Cubs 7, Mets 0: Wrapping Up The First Half With A Thud

This one was over almost before it started, as the five of the Cubs' first six batters reached base and scored four runs in the process. Of the five hits, only one, Jeff Baker's double, went for extra bases. The Cubs didn't hit the ball especially hard, but the batted balls found gaps in the defense as the baseball gods smote Jonathon Niese for spelling his first name with an "o" where an "a" should be.

The Mets had chances to claw back into the game in the second (Scott Hairston one-out triple), third (first two batters reached base), and sixth (first two reached base again) innings, but went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position on the day and hit into two rally-killing double plays.

Starlin Castro's tack-on three-run homer in the top of the seventh roughly coincided with many TV sets flicking off across the tri-state area. The Mets wrap up the colloquial first half of the season on a down note, but still rest six games above .500 and quite a bit better than we had reason to expect them to be.

What else?

• The Mets had terrible at-bats today overall. Ruben Tejada saw nine pitches in four at-bats. Daniel Murphy saw eight pitches. David Wright saw ten. Scott Hairston saw nine.
• In his first start back from the disabled list, Ryan Dempster had to throw just 63 pitches in five innings of work.
• Jordany Valdespin made his first big league start in center field, and he actually looked better out there than he has at second base.
• Ike Davis went 0-for-4 and his batting averaged dropped to .201.

We knew it was over when...

Castro parked a Niese offering into the left field stands to give the Cubs a 7-0 lead in the seventh.

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by MetsFan4Decades; her effort in the game thread embiggens us all.