Home runs, men left on base doom Mets

For the third straight series, the Mets dropped the first game of a three-game set against a team with a record well below .500, losing to the Cubs 5-2

Chris Bassitt got the start for the Mets, and after a nearly three month long stretch of stellar pitching, Bassitt finally ran into trouble and struggled. In the second inning, the Cubs got on the board thanks to a solo home run off the bat of Rafael Ortega. The long ball continued to give Bassitt trouble in the third inning, as Zach McKinstry hit a two-run homer, putting the Cubs up 3-0. In the fourth inning, the Cubs made life difficult for Bassitt yet again, as they put up their fourth and fifth runs of the game, ending Bassitt’s night. Bassitt’s final line was 3.2 innings pitched, while allowing five runs on five hits, with two walks. On the night, Bassitt threw 73 pitches.

At the plate, the Mets’ scored one of their two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, thanks to the recently surging James McCann, as he drove home Mark Canha with an RBI single. The Mets tacked on a second run in the bottom of the ninth with two outs as Francisco Lindor hit a solo home run.

However, the story of the night was the men left on base by the Mets’ offense, in both the first and eighth innings. In both instances, the team was able to load the bases with less than two outs, and both times, the Mets came away empty handed, just about ruining any chance they had in competing in this game. In total, the Mets left 21 men on base, a rather high number.

The lone bright spot on the night was the bullpen of the Mets, who pitched 5.1 scoreless innings in relief of the starter Bassitt, giving the Mets a chance in theory to stay in the game. They will now await the result of the Braves vs. Giants game to see if their lead in the NL East remains at 1.5 games, or shrinks to 0.5 games.

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What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Daniel Vogelbach, +9% WPA
Big Mets loser: Chris Bassitt, -29% WPA
Mets pitchers: -25% WPA
Mets hitters: -25% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: James McCann’s RBI single in the bottom of the fourth, +4.5% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Zach McKinstry’s two-run homer in the top of the third inning, +17.9% WPA