Misery's Perfect 10: Mets losing streak reaches double digits in Chicago

Cubs 4 Mets 2 (Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL)

Mets record: 7-14

Mets streak: Lost 10

WP - Jameson Taillon (1-1)

LP - Freddy Peralta (1-2)

SV - Caleb Thielbar (1)

Seat on the Korner: Carson Kelly

We select a Star of the Game and virtually invite him to take his Seat on the Korner — just as Ralph Kiner did on WOR-TV Channel 9 during the early days of the New York Mets.

Continuing the tradition of Rheingold Beer sponsoring Kiner’s Korner, this season every seat is proudly presented by The Main Event Restaurant & Sports Bar.

With locations in Plainview and Farmingdale, The Main Event features 80+ HD TVs, fresh daily seafood, and Black Angus certified steaks—so you never have to choose between great food and the big game.

Pinch hitting is one of the hardest things to do in sports. You sit for X amount of innings and then you're asked to hit against what is most likely a tough pitcher in the late innings. Carson Kelly sure as heck pulled if off today as his three run pinch hit homer led the Cubs to a 4-1 victory and sent the Mets to their 10th straight loss.

Need to Know

• Before the game, the Mets announced that Jorge Polanco would be put on the 10-day IL retroactive to April 15th with a wrist contusion.

• For the second game in a row, Carson Benge was in the leadoff spot while Francisco Lindor batted third.

• Mark VIentos' home run in the 2nd was the Mets' second HR in their last six games.

• Ian Happ was 2-for-32 against Freddy Peralta in the regular season before his home run in the 2nd inning today.

• Carson Kelly's three run homer in the 6th was the first home run that Brooks Raley gave up since August of 2023, which was to Matt Olson of the Braves (62 homerless appearances since).

• Brett Baty's walk in the 7th was his first of the season (21 strikeouts).

• This is the 14th losing streak of 10 or more games in Mets history, the last one being in 2004. (The first four of those streaks came in the first four seasons of the Mets' existence.)

Turning Point

Freddy Peralta was hoping to get out of the 6th inning while facing what would have been his last hitter of the day either way. His 3-2 pitch to Seiya Suzuki was close enough for Francisco Alvarez to ABS it, but not close enough to be called strike three to end the inning.

So on came Brooks Raley with two men on, and Carson Kelly up to pinch hit for Moises Ballesteros.

Gare and Ron were expecting Matt Shaw to be the pinch hitter, so this was a mild surprise. But it was also the right move by Craig Counsell as evidenced by the game turning home run that made the score 4-1.

Three Keys

Ian Happens

As previously stated, Ian Happ was 2-for-32 against Freddy Peralta in the regular season before today, but Happ did hit a large home run off Peralta in the playoffs last season:

Today, Happ went deep again against Peralta ... to the tune of 441 feet to dead center field to tie the game in the 2nd.

Vientos' Drama Mask

Mark Vientos had an up and down game. In the 2nd inning, he hit a monster 434-foot home run against the wind off Taillon.

But in the 8th, after the Mets scored a run after the Cubs defense ... some may say the best defense Chicago has seen since the '85 Bears ... Vientos had a chance to make a real impact with two runners on against Ben Brown. Brown had danced his way through minefields in his two innings of work, but fed Vientos a steady diet of breaking balls before he grounded out to third to end the threat.

Stranded on the CTA

Vientos' groundout was far from the only Mets rally that was ended without the big hit. The Mets had two runners on in the first ... MJ Melendez flied out to end the threat. They had two runners on after Vientos' home run in the second ... Bo Bichette popped out to the infield. In the 7th, Marcus Semien tagged one to left with a runner on ...

But that '85 Bears defense came through when they needed it. The rest of the 7th inning commenced without incident. The Mets ended the game 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.