The New York Mets led the Cubs in the ninth inning, 1-0, but they proceeded to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
The New York Mets finished off their horrendous road trip by losing to the Chicago Cubs in extra innings, 2-1, as they blew a 1-0 lead in the ninth and stretched their epic losing streak to 11 games.
This one actually started well for the Mets, as they made a surprising change by going with Tobias Myers as the opener ahead of David Peterson, who’s struggled in his last couple of starts. The move worked to perfection, as Myers threw two shutout innings to shorten the game, and Peterson responded well, throwing 3-2/3 shutout innings to give the Mets a chance to score.
That finally happened when MJ Melendez hit a solo home run in the fifth inning to give New York a 1-0 lead. The blow came off Cubs starter Javier Assad, and the score held until the bottom of the ninth when the Mets brought in closer Devin Williams to try and lock down the win.
But Williams couldn’t hold up his end of the pitching bargain. He gave up a single to Ian Happ, who had a two-hit game, and two batters later it was former Met Michael Conforto who delivered an RBI double to right to score pinch-runner Scott Kingery and tie the game to send it to extra innings.
The Mets then helped seal their fate by failing to bring in the ghost runner in the top of the tenth. Marcus Semien did get an infield hit to push ghost runner MJ Melendez to third with two outs, but Luis Torrens struck out to hand the Cubs the opportunity to win.
It didn’t take Chicago long to capitalize on that opportunity. The Mets brought in Craig Kimbrel to pitch the tenth, and a wild pitch got ghost runner Pete Crow-Armstrong to third after two failed bunt attempts by Dansby Swanson. Kimbrel came back to strike out Swanson, but Nico Hoerner did the kind of situational hitting the Mets have failed at lately, lifting a sacrifice fly to right to bring home the speedy Crow-Armstrong and win the game for reliever Caleb Thielbar.
The stunning loss completed the Chicago sweep at Wrigley, which came on the heels of a sweep by the Los Angeles Dodgers in LA. The Mets dugout looked utterly shattered by the sudden turn of events that extended their losing streak, and the Mets won’t be greeted kindly when they take the field against the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night, although they will have Nolan McLean going against Mick Abel of the Twins.