Well, they don’t call them the dog days of summer for nothing.
After two crackling offensive performances against the Marlins, the Mets and Chris Bassitt folded to a thoroughly beatable Cubs team – managing almost nothing against a rookie making his fifth major-league appearance and squandering a chance to gain ground on a dormant Atlanta, as they fell, 5-2 at Citi Field. What’s more, the offensive malaise had to be witnessed not only by the 29,081 fans on site, but the few hundred dogs there for Bark in the Park (the canine contingent appeared unbothered).
Bassitt was hounded from the onset, allowing five runs, all earned, in 3 2/3 innings, his second-shortest outing of the season. Down by four in the eighth, the Mets loaded the bases with one out against two relievers before Cubs manager David Ross brought in Brandon Hughes, who got Eduardo Escobar to fly out to shallow left. Pinch hitter Darin Ruf then flied out to shallow right to end the threat, despite the dogs chanting his name. Francisco Lindor's solo homer in the ninth tied him for a career-high 92 RBIs and provided the final margin.
The Mets, meanwhile, stranded seven runners against Javier Assad in his six innings of work, four of them in scoring position. They left 10 men on in total, and were 1-for-9 with RISP.
That trend started early, with the Mets loading the bases with two outs in the first but failed to capitalize after the steely 25-year-old struck out Mark Canha looking.
The Cubs (59-82) made short work of making the Mets pay after that.
With two outs in the second, Rafael Ortega ripped Chris Bassitt’s 0-and-2 slider to right-center for a solo home run, his seventh. Bassitt walked Alfonso Rivas to lead off the third and, one batter later, Zach McKinstry barreled a sinker at his knees, 423-feet to right to give the Cubs a 3-0 advantage.
Bassitt issued another leadoff walk in the fourth and again came to regret it. This time, Ian Happ, who then advanced to second on an errant pickoff throw, moved over on a ground out and scored on Ortega’s clean single to left. Ortega eventually scored on Rivas’ two-out single, ending Bassitt’s night after just 3 2/3 innings – his second-shortest outing of the year. Bassitt, who leads the staff in innings pitched by a margin of 30 innings, allowed five runs, all earned, on five hits with two walks and two strikeouts. It was only the third time in 27 starts this year where he didn’t go at least five.
Assad, who boasts a devastating changeup and has allowed one run or fewer in three of his four major-league starts this year, didn’t crack until the fourth, and even then, he limited the damage. Assad, who signed as an international free agent out of Tijuana in 2015, allowed back-to-back one-out singles to Canha and Eduardo Escobar, who extended his hitting streak to 10. One out later, James McCann singled Canha home, cutting the deficit to 5-1, but Assad struck out Brandon Nimmo swinging to strand two.
Assad allowed one run on five hits, with three walks and six strikeouts, and lowered his ERA to 2.53. He’s allowed one run or fewer in four of his first five major-league starts.
It was a less-than-ideal start to what is, on paper, an easy closing stretch – this series is the first of seven straight games against sub-.500 teams, and 15 of the Mets remaining 21 games are against teams with losing records. That’s good enough for the second-easiest remaining schedule in baseball, according to Tankathon. Still, Atlanta’s scorching-hot second half means the NL East is anything but a lock, and Monday’s loss cut the Mets lead to a single game.
Not much they can do about that, said Buck Showalter, who added that he doesn’t even look at the standings if he can help it.
“You can’t get caught up in that world,” he said. “It requires some discipline because you do care a lot – don’t confuse it with that. It’s why we get up in the morning. But you realize what you can control and not.”
