Objectively, there hasn’t been that much to complain about with the Mets thus far in 2025, as the team has been in first place for the majority of the season and gotten above-average pitching and offense. But if there’s one thing we can point to as a weakness for this squad, it’s been their ability to get the clutch hit with runners in scoring position. That issue plagued the team tonight—with one notable and surprising exception—in their second game against the Chicago Cubs, as the bats consistently failed to capitalize on opportunities and suffered a 6-5 loss to even out the series as a result.
Tylor Megill took the mound for the Mets for the first time since arguably his worst outing of the season, when he surrendered four runs in five innings of work against the Cardinals. His struggles unfortunately continued early on in tonight’s game, as Pete Crow-Armstrong led off with a single and quickly advanced to third when Francisco Alvarez threw the ball into the outfield trying to catch him stealing second. Following a walk to Kyle Tucker, Seiya Suzuki hit a hard single to center to score the first run of the ballgame. Megill struck out the next batter, but then walked Justin Turner to load the bases. He got an infield fly to put him one out away from getting out of the inning with just the one run scoring, but Dansby Swanson then hit a line drive to third base that Brett Baty dove for and just missed catching. The Cubs shortstop beat out the throw to first, which meant another run came home to make it 2-0.
Brad Keller took the mound to start the game for the Cubs as an opener and pitched a 1-2-3 first inning with a couple strikeouts. Megill followed with a spotless inning of his own, and top pitching prospect Cade Horton came on for the bottom of the second to make his debut. He began his major league career by striking out Brandon Nimmo looking, and he retired the next two batters for a perfect first inning in the big leagues. It would then just take Cubs batters two pitches to get their rookie pitcher a bigger lead, as Suzuki and Michael Busch led off the inning with a double and single, respectively, to give the Cubs a third run.
The Mets threatened against Horton in the bottom of the third after being gifted two baserunners with one out—one on a hit-by-pitch to Alvarez (a momentarily scary moment, as the ball hit his previously injured hand), the other on a catcher’s interference—but the top of the lineup could not capitalize, as Lindor and Soto were both retired to end the threat. The Cubs then got their fourth run off Megill in the top of the fourth, as Dansby Swanson hit a leadoff home run to give Horton an even more comfortable lead. But the Mets once again got two baserunners on in the bottom of the frame—this time on singles by Pete Alonso and Mark Vientos—and this time they would not waste the opportunity, as Brett Baty socked a two-out, three-run home run to right field to make the score 4-3 and get the Mets right back in the ballgame.
Megill came on for the top of the fifth and recorded the first two outs, but after surrendering a two-out single Carlos Mendoza elected to end his night. His final line included a lot of strikeouts (7), which we’ve been accustomed to seeing from him this year, but it was also his second straight game of allowing four runs, and this time he didn’t make it out of the fifth inning. It’s probably too soon to start worrying about Megill, given how good he looked in the first month of the season, but the Mets will certainly be hoping he rebounds from this recent downward trend soon. Thankfully, Huascar Brazobán came on for the Amazins and continued his dominant season, as he finished that fifth inning and would pitch another 1.2 innings on top of that, retiring five batters without surrendering a baserunner. Génesis Cabrera followed that performance with two outs of his own to keep the Cubs at four runs through seven innings.
The Mets, meanwhile, had chances to tie things up, but could not capitalize after the Baty home run. Francisco Lindor singled against Horton and then stole second to put the tying run in scoring position in the bottom of the fifth, but Alonso hit a sharp liner to third base with two outs to end that inning. Drew Pomeranz then replaced the rookie in the sixth, and the Mets once again got a single and a stolen base—this time from Brandon Nimmo, and this time with no outs—to once again put themselves a single away from a tie ballgame, but the next three batters all failed to come through. And perhaps the most painful failure came in the seventh against Daniel Palencia, who surrendered a one-out single to Tyrone Taylor and followed with a walk to Lindor to put runners on first and second with one out and two of the best hitters in the lineup coming up. But once again, they could not get the big hit, as Soto struck out on a 3-2 pitch and Alonso grounded out to end the inning.
While the Mets bullpen had kept the deficit to one run up to that point, the Cubs finally made them pay in the top of the eighth against Max Kranick, who loaded the bases with a one-out walk and then a single and another walk with two outs. Miguel Amaya then got the clutch hit that had eluded the Amazins since the Baty homer, hitting a groundball single through the left side of the infield to bring home two runs and increase the Cubs’ lead to 6-3.
The Mets did finally get another clutch hit in the bottom of the frame, once again coming from—of all people—Brett Baty. With two outs and a runner on first (from a one-out single from Vientos), Baty hit his second home run of the game—this one an impressive opposite field shot—and just like that it was once again a one-run game heading into the ninth. With it once again being a close game, Mendoza turned to closer Edwin Díaz for the ninth, and he tossed a sparkling 1-2-3 inning to give the Mets a chance to complete the comeback with their last licks. Porter Hodge came on to try to secure the save, and the Cubs—for approximately the millionth time tonight—allowed the tying run to reach base, as Jeff McNeil led off the inning with a pinch-hit walk ahead of the top of the order. But—for approximately the millionth time tonight—the non-Brett Baty hitters in the lineup failed to come through in the clutch, as Lindor hit a soft grounder back to the pitcher that the Cubs turned for a double play, and Soto followed with a weak ground ball to second to end the game.
In sum: Brett Baty, take a bow. The rest of the Mets’ hitters (and Tylor Megill and Max Kranick), go to your room and think about what you’ve done. The Amazins will turn to Griffin Canning tomorrow at 12:05 to try to muscle out a series win.
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Win Probability Added
Big Mets winner: Brett Baty, +28.0% WPA
Big Mets loser: Francisco Lindor, -23.2% WPA
Mets pitchers: -21.1% WPA
Mets hitters: -28.9% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Brett Baty three-run homer in the fourth, +22.8% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Miguel Amaya two-run single in the eighth, -15.9% WPA