It wasn’t easy, but the Chicago Cubs gained ground in the National League Central race on Wednesday night as they beat the New York Mets 10-7 in Flushing Meadows.
The Cubs, who at one point had a 10-1 lead, watched that lead slowly slip away before Rowan Wick and Craig Kimbrel were finally able to finish off the contest in the late innings.
Starter Kyle Hendricks gave up six earned runs and didn’t qualify for the win in the victory, and despite some hiccups the Cubs’ bullpen was able to piece together a strong enough effort to deny the Mets an incredible comeback in the late stages of the contest.
Nicholas Castellanos hammered his ninth home run since joining the Cubs, and Kyle Schwarber blasted his 31st of the season off of Mets starter Noah Syndergaard, who gave up 10 runs in the worst start of his big league career. Ian Happ also hit a home run, his fifth, in the victory.
Addison Russell drove in a pair of runs the night after hitting a two-run homer against the Mets, and Victor Caratini and Kris Bryant each had a pair of base hits in the win.
Despite the offensive explosion against one of the game’s best pitchers, the Cubs still found themselves in a precarious situation in the ninth inning after Kimbrel allowed two straight baserunners to reach to start the inning. With the tying run at the plate, Kimbrel induced a fielder’s choice groundout from Amed Rosario for the first out, then struck out Juan Lagares for the second out.
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With Todd Frazier at the plate, Kimbrel induced a pop-up to right field, and the Cubs hung on.
The Cubs, who have now clinched their second straight road series win, will go for the sweep on Thursday evening when they take on Jacob deGrom and the Mets at 6:10 p.m.
