The Sixth Sense I See A Dead Season, Mets Drop Sixth Straight in Extras 4-3 to Cubs

Cubs 4, Mets 3 (Citi Field, Flushing, NY) 10 innings

Mets Record: 34-47

Mets Streak: L6

Mets Last 10: 2-8

WP: Josh Webb (2-2)

LP: Brooks Raley (2-3)

S: Trent Thornton (2)

Seat On The Korner: Pete Crow Armstrong

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.

Tonight's Seat on the Korner goes to Pete Crow-Armstrong, who once again made his presence felt against the organization that drafted him. Crow-Armstrong finished 2-for-5, but it was his biggest swing that proved to be the difference. After Brooks Raley struck out Dansby Swanson to open the 10th inning, Crow-Armstrong lined a sharp RBI double into right field, plating automatic runner Matt Shaw to give the Cubs a 4-3 lead. That run would stand as the game-winner. Since being dealt by the Mets to Chicago at the 2021 trade deadline in the deal that brought Javier Báez to Queens, Crow-Armstrong has developed into exactly the type of dynamic, impact player the Cubs envisioned. Every time he faces the Mets, he seems to find another way to remind them of the talent they parted with. Thursday night was no different, as his clutch 10th-inning double delivered the decisive blow and earned him tonight's Seat on the Korner.

Need To Know:

• The Mets officially announced that they have acquired minor league infielder Cole Mathis from the Chicago Cubs in exchange for LHP David Peterson.

• RHP Daniel Duarte has been recalled from Triple-A Syracuse.

• INF Marcus Semien has been placed on the 10-Day Injured List with a left hip flexor strain. in a corresponding move INF Ronny Mauricio have been recalled from Triple-A Syracuse.

  
  

• After tonights start Freddy Peralta's numbers In 24 career outings (19 starts) against the Chicago Cubs, stand at 9-4 with a 3.13 ERA (38 ER/109.1 IP), 139 strikeouts, Peralta's 139 career strikeouts and nine career wins against the Cubs are his highest totals versus any single opponent.

• Matthew Boyd: Made his 6th start of the season. This is was his first start back off the injury after tearing his meniscus at home while playing with his kids and later dealing with a shoulder issue during rehab. Despite coming into the contest with a 6.00 ERA , Boyd game the Cubs 4 2/3rds of scoreless pitching .

• One night after making six errors,The Mets made 2 more errors that lead to three runs. All four of the Cubs runs tonight were unearned.

• Eric Wagaman had his first career pinch home run in 6th cutting the Cubs lead to 3-2.

• Jared Young tied the game with his 6th Home run in the seventh inning,

• With the go ahead run at second base in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, Carlos Mendoza opted not to lift Ronny Mauricio for Francisco Lindor, seemly keeping to a script to give Lindor the day off after his return from the IL last night,

• The Mets are 12-14 over their last 26 games and 24-26 over their last 50

  games.

• The loss drops the Mets to 15 games out of first and 9.5 out of the Wildcard.

• The loss leaves the Mets with their worst record at the half way point of the season since 2018 when they were 33-48 after 81 games.

• The Mets continue the seven-game homestand (0-4)

  ( Cubs 0-4) against the Phillies tomorrow night (three games).

Turning Point:

The sixth inning proved to be the turning point of the game, as a series of defensive miscues and timely Cubs hitting turned what could have been a relatively harmless inning into a three-run rally. It all began when Ronny Mauricio's throwing error allowed Dansby Swanson to reach safely. After Pete Crow-Armstrong moved him to second on a groundout, Michael Conforto delivered an RBI single to put Chicago on the board. Two batters later, Alex Bregman's RBI double was compounded when Carson Benge's fielding error allowed Bregman to advance to third, setting up Ian Happ's RBI single to make it 3-0. Although the Mets showed plenty of fight by battling back to erase the deficit and tie the game, the damage forced them to play from behind the rest of the night. Had they simply made the routine plays, they likely could have escaped the inning allowing only one run—or perhaps none at all. Instead, the three-run frame put them in chase mode, and despite their comeback effort, they were never able to completely recover.

Three Keys:

Freddy Peralta: Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde

One of the biggest questions heading into tonight's game was which version of Freddy Peralta would the Mets get. Lately, the right-hander has settled into an unpredictable pattern of alternating between disastrous outings and impressive bounce-back performances. Two starts ago, Peralta endured one of the worst outings of his season, surrendering 10 runs on 10 hits while lasting just 2⅔ innings. He responded tonight with a much sharper effort, pitching 5⅔ innings while allowing five hits, three unearned runs, one walk, and striking out five. Although he left the game trailing because of defensive miscues behind him, his offense rallied late to erase the deficit and keep him from taking the loss.

If the Mets have any hope of climbing back toward respectability during the second half, they'll need more outings like that from Peralta. He doesn't have to be dominant every fifth day, but he has to give his club a chance to win. Consistency—not perfection—is what this rotation desperately needs, and it starts with Peralta putting together quality starts instead of continuing his Dr. Jekyll-and-Mr. Hyde routine. At the very least, if the club falls out of the race, those quality outings could make Peralta an attractive trade chip, as contending teams are always willing to pay a premium for a veteran starter who has shown he can deliver dependable innings down the stretch.

Use the Force Luke

Luke Weaver continues to be a force. Each of his last 20 appearances have been scoreless (22.0 IP). After tossing another scoreless inning tonight, in which he struck out all three batters he faced, Weaver extended one of the most dominant stretches by any reliever in baseball. Since May 1, he remains the only major league reliever to throw at least 22.0 innings without allowing a run. His 22.0-inning scoreless streak is now the longest by a Mets reliever since Edwin Díaz's 21.0-inning streak from June 22-Aug. 17, 2022, according to Elias Sports Bureau.

Swanson Frozen Dingers

After spending the first three games of the series looking like the second coming of Babe Ruth, the Mets finally found a way to silence Dansby Swanson. The Cubs shortstop went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and a walk, ending one of the most remarkable offensive stretches in recent memory. Entering the game, Swanson had become the first player in Cubs franchise history to record three consecutive games with at least four RBI and just the ninth player since RBI became an official statistic in 1920 to accomplish the feat. His 15 RBI through the first three games of the series had tied a Cubs franchise record for any series and were the most ever by a player against the Mets. After watching Swanson torment their pitching staff with seemingly every swing, New York finally kept him off the scoreboard, preventing him from adding another chapter to an already historic series.