Lindor walks off Cubs in extras |
QUEENS — It was a fitting end to an interesting road trip for the Chicago Cubs (19-13), as they fell to the New York Mets (16-15) 7-6 in 11 innings. Throughout this road trip, the Cubs' offense struggled to score runs in this series while also delivering some of their better pitching performances of the season.
That was again the case in this one as Ben Brown took a no-hitter into the fifth inning before unraveling a bit. Brown came one out short of qualifying for the win, but with five walks and five strikeouts, his command wasn't as sharp as he would've liked. The same can be said for Mets starter Adrian Houser, who has gotten off to the worst possible start he could have imagined. However, given his experience against this Cubs team, if there was ever a game to turn his season around, this would be it. Houser battled through command issues of his own to get through five innings but was charged with four earned runs. This was one of those games where the offense got going late, as the Pete Crow-Armstrong grounder in the second was the only run of the game through five innings. Given how Brown was pitching in the early innings, one run seemed to be enough, but you had to think that the Cubs needed more than just one run as they wouldn't win two games by 1-0 scores. Once the fifth inning rolled around, the Cubs offense started to break through, which was much needed when you look at how this series has gone. Nico Hoerner started the rally with a one-out single, while the two-out walk from Ian Happ kept the inning going. Following a double steal that moved both runners up 90 feet, Christopher Morel came through for the second time in this series as his three-run blast put the Cubs up 4-0 and seemingly put the game away. With Brown holding the Mets hitless through four, Craig Counsell elected to send him out for the fifth despite his pitch count creeping towards 80. You could see the fatigue starting to set in as a leadoff walk, followed by the Harrison Bader single putting a pair of runners on base and breaking up the no-hit bid. Brown managed to bounce back and retire the next two hitters, but with Brandon Nimmo and Starling Marte adding RBI singles, the Mets pulled within 4-2 and chased Brown in the process. Keegan Thompson took over from there as he closed out the fifth without further damage to keep his 0.00 ERA intact. Not about to let that inning linger, the Cubs were gifted a baserunner when Patrick Wisdom was credited for a double despite a misplay in the outfield. That proved costly as Pete Crow-Armstrong connected for another RBI double two batters later to extend the Cubs lead to 5-2 as their offense was finally starting to show signs of life. With this game coming down to which bullpen could pitch better, you had to give the Mets the advantage there, even though the Cubs pen has stood up all series. Thompson has been one of the rare pitchers to have success every time out, but even he started to lose his magic in the sixth as a costly error to Jeff McNeil to start the inning opened the door for what was to come. That error was followed by a one-out Harrison Bader single before the Lindor double pulled the Mets to within 5-4. Two batters later, Thompson was removed from the game in favor of Richard Lovelady, which resulted in a Nimmo double to bring things back to even 5-5. The next several innings saw both offenses stall out as the bullpens started to take care of business. Hector Neris is worth noting in this one. He came on to pitch the ninth and not only held the Mets scoreless but also retired the side in order, which hasn't happened this season. This is the type of outing that the Cubs are hoping he can build on, as he has been pitching better the past few weeks. With nine innings not enough to decide this game, it was time for extra innings, where Edwin Diaz trotted out for his second inning. Diaz blew the game on Monday when Morel took him deep for a two-run shot in the ninth, and after Wisdom lofted one to right center field, it looked as if that would happen again. That was until Marte showed off his arm in right field and gunned Morel down at home to pick up an inning-ending double play and kept the score tied 5-5. Baserunning miscues continued to be an issue in the 11th, which came from the potential hero Nick Madrigal, whose double gave the Cubs a 6-5 lead. Madrigal found himself on the wrong end of a close play later in the inning. He was thrown out at home trying to score off the Mike Tauchman single, as the Mets still had a glimmer of hope. That glimmer quickly turned into a ray of sunshine as Daniel Palencia was on to pitch his second inning. What started with a dominating 10th inning turned ugly quickly as Palencia drilled Bader to lead off the 11th, bringing Lindor to the plate. As he did earlier in the game during the Mets comeback, Lindor came through again as he took the 100 MPH heater the other way to deliver the walk-off double 7-6. This ends a streak of 32 straight games without a divisional matchup, as the Cubs have yet to play a game within their own division. That streak will end tomorrow as the Cubs welcome the Milwaukee Brewers this weekend for what is going to be a massive three-game set.
