Mets - Cubs: Reg Season Review

[Frayed Knot]

Lots has/will be made about the Mets going 0-7 vs the Cubs this season - although the corollary to that is that they were all first half games when the Mets were seemingly a different team and that most of those games were close and could have gone the other way with a little bit of luck, or a little bit of Cespedes, or of Wright, etc.


May 11 @ Wrigley -- http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN201505110.shtml
deGrom starts the bottom of the 1st: HBP - HR - HR, and then later gives up an RBI single in the 4th.
Mets also go back to back (Duda & Flores) in the 6th vs Lester which closed the game to 4-3 but that was the final score as they hit into DPs in both the 8th & 9th
deGrom: 5 IP, 4 ER, 5 Hits, 5 Ks, [u:2bcowrdg]4 BB[/u:2bcowrdg]
Lester: 6 IP, 3 ER, 5 Hits, 6 Ks, also 4 BBs

[Benjamin Grimm]

And the Mets were 11-1 against the Dodgers in 1988.

[soupcan]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: And the Mets were 11-1 against the Dodgers in 1988.

Bingo.

[Frayed Knot]

10-1 actually as the Mets only played 160 games that year and a Dodger game was one of the two rain outs not made up - but the larger point still holds.


Anyway, Game 2 on May 12 -- http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN201505120.shtml
Syndergaard's ML debut was a scoreless affair thru 5, but he started the 6th: 1B - 2B - HR and is gone [3 ER, 4 BB, 6 K]. CF quickly pronounces him "disappointing".
Jake Arietta, then just a .500 pitcher for the season [3-3, 3.41] and 34-32, 4.48 for his career, goes 8 innings limiting the Mets to 1 run on 3 hits w/10 Ks. He'd go 19-3 with a sub-2.00 ERA from this day on out.

[Edgy MD]

Wasn't it a Cubs sweep that in part or whole triggered the phrase "Panic City"?

[Frayed Knot]

I don't remember if/when "Panic City" was a thing.



May 13 -- Cubs 2 - Mets 1 -- http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN201505130.shtml
In what was typical of the NYM offense in the first half, they had 2nd & 3rd with no outs in the 6th but scored just once on a Cuddyer ground-out then never again.
Harvey tossed 7 innings of 3-hit shutout ball but was done in by Carlos Torres in the 8th & 9th before Familia eventually walked in the winning run with one out.
Jason Hammel went 8 innings: 1 run, 5 hits, 6 Ks

[Frayed Knot]

May 14: Cubs 6 - Mets 5 -- http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN201505140.shtml

The final game of the four game set in Wrigley was one of those Jon Niese blowup inning games. Mets had a 5-1 lead going into the bottom of the 5th (this was the 2-HR day from Recker - his only two of the season) but in the bottom half Niese gave up 4 hits plus a walk sandwiched around a Flores error and it was suddenly tied at 5. Niese actually hung on until the 7th when one of his runners came in on a passed ball with Robles on the mound. Met bats got two hits after the 5th.

[Frayed Knot]

After losing all four at Wrigley in May, the series shifted to CitiField at the tail end of June

June 30 -- Cubs 1 - Mets 0
Niece went 7 innings allowing only a 6th inning 2-out RBI 2B to Matt Szczur -- http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN201506300.shtml
But Met bats were getting 3 hit (2 singles + 1 double) by Kyle Handricks for 6 innings, then no-hit over the final 3 by the Chicago pen of Rondon, Strop, and Motte


July 1 -- Cubs 2 - Mets 0 (11 innings) -- http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN201507010.shtml
Pretty much a case of same shit, different day.
This time it was Colon going 7 innings on 3 hits with nothing to show for it. Cubs scored twice off of Carlos Torres & Gilmartin
But NYM bats total only 7 hits (incl 3 doubles) of starter Jon Lester and co., and went 1-for-11 w/RiSP


July 2 -- Cubs 6 - Mets 1 -- http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN201507020.shtml
Just 5 hits this time off of Arrieta (8 IP) and Travis Wood (1) for a three-game series total of 1 run on 15 hits
deGrom pitches OK until a 6th inning 2R HR ends his day (5.1, 4 runs, 3 earned). Cubs tack on 2 in the 9th off A Torres



I think it's safe to say that the Cubs should expect at least a bit more of a challenge from NYM bats this time around.