The New York Mets gave Nolan McLean a three-run cushion, but he couldn't make it stand up and the Mets got routed.
The New York Mets got embarrassed by the Chicago Cubs again, 10-3, as they got off to a three-run lead but failed miserably once again after that.
Nolan McLean was the Mets starter, and he had a strange game. He struck out eight but had all kinds of problems with his control and his breaking ball, as McLean hit two batters and walked two more.
The first three things were scoreless, but the Mets gave McLean a cushion in the fourth against Cubs starter Javier Assad. The runs scored on a pair of solo homers by Jared Young and Francisco Alvarez, but McLean proceeded to give the 3-0 lead back in the fifth.
The Cubs rally started with a single by Pete Crow-Armstrong, and Michael Conforto then doubled to bring home PCA. Michael Busch finished the rally with a two-run homer, and just like that it was back to 3-3.
Things quickly got worse in the sixth. McLean as close to getting out of a jam after a double by Nico Hoerner and a single by Miguel Amaya, but a three-run bomb by sudden Mets nemesis Dansby Swanson put the Cubs ahead 6-3.
The Mets couldn’t come back from the deficit, and the Cubs put the game on ice in the eighth with four runs off reliever Jonathan Pintaro, as Dansby once again played the villain with a grand slam to make it 10-3. That gave Swanson seven RBIs for the game as he continues to enjoy the Cubs’ latest swing through New York.
McLean took the loss as his ERA rose to go back over four, but he has only himself to blame for this one. As great as his stuff is, he can’t seem to consistently control all of his pitches, and it’s becoming fair to wonder if he might benefit from cutting back on the number of weapons he has and better mastering the ones that are actually working.
The bright spots offensively for the Mets were Francisco Alvarez, who continues to be hot, along with Carson Benge, who had a two hit day, and Jared Young seemed to break his recent slump with his homer. Overall, though, the brand of baseball the Mets are playing continues to be lackluster, and that’s being kind.
The Mets get shortstop Francsico Lindor for the nightcap against the Cubs, so it will be interesting to see if that changes the dynamic. GM David Stearns talked about giving the Mets until the August 3 trade deadline to turn things around, but anyone who’s watched this club lately knows how truly unlikely that kind of turnaround is right now.
