The New York Mets are certainly happy it won't have to cross paths with the Chicago Cubs after Thursday's game as the team is 0-6 heading into the season series finale.
The New York Mets have had a rough season no matter how you slice it up, and that narrative continued after getting swept by the Chicago Cubs in Wednesday’s doubleheader.
The Cubs outscored the Mets 20-8 across the two games and everything that has gone wrong for New York this season was on full display. Pitching was bad, the offense couldn’t keep up, and the defense had one of the worst games the baseball world has seen in a long time.
The Mets committed six errors in the nightcap and were met (no pun intended) with a flurry of boos and “Pete Alonso” chants.
The ugly day saw Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson, who has been in a massive offensive funk and entered the series with 31 RBI, woke up today with 46 RBI as he collected four in the opener, seven in Game 1 and four in Game 2.
New York can’t get out of this four-game set quick enough, but they must face Chicago one more time to conclude the season series and the matchup will be very familiar for both starting pitchers.
Lefty Matthew Boyd returns from the injured list to face ex-Milwaukee Brewer and Cubs rival Freddy Peralta, who is coming off the worst start of his career.
Boyd has had two stints on the IL with different ailments and comes back at the best time possible for the Cubs, which are dealing with an abundance of pitcher injuries but most importantly within the starting rotation.
The veteran left-hander has great strikeout-to-walk numbers (31-to-6), but he had his struggles in five starts this season. He is 2-1 with a 6.00 ERA and 1.29 WHIP through 24 innings of work; Boyd hasn’t pitched since May 3, when he put together his best start of the season – six innings of two-run ball on four hits and one walk with five strikeouts.
Peralta isn’t having the success he or the Mets had hoped for when he was acquired from Milwaukee to be New York’s ace. The two-time All-Star is 5-6 with a 4.83 ERA, 1.39 WHIP and 83 strikeouts to 34 walks through 16 starts (85.2 innings).
Peralta last worked against the Philadelphia Phillies and allowed 10 runs on 10 hits and one walk while fanning two over 2.2 innings, marking the worst start of his nine-year career.
Chicago is in position to sweep New York like it did in April and take the season series 7-0, but Peralta has had tons of success against the Cubs in his career and likely has a bad taste in his mouth from his last outing, so he could have a nice outing tonight.
First pitch is at 7:10 p.m. EDT on MLB.TV and regional sports networks.
