CHICAGO — This wasn’t the way to conclude a successful road trip and impressive first half.
But somehow the Mets got there Sunday, leaving the Cubs in the game long enough to steal one against a bullpen that mostly has served the team well.
Drew Smith surrendered two runs in the eighth inning and the Mets’ bats never responded on a dreary afternoon in a 3-2 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
The Mets won three of four games in the series — and finished 5-2 on a trip that included a stop in Atlanta — but missed an opportunity to widen their lead on the Braves before the All-Star break.
As it stands, the Mets’ NL East lead is 2 ½ games, and manager Buck Showalter’s crew owns the NL’s second-most victories (58).
“I knew coming in it was going to be a challenging trip,” Showalter said. “I felt like a lot of adrenaline would carry us through Atlanta, but this would be a challenge and I am really proud of coming in here and winning two series on the road. This time of year when everybody’s tank is being challenged I was really proud of everybody.”
Francisco Lindor also pointed to the big picture.
“I’m happy,” Lindor said. “A lot of guys are healthy and the ones that are not healthy, it seems they are coming back. … We played good ball in the first half and showed a lot of professionalism, a lot of days that we bounced back well, so I am very pleased with the way we played in the first half.”
Nico Hoerner delivered an RBI single against Smith (the Cubs’ third hit of the inning) to bring in the go-ahead run in the eighth.
Christopher Morel and Willson Contreras singled in succession to begin the rally before Ian Happ’s dribbler to the mound brought in the tying run. It was a third shaky outing in six appearances for Smith, who entered with a 5.40 ERA in July.
“We lost, it sucks, but I think I have had worse outings this year,” Smith said. “I thought I executed some pitches and off the bat I thought I had a double-play ball on Contreras. We had a little shift on, which happens, you get outs from that and you give up some hits from that. It’s frustrating, but at the end of the day I thought I executed better than other outings where I pitched well.”
David Peterson, in possibly his last turn in the rotation before Jacob deGrom returns to claim his spot, allowed only an unearned run on three hits and three walks with eight strikeouts over five innings. It came five days after Peterson handled the Braves over 5 ¹/₃ innings, allowing only two runs. The left-hander has pitched to a 3.24 ERA, helping to solidify a rotation that lost Max Scherzer for nearly seven weeks and still hasn’t seen deGrom, who may return as soon as next Sunday.
The Mets stole a run in the first inning on a botched play by Hoerner at shortstop. With two outs and Jeff McNeil at the plate, Lindor got picked off first and waved Starling Marte, on third, toward the plate. Hoerner took the throw from Frank Schwindel and glanced home, as Lindor danced around him. Both runners were safe and Marte was credited with the Mets’ first steal of home since April 6 of last year (Kevin Pillar).
Pete Alonso’s bloop RBI single in the fifth gave the Mets a 2-1 lead. Brandon Nimmo walked and Marte singled to begin the rally. Alonso hit a pop-up with two outs that turned around first baseman Schwindel and landed in shallow right field. The RBI was Alonso’s 78th of the season, extending his pre-All-Star break club record.
Eduardo Escobar misplayed Schwindel’s grounder that should have been a double play to end the fourth. The error loaded the bases before Peterson walked Patrick Wisdom to tie it 1-1. Peterson escaped without further damage, but threw 21 additional pitches than he would have if Escobar fielded Schwindel’s grounder cleanly.
The Mets erupted for eight runs on Thursday against the Cubs, but scored only eight over the ensuing three games combined.
“We played well in Atlanta and we came here and played well also,” Lindor said. “We didn’t get a lot of hits. However, I was very happy with how we turned around and won the games.”