Mets Regain Control of Their Own Destiny With a Huge Comeback Win Against the Cubs

Mets 9 Cubs 7 (Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois)

Mets record: 81-76

Mets streak: W 1

Last 10: 5-5

WP -Brooks Raley (3-0)

LP -Caleb Thielbar (3-4)

SV -Edwin Diaz (27)

Seat on the Korner:

We select the star of the game and virtually invite him to a Seat on the Korner, just as Ralph Kiner used to do for his studio postgame show on WOR-channel 9 broadcasts in the early decades of the Mets.

Francisco Alvarez gets the seat next to Ralph thanks to, arguably, the biggest home run of his career. Alvarez snapped a 7-7 tie with a two-run home run off of Cubs left hand reliever Caleb Thielbar to lead the Mets to a huge 9-7 win at Wrigley Field. The Mets regained control of their own destiny in the NL Wild Card race as the Reds lost to the Pirates in Cincinnati, 4-2.

Need to Know

• Brandon Nimmo hit a huge game tying, 3-run homer in the fifth. Thanks to that clutch hit, Nimmo set career highs with his 25th home run and 91 runs batted in. Nimmo made his first start of the season in centerfield.

• Francisco Lindor had two hits and three runs batted in, including a home run to lead off the game to extend his hitting streak to 11 straight games. Over that span, Lindor is batting .341 (15 for 44) with 14 runs, two doubles, three homers, six RBI, six walks, three steals and a 1.067 OPS. Lindor extended his franchise record with his 10th leadoff home run of the season, 30th of his career. Lindor is 8 for 18 (.444) against the Cubs this season with three home runs.

• Juan Soto drew a walk and leads the Major Leagues with 124. Soto is 1 walk shy of tying the Mets single season (John Olerud drew 125 walks in 1999) franchise record. Soto also has a stolen base, his 36th of the season.

• Mets scored five unearned runs for the first time since 2019.

• David Peterson continued to struggle. The left hander gave up 5 runs in an inning and a third (Soto's misplay did not help) and saw his ERA in September rise to an ungodly 9.72. In the second half of the season, Peterson has posted a 5.04 ERA (42 ER in 75 IP).

  
  

Turning Point

With the game tied at 7 in the top of the eighth, Francisco Alvarez unloaded a two-run home run to give the Mets a 9-7 lead. Brett Baty led off the eighth with a single to left. Luisangel Acuna was brought on to pinch run, but Starling Marte popped up a bunt attempt for the first out. Jeff McNeil hit a short fly to center that looked like it would fall in, but Pete Crow-Armstrong got a great jump and made the play for the second out and it appeared the rally would fall short. After Acuna stole second, Alvarez jumped on a 3-1 pitch from Cubs reliever Caleb Thielbar and drove it over the wall in left center field for his biggest hit of the season.

Three Keys

Sugar is Sweet

Realizing the importance of this game, Manager Carlos Mendoza went to the best closer in baseball, Edwin Diaz, for a six out save and the right hander delivered. Diaz faced six batters in his two innings of work and struck out five of them including fanning Dansby Swanson for the final out. In his career, Swanson is 0 for 11 against Diaz with 10 strikeouts.

Rally Time

The Mets pulled off their biggest comeback of the season as they rallied from five runs down. Trailing 6-1 in the top of the fifth, the Mets took advantage of a Dansby Swanson error to score five unearned runs to tie the game at six. With one out and Starling Marte on first, Francisco Alvarez hit a chopper to shortstop. Swanson elected to try and play it on the short hop, but it skipped over his glove as Marte went to third and Alvarez took second. Francisco Lindor's ground out scored Marte and sent Alvarez to third as the Mets cut the deficit to 6-2. After Juan Soto walked, Pete Alonso scored Alvarez with a line shot to right field that went over the head of Cubs RF Seiya Suzuki and just missed being a three-run home run as the Mets made it a 6-3 game. Cubs Manager Craig Counsell played the percentages and brought in left hander Taylor Rogers, but Brandon Nimmo spoiled the strategy with a game tying, three-run home run.

Department of No Defense

Mets defensive miscues continue to haunt them. The first faux pas occurred when Juan Soto misplayed a fly ball (ruled a two-run double) with two out in the bottom of the first that led to two runs. In the bottom of the fourth, Jeff McNeil made a pair of throwing errors on back-to-back plays that gave the Cubs a gift run. Nico Hoerner hit a sharp grounder to third. Brett Baty made a nice stop and threw to McNeil at second for the out, but the relay throw got past Pete Alonso and went into the dugout to allow the runner to take second. The next batter was Ian Happ, who hit a ball in the hole between first and second. McNeil made a nice diving stop, but he once again threw it past Alonso to allow Hoerner to score from second. It was the third straight multiple error game for the Mets.