METS STUMBLE HOME
Extra-inning loss to Cubs sends Amazin’s back to Citi on three-game skid
CHICAGO – The Mets spoiled their extra-inning gift and were swept by the Cubs after a 4-3 walk-off loss in the series finale on Thursday night.
Edwin Diaz shut down the Cubs in the bottom of the ninth, with help from James McCann, who recorded his fourth caught-stealing attempt of the year to end the inning and sent the game to extras. In the top of the 10th, MLB’s extra-innings rule put a runner, Kevin Pillar, on second to start the frame. Pillar advanced to third on a wild pitch, which gave the Mets three opportunities to plate the go-ahead run with nobody out.
But Luis Guillorme and Francisco Lindor drew one-out walks before Dominic Smith hit into a double play to end the inning.
It was a tight game all night until the Cubs broke the dam in the 10th inning. Diaz, for the first time in 2021, came out for a second inning and gave up a bases-loaded, game-winning single to pinch-hitter Jason Heyward.
“Getting swept feels like eating a s--- sandwich, to be honest with you,” Pete Alonso said.
The bullpen kept the Amazin’s within striking distance, with four Mets relievers combining to pitch five scoreless innings. In the eighth, after Aaron Loup allowed a leadoff triple to former Met Jake Marisnick, Miguel Castro bailed him out with a huge strikeout to end the inning and strand the go-ahead run at third.
The Mets had their best opportunity to tie the game in the seventh inning, when Jonathan Villar led off with a hit-by-pitch off his right foot and took first base. J.D. Davis came off the bench and
CUBS METS
provided the hit the Mets needed, further proving he would better serve the team as a designated hitter or clutch pinch-hitter. Davis, pinch-hitting in the pitcher’s spot, drove in the tying run in the seventh inning with an RBI double off the centerfield ivy.
The Mets started utility infielder and the team’s best defensive glove, Luis Guillorme, at third base after Davis committed another error, his third of the Cubs’ series, in Wednesday’s brutal loss.
Joey Lucchesi made his second start and for the second-straight time, he didn’t pitch past the third inning. The southpaw began his outing with two perfect innings with four strikeouts before he allowed three earned runs in the third on oneout consecutive walks – including one against opposing pitcher Trevor Williams – and two-out consecutive hits.
Sean Reid-Foley kept the Mets within one run of the Cubs with an outstanding Mets debut. The righthander pitched three perfect innings with four strikeouts out of the bullpen – on the day the reliever was called up from the team’s alternate site in Brooklyn. Reid-Foley, who dropped into a Craig Kimbrel-like squat on the mound before his pitches, delivered the outing the Mets sorely needed from their relief corps.
Reid-Foley came to the Mets in the January trade that sent Steven Matz to the Blue Jays. He pitched a 1.35 ERA over five games (6.2 innings) for Toronto in the shortened 2020 season.
Alonso stayed hot with his second home run in as many days on a 413-foot two-run shot to left field that stayed inside Wrigley Field this time. The fourth-inning blast was his fourth dinger of the season and cut the Mets’ deficit to 3-2, setting up Davis’ game-tying RBI double in the seventh.
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