CHICAGO — The Mets’ 8-0 win over the Cubs on Thursday night ended almost as soon as it started, with the visitors jumping out to a one-run lead within minutes and building a four-run advantage within an inning and a half in the series opener at Wrigley Field. The game never felt as close as the scoreboard briefly suggested.
In the middle of the early action was a guy who begrudgingly had seen no action at all recently: Starling Marte. He smoked a single and scored a run in the first inning and smoked another single to drive in a run in the second. His night wasn’t perfect — he bobbled a ball in rightfield and struck out on a changeup well out of the zone — but it was nonetheless a striking return to the field and an immediate return to form after he missed the previous four days because of a minor left groin injury.
Marte despised sitting, he said this week, using some choice words to sort of playfully, sort of not describe his attitude toward being sidelined. He even lobbied to get back into the lineup on Sunday, according to manager Buck Showalter. That was just a day after he exited a game hurt. The ever-cautious Mets held him out of that one plus the entire next series.
Making up for lost time, perhaps, Marte rocketed the second pitch he saw from Cubs righthander Keegan Thompson to rightfield. When Francsico Lindor followed with a line drive to right-center, Marte galloped all the way from first to score with seeming ease.
The Mets (56-34) had tacked on two more runs, both on Patrick Mazeika’s double, by the time Marte batted again. Marte’s sharp single to center, again on the second pitch, brought in Mazeika.
The productive return was similar to what he did in May. When his grandmother died and he went on the bereavement list while with family in the Dominican Republic, Marte didn’t play for five days. Upon his return, for a doubleheader in Colorado, he walloped the first pitch he saw for a home run — the start of a 7-for-20, four-run, three-RBI stretch in four games.
Thompson wound up allowing five runs and eight hits in 4 1/3 innings. He struck out one and walked four, including a trio to load the bases in the fifth inning, after he had seemed to settle down. Mark Leiter Jr., nephew of Al Leiter, handled the next 3 2/3 innings, allowing three runs on home runs by Brandon Nimmo and Pete Alonso.
The Mets’ pitching pair of Carlos Carraco and Trevor Williams far outperformed them.
Carrasco went six shutout innings, giving him a 4.27 ERA heading into the All-Star break — down from 4.85 just two weeks ago. He scattered five hits and two walks, striking out six.
The Cubs (34-55) vaguely threatened to score in second inning, when they had two on and none out, and the fifth, when it was two on with one out, but Carrasco induced a double-play grounder in both situations to avoid further trouble.
Williams picked up his first save in seven seasons (146 games) by tossing the final three innings. That afforded the Mets’ short relievers a full day off, a luxury as the team nears the end of a 17-games-in-17-days stretch.
Alonso put the exclamation point on the blowout with a two-run blast in the eighth inning. His homer pace has slowed of late, with just two in the past 2 1/2 weeks, but he has six in eight career games at Wrigley.
Alonso upped his RBI total to 74, tying David Wright (2006) for most before the All-Star break in Mets history. He has three more games to break the record.
