Mets win going away in Chicago

After a couple of frustrating losses that likely had you wondering if the recent Met renaissance was a flash in the pan, the Mets won a laugher against the Cubs 10-1. Carlos Carrasco looked as good as he has in ages and the offense was humming, making this one look easy.

Both sides exchanged runs in the first, the Mets on a bases loaded sacrifice fly by Brett Baty and the Cubs on a solo home run by Dansby Swanson. It was basically all Mets from there on out though. With two outs in the third, Jeff McNeil and Pete Alonso blooped singles to set up a rally. Brett Baty followed with a single that scored one, and a throwing error allowed him to advance to second. Starling Marte capped things off with a 4th straight two-out single, and the Mets had a 4-1 lead.

They weren’t done scoring either. McNeil and Alonso again reached base in the fifth, and McNeil scampered home on a throwing error after stealing third. Pete Alonso added another on a solo shot in the seventh, an impressive opposite field shot for his 19th on the season. Three more runs in the eighth - highlighted by a Francisco Alvarez double and a Brandon Nimmo triple - put the game away for good. Tucker Barnhart, the Cubs’ backup catcher, pitched the ninth inning and the Mets didn’t score, but it was enjoyably comic relief nonetheless.

Perhaps even more significant than the offensive onslaught was the performance of Carlos Carrasco. The veteran has looked awful on the season, but twirled 6.2 innings of one run ball. He certainly danced around some trouble - most notably, a bases loaded jam in the third - but overall looked as impressive as he has in recent memory. Carrasco being a competent number four starter rather than a total liability that gets DFA’d in July would be a huge boon to a Met pitching staff that has been somewhere south of poor this season.

With the win, the Mets again scrape back over .500 at 26-25. They’ll head out to Colorado for a three game set starting tomorrow evening with Max Scherzer squaring off against Connor Seabold.

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What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Carlos Carrasco, +17.2% WPA
Big Mets loser: None
Mets pitchers: +17.7% WPA
Mets hitters: +32.3% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Starling Marte hits a two-run single in the third, +16.1% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Dansby Swanson homers in the first, -10.6% WPA