The New York Mets (50-43) defeated the Chicago Cubs (56-37) tonight at Wrigley Field by a score of 2-1. If the Dodgers can hold on to beat the Nationals tonight, the Mets will gain some ground in the standings, and sit 5.5 games back behind Washington.
Pitching:
Noah Syndergaard toed the rubber for the Mets tonight, and tossed a solid 5.2 innings, allowing just one run on seven hits, while striking out eight and walking two.
Unfortunately, Syndergaard was knocked out early and forced to labor through a decent amount of pitches because of some outfield troubles in the early innings.
The lone run Syndergaard allowed came in the third. Willson Contreras doubled, and subsequently stole third. Rene Rivera fired an errant throw on the play which plated the Cubs first run.
Michael Conforto, who was making his first start in right field tonight saved a run defensively as he threw Jake Arrieta out trying to score in the fourth. Arrieta was originally called safe, but the play was challenged and overturned, keeping the game at 1-0 at the time.
In the sixth inning, Syndergaard walked Willson Contreras on four pitches, and Contreras promptly stole second. Syndergaard struck out the next two batters, but Terry Collins wouldn’t let the young firearm finish off the inning, and instead turned to Jerry Blevins to finish off the frame, which he did.
Hansel Robles was next up to pitch for the Mets, and turned in a very solid relief outing, pitching two scoreless innings allowing just one hit.
Jeurys Familia came on to pitch the ninth with the Mets taking the lead in the top half of the frame, and of course had to make it dramatic. Familia load the bases for the Cubs with nobody out, and MIRACULOUSLY, and I say MIRACULOUSLY pulled a Houdini to get out of it and secured the win for the Mets. OH MY goodness. This writer didn’t think that Familia was going to get himself out of that one. Oh wow.
Offense:
The Mets offense was tasked with facing one of the best pitchers in the league in Jake Arrieta tonight. Arrieta pitched seven strong innings, allowing one run on five hits while walking one and striking out eight.
As I mentioned, the Mets were able to scratch a run off Arrieta in the sixth, as Jose Reyes showed flashes of 2006 by tripling and then scoring on a sacrifice fly from Curtis Granderson to knot the game up at the time.
In doing so, Arrieta was forced to settle for a no decision on the evening.
Perhaps the biggest surprise tonight was that Rene Rivera went 3-for-4, including driving in the go ahead run in the ninth inning to make it 2-1 Mets, and gave the Amazin’s their first lead of the night.
WHAT A WIN!!!
On deck:
Bartolo Colon (8-4, 3.11 ERA) will look to lead the Mets to the series victory tomorrow afternoon at Wrigley, and will take on Kyle Hendricks (8-6, 2.41 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 2:20 PM.
