CHICAGO — The Mets are sometimes down, however they by no means appear to be out of the race.
Hours after the Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates to maneuver to inside a 1/2 recreation of the Mets within the NL Wild Card standings, the Amazins’ countered with a 8-5 win over the Chicago Cubs. Regardless of the Cubs outfield making a number of highlight-reel catches towards the Mets, and their hottest hitter, Francisco Alvarez, on the bench after coping with lower-body cramps within the second recreation of the sequence, they stored their season alive Tuesday evening at Wrigley Subject.
The lead over the Reds is again to at least one recreation.
Francisco Lindor and Brett Baty paced the offense with homers, Brandon Nimmo went 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs, and Tyrone Taylor got here via with a clutch two-run double within the high of the sixth. It gave the the Mets (82-77) two essential insurance coverage runs and knock left-hander Shota Imanaga out of the sport.
Within the backside of the sixth, Seiya Suzuki took Nolan McLean deep for a three-run shot to finish his evening, and convey the Cubs (89-70) again to inside three runs of tying, 8-5. It was Suzuki’s second residence run of the evening off McLean.
Earlier than Suzuki managed to get ahold of an 0-1 sweeper, McLean had been cruising. He struck out 11 of the 23 batters he confronted, putting out the facet within the second inning.
To say the Mets wanted a gradual begin from their rookie right-hander can be an understatement. They overcame one pitching blowup within the sequence from David Peterson, however couldn’t overcome one other from Jonah Tong Wednesday evening.
McLean gave up two solo residence runs earlier than the massive one from Suzuki, one within the fourth to Suzuki, and one within the fifth to Dansby Swanson. His command wavered within the sixth as he walked Ian Happ and gave up a ground-rule double to Moises Ballesteros with one out. Pitching coach Jeremy Hefner visited him on the mound earlier than he confronted Suzuki. He gave up the long-ball anyway, however with the Mets already up 5-2, that they had sufficient of a cushion to resist it.
Ryne Stanek got here in to get the following two outs. Brooks Raley and Tyler Rogers held the lead with scoreless innings, and Edwin Diaz transformed his twenty eighth save.
In simply his eighth main league begin, McLean was charged with 5 earned runs on 5 hits, and walked two in 5 1/3 innings. He pitched 48 innings since being known as up in August, two shy of the restrict that may have eradicated his rookie standing for 2026. Ought to he win the NL Rookie of the Yr Award subsequent season, or end within the top-3 for the NL Cy Younger Award or MVP earlier than arbitration, the Mets will likely be awarded an additional draft decide.
Imanaga (9-8) allowed 9 hits and eight runs, strolling two and putting out three.
The Mets took a 2-0 lead within the first partially attributable to a guidelines violation. Swanson went via the netting and into the stands to catch a foul pop-up from Mark Vientos with Lindor on third and Pete Alonso on second. Leaving the sector of play advances the baserunners, which Lindor was conscious of as he broke for residence. Nimmo’s two-out single scored Alonso from third.
Lindor made it 3-0 within the third along with his thirtieth residence run of the season, marking the second time in three years the shortstop has hit 30 homers and stolen 30 or extra bases.
Baty hit a very powerful residence run of the day, a three-run bomb to left subject within the fourth that gave the Mets a 6-0 lead. His seventeenth of the season, he’s lastly damaged out this 12 months, and he’s scorching on the proper time.
