Rojas said, doubling down on his confidence in Davis. “Right now, he just needs to keep putting the work in and get back into his routine because he’s going to play third base.”

Davis’ error created a bases-loaded situation for starter David Peterson, who had faced the minimum in the first three innings. But that fourth inning represente­d a meltdown for the left-hander. He gave up three consecutiv­e one-out base hits to the Cubs, then after Davis’ error, he issued a bases-loaded walk to tie the game at 2-2.

Only then did more ugliness ensue. David Bote launched a high pop up off Peterson that dropped in for a base hit just a few steps in front of right fielder Michael Conforto. As two more runs crossed the plate, Conforto misfired an errant throw that bounced off the backstop and allowed runners to advance to second and third. Luis Rojas saw enough and pulled Peterson from the game.

Robert Gsellman allowed both of his inherited runners to score after Lindor bobbled a grounder up the middle. Then, when the shortstop recovered and picked up the ball, he threw it away from Pete Alonso at first base. Lindor, who is known for his sure-handed defense, recorded his first error the year.

The fourth inning that began with a two-run Mets’ lead ended with a 7-2 Mets’ deficit.

“Personally, I don’t like how I’ve been playing defense the past couple of days,” said Lindor.

Alonso tried to get a rally started when he launched a two-run home run that landed on Waveland Ave in the top of the fifth. His third dinger of the year brought the Amazin’s within three runs of the Cubs’ lead, but that was before a frigid Mets defense appeared discombobu­lated in the bottom half of the frame.

To begin the bottom of the fifth, Lindor and Jeff McNeil didn’t communicat­e on a grounder that went up the middle into center field. Their miscommuni­cation allowed Wilson Contreras to reach base with a leadoff double. Moments later, a catcher’s interferen­ce resulted in James McCann’s first error of the year. The Cubs put up four more runs in the fifth inning.

“The ground ball that I missed, that I made the error, after I dropped the ball, the game sped up,” Lindor said. “So that’s not good. The ground ball that went up the middle, I should’ve communicat­ed better.”

The game was blown open when Trevor Hildenberg­er allowed a grand slam to Baez in the sixth that gave the Cubs a 10-4 lead.

The Mets, despite having allowed 14 unearned runs in 13 games, are somehow still in first place after what will go down as one of their worst losses of the year.

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